A well-oiled machine

Marty GrunderOne of the best ways to make more money in your business is to be organized. If you were to come to Grunder Landscaping Company, you would find a small business with a very low-key, simple office, warehouse and shop. You would also find a rather large yard and storage area and a bunch of trucks and equipment. However, while our place is nothing fancy, it is very neat and organized and clean. And, without a doubt, it’s one of the secrets to our success. Our organizational skills make us money on a daily basis.

I’m often humored by the comment, “I know my desk is a mess, but I know where everything is.” Really? I don’t buy it. I read a study that said the average American spends 55 minutes a day, 27.5 hours a month, and 2 months a year looking for things they know they own but can’t find. I’m not sure I believe it’s quite that bad, but what if it’s anywhere near that? I can say that I think most small businesses have people in their operations who waste an incredible amount of time trying to find things or doing things a second time, because they lost the first attempt. Just last week I had to print out another proposal for a client I could have sworn I had printed already. I found it yesterday in my briefcase. I hate it when that happens. And you should too!
  
Time really is money, folks. The late great management guru Peter Drucker said, “Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.” This month let’s talk about three things you can do to save time that can be used to make more money. I’m going to touch on a few different areas of your companies.
 
Personal organization
My office is neat and tidy. There is a place for everything and everything has its place. My phone is close to my computer. I have all my reference material close by and the most important thing in my office – my pending proposals – are right on top of my desk every day. Next to my desk is a portable dry erase board. I take this board into our conference room every Tuesday morning for our sales meetings. When I have an idea or a question, I write it down on the board and capture it so I can cover it with my sales team.

I have two monitors. It’s amazing how much more efficient that makes you. I can have my contact management software on one screen and our bidding software on the other one and can refer back and forth to each, saving precious seconds throughout the day. I have an expensive chair I sit in, but it helps me have good posture and is very comfortable. I spend about 40 hours per week in it, so a good chair is important.

I make sure my office is always freshly painted, and I don’t have too much clutter. Clutter distracts you. Outside my office door are three bins. One is my ‘in bin’ so things can be put in it when my door is closed. One goes to my assistant. And one goes to my marketing assistant with whom I’m in constant contact. These bins enable me to get things off my desk and on to the person that can help me leverage my time.

But the single most important thing in my office is the photos of my family that sit right above my desk. I can’t help but see them several times a day. Some experts will tell you not to do this. I’m going to tell you to do this. And every time you feel your mind wandering or you know you are wasting time, look at your family or your loved ones and say, “I’m stealing time from them and I need to get back to work.” It works for me; I’ll bet it will work for you.
 
Selling efforts
How many of you meet with a client and talk about their project and then instead of taking the time right then and there to work on the proposal, you leave and either go back to work or go home? You come back the next day, the next week or maybe even the next month and do your measurements, your thinking and put some numbers together. This is one of the biggest time wasters I see in landscaping companies. You need to schedule your appointments so you have enough time to meet with the client, talk to them, listen, take notes and then, after that part is over, walk the property, take notes, take photos, take measurements, put together some sketches and just sit and think through the steps it is going to take to do the job.

There is never a better time than the present to try and make a sale. If you can make that sale on the spot, go for it. The faster you get back to prospects and clients, the greater your chance for success. Take a video recorder if you must and record the property and walk and talk. When you get back to the office, you can sit and watch that and get your proposal done very quickly. The point I am making is there are many things you can do to save time in the proposal writing portion of your job. You know and I know it. Now we just have to take action and get disciplined with it.
 
How organized are your trucks?
 I am surprised by the amount of landscapers who don’t have organized trucks. If you are using trucks that don’t have storage boxes, you are wasting time. How much time are you wasting loading and unloading tools every day? How many tools are you losing because there’s no system in place, such as storage boxes on trucks that assign the tools to a truck and crew? This not only saves you time, but it also puts accountability in place, something we all need to think about.

Every crew we have uses trucks and trailers with storage boxes. We can get by with a small warehouse and most importantly our crews have everything they need when they need it while they are on the job. Our trucks all have every tool they could possibly need, including a backpack blower, first aid kits, marking paint, grass seed, herbicide, gasoline and tarps, just to name a few. Firefighters don’t load and unload their equipment; it’s all on the truck. There’s a reason for that. You need to do the same. True, you’re not in the business of saving lives, but you are or you need to be in the business of saving time.

In today’s economy the fat and sassy won’t make it. You have to be lean and you have to be focused on organization. Spring will be here soon; spend some time in the next month getting organized and then realize what a difference it can make in your life and keep it that way!