Customers don’t like being tricked. A small in my book means the small shake; I guess they can now offer a “smallest” shake or whatever. Shame on you, Arby’s. Not only are you contributing to the obesity of America, you’re also tricking your customers and getting more money from them. Smalls should be the smallest size you offer.

Anyway, I hope you get where I’m going with my rant. The lesson? Landscapers, don’t trick your clients. Be straight with them; be open; don’t trick them. I suppose a big outfit like Arby’s can do this and it won’t hurt them as even a customer like me is going to go back but it just doesn’t seem like the type of business practice that the customers of a small business would appreciate. Your thoughts?

Oh, and just to poke fun at our industry, did you know a “dwarf” Mugo Pine can get 8′ in spread? And is there really such a thing as “shade” seed?

You still have time to sign up for the Selling Symposium. Check out the agenda here. It is May 31 and June 1 in Dayton. If your sales techniques aren’t where you want them to be, you should come to the Selling Symposium. Sign up today!

Recently I came across a very interesting handbook. Check this one out; it’s different but it does what you want a handbook to do, which is explain what you want your team to do and how to do it and what they can expect from you.

Your thoughts?

BTW… Never stop working on your business. Here’s a suggestion that might help; my Selling Symposium on June 1st in Dayton Ohio, a quick, to-the-point day full of hands-on training. Nothing happens without sales!

Smart entrepreneurs know if you make a client happy, you keep a client. If you keep clients, your business will grow because your clients trust you. If they trust you, a relationship can be developed and nothing is more powerful than doing business with someone or a company that one knows, likes, and trusts.

So, this week call your clients and make sure they are happy with your recently completed projects/services. And then, by all means, put a system in place to do this ALL THE TIME, not just now because your “smarty pants expert landscaper coach” told you to!

By the way, thanks for the all the birthday wishes many of you sent. I was overwhelmed by all of those…incredible…so many I could not even get back to everyone. You made turning 44 enjoyable, not depressing.

See you soon….at the Selling Symposium, I hope!

We love to go to the games. I live about 50 minutes from the ballpark if there’s no traffic, so it’s really fun to run down there. Anyway, our favorite player is Joey Votto. If you didn’t read about it, Votto just signed a 220+ million-dollar contract. Good grief, what would you do with all that money? I guess you could help a lot of people; buy a plane; okay, so we could figure out how to spend it. Despite already being a wealthy man, Votto dealt with some personal issues a few years ago. He had to take a leave from the team. His father had passed away and he just was having trouble. When my father passed away unexpectedly, I had some similar issues.

Joey Votto said he realized part of his problem was he wasn’t “enjoying his successes.” That seems hard for us to understand, doesn’t it? How can a millionaire, playing baseball, and doing something many of us can only dream of, have trouble enjoying his success? You know, it’s really pretty easy. I am nowhere near as financially successful as Joey Votto and I know I won’t ever be. I’m fine with that. What I do know is−I need to enjoy my success. You need to too. And that’s my Great Idea for this week−ENJOY YOUR SUCCESS!

I just got back from being on Spring Break with my family in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida.

The fact that I have a team at Grunder Landscaping Co. that is so good I can leave for a week during the busiest time of the year says a lot about my leaders. I would not be able to do this if it weren’t for them. Our trip was not anything fancy; we drove down there; we stayed in a condo; we cooked some of our own meals; we went out to dinner with our friends who came down with us; and we did a whole lot of bonding and a whole lot of nothing. And, we enjoyed our success. My wife Lisa and I are lucky beyond belief. We don’t have more money than we know what to do with but emotionally we’re filthy rich! So, in the next week, make sure you take some time to enjoy your success. It doesn’t have to be a big deal; go to dinner; take an afternoon off and go home early; buy a new pair of shoes; get your car detailed; just do something that enables you to see some of the fruits of your labor. It’s spring and landscapers are busy now. We need to take a deep breath and sit back once in a while, even when we are our busiest.

Joey Votto pointed out something we can all learn from−we need to enjoy our success. And, we need to measure success not just by how much money we have in the bank, but by how many lives we’re impacting and really and truly looking at all the things we’re successful at: family, friends, health, freedom, and faith, for starters!

BTW… Check out the 2012 Webinars and sign up today for the first one. It is scheduled for Thursday, May 10th, at 4:00 pm, EDT.

So, as we go along, I will from time to time share do this, not that and this lays out what I mean by that and frames this Great Idea. I hope you enjoy it and learn and improve in the process. The choices we all make will determine the level of success we will enjoy.

Do this, not that!

Hire outside folks, not family members.

Through the years, I have hired many family members. And I have to admit that I hired them because of their last name, not because of their talents or fit with my organization. Many companies have nepotism rules and policies and there’s a reason for this. Often hiring family members doesn’t work out and then you really have a big problem.

