Tony Sargeant from Atlanta is someone I've billed as "one of my favorite customers." Tony's the rare bird who spends his time doing what he loves and is good at it while not being overwhelmed with running his business. Which also means he spends his time building and selling water features during the day and then comes home at night to Live the Lifestyle with his bride of 25 years. I wonder how many entrepreneurs out there started out doing what they love and were good at it only to find themselves dragged down to doing things they hated and subsequently weren't that good at -- all in a desperate attempt just to keep their heads above water while managing their own businesses? How nuts is that?!

Continue reading "Living the Lifestyle"

One of my favorite times of the month is when I meet with my teammates one-on-one for what has been dubbed "15 minutes with the Pond Guy."

HR tries to get any new employees slotted into these brackets and to round out any open slots with whomever else wants in. The goal of these sessions is for me to get to know the employees a little better (and vice-a-versa) -- while offering my advice on how they can succeed here. Although the sessions always seem to end on a high note, they often begin -- especially with new employees -- with some trepidation. The other day, however, I had anything but the normal interaction with a new employee hired for our construction division.

Continue reading "Fifteen Minutes with the Boss"

For the sixth year in a row, I spent spring break in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, with a bunch of college-aged men. If you remember back to your college spring breaks, it was all of that and then some. The "all of that" is pretty self-explanatory; it's the "then some" that's most unusual. The American Leadership Academy (www.ALACabo.org) is based there and with a goal of "training tomorrow's leaders today" it's an organization I'm proud to be affiliated with. The ALA is the brainchild of Jerry Nelson, a 78-year-young serial entrepreneur who, among his many exploits, started Ticketmaster and found water in Scottsdale, Arizona, before the city was developed.

In 2008, the ALA will introduce more than 700 young men to industry leaders, scientists, motivational speakers, and successful entrepreneurs -- all there to share the life lessons they've learned outside the classroom. Where were these kinds of programs when we were going to school?!

Whatever information I give each year, I get back just as much, if not more, from these young men. As much as I try to stay hip and cool -- and even though I'm only 37 and college seems not that long ago -- the generation gap is ever present. I've seen professional speakers who are used to motivating rooms full of other middle-aged business people bumble over words they've spoken many times before, semi-paralyzed at addressing a t-shirt wearing, sandal clad, next generation. As unusual a situation as it is for many of the speakers, however, it is even more unusual for the young men eager to hear things they probably never heard in school or at home.

What they hear is exactly the kind of stuff all kids should get a chance to hear -- one generation talking to the next on lessons of life, love, and regret; on victories and defeats; on getting up after you fall -- all dished out from the same real world these men will soon be facing. And as impossible as it is to summarize with one word exactly what it is they get out of these sessions, I'd say "confidence" comes close -- confidence that with the right attitude, the hard work needed to succeed at whatever endeavor they pursue, and the ability to dream big and then stretch to get there, yes, it's possible they too can succeed. Their ears, their minds, and their hearts need to know this, and you can just feel the positive energy throughout the sessions. I always leave charged by that energy and feeling good that I played a small part in generating it.

Here's where the business part comes in. Many of the people who work with me at Aquascape and with you at your companies are the same age as the ones who go through the ALA each year. Why deprive them of the important thoughts, words, and feelings their minds, hearts, and souls so desperately need? If there's one thing almost everyone from our younger generation needs to hear from us, it's the encouragement and confidence to believe in themselves. They might be as scary to us with their iPod rocking ways as we are to them, but it's our genuine interest in them that just might give them the confidence they lack in themselves to make their dreams a reality.

So, the next time you're riding that young worker for yet another mistake, take a step back and think about yourself at 20-something and what it is you know now that you didn't then. Then share it! It just might make all the difference in the world. For both of you.

South Bend, Indiana. Ever heard of it? There's a school there of about 8,000 students that also has a football team (at least, it had one until last season). But it's also got a much greater challenge than restoring Notre Dame’s gridiron greatness. And that is restoring its city's overburdened and ailing sewage and stormwater system back to full functionality. Current estimates for the town of 150,000 to do just that come in at a whopping $200,000,000! Do the math. That’s just over $1,300 for each and every resident currently living there! All of a sudden, the rebuilding program that head coach Charlie Weiss has ahead of him seems a heck of a lot easier than the challenges facing South Bend’s municipal government.

