Snow online contents

Yes, more snow!

If you just can’t get enough of our L&L Snow and Ice reports in print, you can jump online and quench your thirst with all sorts of information on the white stuff through www.lawnandlandscape.com and our sister publication Snow magazine’s site www.snowmagazineonline.com. To find past articles from the L&L snow and ice report, visit the Lawn & Landscape website, click on the current issue tab and look at our June, August and September issues. Here’s some stuff you may have missed.

Think before you send

Key etiquette guidelines for sending emails in a text world.

By Ben Carpenter

You understand that you’ll need to structure your professional emails differently than you would a text or a tweet. But unless you had the good fortune to take an “Email Etiquette 101” course in college, you might be unsure of what, exactly, you should and shouldn’t do before clicking “send.” Here are some tips for effective email communication.

Read your email carefully before sending it. It takes only a few seconds to glance back over what you’ve written before clicking “send” – but those few seconds could save you a lot of grief. Specifically, make sure you’ve entered the correct email addresses. Confirm that you’ve included all of the necessary information and proactively answered any questions that readers might have. Look for and correct any typos.

Visit bit.ly/thinksend to read the full article.
 

Forward thinking

How tractors with inverted snow blowers increased Deneigement Vanderzon’s efficiency.

By Brooke N. Bates

Paul Vanderzon had a conversation with snow contractors six years ago that left them thinking he was crazy.

When he told them residential work made up of 60 percent of his snow removal business, they’d scoff, “There’s no money in residential.” But business was booming at Deneigement Vanderzon in Saint-Bruno, Quebec, with $1 million in annual residential snow removal.

“I finally said, ‘Stop telling me I’m not making money,’” Vanderzon says. “They asked, ‘Well, how many driveways do you have?’ I said, ‘3,000.’ He looked at me like, ‘You’ve got to be crazy. What do you have – 150 pickup trucks?’ I go, ‘No – 24 tractors.’ Then he was calling people over: ‘Check out this Canadian. He’s crazy! He has 3,000 driveways but he does the work with tractors.’ Since then, people are starting to listen.”

Visit bit.ly/forwardthink to read more.
 

Substance abuse

By Jason Stahl

When dealing with a sensitive and delicate issue like employees and substance abuse, it’s far too easy to make regrettable mistakes. Our experts identify some of the most common areas where employers err. Read more at bit.ly/snowdrugs.