What if your company’s IT guy found out many people in your office are using unauthorized cloud-based apps?

This happens to be National Customer Service Week and here’s a local that happened this week to get you thinking.

On Monday, a shipping company which promotes itself as the “premier provider of shipping and information services worldwide” dropped off a package at a building in a multi-acre office park near Golden.

The Colorado Emerald Ash Borer response team is offering an Emerald Ash Borer Detection & Ash Tree Assessment Workshop to help green industry pros learn how to assess ash trees and look for infestation.

The training will be offered 6 six times during November and December 2014 at the Boulder Forestry Yard, Boulder.

The percentage of positive drug tests among American workers has increased for the first time in more than a decade and in Colorado and Washington, increases have hit double digits.

This rise is drug use is driven by marijuana and methamphetamine use according to a study released September 2014 by Quest Diagnostics, the world’s leading provider of diagnostic information services.

Football teams and landscape companies require leadership, dedication, commitment and a strong work ethic in order to succeed.

Just like football coaches, landscape leaders must take on many roles to ensure everyone on the team works together to achieve important goals and make operations run smoothly. There are many ways we all play a similar game – besides the fact that both games are mostly played outdoors.

What’s the outlook for Colorado’s landscape industry in terms of greatest threats and best opportunities for the next 5 to 10 years? What defines success – growth, profitability, consistency? How fair are wages in the green industry? What’s the role of sustainability? How will technology shape how we do business?

How do your answers to these questions fit in with what others are saying?

When a landscape company’s truck with trailer is pulled over by a state trooper, one of the top two most common violations is lack of US DOT markings on the truck.

Troopers with the Colorado State Patrol readily admit that landscape industry vehicles are some of the least compliant with Department of Transportation (DOT) regulations.

What is our industry doing to take advantage of growing environmental awareness?

Not much. The green industry is way behind other industries when it comes to promoting and marketing green. That’s partly because no one is asking us for the service. It is also because when we do provide a naturally green product or service, we fail to promote it or to think about related opportunities.

The Small Business Administration is promoting a new retirement savings account which will allow owners of small businesses to provide a simple, safe and affordable way to help employees start saving.

The program – “myRA” (“My Retirement Account”) - will be initially available only through employers and the investment held in the account will be backed by the U.S. Treasury.

It's not a random roll of the dice. According to the numbers from ALCC’s recent poll, chances are about 50/50 that your payroll or tax records will be audited by the federal government, state government or a local jurisdiction.

Fifty-four percent (54%) of all respondents said they had not been audited by any agency during the last 4 years – and a number of companies have never been audited. Still, 30% of respondents said that they have been audited by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) – and the overwhelming majority of them were audited during 2014. Many are still waiting to learn the outcome.