Just like driving a vehicle with a manual transmission, in business, you must shift gears as you accelerate.
You don’t want to upshift too early because you will waste time and money and will focus on the wrong things. You do not want to shift too late because you will burn out your team members. And you cannot skip gears.
Consider the various “gears” in a landscaping business — also known as stages of development. Do not get hung up on these revenue and employee numbers; they are not hard-and-fast rules. They are soft ranges. Focus on the progression of the stages.
What it takes to own and operate a stage one landscaping company is much different than what it takes to oversee a company in stage five. But we often do not think about what it takes to shift from stage one to stage two, stage two to stage three and so on.
One of the most important changes is the owner’s role. As the company grows, the owner must become more of a leader and less of a manager. The owner will hire managers to manage and “get stuff done.” As a leader, the owner will set the direction, values, culture and pace.
As the company continues to grow, the owner will become the leader of executives. An executive is someone who functions independently in their responsibilities. The owner and the executives establish the goals and priorities together, and the executive determines how to make it happen.
As the owner makes these changes, the company will require new software, processes and people. Here are some questions to ask as your company moves from one stage to the next:
- Can you and others see financial and operational results clearly?
- Do you have reports that help people make decisions easier, faster and better?
- Do your people hold themselves to standards like labor efficiency?
- Is overhead expense efficiency increasing? Is your use of software increasing? Does your team have a process-improvement mindset? Are people documenting processes?
- What is your hiring strategy?
- Where are you innovating? Where are you investing for the future?
Some owners do not want to make the changes necessary to get to the next stage. That situation works if they are content with the current revenue level.
Here is another option: You can drive all the way across the country in second gear. It will be a loud, miserable experience, and you will eventually damage the engine (and the company and its people), but you could do it.
The other approach is upshifting. In business, it takes knowledge, discipline and diligent work from the owner and others to do so.
Do you know what it will take for you and your company to shift into a higher gear?
