If someone tells you there’s gold in Cape Cod, one of the first things you may think of is a beautiful New England home with a colorful garden. Or maybe you will picture the surf cresting over a sandy beach. For other people, Cape Cod gold can be found in all the fresh fish and chowder they can eat.

What first comes to your mind when you think of Branson, Missouri? If you say Bobby Vinton and several dozen other entertainers, you wouldn’t be alone. Neither would you be if you mentioned the Ozarks, and the fishing and hiking that goes with the territory. But castles? What do these symbols of Medieval Europe have to do with Branson? Just ask anyone who has visited Chateau on the Lake.

When Steve Quillen says Grass Roots Inc. is a mowing company first, he means it. Each week, mowing crews tackle 470 properties in and around their home base of Wilmington, Delaware. The company, which targets high-end homeowners, gets the job done efficiently and effectively with a fleet of nine vehicles, seven Walker Mowers, and 14 full- and part-time employees.

Ask Dave Hawkins of East Calais, Vermont, if he’s a pioneer, and he’ll probably just shrug his shoulders and say, “Not at all.” His family roots are planted deep beneath the Green Mountains that highlight the state.

If you ever meet Jim Webb, owner of Valley Landscape Services Inc. in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, just remember one thing — don’t call him a cowboy. “I ain’t no cowboy,” explains the southern California transplant. “I’m a California boy who just lives around cowboys.” As a matter of fact, the closest he comes to anything out of the Old West is his practice of being a straight shooter with his employees and customers. “I believe in being honest in my business,” relates Webb, “and it hasn’t done me wrong yet.”

Imagine for a moment that you’re 53 years old and had worked full-time for Borden Dairy for 33 years. For a change a pace, you decide to join your son in a newly formed lawn maintenance venture. Change of pace, and how! For Bill Dardenne, the story unfolded in 1996 when he and son Dennis purchased a Grasshopper mower and a couple of string trimmers. The kicker was they didn’t have any customers, only the confidence to know they could succeed.