Business Planning for Landscaping and Hardscaping Companies
When it comes to planning for your home-services business, I have a 6-Ps philosophy that I’ll convert to 5-Ps here, to skip the expletive:
Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance
It’s time to embrace this truth and start planning today! But many business leaders fall into one of these camps:
- They don’t fully buy into the value of planning. So much time! Is it worth it?
- They believe in the value of business planning, but they don’t know where to begin.
- They believe in planning and do it. But… they know they could be doing it better.
Let’s explore these 3 planning challenges—and overcome them:
1. Is planning really valuable?
We tend to be reactive to events that take place in our life and work. Why? Because life will come at you! It’s relentless that way.
The anecdote to being reactive is choosing to be proactive. Note the word “choosing.” If you don’t choose to be proactive and get in front of the needs with a plan, you will be forced to take the reactive approach.
By definition, proactivity will not find you; you must choose it.
When you don’t have a plan, needs will show up, so you will do a little of this and a little of that. That’s action, so it’s better than nothing. But it’s not action based on priorities, so except in the rare case where the loudest need is also the highest impact, you’ll rarely be making the best use of time.
Urgency (the Bad Kind)
Tackling needs as they come means urgency rules the day. (And on many of those days, you’ll find yourself needing to get more done before you can call it quits.)
Why? Because priorities aren’t in the driver’s seat. Urgency is.
Landscaping, hardscaping, and many other home-services businesses are often seasonal, so needs and workload are variable throughout the year. This means that reacting to the urgent is a common theme for many in our industry.
Planning is the anecdote.
Plans Change
Many claim that they don’t plan because things are just going to change anyway.
All the more reason to have a plan! When an unforeseen roadblock occurs on your road trip, isn’t it helpful to have a map, so you can more easily find another route to your destination?
The one positive thing about not planning is that you will never need to worry about getting lost, because you won’t have a clue where you are going in the first place!
If you are the type of person who waits until the last minute to make plans because you are not certain what the weather is going to be like, or if you will have any fires to put out in the morning, then you need to commit yourself to learning to plan—and then start.
(Plus, if your business can’t survive without you for a day or two, you have big fish to fry—and planning is a great place to begin.)
Make a plan to build your team, and build your business!
You Already Know Planning Works
Think of how much time you spend planning for one of your projects.
How often do you send your teams out to a site without the vision for the project (the design), as well as a timeframe for when the project needs to be completed (budgeted hours)?
I hope you wouldn’t think of sending your team without either! So don’t send your business out without a plan.
Sidenote: If you do send your teams out without one or both of the above, don’t panic. Just be ready to learn and grow!
2. I want to plan. Where do I begin?
A proper plan maps out how things will be handled, ahead of schedule. It will undoubtedly make things easier in all that you do.
At the beginning of my career, I muscled my way through it all many times. Looking back, it is easy to see how much more straightforward business could have been in the early days had I planned. But where to begin?
First, if you’re reading this post when it publishes, this is a great time to plan for the year ahead. As a bonus to those in a cooler climate, your seasonal business likely means you have some extra time to really dig in and envision future success.
(Also, if you’re reading this post any other time of year and don’t have a plan, then now’s a great time to plan! Because you need it!)
Think of What’s Most Important
Planning requires thinking, and it also promotes thinking. And this brain work is what you need to define where you are going—and get there.
When you plan, dial in to what is most important. Define your key goals, and then map a plan to focus your energy and efforts around meeting those goals.
Urgency (the Good Kind)
Let’s talk urgency again, but from the positive angle: when you are proactive, you are creating your own sense of urgency around priorities. So make the creation of your plan the priority!
In one peer-group meeting I facilitated, one of our members offered “urgency” as her opening word.
She wasn’t complaining about urgency driving her business and decisions; instead, she chose to create her own sense of urgency around progress. At 35, she felt an increasingly urgent need to get things dialed in, shaped up, and moving in the right direction.
This landscaping business owner realized that time waits for nobody, and she didn’t want to build an unsustainable business that couldn’t scale and eventually be passed on. So, she created her own sense of urgency around building a plan for the future.
That’s a great first step in your planning: plan to plan, and make it urgent.
3. How do I plan better?
As a business owner, manager, team leader, etc., you must know that everything gets better when you do. In other words, you can only take someone as high as you are. So commit to continuous learning—about better planning, and everything!
What are you doing to stay out in front of your team?
As you work to up your planning game, I’ll leave you with 2 areas of focus that can benefit any business leader:
Avoid Rigid Plans
Remember Blockbuster?
The fact that no one born after 2015 would even understand that question says a lot. Blockbuster was an industry giant, but they were blindsided by businesses like Netflix. Many factors come into play here, but a lack of strategy and understanding trends was a big factor.
Pay attention to your industry and your audience. And remember, a plan should not be rigid. Make a plan that’s ready for flexibility and innovation.
Ask Questions
There are answers for everything out there. But what comes before an answer? Asking the right question.
Life is like the TV game show Jeopardy. All the contestants have the answer right there in front of them. The key to winning the game? Ask the right question!
If you’d like to talk more specifically about your plan—and how Rooted Leadership can help you get there—please get in touch.
