Les Coates, owner of Lawns by Les, has been in business 24 years. He has a beautiful family, nice home, and operates a successful landscape maintenance business in the Phoenix suburb of Litchfield Park. Yet, he’s not bashful about saying success didn’t come easily, nor was it originally built on the right predication.

In the northeast corner of Oklahoma lies the small community of Miami. Next door, in Commerce, Oklahoma, visitors can see the boyhood home of Mickey Mantle, or double back through town and enjoy a little nostalgia along Rt. 66. Indeed, Miami has a lot of history, and with a population of 13,000, it is a bit rustic and quiet – hardly the place, one would guess, where some of the most luxurious motor homes in the country are manufactured. But that is the case, because Miami is also the home of motor home manufacturer Newell Coach.

Jane Lowe needed a new mower, and not just any brand would do. She lived on a 23-acre homestead in Wittman on Maryland’s Eastern Shore and mowed 3-1/2 acres of lawn every week from the end of April through October. To get the right mower for her application, she turned to a former fourth grade student of hers, Skip Marvel, who owned a power equipment dealership in nearby Easton.

Do you know how much it costs you to operate your business? If so, what is the relationship between how much you charge for your services and the cost associated with providing them? If your pricing doesn’t cover all costs of doing business, including those directly and indirectly related to performing a service, a lawn maintenance company, any lawn maintenance company, will eventually face adverse financial consequences.

Last year, Flo Olson tallied up the number of lawn maintenance contractors working in and around the resort community of Kalispell, Montana. By her best reckoning, there were 50 contractors. She added another 30 to her list this year, for a total of at least 80 companies, big and small, all competing for a piece of the mowing/maintenance market.

In a world where there are barriers and walls that divide people, it is encouraging to see times when the “walls are torn down” and people are brought together. Sometimes even a machine, a company and a shared interest brings people together. I have enjoyed watching the example set by Harley-Davidson where the simple act of owning a Harley breaks down barriers. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, blue collar or white collar, long hair or no hair, black or white, tall or short, man or woman, if you drive a Harley you are “in” the Harley family.