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May 2024

Posted at 06:30h in Blog, Entrepeneurship

A time in your business when you were outside of your comfort zone Think back to when you decided to start your business. You probably had feelings of anxiety, discomfort and excitement. And although you were somewhat afraid, what potentially lay ahead (freedom to pursue your passion, generate a greater income, and have autonomy) provided the strong reasons to help propel you forward. During the first 12 - 24 months you would have been learning new tasks - selling, quoting, invoicing, admin tasks, recruiting, managing employees and

Apr 2024

Posted at 17:21h in Blog, Leadership

Leadership is one of the most challenging, fulfilling and exciting roles a business owner faces. Leading your team in a fun, supportive, yet assertive way is key to your business thriving and your team wanting to grow with you. While it's essential to cultivate positive relationships with your employees, it's equally important to balance structure, clear communication, empowerment and direction, while ensuring you are not just 'too friendly'. So here are some ways to lead your team so it works for you, your employees, and your business. Clear

Mar 2024

Posted at 11:39h in Blog, Money, Sales

What is the reason for wanting to increase fees? If you look at your P&L Statement and don’t like the profit you see, delve deeper to discover why this is happening. Often in a landscape construction business, the problem can be underestimating components of a quote and/or having a dysfunctional project management process that is costing time and profit. And sometimes it can be due to costly mistakes. But don’t just increase fees to fix the problem; instead address the cause. However, with increased materials, labour

Feb 2024

Posted at 12:42h in Blog, Entrepeneurship, Leadership

We are 5 weeks into the new calendar year and it's a good time to act on some important strategic decisions for your business if you haven’t already. It might be that you are seriously thinking about hiring or removing a skilled worker, removing or adding a service, increasing charge out rates, improving a system in your business or buying an expensive piece of equipment. Whatever the important decision is, it’s always better to follow a structure to ensure you are not going to potentially cost

Oct 2023

Posted at 05:33h in Blog, Leadership

Today, many business owners are becoming more and more aware of the need to manage and develop their employees at all levels of their business. Sometimes, power struggles can exist between the Business Owner and Managers, Team Leaders and Team Members inside the business. As much as these dynamics are frustrating and unsettling for us as business owners, the more we look for the core issue and communicate openly and clearly with the intent of resolving the issue, the quicker we can enjoy our working relationship

Oct 2023

Posted at 08:51h in Blog, Entrepeneurship, Leadership, Money

We cannot control external occurrences, like the economy or the weather, but we can control our response to what happens. We have experienced an extended boom in the Landscape Industry, so what we might be experiencing now is business as usual, (in other words the boom has subsided). I know tougher economic times are a great opportunity for every business owner to focus on their business and move ahead in a positive dynamic way. Here are some concepts and strategies you can use to ensure you

Sep 2023

Posted at 11:52h in Blog

Yvon Chouinard was the founder of Patagonia, and he loved rock climbing. Being environmentally conscious, Yvon noticed the damage his climbing equipment was having on the rock faces. To try and prevent further damage, he began making his own equipment. This effort to look after the environment would become a driving force behind the business ethos. But, Yvon wasn’t saying he really cared about the environment just because it would impress people… He really meant it. And it shines through everything they do at Patagonia

Aug 2023

Posted at 09:08h in Blog

Creating and communicating a Business Vision is a very uplifting, unifying, and inspiring experience for any company, regardless of where they are on their timeline. The companies that have achieved their first 5 or 10-year vision must keep the next 5 years fresh, which in turn, unifies and inspires their business, and their team. Obviously the same applies to the companies that are still in the process of achieving what they set out to do. The businesses that feel like it’s too hard now to achieve what

Jul 2023

Posted at 09:39h in Blog, Money, Quoting + Tracking

STEP 1: Analyse Your 2023 P&L At this time of year, I analyse my clients' P&L from last year and check the critical percentages of materials costs, site wages, superannuation, and subcontractors costs. In other words, I see if their gross profit is what it should be. Similarly, we will check the maintenance and design costs, as well as the running expenses of the company. If you do this and find material costs are 10% higher than the benchmark, you may need to increase the mark-up on

Jun 2023

Posted at 12:22h in Blog

I receive many enquiries every month from landscaping, design, and horticulture business owners asking about my services. I’m often asked if I can help with issues they encounter in running their businesses, including: How to make better profits without having to work so hard. How to get a better understanding of financial info. How to create a better quoting system. How to create a better project management system. How to better manage employees and contractors. How to find and retain key employees. How to find

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