That's the mentality of Jeff Cleveland, owner of PH Lawncare and Landscaping in Lyndonville, Vt. He's a successful businessman and respected landscaper who happens to be paralyzed from the waist down. Once the truck pulls up to the job site, Cleveland is only in his wheelchair long enough to get to the back of the trailer, where he transfers to his Exmark zero-turn mower and tears off toward the customer's lawn.

Speed is essential, because in the 10 years Cleveland has been in the lawncare business, he's built up a reputation for quality - and a long client list. "I started the business when I was in college. I was going to school for human services, but there was no money in human services, so I stuck with this!" Cleveland jokes. "Back then, I had 12 lawns and a cheap lawn tractor."

Sensing he might want to continue in the business, Cleveland made a commitment to quality and professionalism. "Every day I see guys in an old beat-up truck with a couple push mowers driving around, and if that works for them, fine. But my feeling is, this is my job and I'm in it for the long haul. I think you need to make the investment."

The second year, I bought a couple Exmarks. "I really saw the benefit of quality equipment. Productivity is important," he says. Though he's used other brands throughout the intervening years, he's back on Exmark these days.

Cleveland buys a new batch of mowers every three years. "They get about 1,800 or 1,900 hours on them, and that's a lot for a little gas engine," he says. "I go through FB Spaulding in Lancaster, N.H. They're very professional and customer-oriented. they enjoy your company and take an interest in what you need. That attitude makes a big difference, and that's what I try to do with my customers. IF they come out to speak with you, you give them five minutes. IF they're unhappy with something, like some grass got in their mulch bed, say you're sorry and make sure you clean it up. There's some really picky customers you can never make happy, but you have to try."

Today, now a decade old, PH Lawncare and Landscaping has 78 lawns to cut every week and two full-time and two part-time employees. "About 30 percent of those are commercial and the rest are residential." The money is much better for commerical jobs, Cleveland says. "That's definitely where the money is, and those customers tend to really be consistent from year to year. Every year, you loose a few residential accounts as people move or whatever. I advertise in the beginning of the season - for maybe three weeks or so." That's all it takes to fill up PH's lawnmowing schedule.

About eight years ago, Cleveland began offering landscape construction and maintenance services. "We do a lot of stonework - walls, patios. Also quite a bit of planting and mulch work - general spring cleanup work and so on." Landscape jobs are generally one-time projects that are bid on throughout the year. He bought a skid steer with a number of attachments to handle the bigger jobs. "I'm in the process of buying a small excavator," he adds.

Cleveland says only a little modification is generally required to allow the equipment to be controlled entirely with his upper-body. "The zero-turn mowers, are run almost entirely by hand anyhow," he says. "I've just added a lever to grab ahold of to help me get on it. The only thing I can't run on those is the foot-controlled feature they have to be able to raise the deck quickly if you come across a rock. On the skid steer, I had to do a few modifications. The bucket controls were foot-controlled, so I added hydraulic switches so that everything could be run by hand. It wasn't a big deal."

The bigger challenges come with other traditionally troublesome parts of the business - employment, insurance, expenses, etc. Cleveland uses Westaff, a hiring agency, to help recruit employees, and also to hand the employment paperwork. "I pay Westaff and they pay the guys. They take out the workmen's comp, taxes, and so on. So, I don't have to do that paperwork," he says. Finding guys who are reliable and who don't need to be trained can be tough, he adds. "Very few people have any time on the mowers. It's hard to find the time to train someone to use the equipment - and to get a nice line on the lawn."

PH will travel longer distances for selected landscaping jobs, but Cleveland says he tried to stay within about a 30-mile radius for mowing jobs. "Trucking adds up with the cost of gas where it is," he says. "That cost is killing us. Today we filled up the truck and three mowers and it cost $148."

He added $2 per cut to each customer's bill this year to try to absorb some of the added fuel costs. "Every year I reevaluate how things are going," Cleveland explains. "You have to do that. I look at the expenses and see if there's anywhere we can cut, and try to determine how profitable certain jobs are."