My brother is an incredibly talented person. He worked with me from the time I started the company until he graduated from college. We did not get along and did not have the same ideas on how things should go. I fired and rehired him over 33 times (or close to that ). It just didn’t work out. I expected way too much from him and he expected he could do what no one else was allowed to do. He was a very hard worker and helped me grow the company but what was best for both of us was for him to leave and find his own identity. And he has done just that. He didn’t need to work in the shadow of his big brother. Today, Rich is a very successful money manager in Seattle, WA. More importantly, he’s an excellent father and husband. And best of all, we get along great now. I think we would both say having Rich working with me was good but we also both realized it was best when we each went our own way, as the “family” thing was getting in the way. Owners don’t always realize this.

You need to focus on the position, not the person. We tend to look at family as people we can trust and understand. We don’t look at them with the critical eye we should. We tend to put family members in positions we would never think of putting non-family members in based on their talents and experiences.

My experience says, hire the best person for the job and stay away from family members as much as you can. If you feel a family member is the right person for the job, then make sure you have run them through a process that is even more stringent than what you do for other hires. The consequences of a bad hire are bad enough; if they are a family member, you could really end up with a mess.

There’s a lot more I could share on this topic and will in some following products we’re developing to help landscapers improve their hiring efforts. For now I just wanted to make you think the next time you are faced with a hiring choice.

Have you heard about our legendary Field Trips? Click here for details.

Here’s a video on the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, talking about trust. It’s very good and while I’ve only been in a Whole Foods store 4 or 5 times, I am very impressed with their business. The problem with him talking about trust is he himself had a long standing issue with trust. However, before I tell you what he did, watch his impressive comments on the video.

OK, now that you’ve watched the video, would it surprise you to learn that for over 7 years he posted on Yahoo Finance under an alias commenting negatively about a company he was trying to acquire, Wild Oats. He did eventually acquire the company but was forced to sell it in 2010 after courts made him do so. Here’s the story..

Hearing that he did that, what do you think of his comments on trust now?

Here’s the deal. The best way to influence others is to ALWAYS do the right thing and to always tell the truth. Mackey commented after he was caught that he made a “mistake.” A mistake in my mind is something you do one time; it’s not something you do for 7 years and then all of the sudden realize this, see where it’s going to affect you financially and the like and then fess up. When it comes to trust, you just have to be very careful. When it comes to trust and integrity, you are either honest or you’re not!

One of the business leaders I used to admire was Jack Welch. He often spoke of ethics and still does. Yet, he had an affair with a reporter that today is his wife. So, Jack, when do we listen to you? Does what you do at home not count? Or is business more important than your family? I don’t believe his comments on integrity anymore and I don’t hold him in the high regard I once did.

The bottom line is, we live in a world where we are quick to forgive and for the most part, that’s a good thing. However, when it comes to trust and your ability to lead and have others follow, you must understand what you do speaks so loudly, others can’t hear what you are saying.

Last week Lee sent me a link that discusses the “6 Traits of Great Leaders“. It’s very good; read it and think about where you stand in each area.

For me, I care about how the feedback is delivered. You can tell me just about anything you want, as long as you talk to me in a way you’d like to be talked to yourself. And truthfully, even the clients that yell at me, I’ve learned from. I try to just take the feedback for what it is−help. I try not to take it personally. (That’s hard sometimes; we all know that.) I have improved a lot from my clients’ feedback and my constant quest to please them. What I have learned there has helped me improve my offerings to other clients.

Right now, I have assembled a Board of Advisors for GROW! 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee. We just met on Friday to find the best way to improve next year’s event. I realize I don’t have all the answers and I’m listening to this group of 6 smart business people tell me how we can make the learning experience as valuable as possible. And, while I’ve got you, I’d like your help. If you could please, e-mail me with any and all suggestions you have for me about GROW! 2013. I’d like to know what the makeup and design of an event would have to be to make you NEVER want to miss it. Lay it on me. I only want to get better. And when it comes to feedback, I advise you to ask for it. If you know how to listen and just take the feedback for what it is−a chance to help you grow your business−you’ll be glad you asked and have more money in your wallet as a result!

Personally you ought to have some goals for your personal production at work (sales, profit, new business relationships, and the like). You should also have some goals that the whole team can focus on (gross sales, gross profit, number of lost time accidents, and so on). And you should have some goals for at home (vacations, time spent with kids, projects to complete around the house, etc.).

When we sit down and think about what we want to accomplish for the day, week, month, and year, our chances for achieving that go up dramatically. However, so few of us take the time to do this exercise and then stay focused on it throughout the year. Even Marty Grunder has trouble with this, but I keep on trying to get better at setting goals and then doing the work to achieve them. And, each year I make a little more money, become a little bit better at being a Dad and a Husband, and I find a little more personal satisfaction with what I have achieved.

I hope you’ll take my advice to heart and set some goals this week and then go out and take action towards achieving them.