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As someone who enjoys being outside and engaging with people, Dan Turner, owner of Custom Lawns in North Ridgeville, Ohio, has always been a hands-on business owner. Part of that includes attending various industry events and conferences throughout the year to stay on top of his game.
“It’s nice to keep up with what’s going on in the industry, see new products and learn and understand what options are out there for us to better our processes,” Turner says.
In December, Turner and his wife, Lisa, attended the LM Growth Summit in Orlando, Fla. This annual three-day event brings together lawn care professionals from across the country to meet with leading supplier partners, demo new equipment and products, network with other owners and attend educational sessions.
Product focus
The best part about the Summit for Turner was the one-on-one conversations with the supplier partners such as Envu, Atticus, PBI-Gordon, Nufarm and RealGreen. He says he appreciated the opportunity to talk with those companies about different products — both ones Turner has used and ones that might be a good fit for his rotation.
“It’s a lot different than going to a traditional conference where a sales rep goes through a PowerPoint on stage with a list of products,” Turner says. “This is a lot more one-on-one and specific to what we use and want to use. Now, there’s a lot more on our radar and other options to use compared to other products we’ve used in the past.”
During the event, Turner also spent time with Jeff Harkness, founder and CEO of 3PG Advisors, a consulting and advisory firm in the green industry and another LM Growth Summit partner, allowing Turner to learn how they partner with companies. 3PG Advisors specializes in the landscape and facility services sector and works with companies on how to sell their businesses.
“It was nice to pick Jeff’s brain and understand more about what they do and how that can help out companies down the road,” Turner says.
During the Summit, Turner had the chance to check out new equipment from manufacturers like Steel Green Manufacturing and Stinger Equipment. His company has used pieces of equipment from these partners before, but Turner says it was nice to see some of their new offerings and add-on products that would allow them to get the most out of the machines they’re using.
A relative newcomer to the industry, Lisa Turner was able to learn firsthand about the chemicals they use and other options available to them. She has a marketing background, so she says she was interested to hear how the other companies market their services and share educational pieces on their websites.
Industry secrets
From their conversations on the golf course to ones over dinner, Dan Turner says talking with the attendees and supplier partners was extremely beneficial. Open,
non-competitive networking enabled other owners to share valuable best practices.
“Everyone is very helpful with sharing ideas and some of their hidden secrets to stand out against the competition in their areas,” he says.
He encourages other lawn care owners to apply and attend the LM Growth Summit if they have the opportunity: “It’s 100-percent focused on our industry and what we do at Custom Lawns,” Dan Turner says. “I only wish it lasted longer.”
Dowdle is a freelance writer based in Birmingham, Ala.
