Being a landscape/snow business owner is hard. There are a million things vying for your attention, and
it’s usually the most urgent that gets it. Meanwhile, your business keeps going – but is it growing? Has it
increased in value over the last year? The truth is that most landscape business owners have no idea
what their business is worth or how it’s actually doing. They’re usually fantastic technicians, happy to be
working IN the business, but rarely ON the business. But knowing the value of your business, and
understanding the steps needed to take to increase its value are critical for the growth and health of the business. It will increase profitability now and also make your business more attractive to potential buyers – whether you’re looking at selling now or in the future.

Let’s take a look at six pillars of business and identify some best practices and tools you can implement
fairly easily to increase efficiency, productivity...

Our next-door neighbour builds the most amazing ice rink in his backyard every year. It’s complete with curved corners, painted 2’ boards all the way around, lights, and netting to catch stray pucks. The only thing that’s missing is a scoreboard and lines in the ice, though I expect those are coming. It’s a work of art. But this year, it’s been more like a wading pool than an ice rink. It’s been so sad.

The weather this year has been unlike anything I can remember in all my years in landscaping. As I write this, it’s February 7 and 9°C in Toronto. There are no snow piles and no frost in the ground. Many of our clients are concerned about what this means for their business, both this year and in the future if this weather trend continues. While a light winter may have its pros and cons, one thing is certain – we need to adapt and make changes in our practices and snow contracts to survive in the face of low snow seasons.

Let’s...

This month we’re focusing on strategic planning. If you’ve been watching our social media at all, you know that I’ve been teaching about strategic planning at the Waterloo Chapter monthly meetings. These meetings are open to anyone, so I invite you to join us in December. For more information about the meetings, or to view the previous content that’s been presented, click HERE.

To begin our series, we’re going to focus on HR. This can feel a bit like navigating landmines, but by implementing some of the following tips and recommendations, you’ll be able to recruit and retain great employees.

1.  Implement effective recruitment and hiring practices

“Always be hiring” is advice we regularly give. Finding the right person is more important than just filling a position, so always be looking for great people. Then once you find them – or they find you – you’ll be more prepared to find a spot for them.

One of the best...

I love going out for dinner with my wife. But I hate deciding which restaurant to go to. This is an issue for us because she, too, hates deciding where to go. If our conversations about where to have dinner were recorded, they would be painful to listen to. For your amusement, here’s an example:

Me: “Where do you want to eat?”

Her: “I don’t care. Where do you want to eat?”

Me: “It doesn’t matter to me. I’ll eat anywhere?”

Her: “Do you feel like anything in particular?”

Me: “No. Do you?”

Her: “No. Would you please just make a decision?!”

Like I said…painful. I remember the first time I heard about decision fatigue. Finally our struggle to decide on a restaurant made sense to me. We make so many decisions each day, that by the time dinner rolls around, we are done.

Medical News Today defines decision fatigue as “a psychological phenomenon surrounding a person’s ability or...

We were losing our business. Our payables were way more than our receivables and we had no way of fixing it. It was devastating to my wife and me.

But what was harder for me was to watch my wife’s emotional health deteriorate. She couldn’t step foot in the office without a minor panic attack. She laid on the couch and watched a lot of TV. She didn’t interact with me or our boys as she usually did. She was generally a very happy, content, positive, joyful person. But now she was different.

What we know now is that her emotional health – and mine – were fragile. We were not able to cope with the struggles we were facing. Struggles themselves were not new to us, but our inability to deal with them was. We’ve since learned that emotional health is something we need to be aware of and monitor.

So what is emotional health? According to Healthline.com’s article How to Build Good Emotional Health, “For starters, it’s not the same thing...

In speaking with clients, one issue that is never far from their minds is cash flow. We found the article below from FBC to be really helpful. The original article can be found here.

When small business owners find themselves facing unexpected shortfalls or can’t pay bills during slow months, it’s a sign that they’re not monitoring their cash flow.

For a business, running out of cash is like getting stuck in quicksand: you sink deeper and deeper into the red as you borrow from one area to pay another. As you do your best to stay afloat, your business obligations – from payroll to loan payments – become increasingly hard to meet.

The good news is that you never have to let it get that far.

According to Kevin Cochran, co-founder of the wealth building and financial literary training series Enriched Academy, prevention is the best medicine when it comes the financial health of your business.

By avoiding the following 5 cash-flow mistakes,...

"Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people." (Steve Jobs)

Open Book Management (OBM) is the philosophy that businesses will experience greater success by sharing relevant financial and operational information with every employee. It’s the practice of communicating with people via the numbers. Employees receive information that not only helps them do their jobs well but gives them an understanding of how the company is doing as a whole. According to John Case, who coined the phrase “open book management”, “a company performs best when its people see themselves as partners in the business rather than as hired hands". The intent is to give employees relevant information about the company so they can make better decisions as workers. This information includes, but is not limited to, revenue, profit, cost of goods sold, cash flow and expenses.

Open Book Management involves four basic practices:

• Train...

Why Hire a Professional Bookkeeper?

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...

Being a landscape business owner is hard. There are a million things vying for your attention, and it’s usually the most urgent that gets it. Meanwhile, your business keeps going – but is it growing? Has it increased in value over the last year? The truth is that most landscape business owners have no idea what their business is worth or how it’s actually doing. They’re usually fantastic technicians, happy to be working IN the business, but rarely ON the business. But knowing the value of your business, and understanding the steps needed to take to increase its value are critical for the growth and health of the business. It will increase profitability now and also make your business more attractive to potential buyers – whether you’re looking at selling now or in the future.

Let’s take a look at six pillars of business and identify some best practices and tools you can implement fairly easily to increase efficiency, productivity and profit....

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...