Billy Butterfield, FCLC
AmeriScapes Landscape Management Services, Inc.
Orlando, Florida
At AmeriScapes our Vision Statement emphasizes creating a partnership
between our customers, our employees, and our vendors, and with them, we will strive to create a landscape management company that is capable of continuously exceeding expectations.
We created this vision statement for our company nearly 12 years ago with the idea of emphasizing the importance of each of these how our company couldn’t grow and succeed without all of them working together. Although it‘s a very simple sounding statement it requires deliberate effort to make it a reality.
Take employees for instance. Good employees are hard to find. They always have been and always will be, especially for the labor-intensive jobs we offer. Yet we have many good employees who have been with us for years. First we try to get the right people in the right job. Once we know they are a good fit, we provide them with a good and fair work environment, with appropriate training and with the equipment they need to properly do their assigned tasks. We pay them a wage equal to the value they bring to the company. With these factors in place we can build long term employees. Benefits, health insurance, certifications and outside training, and recognition programs all contribute to building long term partnerships with all of our employees.
Back in the early 1980’s I was complaining to one of my mentors, Wayne Griffith, about the way customers always take the low bid, and mine wasn’t always that low. He told me that in the 1950’s when he started in business, he had the same complaint. There will always be companies that are willing to bid lower than others, companies that see things differently from an operational standpoint, and companies that simply mess up on a bid and may fail on doing the job. We’ve always bid our numbers, tried to be as efficient as we can, and tried to provide the customer with the type of job they asked for in their specifications. Many jobs we get are by being second or third bidder and we are asked to come in and clean up what the low bidder couldn’t do and left. We also get many of our jobs from existing customers that haven’t bid a job out in years and just keep growing with us as their partner.
We couldn’t get by without our vendors. We have many of our vendors on our radios so that we can call directly to them when we have a problem or need advice on a chemical or a piece of equipment. With 30 plus trucks and hundreds of pieces of small equipment in our fleet, we have no in house mechanic or shop. We decided not to take on that overhead expense and instead created a partnership with one of our vendors. To show our appreciation for the work they do for us, we catered lunch to their shop this summer feeding their 30 or so employees along with 4 or 5 of our managers. They know they are an important part of our company’s future and success.
If I were rewriting the AmeriScapes Vision Statement, I would add one more partner – trade associations. It seems that the regulatory environment is changing over the last couple of years and the trend is not looking good for us as part of the green industry. It is no longer an option to just be left alone to do our job the way we see fit. We have water restrictions, landscape ordinances, landscape inspectors, pest control regulations, licenses, etc. While many of these are helpful and continue to provide us with the opportunity to be part of the green industry, we need to have somebody with knowledge of what we do and how we do it representing us with the regulators and law makers passing these new laws. If we are not properly represented, we may be regulated to the point where we don’t have much landscape left to manage. FNGLA is and always has been a very strong advocate for all our green industries in both Tallahassee and Washington as well on many local issues.
In addition to the help FNGLA provides for us with lawmakers, it also provides us with an opportunity to network with our peers in a non competitive environment. I have gotten many questions answered by landscape professionals and others from around the state that have had to deal with my dilemmas in the past and had great suggestions for solutions. That is worth as much and more as the highest caliber consultants you can bring in to help you with your business.
As with many other things in life and business, we need to look to the future and to learn from the past. Employees are always going to be a challenge and it doesn’t look like it is going to get easier. We need to concentrate on developing the ones we have through training and certifications to build long term and mutually beneficial relationships with our employees. Customers are going to choose their vendors based on the criteria they have chosen and we can try to educate them as much as possible and maybe sell them on us as being the best choice. Then we need to be as efficient and professional as possible and try to exceed their expectations while still remaining a viable business. We need to take care of our vendors, pay them on time, and let them know they are an integral part of our operations. And just as important as everything else, we need to get involved with our trade associations so that we can do what we do best and continue to provide pleasing green spaces for our clients.
