[malon]

In the ongoing effort to better our businesses, I was wondering what you consider the best innovation from last year to this one. What will we be doing differently to make a positive impact on business? Maybe you came up with something a few years back that really has made a difference. I'll throw mine out there; it's a pretty simple one. For our lawn crew, I am upgrading to a bigger trailer that will enable me to put an extra rider on it. I'm also tweaking the schedule to combine residential and commercial properties based on geographic location. More mowers, less drive time = more efficient (or so I'm hoping).

[Gensparkie]

Last year I read The E-Myth for Contractors and tried to follow its advice - basically I tried to distill what I know and can do down into simple steps that anyone can follow. Since I have been a one-person business until recently, this was a hard transition, from doing everything "perfectly" myself to having others do more and more. I'm still working on it!

The 80/20 principle's been a big thing for me, too. I've been getting rid of the clients who take up a lot of time and provide the least return, or raising their rates to a place of profitability in relation to the other work I do.

This year I am getting a professional-looking website and learning a landscape design program. That's the 20 percent of my work that provides the 80 percent of profit.

[cwilson]

Having the rigth equipment is always a must...i have upgraded to a bigger trailer this year and i also have gotten my chemical license to get more bussines but i have been trying to get my name out there more with more advertisement and it has worked great