Mike Beiter has a green thumb in more ways than one. He enjoys working with flowers and plants — and he has cultivated his passion into some serious cash.

His Yard Dog Landscaping is pretty much a one-person business, except during spring and fall, when things get busy and he brings in one or two people to help. He works an average of three days a week, staying busy the rest of the time with his pottery hobby and a part-time job at a plant nursery.

As a kid, Mike got stuck with lawn-mowing duties, something he loathed on those summer days when his buddies were having fun. Later on, he worked in government for 35 years and became a budget analyst — “no physical labor whatsoever,” Mike says. So his future as a self-starting landscaper hardly seemed foreordained.

Then he bought his first house and began puttering in the yard. He happened to — surprise! — enjoy it. Then he bought a book titled The Weekend Gardener, and his obsession with plants quickly took root.

“It’s like an addiction,” says Mike. “You start to understand things. Then you want to get a little more creative. You start looking for plants you don’t have. If I see one, of course I have to buy it.”

Yard Dog Landscaping began by accident. Each year, Mike would divide the plants from his big garden and give some to friends and co-workers. One of the lucky recipients didn’t know a thing about gardening, and he asked Mike if he’d come over to do the planting — for a fee. Mike liked the sound of it: some extra bucks for doing what he loved. He drove over, did the work, and earned his first pay as a freelance landscaper.

The happy customer told some of friends, they called Mike, Mike worked on their gardens, they told their friends. Before long, Yard Dog Landscaping was growing like a sunflower on a sunny day. It’s in full bloom at the time of this writing.

Mike obviously has a high standard of quality and great word-of-mouth advertising, but there’s more to his success. The landscaping business lets him leverage his creativity, work with his hands, and see tangible results. Mike knows what makes Mike tick. He says that all three of these factors are important to him.

On one job, Mike found a pile of bricks sitting in the yard of an 1850s schoolhouse-turned-home. He used them to create a curving garden border, then he planted 150 bulbs, accenting everything with plants and bushes. “There was nothing there before,” he says. “The homeowner wanted a lot of color, and that’s what they’ll get every spring.”

Another job took Mike to the grounds of an old school building that had been converted into a condo. Trash was collecting on a hilly area next to the parking lot, and the owner asked Mike to “make it look good.” Mike cleaned up the litter and tilled the soil. Then he planted ground cover, ferns, shade plants, pansies, iris, you name it.

He got good pay for the job — and he’s still getting paid in the form of emotional compensation. Mike explains: “I was driving past just this spring, and I was like, ‘Wow, that looks good!’” The littered field now blooms with Mike’s handiwork.

MIKE’S ADVICE:

Work for a fee, not for free. Mike is a good guy with nice friends and family. In the early days of his landscaping business, he was inclined to give away his time — or to charge a fee way below market value. Not so much anymore. “You obviously have a talent that they don’t,” he says. “There’s no reason you shouldn’t be compensated for it.” Remember those words when you’re contracting with someone who’s close to you. Know what your product or service is worth, and make sure you get paid accordingly.

Do your pricing homework. Deciding on a price can be more art than science. “It was a learning curve for me,” Mike says. “I talked to a lot of people about what they thought I should charge.” On the one hand, you might be eager to get those first few sales — so there’s a tendency to go low on price. But if you go too low early on, word might spread to your would-be customers, and that’s what they’ll expect. On the other hand, if you set price too high, you’ll push yourself out of the marketplace from the get-go. Do your research to find the range of sustainable prices. When setting yours, avoid going too low. Keep an eye on customer reaction, and be prepared to make quick adjustments.

Steer clear of problem customers. Is there such a thing? Absolutely. They might have money to put in your pocket, but they’ll soak up your time and patience — and be a net negative on your bottom line. In Mike’s case, one customer couldn’t articulate what she wanted to have done on her yard and garden. She talked and talked, but everything was a generality. Mike plunged in anyway, doing his best to fulfill her hazy vision. She seemed to be fairly satisfied, but then…she wanted something else done, then something different, then something back the way it was. “I never knew what she wanted,” Mike says. “I don’t want to go through that again.” Be on the alert for customers like this, and when you spot one, walk away. Know that their money carries an extreme cost.

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It sounded like a good idea at the time. A great idea. The best idea in the world.

I’d be able to do what I love while being my own boss and making a good buck in the process.

