2010 marked Estate Gardeners Inc. first official foray into Christmas decor. Kim Davidson and Austin Bauman are both talented designers who have taken on all the responsibilities of selling, designing and installing both commercial and residential displays.

I have been fortunate to have a front row seat to their work and cheer them on as they design new displays from Table settings at Brix, to trees at Embassy Suites, and reworking residential client’s traditional Christmas decorations into new, fresh displays.

It has been full of surprises. we are thankful to our long term clients who let us into their homes, to our employees who learned new skills, (Patrick, our newest addition, turned out to be a great bow maker and had a touch with getting light strings to work.) and to our new clients, that have worked with Kim Davidson over the years.

So as we finish setting up Christmas cheer for our customers, we want to wish all of you a Holy Christmas, and a happy new year.

Even though the snow is flying and the night temperatures are falling into the 20’s and below, you can still do a few last things in the landscape to help your plants endure the coming winter. Even though it gets cold in the Midwest, it is not temperature that poses the biggest threat to winter survival of plants, it is desiccation. Even though plants go dormant many plants continue to transpire water through stems and, particularly evergreens, through their leaves and needles. There are two important things you can do, water and apply an anti-desiccant.

Winter watering is a great way to help your plants this winter. Whenever the temperatures allow, and before the ground freezes, a deep watering of trees and newly planted shrubs and perennials is a great way to build up a store of water for the winter. It will both hydrate the plant now and can act as a first supply of water with thaws, especially if we have a dry winter and spring. If we have a warm period this winter, and the ground will take water, don’t hesitate to drag out your hose and water your plants.

Anti-desiccants, such as Wilt-Proof, are coatings you spray on the needles and leaves’ of evergreens that essentially seal the leaves, preventing evaporation from the leaves surfaces. This is especially helpful with broad leaf evergreens like rhododendron and boxwood. It is also helpful for newly planted conifers. Un-established yews, white pine and Limber pine are particularly susceptible to winter desiccation and will greatly benefit from an application.

Company Reliability Report

Estate Gardeners, Inc.

A BBB Accredited business since 07/10/1996.

BBB Rating A+

You can see our BBB Ratings page Here

We have been proud members of the BBB since 1996. With the latest allegations in the news, many are questioning the reliability of the Better Business Bureau. I have friends who have always questioned the value and sincerity of membership. During our involvement, the BBB has done much more than rate companies.

First and foremost, this organization educates. It is an excellent resource for new companies to learn what is acceptable in advertising, marketing, and business practices. Secondly, they have acted as consumer watch dogs. They are constantly issuing alerts and garnering media attention to protect people like the vulnerable elderly, unsuspecting business, and internet shoppers, when a new scam becomes known. In addition, they will act as an advocate for victims of fraud and abuse to help them seek restitution.

Another key role is that of mediator when a member company has a dispute with one of its customers. When we became members we signed on to an agreement that should one of our customers have a complaint or dispute with any service we have provided, and we are unable to find a solution that satisfies them, we will enter into a mediation process through the BBB to find a solution and we agree to stand behind the BBB findings.

The BBB Serves to verify the actual existence of a company as a resource for the consumer. This day and age it is essential that the consumer has the ability to research a company before engaging them, Through the BBB You can see how long a company has been in business, you have confirmation that there is an actual physical location for the business and that the names behind a company are known and who they say they are.

The BBB Also sponsors other events and outreach geared toward our local businesses including Document shredding days, speaking to service organizations and in Omaha, as partners in the Greater Omah Business Ethics Alliance.

Before you come to any conclusions, find out what the ratings actually are, what the offerings of the BBB are and how they benefit you as a customer. I am confidant of the integrity of this organization and would ask that you always consult them when making any buying decisions, and include membership in your business plans.

A common and I believe misleading method for finding the right contractor has been in use a long time and is still perpetuated by many well meaning people and consumer advocate groups. It is the “Get three quotes” method. It seems every quarter or so, the local new runs a story on a bad contractor, and they drag out a consultant or a BBB representative to go over the process of collecting 3 bids, deciding on your criteria, and signing a contract. This might be a sound method if you want a chain link fence, or need a new faucet installed, but even then, do you know the people bidding.

When you are collecting bids for a landscape, what are the contractors bidding? do you have a design? Do you expect on as part of the bid process? Are your bidders bidding on the same design? In other word are you comparing apples to apples? There are other questions, such as are the contractors equally qualified to do the work? How do you know? Fortunately, in the age of information we live in it is a much easier task to answer these questions, and I am about to give you some information that will help you find a contractor, and then reasonably compare them to others.

