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The Landscaper's Guide To Modern Sales and Marketing Newsletter
SEPTEMBER 2021
How to Take a 3-Week Vacation FromYour Business
I recently took 22 days off of work. A full three weeks! Nineteen of those days were spent on a road trip with my wife and kids — all the way from Colorado to the hills of North Carolina to celebrate my parents’ 50th wedding anniversary. A break this long from work is something I’ve never done in the 12 years of running my digital marketing agency, Ramblin Jackson. I never really thought it would be possible. In reflecting on taking this time off, I realized there’s a formula to making it possible for me, the business owner, to take this much time off: 1) Create a process. 2) Hire great people. 3) See what happens when the great people manage the great process without you. The first step of creating and implementing solid processes is a critical piece in distancing the owner from the everyday operations of the business. The second step is equally important. Take your time recruiting and hiring an amazing team of people that will work hard. Recruiting and hiring the right people is a skill you can learn.
The worst thing that happened when I took this vacation was that I had a big oversight in onboarding a new Rambler. My vacation schedule interfered with another employee who was partly responsible for training the new person, so we had a couple of key weeks when our new employee did not get the attention he should have received.
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The second worst thing that happened: I let a big chunk of my lawn die at a new property I recently purchased, which will be the home of Ramblin Jackson’s new video studio. This is extra embarrassing given that I work with so many landscape professionals! Also, there was a veritable JUNGLE of 4-foot-tall weeds in my yard when I got back. This is my first summer with this property, and it is a bit different from my xeriscaped home! Three weeks without yard maintenance made me appreciate what my clients do even more than before, and then we realized we needed support from a professional after all. The best thing that happened — aside from all the family time and the incredible barbecue and Nashville hot chicken I had — was that the company was stronger when I came back. Ramblers were trusted with an opportunity to step it up a notch in their role, and they thrived in doing so. What would happen if you took three weeks off from your business? Who would emerge as a leader in your company? If you “can’t” take three weeks off, ask yourself if that is really true. If you truly can’t, what would you need to change to be able to do it?
Mix those two ingredients together … and watch the magic happen!
I’ll admit, it took time to get to this place. Now, we’re 12 years in. We have 15 employees. In the summer of 2017, we only had four employees. Our processes were not standardized at that time like they are now, so the business felt chaotic. I can’t imagine having done this at that time. Now that we are at the point of having strong processes and a stellar team, I was able to take this vacation. And when I got back, I quickly identified gaps and weaknesses in the business and will make changes from there. You may find steps in your processes that need to be fixed, and you may also find that giving your team space can give them an opportunity to shine.
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Read It in Your Truck on a Rainy Day
3 Ways Building Websites Is Like Managing a Landscape Design Project
Just like a landscape design project, launching a new website is not a quick feat by any means. It is a process that takes months of planning, preparation, and hard work! Over the last 13 years, I’ve worked on creating new websites for countless companies. Here are three ways that building a website is just like managing the process of a landscape design project. 1) The results will take time. A landscape can take years to fully mature, right? The same is true with Search Engine Optimization. You likely won’t see your website ranking immediately after launching. Rankings will slowly increase over time, but it can take months for your website to reach its highest potential. It is always best to plan for a website to launch at minimum three months before you need to be getting more leads, which for landscapers is typically in January or February. By planning ahead, your website is likely to get you leads when you need them! 2) Photography is critical. Great photos really set you apart from other landscapers, and similarly, amazing photos can amplify the quality of a website. It’s never too early to start capturing photos of your work. In fact, it is best to get new photos of completed projects taken at least once
a year. When we build websites, we have to put the best photos forward because those photos will sell the client’s work.
3) Consider the time involvement. Just like starting a landscape design project, creating a website is a huge undertaking. Not only for the company you hire to build it but also for you! Similar to how a landscape designer would work closely with the client on their design project, we work closely with our landscaping clients to ensure we are providing them with a product they are happy with. We want to ensure it speaks to the client and their customers. When signing on to create a website, make sure it is a time of year that you are able to devote 1–3 hours to the site each week.
If you’re considering getting ready for a new website, consider these aspects of the process. Be ready to make a time commitment, be patient, and have FUN! Your website is a creative and strategic extension of your business.
– Rebecca Chambers
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Read It in Your Tru
THE 5 KEYS TO JOB COSTING
The key to job costing is … doing it! Without using a system where you can track your purchases and time, you’re shooting in the dark. Guesstimating! This type of guessing can lead to big losses on your jobs.
So, what should you do about this? Well, it may be time to invest in a job costing software.
I recently interviewed Kevin Kehoe, the CEO of The Aspire Software Company (which was recently acquired by Service Titan) about the five core transactions of job costing:
1. Making a contract 2. Creating a work ticket 3. Tracking payroll 4. Purchasing 5. Invoicing
Once you’re able to keep track of these aspects of a job, you can dial in your process to make sure that the projects you take on are profitable for your company.
ABUNDANT APPLES COOKOUT CRUNCHY
FALL GOLDEN GRANDPARENTS HARVEST
LABOR MAPLE SPORTS WINDY
Check out the full interview transcript at RamblinJackson.com/podcast.
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uck on a Rainy Day
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
1 Take a 3-Week Vacation From Your Business 2 Building Websites Is Like Managing a Landscape Design Project 3 The 5 Keys To Job Costing 3 Upcoming Events 4 Does the 4-Day Workweek Work for Landscapers? INSIDE
Does the 4-Day Workweek Work for Landscapers?
Have you ever thought about running a four-day workweek at your landscaping company, but you weren’t sure if it would work or how it would impact overtime or recruiting or retention? I recently interviewed one of my clients, Kelly Slater, the vice president at Pleasant Landscapes in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, who has been operating the company on a four-day workweek for the past three years. This schedule has helped the Pleasant Landscapes team attract new employees who are interested in having three-day weekends and who are looking for an alternative work schedule. Kelly also let me know that the transition to a four-day workweek was not as drastic as you might expect it to be: “You’re only really extending the work day by two hours … And if you talk to your people and you really look at it, they’re probably working more than eight hours anyway.”
an eight-hour shift, they most likely won’t want to work additional hours after a 10-hour shift. Then, if needed, crews can work overtime on the fifth day of the week. This is a great option, especially if weather conditions tend to mess with your schedule. Overall, a four-day workweek can be a big selling point for new employees and can really help boost your recruiting efforts. At Pleasant Landscapes, employee retention has improved since they began their four-day workweek. Kelly says her crews come in Monday mornings feeling rested and ready to take on the week. A podcast listener emailed me saying that they tried it; it worked for a while, but they couldn’t handle the seasonality. You can design your work schedule to ebb and flow with seasonality. At Ramblin Jackson, for instance, we do four-day workweeks during May, June, and July and then are back to five-day workweeks for the rest of the year during our busier seasons.
So, what do you think? Would you ever try this at your landscaping company?
In fact, Kelly told me that this can be a good way to control overtime. While employees may be willing to work extra hours after
4 • (303) 544-2125
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