My enthusiasm was so unconditional that I happily plunked down $800 for postage stamps. Then I folded the inserts, stuffed the envelopes, stuck on the address labels, and sealed. It’s a miracle I didn’t get poisoned from envelope glue, considering that I licked 1,600 envelopes.

This was back in 1985, when I was 22 years old. My plan was to syndicate a column called “American Folks.” I had just graduated from journalism school, and I loved to write. Each weekly column would profile some neat person from small-town America. Newspapers would pay me five bucks per week.

Inside each of those 1,600 envelopes were three sample columns, a compelling sales letter from yours truly, an order card, and a postage-paid mail-back envelope. A slam dunk, right?

Oh, I got slammed alright.

After waiting for a week, then another week, then another week, I finally received my first order. It was also my last order.

Out of 1,600 prospects, I got one measly customer. That’s a 0.000625% success rate — and by “success,” I mean “failure.” I would’ve had more success selling cow droppings.

All that hope. All that work. All that money. All for nothing! My confidence took a serious beating. I vowed never to do anything entrepreneurial again.

Fortunately, the taste of envelope glue wore off, and so did my vow. I began to cook up new ideas, but something was different. I had learned a big lesson from the American Folks debacle: Don’t get so swept away by your great idea that you neglect the most important person of all. That would be the customer.

In your case, do you know who your customers are? Do they want or need what you’re so eager to provide? Can you deliver something that’s new and needed — or at least different and better than what’s currently available? Will your idea rev people up to such a degree that they’ll put their money in your pocket to get what you have?

Customer research doesn’t have to be some drawn-out process. Even a little bit can provide crucial intelligence.

If I had chatted with ten editors and publishers when my idea was still on the drawing board, I would have saved myself a lot of time, money, and heartache. Who knows, I might have gained insights that could have been used to reshape the idea and produce a viable, moneymaking product. Or I might have come up with an entirely different concept.

So let my American Folks pain be your learning gain. Do some down-to-earth customer research early on, before you’re far forward with your super-fantastic idea. If you’re already far along, don’t panic. Just put on the brakes and do your research now.

And if your endeavor involves envelopes, you’ll want to use the self-adhesive variety!

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Savor a sample of Marie Moss’s secret-ingredient spaghetti sauce, and you’ll know what her customers know: This lady was born to cook. She does for food what Mozart did for music. And she makes money doing it.

It all began some 50 years ago, when Marie’s grandmother hosted big dinners complete with veal cutlets, sausage, lasagna, you name it. “One of my earliest memories is of standing by the stove stirring the sauce,” Marie says.

She became a nurse and went to work in a hospital, but her cooking reputation went with her. When a nursing friend got engaged, she ran up to Marie and popped the question: “Will you do the cooking for my wedding?”

Marie wasn’t sure. At 26 years old, she had plenty of experience cooking for family and friends. But a formal sit-down dinner? For two hundred people?

She rushed to her nearest and best advisor. Mom liked the idea right away. “We can do it, we can do it,” Marie recalls her mother saying. A Mozart-caliber cook herself, Marie’s mom gave her daughter the needed nudge.

They did do it, side by side, working in a three-hour blur back in the day of no microwave, no Sterno, and no pre-cooking. The dinner was a huge success, and in the days that followed, Marie started cooking up an idea: a catering business.

She kept her full-time nursing job and built her business slowly by word of mouth. It didn’t take long — people like to talk about good food and great service, right? She catered more weddings, rehearsal dinners, baby showers, and wakes. Sometimes she’d do one job a month, sometimes more, depending on customer demand and her own work schedule. She’d often team up with her mom. For big jobs, they’d bring in some extra help. With the financial security of her regular job, she could be flexible.

It went on like that for 16 years until the security disappeared. Marie lost her job — but it didn’t mean disaster. She devoted more time to catering, brought in more business, and made up for much of the lost income. She averaged a job a week, which doesn’t sound like much to people who eat food more than they cook food. But that’s a lot of work!

Marie eventually went back to a full-time job, this time as a case manager for an insurance company. She works there currently. But her catering business is still cooking.

She loves most of her jobs — like the time she cooked the food for 235 guests at her niece’s wedding. “I was working in the kitchen when I heard, ‘Marie, they’re calling for you,’” she says. The bride wanted Marie to join everyone in the dining room. Marie dashed out while her niece made an announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is my aunt who prepared all the food.” The guests gave the chef a grateful round of applause.

