I love the change of seasons. I have family living in west Africa and one of the hardest adjustments for them is that there’s no change of seasons (unless you count the change from “hot” season to “hotter” season).

But here at home in Canada, we get to experience the changing of the seasons. And fall is my favourite. It’s my favourite for all sorts of reasons – for cooler weather, for a return to routine after the summer, for campfires on cool nights, for Thanksgiving, and even for pumpkin spice lattes!

I also love the change of seasons when it comes to our business. The fall brings with it a change in the type of work we’re doing, the start of planning for the snow season, the excitement of new equipment, and the return of everyone back at work after summer holidays.

But the fall brings with it some unique financial stressors for business owners. These include material and equipment expenses, contracts that don’t pay out until January, equipment and vehicle repairs and maintenance ...

In our last blog, we talked about improving your snow business (or any contracting business, for that matter), and focused on 3 areas: leadership, customers and staff. Today, we'll cover the final three areas: finances, operations and safety. 

4. FINANCES

• Create and review your budget: Your budget keeps you on track and lets you know how you’re doing. Create a budget and then review it monthly against actuals to measure how well you’re doing and address any issues before they become problems.
• Check your margins: Is each job profitable? Are you charging enough to cover your costs and make a profit? Job costing will provide great insight into where you may need to make changes.
• Everyone gets a number: How do you measure a win? Give everyone a clear and measurable goal that helps you determine how well the business and the employee are doing.  

FINANCE KPI’s/REPORTS

• Profit - gross/net by division
• Cash flow
• Expenses (labour, materials, equipment, overhead)
• Sales
• Accounts Re
...

I had the opportunity earlier this month to speak at the Landscape Alberta Green Industry Show & Conference (GISC). One of the seminars I led was Grow Your Snow Business. As we’re just starting the winter season, I thought that some of the information I shared at that seminar might be helpful and get you off to the most efficient start. Although I was speaking specifically about snow businesses, all this information is easily transferable to any contracting business.

We talked about six areas of business: Leadership, Customers, Staff, Finances, Operations, and Safety. Below I’ve listed some key points for the first three areas. each area, as well as some KPI’s to help you have success in that area.

1. LEADERSHIP

• Invest in professional development opportunities: Always be learning. Attend conferences, get involved in your local landscape organization, listen to podcasts, read books, network with others, join a peer group.
• Implement regularly scheduled meetings: A regular meeting r
...

The original article can be found here.

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Covid restrictions are lifting in some parts of the world and the economy is booming in some sectors. Some labor and material costs are rising due to shortages, as is customer demand. Many brands have high pricing power at the moment, making price hiles almost inevitable. Brand managers may be clued in on the size of their price increase, but it's no easy matter to communicate this unwelcome news to customers. 

Many companies, and even entire industries, routinely raise prices without ever telling customers. In the consumer packaged goods space, for instance, it is common practice to reduce quantity (the grammage of a package, item count, etc.) and maintain the price. This increases the per-unit amount paid by shoppers but keeps the more visible package price unchanged. Alternatively, brands may cut down on trade promotions, couponing, and other forms of discounting, raising prices indirectly. For instance, when faced...

Want to eliminate a lot of stress? Invoice and review A/R & A/P reports on a weekly basis with your team. Too often I speak with owners who have completed a lot of work but haven’t invoiced or collected on those projects and find themselves in a cash flow crunch.

If you review the following items weekly you will always have a clear understanding of where you sit financially. Waiting too long to invoice, or to follow-up on outstanding invoices can often result in the final payment never being collected, since many owners feel awkward trying to collect on a job that’s been completed for a long time. 

Weekly Accounts Payable/ Receivable Checklist:

• Create invoices for work completed in the last 7 days
• Create files for work to completed next week 
• Track incoming receipts per job 
• Follow up on outstanding invoices from the last couple of weeks
• Review incoming payables
• What needs to be paid this week
• What gets paid at the end of the month

Do you avoid reviewing AP and AR...

