Sadly, these are not made up.

This is a copy of an actual help wanted ad that appeared in my local paper a couple of years ago. The ad tells me if you smoke pot or are on drugs, we’d love to hire you. Scary, to say the least, and an attorney’s dream ad.

This one is from my own mailbox at my house.

The mailman did not make a delivery because one of my crews was working at my house and had the mailbox blocked. It took him longer to write out this note than it would have to walk the 10 feet to the mailbox and put the mail in it. Yet the post office is spending money on marketing because companies like FedEx have taken business from them. To my buddy Mark Sanborn, who wrote one of the best, most successful business books of all time, about his mailman…..our mailman is no Fred! Buy Mark’s book The Fred Factor by clicking here:

www.Amazon.com

www.marksanborn.com

And finally, from my soccer coaching guru Brett Thompson, he sent me this quote and it’s a fantastic one:

“When an average organization asks for something, they break out a calendar.
A good organization looks at their watch.”

- General Stanley McChrystal

Great organizations do not put want ads like the above one in the paper and they don’t operate like the post office, for the most part. And there are some good things that the post office does. They are completely committed to excellence and are often the optimist in the room, the one who sees what’s possible, not what could go wrong.

This week giggle a little but also continue to do what’s right and move forward on your dream!

A humble person sits in the front row and takes notes.

- Jim Marker

Recently, we had our annual conference for entrepreneurs GROW! 2010. It was an outstanding success. Here are some photos of the event:

If you missed it, you really need to come next year. If you sign up now, you’ll save BIG $$$$, click here for details. Anyway, enough selling. At the conference, one of speakers was Jim Marker. Jim is one of the most successful life insurance sales professionals in the country. Today he spends much of his time teaching others how to be successful. He was a big hit at the conference, to say the least. The quote above was one that Jim shared with us. It really made me think.

How many times do you go to a seminar and sit in the back? Why do you sit back there? Why have I sat in the back? Most of the time it’s because I’m afraid the speaker isn’t very good and I might need to make an escape. But most of the time, there is something I could learn. Even a bad speaker often has something you can learn, if we’re going to be honest. We would all be better served to sit in the front row, with our ears and our eyes open, ready to learn. How about we both try it next time?

Here’s a great idea. One of my clients and friends is Tony Sposato. He runs a very successful, large landscaping company, Sposato Landscape Co., Inc. Every year Tony sends out a nice card like this one on Arbor Day.

Good marketing requires good planning. I’m sending this out to you well in advance so you can take advantage of this idea.

Is this card going to make your phone ring off the hook? Probably not. But it’s a fun, cheap, and different way to get your name out there and if you’re a landscaper, it’s a way to embrace your business. What other marketing opportunities do you know you should be doing but aren’t? Isn’t it time you put a plan together and executed it?

Tony Sposato, congratulations for your consistency here. This card is a far better idea than a Christmas card for a landscaper and I admire what you and your team do every year with this and I ‘m jealous I didn’t think of it first!

At Grunder Landscaping Co. we do not have to look at the calendar to see when spring is here. We begin early so we are prepared and when March 20th gets here, we are ready to spring forward and serve our clients the best way we can. This week’s great idea focuses on setting very clear expectations for our team. I wanted to share it with you in hopes of helping you.

To be prepared, on Tuesday, March 9th, we will have our company orientation. It will be a half day event. This great idea will outline our orientation process. If you don’t have an orientation at your company, you should consider scheduling one. It doesn’t have to be fancy or a big deal, but it’s a way to make sure everyone is on the same page at your company. And it reduces the surprises. Remember, I have talked about our signs at Grunder with the words “No Surprises.”

Over the years the orientation has developed into a more structured and organized process. Here are the key points of our orientation. We want to make sure that we cover everything a new team member might have questions about.

1. Intro by Marty – Discussion our Vision, Mission, and Core Values. (It all starts here, folks, if you don’t get this right, the rest is impossible.)
2. Sales
3. Administration
   a. Front office
   b. Time off
4. Walt, Production Manager, Lance, Senior Team Leader, Joe, Fleet & Facilities Manager
   a. PowerPoint presentation with job site photos, before & after
   b. Grunder procedures
     i. Uniforms
     ii. Safety first
     iii. Start time
     iv. Weather Delay
     v. Parking
     vi. Snacks
     vii. Time Clock
     viii. Check board for team assignment
     ix. Trucks
     x. Job site behavior
     xi. Lunch
     xii. Evenings
     xiii. Mechanical
     xiv. Workmanship
     xv. Benefits
5. Paul, Vice President of Operations
   a. Closing

The current team members are dressed in their regular Grunder uniforms to show the new team members how they should look.

We also have a presentation about our drug free workplace program. Being a part of a drug free program has definitely cut down on the number of unqualified applicants. Every team member in the company is subject to the random drug screens, not just our CDL drivers.

After the formal orientation, the team members break into groups and tour the outside facilities to reinforce some of the information just presented to them.

The orientation ends with lunch for all.

We try to cover all our expectations for the team members. How can you make this work for your company? How can you make sure that the members of your team know your company rules and their role as a team member of your company? Can you use an orientation to reduce the time answering the same questions time after time? And can you use it to reduce hearing any excuses, “I didn’t know.”

Happy spring!

Talk to you next week. I’ll post some photos of our orientation on the MGI Facebook fan page; join right now.