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Lori Crouse Klauber - YDR

John D.M. Shelley II stands in front of his business, John Shelley's Garden Center & Nursery, in North Hopewell Township.

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Age: 53

College: Drake University, bachelor of arts in marketing and advertising, 1971

Title: Proprietor

Company: John Shelley’s Garden Center & Nursery Inc.

What do you do? We specialize in high-end landscape installations, including patios and walks; acquire collections of rare, unusual and hard-to-find plant material for retail sale; and provide an unheard-of five-year warranty on our work. I manage customer contacts, do estimates, materials ordering, billing, occasional design, propagate plants, retail sales, and as the ‘utility infielder,’ fill in on many other tasks.

What do you think are the keys to success? Customer satisfaction, hard work, superior products and the ability to solve customers’ landscape and gardening problems. If you can’t solve problems with creative ideas, superior products and service, customer satisfaction becomes a moot point. You can’t be all things to all people, but you do what you can with the abilities and limitations you have to work with.

Name some of your key successes: Making this business wildly successful, against the odds of drought and a tanking economy in ’91 and the ‘five-year hump’ for new ventures; finding and surrounding myself with great employees; and keeping many of my customers for more than 12 years, as well as attracting new ones from all over the region.

Who were your mentors? First, my parents; second, various people in the advertising industry; and finally, several people in the Boy Scouts of America back in the ’60s. I’m a proud holder of an Eagle Scout card, class of ’63.

Can you name a turning point in your career? After working in the advertising industry in New York City for 17 years, I tired of working for others and quit. I started a new career in horticulture, and returned to a new life in York County, my birthplace.

Who are your family members? Both my mom — Opal Regina Shelley, vice president — and dad — John D.M. Shelley, secretary/treasurer — are my partners in this business. My sister, Becky, lives and works in San Francisco. She visits for two weeks in the spring and in the fall to help get the place into shape.

What management books would you recommend? And why those? “Positioning,” “Marketing Warfare,” “The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing,” “Horse Sense,” “Bottom-Up Marketing,” “The New Positioning,” “Focus” by Jack Trout, Al Ries and Steve Rivkin. I worked with them in New York City’s advertising jungle for four of the 17 years.

Moment With a Manager runs weekly, focusing on a company owner or top manager. If you have suggestions for an article, call Joli Harrington, a Daily Record correspondent, at 846-4588.