Well, hello there! It’s been a while since I’ve written this page. I hope you knew that your pal Seth hadn’t left the magazine — a review of any of the recent LM Gallery pages surely was proof of this. But, in terms of this intro column, it’s good to be back.
We interrupt our usual programming for a good reason. As I tippy-tap away at the keyboard, LM Editor-in-Chief Scott Hollister is swinging out of his shoes somewhere on the back nine of a beautiful golf course in Park City, Utah, playing in the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute’s annual Louisville Golf Classic.
That’s a tournament I try not to miss … I had an especially memorable round in that tournament when it traveled to the Bahia Beach Golf Course in San Juan, Puerto Rico. But this year, with so much travel stacked up early in my summer, I asked Hollister to take the trek.
I’m glad I did. Even though I love playing golf and calling it work, this allowed me to catch up with the real work back in the office, including writing this page. Writing a monthly column for LM is one of the things I miss the most about my previous role, but I still have plenty of fun each issue. For example, the always-fun LM Gallery, which displays all the people and places we see between issues. I also always enjoy sitting down with a star of the industry and profiling them in my regular department, Five Questions. For this issue, I chatted with Noe Loarca of Avanza Landscaping and Maintenance.
And while I like to have fun at my work (and I hope it shows in the magazine), this issue is all about business. It’s our first-ever Mergers and Acquisitions Guide, which I’m sure will become an annual tradition.
For this month’s cover story, we called in Mike Zawacki, the former editor of Inside Business Magazine and Snow Magazine, to dive in deep on the topic. Mike has won several awards for our magazine, including a “best in show” Gardner Award from the Turf and Ornamental Communicator’s Association for an article he wrote for us last year, “Electrifying the landscape industry.” Mike’s article focuses on five myths of the M&A world.
M&A is a hot-button topic. I feel like whenever it comes up, strong opinions usually follow. I remember asking someone who had recently sold their business, “When did you first start thinking about selling your business?” Their reply was, “The same day I started it.” And then I’ve had many people tell me that they loathe private equity in the industry and hope to never sell their business. They hope the business stays in the family for generations to come.
I know of a company that started locking their front door because private equity representatives were literally barging in uninvited, claiming they had a scheduled appointment with the owner.
Wherever you stand on the M&A topic, one thing is clear: It’s changing the industry. It’s making companies work harder to stand out from their competition.
It’s a trend Loarca talked to me about in our Five Questions Q&A. He said his customers have higher expectations than they did before. And he’s glad they do, because he sets his company apart from others by striving to be a luxury service provider.
“Across the board, landscaping companies are finding ways to improve,” Loarca told me. “I tell people, you can go to McDonald’s, or you can go to Ruth’s Chris. They both serve beef, but you get two very different products and two very different levels of service.”
I think Noe’s right. However you take your steak, I hope your customers appreciate your sizzle.
