It’s a new year, and with that typically comes New Year’s resolutions. Many people want to lose weight, read more books or cut out a bad habit.
For business owners in the landscape and lawn care industries, it’s an opportunity to look ahead and consider goals for their businesses. While LM was in attendance at two recent events — the 2025 LM Growth Summit (hosted by Landscape Management magazine) and the 2025 ACE Italy Experience (co-hosted by McFarlin Stanford and The Grow Group) — we asked business owners what their goals were for 2026.
Many business owners were supercharged for what 2026 had in store for themselves and their companies. One owner is anticipating a tumultuous 2026 and gave us her words of advice that she will use to motivate her team. And many owners are talking about implementing autonomous robotic mowers and using artificial intelligence to maximize efficiency throughout their operations.
The nine business owners interviewed by LM represent companies from all around the country and offer a wide variety of products and services.
Benson Landscape and Design | New York
Scott Benson is the president of Benson Landscape and Design, a company he started in 1987 when he was a junior in high school. The company is in Victor, N.Y., and services a large area around Rochester. Benson Landscape and Design offers services including landscape design, landscape maintenance, turf care, plant health care, mosquito and tick control and snow removal.
“We take the approach that we know what it is to receive good service and what I expect as a consumer,” Benson says. “We deliver an exceptional product quality with an exceptional client experience, and that has led us to a huge foundation of happy clients that lead to great referrals.”
Benson says his No. 1 goal for next year is growth. The reason? He needs to take care of his employees.
“Being in business for 38 years, I’ve made the progression of really building a great team around me,” Benson says. “In order to continue to provide for them, I need to grow my company. I need to give them a place where they can have success, where they can build their families.”
Back when the company first started, Benson was limited to clients within walking distance, then tractor distance, and finally, driving distance. Now, Benson wants to take his company to the highest levels of high-tech and be seen as a company on the leading edge.
“I’m letting the technology mature, but we want to be on the leading edge of technology,” Benson says.
One way he’s doing that is working with Rochester-based Golisano Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship, specifically with their AI and robotics programs.
“They have some certificate programs that business owners or anyone in the community can join in,” Benson says. “Our goal is to become a sponsored employer, to get interns to come into our space with these skills and backgrounds and expose us to the cutting-edge things they’re looking to.”
Sellers Services | Indiana
Tony Sellers is president of Sellers Services in Rochester, Ind., a business he started 26 years ago. A member of ACE Calibrate, Sellers Services has more than doubled its revenue over the last few years. His goal is to grow from $4.7 million to $10 million in 10 years.
“We’re trying to create growth so we can create real opportunity for most of our guys,” Sellers says. “My two oldest kids are involved
in the company, which has helped me a lot with, ‘What’s my way out? How much longer do I want to
do this?’”
While Sellers isn’t on the way out any time soon — he says he still enjoys his job — it’s important for him to plan his exit and make sure his employees are all well taken care of when he does retire.
“I really want to take care of my employees, that’s my top thing,” Sellers says. But what is he doing today to make that future a reality?
“Artificial intelligence is really getting interesting,” Sellers says. “I’m a pen-and-paper guy. But AI is making it simpler than when I was sitting down to take the time to write a job position. You still have to type it up and put your logo on it, but with AI, it’s made it so much faster to be able to say, ‘Hey, we’re looking for this position. Here’s what we want.’ And it puts it together, you tweak it, and it’s done.”
Vande Hey Co. | Wisconsin
A third-generation company based in Appleton, Wis., Vande Hey Co. was started in 1950 by Len Vande Hey as a way to support his family of 11 children. The 11 kids became the crew, and as it grew, Gerald Vande Hey thrust the company onward in 1968 from basic lawn care to complex landscaping projects and opened a garden center in 1982.
Gerald’s son, Andy, is now the president of the company, stepping into the role in 2002. Today, the company employs 130 people and has an annual revenue of $13 to $15 million.
“We’ve made a very conscious effort to be diverse,” Andy Vande Hey says. “We’ve got tree care, a pool division, a design center, a showroom, we’ve got maintenance, we do snow removal. It’s always new and challenging things, and it has allowed us to have fewer ups and downs as the economy ebbs and flows. There’s always a champion division that has a blockbuster year while the other ones may remain status quo.”
