Core values: A principle that guides an organization’s internal conduct as well as its relationship with the external world.

That definition is according to the website businessdictionary.com. Your company probably has a set of core values. But are they written down? Do your employees live them? Do your customers know what they are?  Those are important steps a company must take in order to be successful.

Dina Dwyer-Owens is a stickler on core values. She’s the chairwoman and CEO of The Dwyer Group, which has a portfolio of eight companies, including the green industries, The Grounds Guys. The Dwyer Group is successful today because her employees know and follow the company’s code of values: respect, integrity, customer focus and having fun in the process.

To understand how those were being lived, Dwyer-Owens went on the TV show Undercover Boss (watch here). She learned a lot about herself, about her company and about running a lawn mower.

The Grounds Guys was formed in 2010 by The Dwyer Group and the Van Stralen family, which founded Sunshine Grounds Care in 1987. Here Dwyer-Owens shares with Lawn & Landscape The Grounds Guys own core values and how they’re integrated in everyday work:

Today, The Grounds Guys Culture of CARE states:

We show that we CARE, by putting the needs of our

Customers first, by always having a positive and helpful

Attitude, and by treating everyone and everything with

Respect. By living our code of values we

Enjoy Life in the process.

 

Now, the team learns how to CARE. It is reinforced daily with a quick morning H.U.D.D.L.E to start the day:

Have someone recite the Culture of CARE

Uniform check

Discuss yesterday’s route

Discuss today’s route

Listen and share good news

Energize and encourage each other

The call to action with the culture of CARE and H.U.D.D.L.E. has raised the bar for The Grounds Guys. It’s inspiring to know that the road we have traveled at The Dwyer Group can be an interesting lesson for other businesses on a journey all their own.

When you’re good at what you do, and you really enjoy it, it can be difficult to step back and think about promoting yourself.

I mean, if you enjoy this work so much, how is everyone else not as excited as you all the time?

Jason Cupp recently visited with a landscaper out west having some trouble keeping her service schedule and marketing schedules in sync.

Of course, when it comes to marketing, there can be several challenges, not the least of which are what you want to promote, what medium you want to use, and exactly who to target. This client’s struggle, however, involved timing; she was always behind the power curve getting her marketing message to prospects.

So he had her make up two calendars — one for her services and one, set a few months back, that would help her schedule promotions for those services.

A simple idea, but one with a lot of power that could help a lot of landscapers. (And editors, come to think of it.)

Read the full post here for all the details.

If you’re competing against the guy who put this up, you have my sympathy.

Because he’ll do anything to get the business. Read it yourself: He’ll mow your grass, clean out your garage and move your sofa. No job too small!

I hear from readers all the time about the mythical lowballer – how he’s stealing business and driving down prices and hurting the industry. They’ve been around forever and they won’t ever go away.

The only way to compete with someone who will do anything at any price is to do the same. Otherwise, you have to ignore him.

Do you target customers who pay the lowest possible price and also ask you to haul their old washing machine to the dump? Do you get a lot of your leads from the grocery store bulletin board?

If you don’t like competing against lowballers, stop. Find new customers.

As Seth Godin explains that your customer isn’t always the person who signs your checks.

Zappos is a classic customer service company, and their customer is the person who buys the shoes.

Many manufacturers have retailers as their customer. If Wal-Mart is happy, they’re happy.

Apple had just one customer. He passed away last year.

Not everyone with a lawn or snow-covered driveway is your customer. And not every landscaper is your competition. Figure out where you want to spend your time, focus your energy and stop worrying about these guys.

(image via @jasoncupp)