[Jim9199]

Never assume that those who are smarter than you are not going to want to work for you. Not long ago, I read this gem of advice that a smart manager surrounds themselves with good people. In this industry, unless you're a new, startup company you're going to need smart, dependable people in key positions to whom you can delegate responsibilities to. While you may not have the resources to pay them what they're worth, you can retain them by providing other "benefits": treat them with respect, and give them the freedom and responsibility to let their talents shine. Sure, they may eventually leave you to further their own careers, but they may willingly forgo opportunities for better pay if their current work ENVIRONMENT more than makes up for the difference. Plus, having a reputation as an employer who respects his/her employees and gives them opportunities to grow will make it easier to attract quality applicants to replace them when they do move on to bigger and better things. It might even be your appreciative former employees steering promising young workers in your direction.

I have one employee who is both left-handed AND mildly dyslexic, BUT she is one of the best employees who has ever worked under me in my 15 years in the green industry. She ALSO just earned her bach degree in horticulture with a minor in entymology/pest management and is much better than I am at diagnosing pests and plant disorders, but she has pledged to stick around for a couple more years to help me build my business before she leaves to pursue her own career goals partly because she needs to earn some money and gain more experience and partly because she wants to pay me back for the help and opportunities I've given her to get started in her career. Smart employees will stick around, at least for awhile, if you give them a reason to do so.

Yes, smart, dependable employees are hard to find in this industry, but there are some out there looking for work who are willing to do this kind of physical labor (even if for only on a short term basis), and if you are willing to try to recruit them and treat them well while they are working for you, they will make their relatively short stay within your company more than worth it.

Or, to look at it another way, if you know you're going to have employee turnover within the next, say, six months, which six month employee will give you more of a return on your investment: the one who will show up on time, give you an honest day's work, then move on to bigger and better things, or the one who is chronically late, does sloppy work, and eventually gets fired or quits in favor of an "easier" indoor job flipping burgers at McDonald's or stocking shelves at Walmart?

Being at the bottom of the labor market it can be easy for us to become cynical about our labor pool, but if we let it show in our treatment of our employees it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[Jim9199]

Lest it seem like a grand statement of the obvious, let me clarify that bit about that gem of advice I read.

Naturally, every employer wants all "good people". What I read, and what I was meant to say, is that smart managers are aware of (and are humble enough to admit to) their weaknesses and limitations and therefore seek to surround themselves with talented people in key positions who have strengths to offset those weaknesses.

If you assume that no one smarter than you will want to work for you, then YOU become the biggest limiting factor in what your company can become.

[agla]

I made the quote that you are refering to (second post on this thread). I kept it short and simple, but I will elaborate.

There are a lot of young guys out there who assume that they can hire people who know a lot more about the landscape business or management of people than they do in order to grow their business. In other words they think they can hire their way to success simply by paying the right people to take them there. Until the business is already solidly formed (which does not happen if the business and people are not already well managed) the business and people managers are not going to take the job.

Yes, you can hire people with more education or a specialized skill that you don't have, but you won't be able to hire someone to manage your business from two or three trucks and three or four guys to the next level.

I did float that statement out there with no context, but I believe it to be accurate based on having worked for 12 different landscape companies that I can think of off the top of my head. I worked in management of five of those and was involved or privy to every aspect of the business.

[Jim9199]

Agla, you do bring up a good point. A good manager will attempt to surround themselves with good people to make up for their weaknesses, but they need to bring some expertise and competence to the table themselves if they want to attract and keep smart, reliable people in the first place.

In my case, I bring both horticulture and business degrees plus 17 years post-college experience in the industry to the table. And to help clarify the point I was trying to make, I don't look for "good people" to manage my business for me, I look for "good people" with horticulture- and landscaping-related skills (and good customer relations skills) that will allow us to improve our overall service offerings and quality. I recognize that I don't have the knowledge and skills to deliver all facets of our service at top quality, so I seek others who do have those abilities. Someone with just a high school education and a few years experience in the landscape industry, who owns a pickup truck and decides to start their own business, is not easily going to be able to do that -- and there are plenty of such companies/individuals in our local market.

Good employees will be willing to forgo better paying opportunities if their current work environment offers other, non-monetary positives that more than make up for the foregone pay. Working for a boss who doesn't have a clue about how to manage the business and is either a) ignorant/in denial about that shortcoming or b) hoping to depend entirely on others to point the way, is NOT usually one of those positives!

This is a great discussion, but we're kind of getting off the original discussion thread here... :-)