Vande Hey says he has a growth mindset, and for him, he wants 2026 to be “pedal to the metal.” But he adds that it’s also important to be cautious and deliberate, because technology is changing so rapidly.
“We had an acquisition in 2025, a small one, but we had to install a lot of systems,” Vande Hey says. “I think that is going to extend into 2026 because technology and AI are moving so fast. We’ve embraced a lot of new practices this year. I think in 2026 it’s going to be important that we don’t move so fast that we get out of control. We have to be very intentional with AI, whether that be apps or software that we implement, so that we do it properly.”
Morin Turf | Iowa
Mike Morin, president of Morin Turf, and his son, Sean, vice president, recently attended the 2025 LM Growth Summit to learn from the magazine’s advertising partners about what’s out there to help lawn care applicators be more successful.
Mike was a repeat attendee, while Sean was a first timer. As Mike said, “I’m not getting any younger, so I wanted Sean to see what’s out there, too.”
Morin Turf is based in Sioux City, Iowa, and was started by Mike’s father in 1946. Mike Morin has no control over this, but his biggest hope for 2026 is for his area to get better weather. But when it comes to what he can control, he hopes to implement what he learned at the LM Growth Summit and try some new products that are available.
“One thing I like about this particular event is that it gives you insights,” Mike Morin says. “While they’re selling you things, they’re not the salesmen that I deal with from my distributor, so I pick up a lot of information. Now I have to implement it.”
Morin says the products that really stood out to him were Steel Green’s spreader/sprayer and a Stinger aerator/seeder. He likes the Stinger so much, he bought a second one. About half their yards are tall fescue, and the other half are bluegrass yards. Instead of vacuuming out the hopper to change seeds, now Morin has one machine for tall fescue and one machine for bluegrass.
“It’s a phenomenal product,” Morin says. “We would not be able to cover the ground we cover without it.”
Chesterfield Lawns and Landscapes | Missouri
Justin Hatfield is the fertilizer division manager of Chesterfield Lawns & Landscapes in St. Peters, Mo. He’s been in the industry for 15 years and says his biggest challenge is talent acquisition and workforce development.
One of his goals for 2026 is to achieve 95 percent on-time applications during peak season to meet crop growth stages. But he also plans on adding a truck and an applicator next year, and finding the right person to take on that role is top of mind.
Hatfield tried recruiting on Indeed.com and said that it did not go well. He set up seven interviews, and none of them showed up. He also created QR codes and printed them on pull tabs that he hung up at community colleges. That got him a person, but not the right person.
“To be fair, he started in August. It was hot, and he just couldn’t take it,” Hatfield says. “He was 20 years old, and he lasted two weeks.”
Hatfield attended the LM Growth Summit and was eager to talk to others in his position about how they’re attracting labor. Chesterfield Lawns and Landscapes does use H-2B labor, and he isn’t opposed to going that route again if he can’t find someone locally.
“Most of my mind power is on recruiting and making sure I’ve got the workload to sustain that truck,” Hatfield says. “I don’t know how many people I’ve got to hire to get one to stick. It’s a matter of finding the right person for that truck.”
Bret Achtenhagen’s Seasonal Services | Wisconsin
Bret Achtenhagen is the president and CEO of Bret Achtenhagen’s Seasonal Services in Mukwonago, Wis. Founded in 1994, the company is a full-service landscaping company primarily focused on high-end residential design/build.
Achtenhagen grew up on a farm in Wisconsin, and after graduating from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in psychology, he felt the family farm calling him back. Achtenhagen and his brother started mowing lawns in high school and never stopped, so he decided to start his own company.
“I wound up not knowing what I wanted to do, and I always came back. I loved the farm,” he says. “I just gravitated toward landscaping and started the company in 1994.”
He says that 80 percent of his experience in the industry has been positive and successful. There are always ups and downs, he says. The trick is to stick with it.
