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I certainly do not have the answers to the labor problem. Just observations. The first is that landscaping isn't considered as a skilled trade (with which I disagree) for the most part. This discourages a lot of younger people from making it a career. Second it is hard heavy work with terrible hours. When the rest of the population is in holiday mode it is our busiest time. The wages are either feast or famine. (Try to raise a family on that). Most companies are small family business with no place to advance for the employees. The wages are not very good compared to other low skill jobs in factories, especially when you only have 8 months of them. So the real good guys either start up on their own or end up working for larger companies that can afford to provide a decent steady income that the experienced older guy deserves. In larger companies these experienced older fellows are given the responsibility of running their own division or crews with the same turnover of younger employees that plagues the smaller companies. It is hard for a small company to provide for a management type of person. For a while you have to take a loss so that you can develop more business to pay for him. But by having this manager you will be able to have the time to do this. If you wait until you can afford this type of person you will lose business because the small business owner can only do so much before they are overwhelmed.
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