The first step in the process is to develop a budget. This number should be based in reality, not dreams, and you should decide how much you will spend for a completed project, even if you want to phase the work over several years. This budget is going to be a limiting factor for the design. For now, this number should be rigid. Little to no flexibility early on in the design process, you will have a time to expand the scope with an increased budget later in the process.

Once you have a budget in mind, it is time for you to do your homework. The first resource you have is people you know and trust who have worked with professional landscapers already. This is the most reliable and trusted resource you have, you will get no holds barred opinions about various companies from people you already trust. You will find great companies this way and possibly even more importantly, you will be steered away from companies you don’t want to do business with. If you have a trusting relationship with your real estate agent, look to them for potential landscape firms on your list.

The internet also allows you to research companies. You can see their work and determine if it looks like the style and quality you are going for, you can get an idea if your project size fits the company. You can gain some knowledge of the associations and organizations they belong to, like the Better Business Bureau, Trade associations, and the like.

Once you have done this research it’s time to start interviewing companies. Hopefully by the time you make a call, it is a reputable company, now you are finding a good fit. Find out how the company works, what kind of training they do with employees, do they have certified and licensed technicians, can you communicate well with your designer/sales contact.

Now here are a couple things that you are not typically told to expect.

1. Pay for a design. Whether you are dealing with one company or three at this stage, they are professionals. Their knowledge and creativity have a very real monetary value and they have a right to be expected to be compensated for providing you with a design. I would contend that you can narrow your choice of who you will do business with down to one contractor by this point so you will only be paying for one design. If you want to get bids from multiple contractors, you should expect to pay them all for their design work. Be wary of contractors advertising Free designs.

2. Tell the designer your budget right up front without apology. This is tough for some people to accept a first, but is particularly important if you are dealing with competing firms. This will assure you are bidding apples to apples. You might think that giving the budget up front means they are going to give you a quote for that exact amount. The answer is, that is exactly what you want to happen. If you are worried that this will make competing bids less competitive, don’t. What will happen is instead of the competition trying to wow you with the lowest price, they will try to provide you with more value than their competitors  within the same budget. Even if you have selected the company you want to work with, and are not collecting competitive bids, the budget is very important because you are going to ask for a master plan. This leads us to the next step.

3. Get a master plan. This is a plan for the entire scope of the project from beginning to end. It is particularly important if you are phasing the project over a period of years. The budget is important because there are only two limitations on the spectacularness of your project; the budget, and imagination. So you have laid out the budget, now is when you lay out your dream. This is where you spread out all the pictures you have cut from magazines, and open the books you have tagged that communicate what you want. You list the components, plants, styles, colors you like and dislike, and put this knowledge into the hands of the designer. Now is when talented landscape professional can begin to guide you. If you are unsure what things cost, they should be able to begin building that budget with you now, still keeping your original budget as the target. You are going to reach a point in this process, after you get the design back, where some choices will need to me made. You may find that the budget and your imagination don’t align. so you now make choices. Eliminate aspects or increase budget. I always try to develop a concept plan that incorporates as many items on a client wish list and not exceed the budget guidlines set out earlier. This is the point where flexibility comes in and an experienced landscape professional can guide you to the best solution.

Follow these tips and you will turn your project into a creative journey, resulting in the fulfillment of your dreams for you outdoor living. Watch for future posts here on what to look for in a contract, and what to expect long term in performance from various components in the landscape like trees, water features, and patios.

Although this dos not have anything to do with plants, it does have to do with how we do business. A while back, I was in a meeting of the Omaha Business Ethics Alliance. I was in a conversation with people from academia, and some leaders of business up to fortune 500 companies. The conversation was so big picture, I was thinking it would be over the heads ofeven the desire of many small business to understand it, so I wrote this to sum up why it matters to small business to pay attention.

A Fiscal Case for Ethics Policies in Small Companies

By: Michael Becker, Estate Gardeners

A point I often like to make regarding ethics policies and procedures is if you want to affect change in small businesses, it is crucial that you can demonstrate the payoff. Although many small business owners are honest, ethical and even altruistic, they are equally overextended in time, overwhelmed by the number of roles they fill in the company and they are constantly making due with limited resources. So the question that needs to be answered in black and white is what are ethics programs, procedures and policies going to do for the bottom line? I am the CEO, CFO, COO, HR Officer, Head Sales Director, Lead Designer, Lead Estimator; I am a trainer, a quality control manager, a purchaser, and sometimes even a crew member. Why in the world would I want to add another hat to that rack with Ethics Officer? Another set of policies means more things to manage, more expectations of my people, more training and more discipline. The answer is: In the short and long term, it adds to my bottom line.

