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Meet a Design/Build Revolutionary:
Howard Cohen

Profile: 50-50 Partner with Barry Schneider Surrounds Landscape Architecture & Construction, Sterling, VA (Washington metro area)

Howard Choen and Barry Schneider, Surrounds Landscape Architecture & Construction
Barry Schneider (left in sports coat), Howard Cohen (right in sports coat) and their employees.

Year in Landscape Business: 7

Focus: Full service design through construction, residential design/build.  Surrounds employs seasonal crew workers, has the two partners, a commissioned landscape architect, an office manager, a lighting/landscape expert, and three project managers to run on-site construction.

Most recent projects:

  • A challenging pool on a steep slope with terracing
  • A backyard project with a 150-foot stream flowing into a 500-square-foot pond

Design/Build Revolutionary since: 2005
2005
“I had been having some success already and knew about running this type of business through our prior experiences, but I’m always looking to learn more information. I had heard of the Kinman Institute through my previous employer.”

Person who has affected you most professionally: Gary Kinman has had a significant impact on me through his ideas.

What you do in the winter: Many seasonal employees leave and we do planning and some jobs (our weather’s rather mild then).

Winter destination: Skiing!

Takeaway from Kinman Institute:

  1. I discovered a whole new way of approaching clients, which is to have the first meeting with them at my office. Over time, I’ve found that those customer who come to this meeting without complaining can be the best customers, and those who refuse to meet end up being more likely to be problem customers, or I have less chance of selling them in the first place.
  2. This one step has saved me a lot of time, especially in spring when it’s a killer to see all the people who want to meet. It really helps to meet at my office.
  3. We’ve installed a flat-screen at our office where we run a PowerPoint presentation showing many photographs of our projects.
  4. We now have a nice studio and customers are impressed.

My advice:

  • Be open minded to learning new things. Also, know what you’re good at.
  • We pay for good photography as a marketing investment. We’d rather have a few good photographs than lots of bad ones. Good photographs will get you published in magazines.

 

©2009, The Kinman Institute