“This industry is full of challenges, but the big one is finding enough help, finding great people that can help you grow and expand,” Achtenhagen says. “Over the last four or five years, and with the help of McFarlin Stanford and The Grow Group peer group I belong to, we’ve been focusing on my team.”
Achtenhagen says his goal for 2026 is to continue to stay focused on finding more leaders within his company, as opposed to trying to recruit them.
“We’re spending a lot of time with people we think are ready (to be leaders), even though they might not themselves,” he says.
“We see something in them, and we’re spending a lot of time trying to develop and get them educational resources and different venues to learn and become leaders and promote them from within.”
ILT Vignocchi | Illinois
ILT Vignocchi is a design/build and maintenance company, both commercial and residential, servicing the Chicagoland area, primarily the North Shore. The company was started by Harry Vignocchi in 1969 and today is led by the second generation: Donna Vignocchi Zych, president, and her husband, Aaron Zych, vice president.
The Zychs say they have “shied away” from robotic mowers previously, with the belief that these machines are geared more for large commercial properties or municipalities. But in 2026, they’re going to take a small step — a handful of hand-picked clients — to see what autonomous robotic mowing might do for their company.
“We’re going to select certain customers … we think it’s the future,” says Donna Vignocchi Zych. “We tend to tell ourselves that we don’t have that kind of customer. It’s hard to flip the switch. So, a test run is how we’re going to look at it.”
Aaron Zych adds that one of the hardest parts about embracing robotics is how quickly the technology is evolving.
“Every time we say, ‘Hey, let’s go in this direction,’ three weeks later, there’s something new and better. It’s hard to decide which direction to go in when things are changing so quickly. I think in 2026, we’ll really hone down and let us take it in the direction it’s going.”
Beyond the robotic mowers, Donna Vignocchi Zych has another goal for 2026 — to make sure her team remembers her mantra, “We got this.”
“It might sound rudimentary, but one of the key things we forget about when we’re running companies is a lack of cultivating that teamwork and making sure that everyone is not just on the same page but feels part of the process,” she says. “I think 2026 is going to get rough quick. We have a saying whenever someone leaves our office, our facility, our accounting department, whatever — ‘we got this.’ No matter what storms in the door in the next five minutes, we got this. If it gets rough, just remember, we’ve all got each other’s backs.”
Etch Outdoor Living | Iowa
Etch Outdoor Living is a full-service design/build company located in Huxley, Iowa. The company is led by president Sam Rankin, who started the business as a way to support his dream of becoming a professional hockey referee.
“This business became a little bit more fun each day, and we were lucky enough that the growth kind of perpetuated itself; we didn’t struggle to grow the business,” he says. “Over time, it made it more fun, and it became my focus as we built it into a career.”
Rankin is a member of the ACE Peer Group program and made two trips to Italy as he’s moving from one peer group to another. Before he wrapped up with his old peer group, he wanted to complete his member-driven case study, which put him in the middle of a circle, with his fellow peer members surrounding him and listening to how he’s handling his company and asking follow-up questions.
A shy person might see that experience as something of an interrogation, but Rankin found it invaluable.
“It was fun. Inevitably, sitting in the middle of the circle becomes hard,” Rankin says. “One of the biggest things I took away from this — and it’s going to change the trajectory of my 2026 — is I really need to figure out what I want for my life. What does it look like, and how do we model a business that will drive success and drive a high-quality workplace for those on our team?”
Rankin’s interview with LM happened immediately after his case study had concluded and right before he departed for the airport to get home and see his young family. Rankin was clearly supercharged with excitement from the experience during his interview. To watch a video of his interview, visit
LandscapeManagement.net.
“I think 2026 and beyond is going to be more focused on the team generating success instead of just me kind of leading the charge,” Rankin says. “I think the macroeconomic environment is continually moving in a favorable direction. Unemployment is up marginally, but at the same time, we’ve got plenty of labor, and in maintenance/fertilization, we control a recurring service.
“We’ve continually seen that growth, year over year,” he continues. “We’ve got to focus on our team, but the second part is, inevitably, there’s going to be growth because we continue to push in the right market segments.”
