When you've been in business only four years and you're looking grow, what's the best form of advertising? Mike Stegner, owner of Image Lawn and Landscape, Belton, Missouri, believes it's the work you do. In the "show me" state, seeing is believing. When prospective clients pass by Image properties, Stegner wants them to see the best. And they do. 

Where do you want to be seven years from now? Scott Hayward, owner of T & S Landscape, Chester, New Hampshire, asked himself that seven years ago and today he owns and operates a $1 million plus operation. Scott is the first to admit he hasn't done it by himself. He's had a lot of help, from employees, from the equipment they operate and from little things that just make landscape companies stand out.

For people starting out in lawn maintenance, and even for veteran professionals, one of the biggest hurdles is figuring job costs. Oftentimes, it's a Catch 22: You can't bid accurately until you know your costs, but you can't determine the costs until you get the job.

When he moved to Las Vegas 20 years ago, a gravel road provided access to his home. Not anymore. His house, less than 10 minutes from the famous Strip, is now located on a main boulevard. The city has grown incrementally and so too have the huge hotels and casinos that fuel the growth engine. 

Walker Manufacturing founder Max Walker has been inventing and designing equipment for more than five decades. He built his first lawn mower, a sickle bar unit, in 1949, and the first Walker was introduced in the late 1970s. Today, the company that literally introduced the compact commercial transmission steer mower to the market and turns out more than 20 riders a day from its new factory in Fort Collins, Colorado.

Shortly after Walker Talk Volume 8 was printed, we found 15 printing defects: typos, misspellings, printing errors. What was really upsetting and embarrassing to me was that I had personally proofread the entire magazine before printing. After contacting the Walker Talk publisher, we quickly put a quality control plan in place for future issues.