Mike McCarron, owner of Image Works Landscape Management in Fairfax Station, Va., remembers falling in love with the landscaping industry.
McCarron started his lawn care business while working at UPS and attending school, pursuing his second degree. After graduating, he had a choice: continue his career with UPS or fully immerse himself in his lawn care business.
“My business had been doing good at that point and it was a pretty good size,” he says. “So, I decided to go at it full-time and not turn back from that moment forward.”
Making the Summit
Since beginning in 2011, the LM Growth Summit has served as a hub for lawn care operators to connect with each other and industry vendors.
McCarron attended his first LM Growth Summit in 2022, which he says allowed him to learn about new equipment and products with hands-on demos and one-on-one meetings. Those relationships made during the event were the ultimate highlight for McCarron.
“I think the Summit is an excellent opportunity,” he says. “You get to talk to some of these high-end people within these organizations, such as vendors, distributors and suppliers. They say, ‘If you have a technical question, give us a call.’ It was fantastic to have that ability to communicate with someone and have a direct connection with someone on the inside.”
McCarron adds that spending the week with a small group of lawn care operators, talking about their experiences with equipment, products and more was a highlight.
“Your group becomes in sync during the two days, going around and speaking to everyone. I’ve since seen the people in my group at the Snow and Ice Management event in Chicago and I got to see them again at the Equip Expo,” he says.
Seeing what’s new
Alongside these relationships came the ability to test the latest products and learn how to incorporate them into the daily practices of McCarron’s business.
He points to a pair of LM partners — Albaugh Specialty Products and FMC — as relationships he built at the event that have become valuable partners for his business.
McCarron says that Albaugh’s Quintessential herbicide was what drew him to the company. Quintessential targets crabgrass — a problem weed for McCarron —with an altered formulation of quinclorac which affects all growth stages.
FMC’s Scion insecticide, which provides control of mosquitos, ants, cockroaches, spiders, scorpions and ticks, was another product of interest for McCarron.
“With the previous product that we were using, we only got around 28 to 45 days (of control),” he says.
“With Scion, we doubled our longevity with a single application. It makes a huge difference when you’re trying to do more properties. If you can hit that property once over the course of 90 days, that is a much better way to go.”