First you have to understand that ethics is not a separate department or isolated entity in a business. It is more like a nervous system that winds through every aspect of the business, so how you define ethics is important. An ethics statement after your mission and vision on your website, or even volunteering for a committee on the Omaha Business Ethics Alliance probably isn’t going to do much for your bottom line. But, if you approach ethics as a verb rather than a noun you can begin to create change in your business. At Estate Gardeners we say ethics is Proactive, Timely and Ours. All of these things contribute to our well-being as a company because this approach takes ethics through every facet of the company. So let’s look at each one of these and see how they add up.

Ethics is proactive is an important step. It says we will head off conflict, misunderstanding, mistakes and damage before it occurs. We do this by looking at functions of hiring, training, and equipping our people with tools and skills as an ethical imperative. It is our ethical duty to all of our stakeholders that we do these things and do them well in order that we can keep our promises. Our promise to do the job we are being paid for in the manner the customer expects, our promise to pay our vendors, our promise to our employees that they can safely and efficiently succeeded at their jobs. We do this by looking for qualified people, training them how their do their job and how to make decisions that are right for the company, and all the stakeholders alike. Our employees attend in-house, local, regional even national educational events and they obtain and maintain licenses and certifications in their field. This is all an ethical decision. It is easy to cut training as a cost especially in hard times, Many companies do it, worse yet, many don’t ever spend the time or money….and that translates to more mistakes, more conflicts, and overall more damage to a company.

Ethics is timely. It is not something you can get to later, especially if you are dealing with an ethical dilemma after the fact. If there is a conflict, or mistake, it is important to remember that bad news is not like wine or cheese; it does not get better with age. When our proactive measures fail, and we find that we must repair damage or correct a mistake or clarify communications, now is the time. We once had a job where we had a subcontractor install some concrete stairs at a customer’s home. The evening they were poured, I got a call from the client that they were not properly aligned with the front door.  And in truth, if you stood in the street and crouched down you could see that this flight of 15 stairs was about 6 inches off center of the front door. I am convinced I could have discounted the job and left the stairs where they were, or even convinced the client to just live with it (which is exactly what would happen, they would live with it every day). Our response was to rip the stairs out, have the concrete contractor come back and re-pour the steps, all completed in 48 hours at our cost. The referrals we received from this customer since then have added up to over $250,000. That is a quarter of a million dollars. I think a company of any size would agree that that is an incredible return on the $1,800.00 spent to take a client from upset to a fanatic supporter. This happened because we addressed our mistake immediately. Our ethics policy (ethics are timely) guided our thinking here and prevented us from making a poor, and I would say unethical decision based on very short sighted financial grounds. The customer thanked us for not making her feel like a whiner or complainer and just handling the situation. That gratitude came from the fact that we owned that problem and we did not shirk our responsibility.

Ethics are ours. We are the ones that put ourselves into the market place. We are the ones that say “Your trust is well placed with us.” We are the ones responsible for every aspect of our business and that includes the expectations the stakeholders have when they engage us. When we enter that relationship we take full responsibility for all expectations and communications. If there is a failure in communication, it is our failure, even if the customer is difficult or a poor communicator; we are the ones who sought that relationship. It is our ethical responsibility to clearly define all expectations, all understanding and then follow through with them, and in the instance we fail, to correct the situation. This ethical principle also guided our action in the above case. It prevented us from blaming others, or classifying the client as too picky and as a relationship where we should cut our losses and extricate ourselves.

Seeing ethics as a verb, being proactive, being timely, and owning our own ethical behavior prepares our people to do their jobs well and make better decisions that avoid ethical dilemmas which creates happy customers and long term relationships. In a small company ethics statements or procedure statements in subchapters of policy manuals do not engender ethical behavior. When we define ethics as actions, we see behavior and thinking follow, and with ethical behavior and thinking we avoid conflict, and when we don’t avoid it we address it immediately. Through all of this, we recognize that ethics is our responsibility. The result of this ethical policy is, fewer mistakes, people trained and empowered to do their job well and make sound decisions, and ultimately, to customers, employees and vendors who see that they can count on us. That translates to more productive employees, long term profitable customers, better terms from vendors and a bigger bottom line.