Other jobs build character — like when she cooked for 317 people at an eighth-grade graduation dinner. The feast was held in an old gymnasium, with an ill-equipped kitchen (two small ovens, a clogged sink, and cramped quarters) located on a different floor. Marie, her husband, and nine young helpers worked up some serious sweat getting the job done to Marie’s usual high standards.

“I’m very organized,” she says. “I delegate. When I have people helping me like I did that time, I say, ‘Don’t take offense.’” It works. She has catered hundreds of events during her 30 years as a caterer, and she can serve 300+ people in 30 minutes flat. The food is great too — just taste her godlike sausage and peppers.

MARIE’S ADVICE:

Let your trusted loved ones give you a push. Marie’s mother filled this role. She exuded confidence — and went a step further by offering to help. They teamed up on that first job and many that followed. If you need to borrow courage (and some help) from someone else in order to get started, do it and don’t look back. Who are likely candidates who can fill this role for you?

Make friends and family your first customers. At the hospital where she worked, Marie had a big network. So it’s no surprise that a nurse friend became her first catering customer. When you’re starting your own business, don’t keep it hidden. Take stock of your own social network: friends, family, work colleagues, long-lost contacts who can be found and reached on the Internet. As much as you can (if you have a “regular” job, we don’t want you to get fired!), shout it from the mountaintops. Don’t be pushy — just let them know you’re open for business.

Start small, but look for ways to get big. If she could do it over again, Marie says she would do more research (into building her own reception hall and obtaining contracts with existing halls), invest more money (in equipment), and take more risks. In other words, from the outset, she would be more growth-minded and action-oriented, exploring and taking practical steps to build the business bigger and faster. You should do the same with your own venture — whether it’s just an idea, just getting started, or well under way. Conduct some serious research, exert your creativity, get input from other people, and see where it leads. You just might find, for example, that you can reshape your service to reach a much bigger group of would-be customers. Or you might uncover an untapped marketing channel that is tailor-made for your product. If you always think small with your business, you’ll stay small, guaranteed. If you think big and plan big, there’s no guarantee you’ll get big — but you’ll sure as heck stack the odds in your favor.

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Tigger and Eeyore are hardly known for their business acumen, but you’ll want to keep them in mind as you tell friends and family about your business idea.

Why? Because you’ll run into both characters — and they can mess with your thinking.

Some people will practically bounce with excitement when they hear about your new product or service. They’ll declare it the best thing since sliced, whole wheat, preservative-free bread. They’ll ooh and ah and promise to be your first customer. Say hello to Tigger.

Other people will lean in and nod grimly, as if they’re listening to you tell about a recent car accident. They’ll warn you about the bad economy (“Why don’t you wait?”), the extra work (“Aren’t you busy enough?”), the prospect of failure (“I hear that 90 percent of companies go belly up the first year), the strain on your loved ones (“Don’t you love them?”), and other assorted doom-and-gloom scenarios. Think Eeyore.

No need to push them away. Let’s face it, Tigger is fun and funny, and Eeyore is so depressed you hate to reject him. But please, keep their perspectives in perspective.

That Tigger-like optimism is wonderful to hear, but don’t let it make you naïve. Few people will be bouncing around to first in the order line, especially if you’re just starting your business. Sure, you’ll eventually get fans who bring a certain Tiggerness to their love for your company, but you’ll have to do plenty of hard work to get your business started — and even more to keep it going and growing.

As for those Eeyore types, hear them out but don’t get sucked in. You want to be a realist, not a fatalist. It’s important to listen because they might raise a point you hadn’t thought about. But if you keep listening ad nauseam, they’ll shake your inner confidence and get you second-guessing just about everything. Recognize that an all-awful frame of thinking simply doesn’t square with reality.

In the meantime, seek out people who can give you some balanced input — people who fall somewhere between the Tigger and Eeyore profiles.

Perhaps your business-minded neighbor would be happy to chat. Or your sister’s friend is a successful entrepreneur who wouldn’t mind 30 minutes on the phone. Or it could be that a buddy of yours — someone with no start-up experience — is one of those types who listens well, asks great questions, and leaves you smarter.

You can only benefit by reaching out to these people. Tigger and Eeyore will understand.

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