Lawn and garden service. Weekly, bi-weekly custom care. Sprinkler repair, yard clean-ups, trimming.

Add your name and phone number and place ad. The sprinkler repair work and yard clean-up jobs will easily pay for advertising and bring in extra profit. Meanwhile you also benefit from building your regular maintenance route.

Tip: Is your regular maintenance route full? Not planning on adding employees? Then continue advertising. Look for better accounts, ask for higher hourly rates on new accounts. Always continue to improve and refine your maintenance work. As you add better accounts you can drop lower-paying or higher maintenance accounts for better work and improve your profits at same time.

Use tools we have today to stay on top of your marketing efforts. Have a cell phone and use it's number in your advertising. You can take your calls in field and schedule to see new clients faster (they may be just down street). I've taken a call for sprinkler repair while doing maintenance a short distance away. I'm usually first one there and I get job done same day (sometimes within an hour of call). Competitors with answering services or that scheduled a meeting with client later that day or evening lose job.

If you have never done any work on sprinkler systems or with drip irrigation then get some good books on subject and learn basics. Your wholesale supplier is also a very good resource for information. They will have booklets and other material from manufacturers like Rain Bird, Irritrol Systems, Toro, Hunter, Rain Master, Weather-Matic, Champion, Superior and more.

Some other good websites with information on irrigation and sprinkler systems are:

http://www.lawn-sprinklers.net/ http://www.irrigationtutorials.com/ http://www.blueskyirrigation.com/sprinkler.htm http://sprinklerdoc.4t.com/

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About Author:

Jack Stone is a Contributing Editor for ProGardenBiz Magazine, an online magazine for professional gardeners and landscape contractors. Visit ProGardenBiz to find out how you can get a free subscription, start-up guidance, business ideas and inspiration at http://www.progardenbiz.com. __________________________________________

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Driver of Change.

To be a driver of change is apparently not so very highly rated amongst employees. Perhaps this is because change can often be uncomfortable. This is a quality that top management of company will probably value much higher than majority of staff.

Charismatic.

This was ranked lower still, but I suggest that this is not something that exists in isolation anyway. You either have charisma (or you don’t) because of your other qualities. It doesn’t exist on its own.

Entrepreneurial and Risk Taker.

These two were ranked lower than all those previously listed and at a similar level. Is this perhaps a reflection on fact that it was employees who were asked rather than captains of industry? By nature of things majority of employees do not have these qualities themselves in large doses, and so they probably don’t want their leaders to take a lot of risks affecting them either. In uncertain times employees put a high value on stability and security.

So what can be learnt from this survey?

If you want to stand out as a leader in business you must persuade others to follow. That much is obvious. But to get them to follow you have to take account of what they think themselves. You cannot ignore it. So you need to be an amalgam of what is popular with what is less popular but necessary all same.

With that in mind, I draw following conclusions from above survey ...

1. You must be, and show yourself to be, honest in all that you do and say. 2. You must have a precise and steadfast view of where you want yourself and your company to go and you must be able to communicate it clearly and unambiguously. 3. You must take decisions quickly and decisively, and having taken them you must stick firmly to them. 4. You must consider at all times well being of your staff.

It doesn’t sound too difficult. Now is your chance to take lead.