Bookkeeper, Controller, CFO. Are you uncertain about what each role emcompasses? Or when you should outsource the role vs. hiring someone in-house? We hope this will help! 

Should I hire a bookkeeper?

I get this question a lot. The truth is that a business of any size needs a person to handle their books. When first starting out, outsourcing a bookkeeper is the best option as it reduces your costs since you only pay for the time you need. And by having a bookkeeper throughout the year, you will save money on your accountant at the end of the year, since there’s less for them to do.

A big mistake that small business owners make is thinking they can do the books on their own. Once the season gets busy, the last thing owners want to do is the books at the end of the day. The result of leaving the books until the off season is a nightmare that ends up costing you more money and more headaches.

So, what does a bookkeeper do? The bookkeeper will enter all the payables, record payments re...

NOTE: The original article can be found here.

As a small business owner, you need accurate and up-to-date financial information so you can make the best decisions for your business.

As your business grows and you hire employees, or take on more customers, keeping track of your business expenses and ensuring your books are accurate becomes more complex and time-consuming.

It’s a lot to keep track of while also running your business – sales, expenses, salary payments, and any other money that goes in and out of your business.

You know how important it is to keep good records, not only for CRA compliance and protecting yourself in case of an audit, but also if you want to sell your business down the line.

And frankly, you’re sick of staring at spreadsheets or teaching yourself how to use accounting software. You find yourself falling behind and losing track of receipts, and you’re afraid of missing out on important deductions or overdue invoices that cost you money. You know it’s tim...

When we started working with Ryan at Mountview Landscaping, I asked him if he had a budget that they work from and review on a monthly basis, and was pleasantly surprised to hear his answer was yes. You may remember that we interviewed him last year about what they track, why they track it and the difference it has made in how the business is doing overall, as well as the impact it has made for him personally.

All of his insight was compiled into two blog posts and we felt it was worth revisiting. Check out part one below.

Grant: What do you currently measure on a weekly, monthly and annual basis and why?

Ryan: During the winter we track maintenance hours for snow, additional job hours from snow events, salt and ice melt product use on a weekly basis. This translates to lawn maintenance contracts during the summer season.  

We have people on a fixed schedule for snow with staff on duty 24/7. From a business point of view it just makes sense for us. We have people monitoring sites e...

Want to eliminate a lot of stress? Invoice and review A/R & A/P reports on a weekly basis with your team. Too often I speak with owners who have completed a lot of work but haven’t invoiced or collected on those projects and find themselves in a cash flow crunch.

If you review the following items weekly you will always have a clear understanding of where you sit financially. Waiting too long to invoice, or to follow-up on outstanding invoices can often result in the final payment never being collected, since many owners feel awkward trying to collect on a job that’s been completed for a long time. 

Weekly Accounts Payable/ Receivable Checklist:

• Create invoices for work completed in the last 7 days
• Create files for work to completed next week 
• Track incoming receipts per job 
• Follow up on outstanding invoices from the last couple of weeks
• Review incoming payables
• What needs to be paid this week
• What gets paid at the end of the month

Do you avoid reviewing AP and AR...

“If you’re going to build a business that is scalable and valuable, you must get your financial house in order.” - Jeffrey Scott

A few months ago fellow business coach, Jeffrey Scott, published an article on the Top 10 Financial Mistakes he sees business owners make. In it he shared that before taking on a new client he asks them to rate their financial involvement. I’d love to ask you the same.

How would you rate yourself in regards to your finances? 

Level 5. Review financial reports monthly and operational reports weekly, and other operational numbers daily, making key decisions along the way.

Level 4. Review financial reports monthly, making many decisions monthly.

Level 3. Look briefly at reports monthly (or every other month), making just a few decisions.

Level 2. Look at reports quarterly at best.

Level 1. Wait till year end to see how I did.

No matter where you are on the scale - you are not alone and there is always room for growth. Knowing your numbers will help you i...