Cory Lightner
Wilmington
Summary
Dynamic Landscaping Manager with a proven track record at Sweet Williams Landscaping, excelling in safety compliance and team leadership. Expert in landscape design and inventory management, I foster strong client relationships and drive project success. My commitment to quality assurance and effective communication has consistently enhanced customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
Overview
15
15
years of professional experience
2
2
Certifications
Work History
Landscaping Manager
Sweet Williams Landscaping
Wilmington
04.2025 - 01.2026
- Managed daily operations of landscaping projects and team activities.
- Ensured compliance with safety regulations and environmental standards in landscaping practices.
- Communicated with clients to understand needs and provide project updates.
- Maintained inventory of landscaping supplies and equipment for efficient operations.
- Inspected properties regularly to identify any potential hazards or safety concerns that need attention.
- Responded promptly to customer inquiries regarding services provided by the company.
- Coordinated with vendors to purchase necessary materials needed for each project.
General Manager
Boston Market
Allentown
06.2019 - 09.2020
- Proudest moment, one of the two stores in our nation to produce extremely positive sales during second quarter when COVID impacted our nation.
- Scheduling is typically used for 33-37 hours a week, accounting for the company's hour slashes. Came out to still saving hours or at quota. Saving hours helped the rest of the area make quota for less busy stores that couldn't take any less employees on shift.
- Role Model-Clean, presentable uniform daily, upbeat and go-getting attitude always presented, clean language, accountability, cleanliness, and teamwork oriented: teamwork makes the dream work.
- Money Responsibility-counting and maintaining proper cash procedures with cashiers and management.
- Creating and reconciling change orders from company bank. Worked with Brinks system and DTS.
- Employee Development- position is accessed to applicants abilities and strengths. Training was conducted with manager till employee was consistent. Once mastered, testing was conducted to then transition into cross training. Safety was always top priority at all times. Team work became religious whether green or inveterate, no one on the team is every left behind. This in turn taught/created respect, bonding, and trust between employees which improved over sales. Higher satisfaction rates and good OSAT percentage.
- Switching and training on Promotions and how to teach and sell to customer.
- Building a relationship with guests for constant returns.
- Health Inspections- consistently passed, 97% was always achieved and failing sections were correct immediately and maintained. Results were always shared and practiced during shift and keep improving as a whole. This gave staff more confidence what they worked for and served to guests. All numbers must be as close to the actual as possible if not over. This would effect the P&L greatly by end of week whether for bad (more waste/spoilage) or good (correct portions/cooking to specs).
- Fire Marshall AuditsCompany Audits- every quarter the restaurant was scored on overall preservation and performance. 70% was the passing marker and helped as a tool to show areas for improvement and success. This helped management to focus on certain employees and areas to continue improvement and speed. General maintenance was also then noted for updates and installations.
- Restaurant was always in excellent condition inside and out.
- Cleanliness- every machine or appliance was immediately cleaned and sanitized after use. Closing was always completed by standards with one extra being completed for each station to maintain higher expectations and status. Sanitation strips were recorded in the manager book to maintain record of fresh sanitizer.
- Inventory- Conducted when business was slowest or over. Counts were done swiftly and accurately while reorganizing, quality and date checking/rotating, and cleaning walk-in to maintain health code and pretexting possible problems that could arise. Data is then entered and analyzed in Net Chef to confirm proper usage and amounts.
- Achieved 54% profit monthly.
- OSAT- SMG 360 was used to reflect customer opinions, suggestions, and complaints. This would help identify problems or strengths to the company on how well the store is executing. This provides more development and/or pin point problems to fix and resolve to maintain happier guests overall. Two a day was standard but had to be above a 77% by end of day regardless. 77% must have been achieved by end of every period.
- Attended in person company meetings.
- Area Conference calls every morning, somedays there were 2-3 depending.
- Microsoft word and excel: personally used these programs to create/keep track of micro management more easily. Sometimes the company had flash sales and no POP for it so id create one to promote and get visual appeal. MS Excel was very useful in product control for certain employees and identify where product is going and when. This helped for better profit and staff awareness.
Deli Clerk
Costco Wholesale
Flemington
10.2017 - 04.2018
- Create and package ready to eat or easy to heat meals.
