Business Principles for Landscape Contracting

Business Principles for Landscape Contracting, fully revised and updated in its third edition, is an introduction to the application of business principles of financial management involved in setting up your own landscape contracting business and beginning your professional career. Appealing to students and professionals alike, it will build your knowledge of financial management tools and enable you to relate their applications to real-life business scenarios. Focusing on the importance of proactive financial management, the book serves as a primer for students in landscape architecture, contracting, and management courses and entrepreneurs within the landscape industry preparing to use business principles in practice. Topics covered include:

• Financial management and accountability
• Budget development
• Profitable pricing and estimating
• Project management
• Creating a lean culture
• Personnel management and employee productivity
• Professional development
• Economic sustainability.

Steven Cohan earned his Ph.D. at the Pennsylvania State University, USA. His diverse professional career encompasses plant science research, entrepreneurship as an owner of a retail nursery, and executive management of botanical gardens. He is currently an Emeritus Professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, USA, where he served as Program Director for the Landscape Management Program. His course instruction included Financial Applications for the Green Industry, Environmental Horticulture, Internship Seminar, and Green Roofs and Urban Sustainability Seminar.