Greentree Landscapes, my second test subject, has been in business since 1992. They specialize in upscale, residential landscape design and construction.

Owner, Tarance, is a landscape architectural technologist (designer), and has kept the company staffing tight so that he can maintain control of their very high construction standards.

Greentree used to do the Home and Garden Show every Spring, but for the past five or six years have been getting as much work as they can deal with, primarily from referrals and word of mouth. They also have a very effective flyer (written by me!) which they hand deliver to highly targeted residences and which gets them a steady supply of very well qualified leads.

Greentree has an old, and not very user-friendly website, www.greentreelandscapes.com which is really going to have to be completely redesigned before we can get close to 'no-budget'.

I also think it would be madness to abandon the leaflets (although that cost is fairly low as they don't blanket-deliver, they may only hand out a couple of hundred a year to get the leads they need).

Greentree's main challenge right now is keeping the momentum going at a time when landscaping has become a luxury that most people are cutting back on. Budgets are smaller, and many potential clients are shopping around for the cheapest contractor, who is not always the most qualified or professional.

We are having to work harder than usual to generate the kind of leads who are willing to pay for Greentree's creativity, experience and technical expertise.

Online marketing will be very much used to support Tarance's personal approach to sales and customer service.