Here are a few courses that I have heard about and have taken (landscape Ontario).  Please list any continuing education courses you have taken or can refer for others.

Rutgers Landscape and Grounds Maintenance Courses

Rutgers has a FREE Pest identification webinar coming up that you can register for here.  Course date is December 20, 2011 1:30pm – 2:30pm EST.

http://www.cpe.rutgers.edu/programs/landscape.html (New Jersey)

Ryerson University Landscape Design

The Certificate in Landscape Design is a widely recognized and unique program located in the heart of Toronto, one of Canada’s premier cities. The program delivers fundamental courses in landscape design with emphasis on design, design process, plant materials, horticulture, graphics as a language, construction, landscape ecology, history, and more. Courses are delivered through interactive lectures and enhanced with valuable local field trips.

http://ce-online.ryerson.ca/ce/default.aspx?id=2593 (ON, Canada)

Landscape Ontario Seminars

There are plenty of career opportunities in the field of horticulture. Landscape Ontario has worked closely with the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU), to provide education at the high school, college and university levels that give individuals the skills they need for a successful career in the industry.

http://www.horttrades.com/seminars/ (ON, Canada) (ON, Canada)

Garden Design School

Garden Design School was founded in the UK in 2002, and is recognized there as one of the top training schools in landscape design. In 2009, Garden Design School opened its doors at Boylston, MA to bring its highly successful landscape design career training program to the USA

http://www.gardendesignschool.com/

With winter on the doorstep these above seasonal temperatures in Southern Ontario have extended the season for property maintenance professionals. I know we have been able to get in a few extra jobs here at Murphy Property Maintenance. Waking up this morning to temperatures above 12C and yesterday topping at 14C really gives the feeling of spring rather than being a few weeks away from ‘winter’. By all means we are not complaining…it is nice not to have to bundle up everyday; dress like a Canadian

Mother nature is just late with the snow and it will soon be here. Our snow removal equipment is looking excited to get out and start working.

I know the weather is seasonally above average in Winnipeg as well. How is the weather where you are? Have you noticed above seasonal temperatures? How is it affecting your business?

By Dave Kollasch, Owner of Lawn Lizards and Greenerbilling.com

Having owned a landscaping business for over 10 years has taught me some valuable lessons about business.  Most importantly, how could I speed up the daily billing and payments process? Managing client invoicing and payments was a challenge for years because there were no Web based invoice systems that focused mainly on billing and getting paid. So a few years into the business, I created www.Greenerbilling.com to simplify sending customer bills, estimates, and receiving and tracking payments. I knew that if I created something that worked well for my lawn company, then it made sense that fellow lawn care pros would benefit as well.

The most unique feature of Greenerbilling is the consumption-based pricing plan (a.k.a. the Dirt Plan) which allows the flexibility to “Spend only for what you Send”. During the off-season when lawn work is slower, this service allows you to pay only when you need to send each invoice, rather than paying for more than you may need in a given month. When Spring-time arrives and business ramps up, you can upgrade from the consumption-based plan to one of the flat rate pricing plans (50 or 300 invoice sends per month) and remain there throughout the busy season. Then as business slows for the off-season, it’s no problem to simply switch back to the Dirt plan. All business data remains the same and there is no fee to jump back and forth between plans as often as needed. You are in complete control of managing your Greenerbilling subscription plan based on your monthly invoicing volume. That’s flexibility!

In the world’s uncertain economic environment, green industry professionals are seeking the most cost-effective ways to run our business. Managing client billing online, from anywhere, and only paying for a service as needed, definitely maximizes efficiency for a landscape professional who is constantly on the go and away from the office.

For those interested, I am personally offering you 60 days free to test-drive Greenerbilling for your business. I still actively own and operate my lawn care company and can directly relate to your billing needs. I also invite your ideas to help make Greenerbilling even better for the landscape professional.

To receive your free 60 days, visit https://www.greenerbilling.com/signup?plan_id=Dirt and sign up for our free trial (no credit card required). Once you activate your account via your confirmation email, contact me at dave@greenerbilling.com with the code FREE60 and I will upgrade your account. It’s that simple!

As many of our readers know, we own and operate a Landscape Maintenance company called Murphy Property Maintenance.  We are constantly struggling with software and how to track our hours, services, create reports.  We have been using Quickbooks for 5 years now but being a constant slave to the program and the extreme learning curve…well, its almost impossible to run the business as well as track it.

I received an email from a gentleman called Sam Pillar he is the Co-Founder and President of the company that makes Jobber.   He boasted that their software was “the best online business management software for on-site service companies.”   Sam had me intrigued!   I check out the website and browsed through the features and benefits that his software offered and decided to sign up for a trail account.

I was pleasantly surprised on how the software looked and felt streamlined.  So many other software / cloud computing out there is hard to navigate and find the information in an easy fashion.  As I evaluated the program the “Quick Start Guide” lead me on my way to setup my company and enter in my employees and first clients.  The scheduling window is a breeze to use and I love the notifications on the ‘Dashboard’ for pending jobs.  This program is looking better every minute I use it.

Woah!  Automatic Geo-Tagging is sweet for client properties…yes I can reviewing this program as I write this, need to be fresh in the mind ya know

Under the user settings you can create custom fields such as – property hazards, property size (sqft.), gate locked, dogs, etc.  Very nice option.  Another option is to have embedded forms for your website that sends quote info straight into Jobber…how sweet is that!

Jobber even has an API key so for all you programmers out there that would like to extend the program even further…have at er.

All in all this program is definitely worth the while to check out for any service based company.  I am going to continue to try it out and post more comments as I come across more neat features that can help me save time and money.  Look for edits and comments on this post very soon.  Oh, I forgot to mention Quickbooks integration and mobile capabilities…Just check it out already.

EDIT* Sam from Jobber just gave our readers a discount code for 15% OFF the first 3 months of subscription.  The code is “lawnblog_15″ .   Sweet Deal!  Thanks Sam.

EDIT* November 27, 2011

Other cool features.  You can upload client property photos and files (like contracts and job orders) and add notes.  So now every time someone calls you can make a quick note of the call under that client.

GetJobber.com