I got into the landscaping business over 25 years ago; I did so because I had a passion for plants and taking care of them. Through the years, I have learned a lot from tending to my gardens. Here are the three best lessons my passion has taught me:
You must be patient; success is a marathon, not a sprint. Many times we plant things that don’t look great on day one. In fact, in the months following their initial installation, you may have felt inclined to remove the plants because they don’t look good.
How many times are things not going well for you and you want to quit, start over, try something else, or feel sorry for yourself? Smart entrepreneurs stick with their plan. They don’t take another path, just because the first one isn’t working out; they keep on trying. We remove obstacles; we ask for help in the form of friends, family, consultants, and other experts. We read books; we think about what solutions are out there and we continue to keep one eye on the vision we have for the future.
Stick with your plan, stick with your people, support them, help them and encourage them. Learn about all the tricks and tips other landscapers use to make their businesses better by reading this magazine, attending conferences and reading books. A friend of mine told me once, “If someone else has done what you are trying to do, you can do that too!”
Not all plants do well in every condition. Some plants like wet feet; some don’t. Some like the sun; some like the shade. Plants that grow in Florida, for the most part, won’t grow in Minnesota. You can’t grow Christmas trees in southern California. And some plants need to be pruned, sprayed and cared for meticulously and others can be just left alone. People have some of the same attributes.
Companies often take their best sales people and make them the sales manager and wonder why that doesn’t work. It’s because the skills required to manage and motivate people are different than the skills needed to sell. Yes, some can do both, but it doesn’t always work. We need to take hiring very seriously and be very careful about who we hire and make sure they are a fit. You have to hire people who have a passion for the work at hand. Yes, once in a while, you can get lucky, but over time you will be far better served by creating a description of the traits you are looking for and finding people with those traits.
Some years my garden does well, in other years it doesn’t. This is the best lesson my garden has taught me. I’m sure you’ve experienced this yourself. Some years your plants just seem to thrive and other years they don’t. This year my garden looks fantastic. When cars stop in front of your house, you know you’ve done a good job! (I love it when that happens, especially if they write down the phone number on the jobsite sign in my front yard.)
In your garden, you take care of it. You water, you weed, you fertilize, you prune and you tend to it so it produces for you. Your business is the same. Just because your garden isn’t blooming as well as it did last year doesn’t mean you walk away from it. We succeed with our gardens by paying attention to the ever-changing environment.
Our businesses work the same way. They will produce for us most years, but only if we tend to them and pay attention to what they are telling you.
Growing a garden can be one of the most rewarding things you will ever do; running a business is as well. Let’s not forget that and keep tending to it!