A well-maintained landscape lends more than dollar value to a property. In Ocean County, New Jersey, for example, beautiful shade trees, attractive gardens and manicured turf create an inviting environment for both county office workers and visitors. Nowhere is that more evident than in the county seat of Toms River.

Six years ago, Chuck Knuppel and Lisa Engle worked highway construction, but both wanted to be their own boss. So they quit and started a lawn maintenance company. Since then, their revenue stream has doubled annually, and neither has any regret about their decision.

It helps that they look like the boys next door for brothers, Tobin and Dana George, to give their customers that personal touch. Yet, with 500 lawns to mow a week, that’s not easy.

Never before has it been more important to retain your current customers. It has always been costly to replace customers. There’s lost revenue to consider, along with the costs associated with finding new customers. Then there’s the disappearance of efficiencies that crews may have realized while maintaining the now wayward property, not to mention the fact that current customers also provide an excellent opportunity to sell more services.

The name gives away part of the story. Bash Lawns & Services does more, much more than mow lawns.

In simple terms, finding an opportunity to be in business is often thought of as finding an unmet need and creating a product or service to fill that need. In addition to unmet needs, there is the possibility that new emerging technology, new solutions and new combinations of ideas provide opportunities to provide a better way to meet needs that are currently being met the “hard way”.