AmeriScapes Landscape Management Services, Inc.
Orlando, Florida
At AmeriScapes our Vision Statement emphasizes creating a partnership
between our customers, our employees, and our vendors, and with them, we will strive to create a landscape management company that is capable of continuously exceeding expectations.
We created this vision statement for our company nearly 12 years ago with the idea of emphasizing the importance of each of these how our company couldn’t grow and succeed without all of them working together. Although it‘s a very simple sounding statement it requires deliberate effort to make it a reality.
Take employees for instance. Good employees are hard to find. They always have been and always will be, especially for the labor-intensive jobs we offer. Yet we have many good employees who have been with us for years. First we try to get the right people in the right job. Once we know they are a good fit, we provide them with a good and fair work environment, with appropriate training and with the equipment they need to properly do their assigned tasks. We pay them a wage equal to the value they bring to the company. With these factors in place we can build long term employees. Benefits, health insurance, certifications and outside training, and recognition programs all contribute to building long term partnerships with all of our employees.
Back in the early 1980’s I was complaining to one of my mentors, Wayne Griffith, about the way customers always take the low bid, and mine wasn’t always that low. He told me that in the 1950’s when he started in business, he had the same complaint. There will always be companies that are willing to bid lower than others, companies that see things differently from an operational standpoint, and companies that simply mess up on a bid and may fail on doing the job. We’ve always bid our numbers, tried to be as efficient as we can, and tried to provide the customer with the type of job they asked for in their specifications. Many jobs we get are by being second or third bidder and we are asked to come in and clean up what the low bidder couldn’t do and left. We also get many of our jobs from existing customers that haven’t bid a job out in years and just keep growing with us as their partner.
We couldn’t get by without our vendors. We have many of our vendors on our radios so that we can call directly to them when we have a problem or need advice on a chemical or a piece of equipment. With 30 plus trucks and hundreds of pieces of small equipment in our fleet, we have no in house mechanic or shop. We decided not to take on that overhead expense and instead created a partnership with one of our vendors. To show our appreciation for the work they do for us, we catered lunch to their shop this summer feeding their 30 or so employees along with 4 or 5 of our managers. They know they are an important part of our company’s future and success.
If I were rewriting the AmeriScapes Vision Statement, I would add one more partner – trade associations. It seems that the regulatory environment is changing over the last couple of years and the trend is not looking good for us as part of the green industry. It is no longer an option to just be left alone to do our job the way we see fit. We have water restrictions, landscape ordinances, landscape inspectors, pest control regulations, licenses, etc. While many of these are helpful and continue to provide us with the opportunity to be part of the green industry, we need to have somebody with knowledge of what we do and how we do it representing us with the regulators and law makers passing these new laws. If we are not properly represented, we may be regulated to the point where we don’t have much landscape left to manage. FNGLA is and always has been a very strong advocate for all our green industries in both Tallahassee and Washington as well on many local issues.
In addition to the help FNGLA provides for us with lawmakers, it also provides us with an opportunity to network with our peers in a non competitive environment. I have gotten many questions answered by landscape professionals and others from around the state that have had to deal with my dilemmas in the past and had great suggestions for solutions. That is worth as much and more as the highest caliber consultants you can bring in to help you with your business.
As with many other things in life and business, we need to look to the future and to learn from the past. Employees are always going to be a challenge and it doesn’t look like it is going to get easier. We need to concentrate on developing the ones we have through training and certifications to build long term and mutually beneficial relationships with our employees. Customers are going to choose their vendors based on the criteria they have chosen and we can try to educate them as much as possible and maybe sell them on us as being the best choice. Then we need to be as efficient and professional as possible and try to exceed their expectations while still remaining a viable business. We need to take care of our vendors, pay them on time, and let them know they are an integral part of our operations. And just as important as everything else, we need to get involved with our trade associations so that we can do what we do best and continue to provide pleasing green spaces for our clients.
