[Pelican]

I'd like to improve my education to improve the way I do business and am considering on line courses to do so. What I'm interested in is Landscape Design and Business Administration. Our local Community College offers both these courses, but it's tough for me to schedule myself around the classes availability.

Has anyone gone this route? Can you say your experience was bad or good? I'm not necessarily looking for accreditation, just practical skills to make my business better and more profitable.

I'd welcome any comments that have to do with other education resources too that are of the self help nature.

[Fine Edge]

I'm curious to see who has done this type of thing also.

[Greensmith]

Rutgers college in NJ has continuing education classes that cover most fields. Chemicals, biz management, plant ID and the like. They are in the off-season (right now) and you get a certificate out of the deal.

I think it's Cook college specifically.

[Greensmith]

http://www.cookce.rutgers.edu/

[Dale Wiley]

I would say that the majority of the people on here and in the industry are fairly well in touch with the hort and technical business portions.

I HIGHLY reccomend that you consider taking night courses at your local CC and go after a AA degree in Business Administration. This is about a 3 to 4 year program doing 2 classes a week three terms a year.

This course wok will yield you BETTER results than a wall full of certifications and paper that frankly don't mean a damn thing to your clients.

I am a licensed Landscape Contractor in the state of Oregon. Licensed Pesiticde applicator, consultant and operator. These are required by law, and demonstrate that I have a level of certification to effectectly serve my clients. Industry certifications don't mean much to the buying public , and any time you spend on them could be spent going through the BA course work.

I had the hort / techincal side of this business down when I came out of school with almost ( 1 term short) of a BS ( Science... ) degree in Agricultural Engineering. I did Ok technically, but the business side was the pits.

I went back to night school in 1992, two nights a week and completed the course work for the AA degree in 4.5 years. Both my wife and I went alternate nights to stay home with the kids, and she finished her BS in Nursing with minor in Business Adminstration. It was hard work, but worth every cent and minute we spent. 15 years later it still pays off.

I was now able to pacakge it all toegether, leave the hort side to technical people I hired and used the Business education to grow the business.