Landscape Management, October 2013

INSIGHTS FROM GREEN INDUSTRY LEADERS Glenn Jacobsen LIC president Jacobsen Landscape Design Construction Midland Park N J LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET OCTOBER 2013 148 INTERVIEW BY MARISA PALMIERI OFF THE CLOCK TELL US ABOUT YOUR FAMILY Our daughter Rachel whos 24 is a special education math and science teacher at a charter school in Boston Our son Christopher 25 completed his masters at Harvard this past May and works in development at Hamilton College in upstate New York He is getting married in October FAVORITE FOOD Italian food WHAT DO YOU DO TO RELAX I enjoy outdoor activities We have a lake house in New York state I like sailing not that I get a chance to do it too much Were outdoor people FAVORITE MUSICIAN Thats easy Im from New Jersey so its either Bon Jovi or Springsteen but Springsteen is the guy Ive been to many of his concerts SO WHATS THE BEST SPRINGSTEEN SONG My favorite is Thunder Road It has that great ending 1 MINUTE MENTOR DEBT PHOTOS GLENN JACOBSEN ISTOCK INTERNATIONAL INC Howd you get your start I get asked that all the time I got in this business just like many others did cutting lawns in the neighborhood That evolved into going to college and into the design part of the business I started my business in 1978 in high school You can tell by the number of hairs on my head its been 35 years What was your original company name At first it was Jacobsen Landscaping Tree Service because my dad had a part time tree business It evolved from that and after about 10 years we went to Design Construction Youre current president of the Professional Landcare Networks PLANET board of directors When did you first get involved with the association What about your involvement has helped your business It was ALCA back in the mid 1990s when I got involved I went to a Green Industry Conference out in Fort Worth Texas I saw the industry as having a national presence and that opened my eyes I got involved with committee work membership and a few others I did that until 2003 2004 Right before the ALCA PLCAA merger I was on the ALCA board then I was off for a couple years before joining the PLANET board The No 1 thing is just seeing other companies and the networking Ive had the opportunity to do Youre not operating in a bubble as you often do Any words of wisdom You cant expand too quickly and overleverage yourself with debt Weve always been fiscally conservative as far as taking loans and weve grown organically versus through acquisitions There are a lot of people who will lend you money and you can go into debt pretty quickly Weve never done that Ive always been wary of it probably because of my wife Melissa Shes CFO here and shes fiscally conservative In the tough economic times a lot of the companies that went out of business were overleveraged Were virtually debt free Any advice for working with your spouse Work with each others strengths know each others weaknesses and separate duties as much as possible Its the same as having any partner as far as Im concerned With any partnership you want to separate duties Weve been married 30 years Its not easy to be in business with your spouse but weve been blessed with different traits personalities and skills In the same respect its a blessing because we have the same end goal Whats the best business decision youve made Running it like a business hiring the right people and building the right team Its been said many times but theres so much truth to it Hiring is not an exact science You can do as much research as you want and try to fit people into the right positions There are definitely some lessons learned as far as thinking you have the right hire and Boy what was I thinking As the company has evolved hiring is what its all about