Meet Mike Zaffaroni - Florida Small Business Person of the Year

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Mike Zaffaroni, the owner of Liberty Landscape Supply, is focused on the future of his company, which sells materials to beautify landscapes. Their customers are homeowners working on their yards, as well as landscaping industry contractors. They work each day to make landscape delivery easy for their customers. The company was successful in Fernandina Beach, and so Zaffaroni began considering opening a second location.

After operating several businesses over the course of a few years, Zaffaroni had extensive experience and insight into the challenges of managing multiple locations. He decided to hone in on one industry and focus on opening additional sites using the same business model he’d used in the past. Learning how to move Liberty Landscape Supply from a small business into a medium size company was a priority. It was about this time he heard about the programs offered by the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship in Jacksonville.  

The Small Business Executive Program, presented by the Jim Moran Institute, provides owners of established businesses new approaches to more strategically and efficiently run their businesses. It is particularly well-suited for companies ready to capitalize on business opportunities. Zaffaroni was looking for help that was consistent with what he wanted to do and would teach him how to expand the business model, with the goal of replicating it when future opportunities to open additional locations arose.

“The mission of the Jim Moran Institute aligned with the needs of my business,” Zaffaroni said. “As I learned more about the program, I knew immediately it was just the solution I needed to grow my business. The timing was perfect.”

Participants in the Small Business Executive Program meet once a month, over the course of four months. Expert speakers are brought in to work with the group on topics that are important to the participants. One of the speakers in the program really resonated with Zaffaroni. Doug Tatum, the author of “No Man’s Land,” helped Zaffaroni understand how to grow his business to the next level and create a growth plan that was the right fit for Liberty Landscape Supply. But most importantly, Tatum helped Zaffaroni understand the specific direction he should take his business.

“Targeted, specific growth that is well thought out and planned is crucial to success,” Zaffaroni said. “You focus on predictability, revenue and sustained income for your business, which was a different way of thinking for me.”

In June of 2017, Liberty Landscape Supply opened a second location in Jacksonville. By September, the new location was already profitable.

“Going through the process of getting property, financing, hiring staff; those were all topics covered in the program,” Zaffaroni said. “I feel like a lot of my success has to do with principles taught in the Small Business Executive Program.”

In 2018, Zaffaroni was named the Florida Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Small Business Administration as well as the JAX Chamber Small Business Leader of the Year. Both awards a testament to Zaffaroni’s strategic growth and success.

The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship offers the Small Business Executive Program Class in Jacksonville twice a year. For more information about the Small Business Executive Program and the Jim Moran Institute’s Jacksonville Operations, contact Stephanie Royal at sroyal@jimmoraninstitute.fsu.edu, (904) 528-9722 or visit us at www.jimmoraninstitute.fsu.edu.

About the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship
The Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship cultivates, trains and inspires entrepreneurial leaders through world-class executive education, applied training, public recognition and leading-edge research. Jim Moran was an automotive pioneer and an entrepreneur at heart, who at the age of 7, sold soda pop at sandlot baseball games in Chicago. With a career that spanned more than six decades, he built an amazing chronicle of achievements in the automobile industry. His vision for the Jim Moran Institute was to provide opportunities that would help others become more successful business owners. A 1995 contribution from Jim and Jan Moran and JM Family Enterprises established the Jim Moran Institute for Global Entrepreneurship at the Florida State University College of Business. Since 2011, further enhancements to the Jim Moran Institute and its outreach have been made possible by Jan Moran and The Jim Moran Foundation.

About the North Florida Operations
The Jim Moran Institute's North Florida Operations serves established entrepreneurs, business owners and nonprofit leaders in the North Florida community through multiple programs designed to take advantage of local resources. Providing executive education and leveraging the resources of the Jim Moran Institute, the North Florida Operations helps its clients' businesses - and the region's economy - grow and prosper. 

Based in Tallahassee and Jacksonville, the North Florida Operations services are provided to for-profit and nonprofit businesses and are geared toward CEOs, entrepreneurs, business owners and presidents of small businesses whose companies have been established for at least three years with five or more employees. Services are provided for little to no cost.