The original article by Tsh Oxenreider can be found here. 

Sure, most of us want to be intelligent, well-rounded, informed people with an interesting opinion and an ability to conduct an adult conversation. But sometimes that’s hard when your days mostly involve diaper changes, the carpool line, or conference calls.

As a student in school, it’s easy to learn new stuff—you’re bombarded with it. But as you dig into the trenches of post-school adulthood, it’s easy to move into survival mode. Your brain can turn to mush without exercise.

I want to be a lifelong learner, and I want to raise kids who feel the same. This means that to thrive as a well-informed person, I need to seek out learning resources for myself, even during parenting and running a business.

Here’s a few things that have helped me.

1. Read.

Get in the habit of always reading something. There’s no possible way to read everything available, so start your “to be read” list now. 3,000 books are published per day in the ...

The popularity of podcasts is increasing[1]. Not only are more people listening to podcasts, but they’re listening to more podcasts. The beauty of podcasts is their accessibility. They’re free, they’re available through many different apps and programs, and you can listen anywhere at any time. I enjoy listening to podcasts while I’m driving or walking the dog. Marla and I listen together when we’re on road trips. 

Most podcasts put out new content on a regular basis, usually weekly or monthly. And I usually anticipate the release of a new podcast. I love hearing interviews with successful business owners who are willing to share their struggles and victories. These are real life stories of well-known people and businesses. I find I am encouraged to persevere and always take away some new knowledge or best practice suggestion. The podcasts provide links and additional content regarding the topic being discussed in the show notes.  With so many podcasts available, I thought I’d share my...

We love books. We love reading books, We love recommending books. We love it when people recommend books to us. Here's a list of some of the books that we read and recommend over and over!  

Good to Great - Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don’t by Jim Collins

This book describes how companies transition from being good companies to great companies, and how most companies fail to make the transition. "Greatness" is defined as financial performance several multiples better than the market average over a sustained period. Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. Collins finds the main reason certain companies become great is they narrowly focus the company’s resources on their field of key competence.

The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey

Written by Stephen R. Covey's eldest son, this book guides business leaders and their organi...

This article is written by Chad Diller and the original post can be found HERE. 

Over the past two years I’ve spent a lot of time scouring YouTube and the Internet. I’ve wanted to get a really good sense of what kind of marketing tips are out there for lawn and landscape companies.

I’ve made a few general observations…

• The large majority of content addressing marketing for landscapers is geared towards entrepreneurs and businesses under $2 million in annual revenue. 
• Most of the people offering these tips are either A) well-intentioned small business owners sharing their personal advice or, B) landscaping marketing agencies that specialize in small businesses.
• And lastly, most of the popular "influencers" make money by producing videos (ads on YouTube, product endorsements, selling software, franchises, or courses for startup businesses).

None of these things are bad. However, these landscaping marketing strategies may not apply for companies with an annual revenue of over $2...

The original article can be found HERE.

It’s as true in the landscape industry as it is in any other: without sales, you don’t have a business. A key goal for any landscape company that’s serious about planning for profitability is to excel not only in the work that you do but also in your ability to generate leads and win jobs.

12 Sales Tips to Increase Your Close Rates and Your Profits

1) Don’t drop the ball by not following up

Always follow up! Responding in a timely manner shows professionalism, and that the customer has your attention. Following up is critical not only to your sales success but also to your company’s reputation. Your follow-up process should be structured and could include emails, thank you cards, phone calls, and site visits. Keeping communication honest, open, and timely is an easy way to differentiate your sales process from your competition.

Following up shows an even further level of care for your customer. Even if you feel too busy, a short phone call...

HOW TO DRIVE SALES by Kevin Kehoe

What drives successful commercial landscape sales? First, it’s a sense of the effort required by the reality of the numbers involved to achieve a goal. Specifically, benchmark figures tell us a close rate has an upper limit given the competitive nature of the commercial business. The limit of that close rate is driven by a number of positive touches with a customer. Second, it depends on a plan that accounts for these benchmarks when it comes to building a strategy that revolves around organizing and managing weekly sales activities.

In essence, a 20-percent close rate is driven by 12 touches per prospect. It’s a handy rule of thumb that helps a salesman set personal goals.

Now, pay attention to two important definitions related to the sales goal chart below:

• Close rate—dollars sold divided by dollars bid. For example, if I close $200,000 in sales and I bid $1 million, I have a 20-percent close rate. In contract sales, that’s about what you can e
...

The original article can be found here. 

I got a phone call from a SynkedUP user and friend yesterday, wanting to think out loud through the consultation fees he was charging. He had been charging $150 for a consultation for a few years now and hadn’t been getting any pushback.

Until now.

There was some new competition in town, and they weren’t charging any consultation fees. He did learn that their quotes were similar in price though, so it’s not like it was an apples-and-oranges comparison. They were chasing the same type of jobs, and charging similar rates. He had several leads tell him “well, these companies aren’t charging me fees to get an estimate, so I’m just going to get quotes from them.”

This, and the fact the volume of leads is a little less this year than last (for him in his local market) made him doubt the whole idea of charging consultation fees. I’m sure there are more of you out there facing this same reality, so I wanted to share kind of where we landed in our co...

Clockwork is a book for business owners. The purpose of the book is for owners to design their business to run itself. It is a book that has freedom and fulfillment as the ultimate goal. It echoes Peter Drucker's quote "Efficiency is doing things right. Effectiveness is doing the right things.” Michalowicz has taken this concept and created a process to put it in place. 

One of the most impactful elements of the book is identifying what Mike calls the Queen Bee Role. He writes, “Identify the core function in your business that is the biggest determinant of your company’s success. Within every company there exists a single function that is the most significant determinant of the company’s health. It is where the uniqueness of your offering meets the best talents of you and/or your staff.”

The process of thinking this through is valuable in itself. But it is not easy. We all think that every aspect of our business is crucial. Michalowicz says, “The biggest cause of business inefficienc...

“Hey, Google, turn on Christmas tree lights”. If I ever needed proof that technology has changed our lives, that was it. We were visiting friends over Christmas and that was how they turned on the lights to their tree. I felt so old and inefficient when I later turned on my own tree lights – by actually reaching for the cord and plugging it into the wall outlet. Technology has definitely changed the way we live our lives.

In the landscape industry, people have adopted a certain amount of technology. Most companies have websites and email. Some have digital time sheets. Most use a weather app. We’re becoming more and more accustomed to using technology in our businesses. Technology has provided a vast array of tools to help business owners and their staff operate faster, easier and more efficiently.

The benefits of using technology are numerous. You can probably think of many examples from your own life. But for business owners, the benefits are significant and measurable.

Increase e...

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” George Santayana 

“Do you have a minute to talk?”. Over the years I’ve been asked this question by employees. It’s a question that immediately knots my stomach, as my experience tell me that the employee is about to resign. 

When an employee resigns, my mind very quickly begins making a checklist. What are the steps we need to take to fill the role being vacated? Do we need to adjust the job description? Do we fill the job internally or post it externally? By immediately jumping to replacement, I’ve missed an important and valuable step - the exit interview. 

An exit interview is an interview held with an employee about to leave an organization, typically in order to discuss the employee's reasons for leaving and their experience of working for the organization. The exit interview can take various forms; it can be a written survey, can be completed verbally with a manager, or contain elements of both. The exit interview ...