I’ve got a wide-ranging list of links for you this week, including advice on how to prepare for Obamacare, insight on the booming (again) housing market and, for you botany nerds, a list of terrible names for wild pansies. Enjoy!

• Are you a good boss or an amazing boss? (via Chris Heiler)
• Home prices are up in many markets. Again.
• Terrible names for wild pansies.
• Advice on Obamacare.
• How to give a great speech.
• The loneliness epidemic.
• Above: Seth Godin’s start-up school podcast.

Seth Godin explains why you need to choose your customers before you choose your product or service:

It seems obvious, doesn’t it? Each cohort of customers has a particular worldview, a set of problems, a small possible set of solutions available. Each cohort has a price they’re willing to pay, a story they’re willing to hear, a period of time they’re willing to invest.

And yet…

And yet too often, we pick the product or service first, deciding that it’s perfect and then rushing to market, sure that the audience will sort itself out. Too often, though, we end up with nothing.

I talked with George Gaumer, outgoing vice president and general manager of commerical landscape services at Davey Tree Expert Co. about this just last week, and he drew this handy chart for me. (This is a facsimilie; George has much better handwriting.)

The idea is that you can offer new services to your current customers, and offer your current services to new customers, but offering new services to new customers gets you skiing out past your tips.

We covered these topics extensively in our February Grow the Market report. Read it here.

Jim McCutcheon has a simple — but very important – message for landscape contractors on his blog:

We have spent so much time focusing on the “poor economy,” “Obamacare,” “Sequestration,” “Watergate” (Rubio), etc., that we are losing sight of a critical axiom of building a business – you still make the call as to how you are going to lead your company.

Yes, you may need to make some tough calls as to how you are going to successfully overcome the obstacles in front of you.  Sometimes, it means you must make difficult decisions.

Every company needs to have a leader that is willing to be unpopular at times.  That willingness means you have the courage to make tough calls that will lead to better times for all members of the team.  If your focus is on being liked all the time, you can’t succeed.

Seth Godin makes a similar point, but uses a bicycle analogy: The uphill parts of a ride are much more strenuous than the downhills, but it’s only when you’re going up that you have control over how fast you go. Once you crest the hill, physics takes over and you’re essentially ballast.

Now, I look forward to the uphill parts, because that’s where the work is, the fun is, the improvement is. On the uphills, I have a reasonable shot at a gain over last time. The downhills are already maxed out by the laws of physics and safety.

Read Jim’s full post here. Stop thinking about everything that you can’t control and start working on the things you can.

It’s been a busy week, but here’s some fun stuff to check out on the web. Enjoy, and have a great weekend.

• New event promotes gardens and guitars.
• Rethinking responsibility.
• Scholarship for green industry communication students.
• Cool contest for rural landscape design.
• A (nearly exhaustive) list of drought-tolerant plant resources.
• Above: Marty and I talk about why you should attend GROW! 2013 in Nashville.

Great post from Seth Godin this week:

When making a b2b sale, the instinct is always to get into the CEO’s office. If you can just get her to hear your pitch, to understand the value, to see why she should buy from or lease from or partner with or even buy you… that’s the holy grail.

What do you think happens after that mythical meeting?

Read the rest here to find out.

(h/t to Scott Brickman for passing this one along)

Here’s our weekly collection of interesting stuff from the web. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

• A coast-to-coast tour of America’s greatest landscapes by a newly minted LA grad.
• 35 graphs that show how your spending habits change as you age.
• A tiny arboretum of unsung plants.
• Four questions to ask yourself this winter.
• How plants can detect bombs. (via @BatesNursery)
• IA Confidential, the latest installment from the video team at the Miami-Dade County Extension office. (via Martha Golea)
• The science of email subject lines explained.
• Above: The best video of a weed-fighting superhero that you’ll see today.

Here’s our weekly digest of fun stuff we found online, now with more robots. Have a great weekend.

• Small, once-a-day marketing can be more powerful than a big, one-time only blow-out.
• 4 alternatives to leaving your business to your kids.
• We’ve got some whitepapers on engines, water management and holiday lighting. Check them out.
• The Case-Shiller Home Price Index by metro area.
• Above: With apologies to Lee Majors, the WSJ brings you the peak time for everything.

A Monday morning thought from Seth Godin:

People are never irrational. They often act on memories and pressures that you’re unaware of, though.

Read the full post here.

Here’s our weekly digest of cool and interesting stuff. Happy reading, and we’ll see you next week!

• It’s now cheaper to buy than rent in America’s top 100 markets.
• See also: Trulia’s 2012 rent vs. buy report.
• New stats on who’s using smartphones.
• Also: New stats on online photo sharing.
• How office park landscapes can reduce water use. (via @BldgOpMgmt)
• Thinking about supermodels.
• Amazon fungi: Making it rain.
• Above: What you need to know about gross margins from the Harvest Group.

Here’s our weekly digest of cool stuff from the web. Enjoy, and have a great weekend!

• Give this list to your foremen.
• “The complement to the brilliant strategy is the thankless work of lower-leverage detail.“
• A guide to commercial property leasing practices from CBRE.
• An update on trends in outdoor furniture.
• Awesome vertical gardens.
• Above: Linkedin now lets companies use targeted status updates. (via @chris_heiler)