- Sanitation
- Closing
FOH/BOH Manager
Boston Market Restaurant
Flemington
10.2016 - 09.2017
- Role Model-Clean, presentable uniform daily, upbeat and go-getting attitude always presented, clean language, accountability, cleanliness, and teamwork oriented: teamwork makes the dream work.
- Money Responsibility-counting and maintaining proper cash procedures with cashiers and management.
- Creating and reconciling change orders from company bank. Worked with Brinks system and DTS.
- Employee Development- position is accessed to applicants abilities and strengths. Training was conducted with manager till employee was consistent. Once mastered, testing was conducted to then transition into cross training. Safety was always top priority at all times. Team work became religious whether green or inveterate, no one on the team is every left behind. This in turn taught/created respect, bonding, and trust between employees which improved over sales. Higher satisfaction rates and good OSAT percentage.
- Inventory- Conducted when business was slowest or over. Counts were done swiftly and accurately while reorganizing, quality and date checking/rotating, and cleaning walk-in to maintain health code and pretexting possible problems that could arise. Data is then entered and analyzed in Net Chef to confirm proper usage and amounts.
- Health Inspections- consistently passed, 97% was always achieved and failing sections were correct immediately and maintained. Results were always shared and practiced during shift and keep improving as a whole. This gave staff more confidence what they worked for and served to guests. All numbers must be as close to the actual as possible if not over. This would effect the P&L greatly by end of week whether for bad (more waste/spoilage) or good (correct portions/cooking to specs).
- Company Audits- every quarter the restaurant was scored on overall preservation and performance. 70% was the passing marker and helped as a tool to show areas for improvement and success. This helped management to focus on certain employees and areas to continue improvement and speed. General maintenance was also then noted for updates and installations.
- Cleanliness- every machine or appliance was immediately cleaned and sanitized after use. Closing was always completed by standards with one extra being completed for each station to maintain higher expectations and status. Sanitation strips were recorded in the manager book to maintain record of fresh sanitizer.
- OSAT- SMG 360 was used to reflect customer opinions, suggestions, and complaints. This would help Identify problems or strengths to the company on how well the store is executing. This provides more development and/or pin point problems to fix and resolve to maintain happier guests overall. Two a day was standard but had to be above a 77% by end of day regardless. 77% must have been achieved by end of every period.
- Microsoft word and excel: personally used these programs to create/keep track of micro management more easily. Sometimes the company had flash sales and no POP for it so id create one to promote and get visual appeal. MS Excel was very useful in product control for certain employees and identify where product is going and when. This helped for better profit and staff awareness.
Worker
Steve and Son Tree
Stockton
04.2011 - 04.2014
- Cleaned up the brush, chopped trees down, made the property look beautiful in the end.
Education
Some College - Buisness
Raritan Valley Community College
Raritan, NJ09.2017
Some College - Business
Middlesex County College
Edison, NJ03.2016
Some College (No Degree) - HVAC-R
Cape Fear Community College
Wilmington, North Carolina, NCSkills
- Safety compliance
- Landscape design
- Inventory management
- Equipment maintenance
- Customer relationship management
- Staff training
- Team leadership
- Effective communication
- Property inspection
- Problem solving
- Time management
- Quality assurance
- Design skills
- Problem-solving abilities
- Adaptability and flexibility
- Team building
- Landscape maintenance
Certification
valid driver's license
Additional Information
Looking to work for a successful company that takes care of their employees and that I can strive to make even better and become a huge part of it. I take pride in all the work I do.
Awards
- Student of the Month, 04/01/14, Designed a parking lot for Delaware Valley Regional High School for more parking and less crowdedness.
- Daniel R. Hutchins Memorial Scholarship Award, 04/01/15, For stepping up and becoming a team leader and taking the wrestling team into groups.
Personal Information
Authorized To Work: US for any employer
Timeline
Landscaping Manager
Sweet Williams Landscaping
04.2025 - 01.2026
General Manager
Boston Market
06.2019 - 09.2020
Deli Clerk
Costco Wholesale
10.2017 - 04.2018
FOH/BOH Manager
Boston Market Restaurant
10.2016 - 09.2017
Worker
Steve and Son Tree
04.2011 - 04.2014
Some College - Buisness
Raritan Valley Community College
Some College - Business
Middlesex County College
Some College (No Degree) - HVAC-R
Cape Fear Community College