Continue reading "The Trillion Dollar Opportunity Right Beneath Our Feet!"

Has your company done a S.W.O.T. analysis? That's a Strength, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats checklist of internal and external factors affecting your business -- what you're good at and not so good at organizationally, where there are opportunities to grow, what threats might keep you from growing. An accurate and evolving S.W.O.T. analysis is a vital tool for any organization to use to influence strategy, focus, and the deployment of resources. If leveraged properly, a S.W.O.T. analysis can create a competitive advantage for you and your business in the marketplace.

Case in point: for a while now, we have recognized water restrictions as a threat to selling water features. But it wasn't until last year that we seriously focused on this element of our S.W.O.T. analysis. Seeing how severely water restrictions affected our customers in the Southeast, we knew it was high time to turn this threat into an opportunity. I'm excited to finally reveal (see When Not Hitting Your Numbers is a Good Thing) our much speculated on, new venture. In 2008, Aquascape is debuting our Rainwater Harvesting system, which is designed to turn a threat (water restrictions) into an opportunity (capture your own water on-site and reuse it). Never have we put more thought and planning into the roll-out of a new product. That's because unlike other Aquascape products and programs, Rainwater Harvesting launches us -- and our customers who choose to adapt their business model -- into a whole new and exciting aspect of our industry.

Continue reading "Turning Threats Into Opportunities and a New Direction"

Well, the news ain't good. The U.S. economic outlook for 2008 seems to get worse each day, and it's not likely to get better until the second half of 2009. The television, newspapers, and magazines seem to be on the economists' side, especially if you're lumped in the catch-all category of housing starts the way we are. So what's an entrepreneur like you or me to do when the media are saying the sky is falling and the world is saying play defense but we are more suited to playing offense?

Continue reading "Think Offensive, Be Defensive"

It's doom and gloom out there, and it's not just Chicken Little saying the sky's falling -- even Warren Buffet says we're in a recession. If that's got you concerned about 2008 revenue, that doesn't mean you're a pessimist. You're a realist. Being an eternal optimist myself (my strength and Achilles heal), here's how we are proactively attacking the future. We are not circling the wagons!

Continue reading "Circle The Wagons? Not!"

Well it's been two weeks since my last post and I've got to admit something: Blogging ain't easy! Besides needing to feel moved to write something in an educated fashion, I need to get my energy level up to deal with the ramifications of what I say. Enough crying and on to the educated part -- I hope. Aquascape isn't about The Pond Guy! There I said it. Aquascape is so much bigger than me that turning the blog into a Greg-fest (or feast) is just a waste of everybody's time. I've rambled enough so let me get to my point. Aquascape is going places.

Continue reading "It's Not About Me"

What's in a name? What's in a code? How about 007, as in James Bond 007? What does it tell you about the man, the mission, and what it's all about? Well, if you haven't read the books or seen the movies, it doesn't tell you a whole heck of a lot!

How about 100 million dollars? Sounds a lot like Mike Myers' character Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies, raised pinky and all.

I started to use the code name 100MM as a shorthand way to say a whole lot of things without actually saying them. It was catchy, it sounded like a nice round number, it meant so many different things that I couldn't get out one by one. So, I just kept saying, "I want Aquascape to be a 100MM dollar company." Unfortunately, this also created a whole lot of misunderstandings -- namely that Aquascape was only about money.

Continue reading "Code Name: 100MM"

"The Blog?!" Sounds like something that just climbed out of the swamp in a bad B-grade, Steve McQueen movie. Yet that's exactly what I find myself faced with as I wrestle with this monster I've created. And just like Frankenstein, my blog came to life with a bolt of lightning on a dark and stormy night. Aquascape's first ever reduction-in-force occurred, scarily, right when my blog was coming to life--unveiling the dark side of my creation.

What was conceived with so much hope and promise quickly morphed into a mud-slinging forum for anyone and everyone to air their feelings. Yes I know a little due diligence or SWAT analysis ahead of time could have easily brought to light the potential risk of creating such a prominent public forum to reveal the inner sanctum of a privately held company. Yet I've never felt the need to allow outside critics or commentators to dictate how I make decisions or live my life. Now I'm wondering if having thick skin -- a trait that has previously served me well, is on its way to becoming my Achilles heel?

Continue reading ""The Blog?!""