By day, Staff Sergeant Bobby Beard readies equipment for the Alabama Army National Guard. By early evening, he changes uniforms and jumps on his Walker Mower to maintain his customers’ yards. Beard, a 20-year veteran with the Alabama National Guard, has been doing this double-duty since 2000 when his unit in Montgomery went to a four-day week.

The owner of Mac’s Landscaping in Stoneham, Massachusetts, has been in business more than 30 years, yet he is still a student of the industry. Gerry McCarthy observes trends, stays in touch with new technology, and networks with friends and associates both inside and outside the green industry. His reward is a $1 million-plus, full-service landscape management company that employs 15 people during the busy season and nine all year long.

The morning routine is nearly the same every day. Demetri Balint rises early to begin the day overseeing a commercial cut flower business. His wife Viesia Konar follows shortly thereafter to open the door to her flower shop. Sometime during their busy day, the couple will meet and discuss the operation of their public gardens, a 10-acre collection and display of unique plants and flowers.

Twenty-five years ago, when Walker Mowers were first introduced to the marketplace, small computers and user-friendly applications software were just in their infancy. Only the most astute businesspeople were finding ways to incorporate this new technology into their operations. A quarter of a century later, small, powerful computers and ingenious software have impacted nearly every square inch of the business landscape. Slide rules are obsolete and ledger paper is nearly passé. Land-based phones are being replaced by small cell phones that talk, take digital photos and double as computers. They can even be used to keep their owners from getting lost.

After being in business 41 years, Erv Denig, a registered landscape architect, knows the people of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and they know him. In fact, prospective homeowners are so familiar with his work that many of them call him even before they buy a lot.

After I gave a little talk about the company at a business club meeting in Fort Collins several months ago, a college aged man came up to me and asked the question, “How long before your manufacturing is moved to China?” It wasn’t even an “if ” question but the foregone conclusion that all manufacturing is leaving America. That’s the popular thinking today; in a few years all American product manufacturing will be done elsewhere. My reply to the young man: “If we have to go to China to compete, we just won’t continue in this business”.