Book: How to Price Landscape & Irrigation Projects Author: James R. Huston, MBA, CPE Publisher: J.R. Huston Enterprises, Inc., Englewood, Co. Contact Information: 800 451-5588; www.jrhuston.biz Format: hardcover, 600 pages, includes six audio CDs, Microsoft CD How to Price Landscape & Irrigation Projects is a thorough textbook on estimating for the green industry. The book will benefit contractors in their bidding and business. It also serves as an excellent educational tool for instructors and learning text for students. The book is a practical, step-by-step, hands-on guide that provides a comparative analysis of the six most common methods of estimating. It not only shows how to price projects accurately and confidently, but also explains Six Sigma* and the total quality management (TQM) approach to run jobs (and a company) right from the bid sheet. This book is a greatly expanded update of Mr. Huston?EUR??,,????'???s original book, Estimating for Landscape & Irrigation Contractors, published in 1994. The book is divided into six sections and 56 chapters. The sections are: contracting management; establishing annual budgets; estimating projects; special bidding situations; understanding market predisposition; and keeping on track. The book concludes with five appendices of information, including practical exercises; labor production rates; equipment cost per hour rates; industry benchmarks, and other resources. In the preface to his book, Mr. Huston notes: ?EUR??,,????'??Most contractors don?EUR??,,????'???t realize how important and beneficial the proper formatting and use of numbers can be to their company. I like what one large and very successful contractor advocates: He runs his entire company right from the bid sheet.?EUR??,,????'?? All of the diagrams, exhibits and practical exercises used in the text were done in MS Excel, which is available to the reader on an accompanying CD. There is also a six-part audio CD set that covers the book in six one-hour sessions. Jim Huston has been a management consultant, speaker and seminar instructor for the green industry since 1987. He has an MBA in finance, is a member of the American Society of Professional Estimators, and is a certified professional landscape estimator. *Six Sigma is a concept developed in 1986 by Bill Smith, a senior engineer and scientist with Motorola, to deal with an increasing number of complaints from the field sales force about warranty claims. It was a new method to standardize how defects were counted, and a methodology to measure, analyze, improve and control. Many companies are now employing the concept to identify defects in their products or services, and to achieve as close to zero defects as possible. Sigma is the term statisticians use to indicate standard deviation, and ?EUR??,,????'??Six Sigma?EUR??,,????'?? means attaining near perfection.