Ben Slafter says he has Walker Mowers because they have helped him grow and develop the residential market. In fact, while most business owners create a business model and then buy equipment to fill a need, it appears that the owner of Slafter Mowing in Berthoud, Colorado, did the opposite.

Across the last 55-plus years of being in the manufacturing business, we have developed business philosophies that have helped us make progress while keeping on track. I thought it would be interesting to give our readers a distilled list of some of these philosophies. We would quickly say that our ways are not the only ways or even the best ways in all cases; we would simply suggest that our ways fit us and who we are, and they are a collection of learning from our experiences.

Tim Towers loves mowing grass and cannot see himself in a job where he just waits for quitting time. Instead, he claims to be unhappy when the last lawn of the day is wrapped up.

Travel 80 miles southwest of West Yellowstone and you’ll drive smack into Idaho’s Snake River Valley. This area, known for its agriculture, is also home to the state’s largest private university, BYU-Idaho, located in Rexburg. The school, affiliated with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has an enrollment of approximately 15,000 students and offers more than a dozen associate degrees and nearly 80 bachelor degrees.

How do you transport your mower when you’re too young to have a driver’s license? Most kids rely on their parents or older siblings to get them to the job sites. This didn’t work for Philippe Provost, president of Progazon in St. Lambert, Quebec, Canada. He had a better idea: roller blades.

Big company, small company, it makes no difference. The people who operate your equipment need to be properly trained prior to going into the field. How this is accomplished, however, varies from company to company and depends on several variables, not the least of which are company size, services offered, type of equipment, and relative experience of employees.