When Dan Fogerty asked the owners of a Bend, Oregon, apartment complex to bring lawn maintenance in house, he had no idea they would accept the idea. After all, the owners had always contracted out the maintenance and Dan had little experience mowing lawns and landscaping. In his proposal, he would take over exterior maintenance that included upkeep of 200,000 square feet of turf and a variety of trees, shrubs and flowers.

The routine is the same every Monday morning. Mark Fagnant and Leroy Collins line up their two Walker mowers. Then they peer down a one mile stretch that cuts through the center of Colonial Colony South. To the right and left of this road are more than 570 retirement homes, comprised of single and double-wide manufactured homes.

When you visit a prospective customer, what type of sales approach do you use? If you're like most successful lawn maintenance professionals, you will talk about your experience in the industry, the quality of your work, your employees, response time and, just maybe, before the presentation ends, you might bring up price.

It is amazing to hear stories of how businesses are started and how people find their best opportunity. There is often a struggle and a series of false starts and dead ends. Such is the history of Walker Manufacturing. I watched my father, Max Walker, work hard all of his life on several different projects. Often, there was not much to show for the effort except a lot of hard work. Finally, in developing and manufacturing the Walker Mower, it seems the company has found its "best opportunity."

After mowing a residential property, Neil Deering, owner of TLC (Total Lawn Care, lnc.), Kalispell, Montana, looks back at the lawn. He drives away slowly, his smile seems to soak in the manicured property with its signature Walker cut.

Steve Bennet took his first close look at a Walker mower in 1987. But in his own words he "had some concerns." At the time the mower was relatively new to the industry and it was getting touch and most of his competitors used walkers. Nate encouraged his father to make the competitive connection back in 1994, and, two years later, the company now operates three Walkers, two 20-hp grasshandling models and a 16-hp model with a side-discharge deck.