Networking is very costly. Are you getting a good rate of return from your networking efforts? “To get the best return on your networking costs of time, energy, money and lost opportunity aim your efforts at some fundamentals of the business,” said Tom Fochtman, Ceibass CEO. “This way you’ll increase the overall value of the enterprise, rather than simply collecting business cards.” For details read the blog.
Here’s to the Spirit of Independence. “We celebrate the spirit of independence that dwells deep in the heart of lawn and landscape business owners. These people take on the risks and the costs of starting, growing, and maintaining a business. It’s not easy,” said Tom Fochtman, Ceibass CEO. “These business owners are ambitious, they have developed successful philosophies, accumulated knowledge, and developed a great team. They take superior care of their employees, customers, and vendors. They build identities in their communities as caretakers. They give back. The true American spirit of independence is that you can’t go at it alone. You must build a great team. And be a great teammate, in return. Here’s to you and yours on this Holiday. Have a wonderful 4th of July.”
The most successful companies are very skilled at networking or building networks. “Why do it? For ambitious companies and ambitious people, the reason is to produce competitive advantages. The idea is to produce better networks than their competition so that they make better offers, have better people, the best customers, the best technology, the highest margins and assure their survival all the while building enterprise value,” said Tom Fochtman, Ceibass CEO. For more details, read the blog.
The Traverse City and Petoskey areas of northern Michigan are the summer “hood” of Ceibass CEO, Tom Fochtman. “This area is a glorious place to be in summer. There’s even extra light at the end of the day here at the 45th Parallel,” said Tom. “And lo and behold we have a great landscape event being sponsored by the well-known industry consultant, Jeffery Scott, right here in our backyard. You don’t want to miss Jeffrey’s 2022 Summer Growth Summit – August 30 and 31, 2022. For more details, read the blog.
Are you recession ready? “It would be prudent to at least start your thinking and strategizing about what you would do if we entered one” said Tom Fochtman, Ceibass CEO. “The best way to survive a recession is to be prepared ahead of time … to be recession ready. To get you started in your preparation here are some things to consider -- cash flow, costs, inventory, receivables, staffing …” For more details read the blog.
Recently the enterprise value specialists at Ceibass published a blog on many actionable ways that ambitious lawn and landscape business owners can promote “growth” within their companies. The blog triggered many wonderful responses from readers.
“Thank you to all the readers who responded to our blog on growth,” said Tom Fochtman, Ceibass CEO. “And a special […]
Did you know that many historians believe that the month of May was named for the Roman Goddess Maia, the goddess of growth. This got the enterprise value specialists at Ceibass thinking about May and growth in new and more effective ways. “When most of us think about growth in the lawn and landscape industry we think about increasing revenues, profits or territory,” said Tom Fochtman, Ceibass CEO. “This is as it should be. It’s good. We think about helping companies acquire businesses, selling businesses, or transferring ownership of businesses to employees. But ‘growth’ can be so much more than that. It can be incremental improvements in systems, in leadership, in management, in employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and… “ For more actionable ways to promote growth read the blog.
With the spring season in full swing this is the time for lawn and landscape business owners to work on getting the various departments of their company to work together as a cohesive team. “This is the time of year for team WORK … time to do the work. Surprisingly, it begins by building people up, and that is not as simple as it sounds,” said Tom Fochtman, Ceibass, CEO. For some great tips on what to do right now, and what not to do, read the blog.
How are you adjusting to rising gas prices? “Rising gas prices are crimping profit margins in the lawn and landscape industry. The very best companies are doing everything in their power to deal with the situation,” said Tom Fochtman, Ceibass CEO. “They are attacking the problem from all angles including doing everything to improve gas mileage, improving route density, going after operational inefficiencies, raising rates, improving their contracts to include fuel kickers …” For more details read the blog.
One of NALP’s most important projects is Voices for Healthy Green Spaces -- a community of landscape industry supporters who voice industry policy interests and concerns at all levels of government. “Professionals in our industry need to do more for clean air, clean water, safe materials and sustainable environments,” said Tom Fochtman, Ceibass CEO. “We need your voice to generate positive economic activity, protect the health and safety of our communities, and make nature accessible to everyone.” For details read the blog.
