Earning Respect & Profit Along the Way

Shayne Newman leads by example with a focus on processes, follow-through and community and industry involvement.

By Billy R. Sims

Shayne Newman walks purposefully along the cavernous hallways of the Cannon House congressional office building in Washington, D.C., on July 26. He has an appointment to make.

Along the way, he passes an open room in which New York Congressman Charles Rangel is holding a press conference, and small groups of congressional staffers and visitors huddle in hushed conversation about the topic of the day — the stalled debt ceiling debate. Newman strides pass them all.

His meeting is with the staff assistant of Connecticut Congressman Chris Murphy. Although a bit hesitant and nervous in his presentation at first, Newman soon becomes emphatic in the message he’s come to deliver on behalf of the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) trade association and peers across the country.

“Our industry must have relief from new H2B-work visa regulations soon to be enacted by the Department of Labor,” he says. “I’ll be forced to raise the wages of all of my employees by 50 percent, and frankly, that means I’ll have to reduce the number of people I employ. The new regulations will significantly compromise a building expansion we have had in the works for nearly two years.”

Newman continues, “The regulations will cost my company approximately $300,000 in increased wages for my returning H2B visa workers, increased wages for all new-hires to match the earnings of the H2B workers and increased wages for existing employees. Wages have to be increased across the board. It’s simply undoable.

“The bottom line: A six-figure increase in salaries will cost me my business. I will default on my mortgage for the new building. I don’t see how these regulations can be good for small businesses or the economy.”

An hour later, a few blocks away, he gives the same talk to Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal’s staff member.

Later that evening at a crowded PLANET reception at an Arlington hotel, he makes a confession. “I’m a guy who mows lawns,” he says, “I never thought I would be lobbying Congress and interacting with other industry professionals at this level.”

He makes this comment in reference to his role not only in PLANET, as chairman of its public relations committee, but also as a board member of the Connecticut Nursery and Landscape Association.

In fact, Newman is a nose-down kind of guy whose emphasis on strategy and communication made his company, YardApes, in New Milford, Connecticut, one of the top 2011 TLC Landscaper of the Year Finalists.

Newman founded YardApes (which derives its name from the term used by his friend and co-worker to describe his niece and nephews) in 1990. Today, the company has 20 employees, consisting of Newman, operations manager Greg Malmberg, Elaine Lord, head of business development, and nine crews maintaining some 250 residential and commercial properties within a 20-mile radius. Many of the residences are second-home getaways for nearby New Yorkers.