When I started my business, we relied heavily on paper. In fact, I was known to write a schedule for the week back then on the back of the paper placemat from my favorite breakfast place.
As Grunder Landscaping Co. grew, we put systems in place to keep all that paper organized, and it worked well for us for a long time. This was one of those situations where good was the enemy of great. Because our paper-based systems were working well for us, we were slower to embrace technology than we should’ve been.
Implementing Aspire Software in 2020 was a turning point for our business. We made it a rule to embrace the system fully — no paper backups or duplicates, no physical schedule board when the digital one would work for us and no complaining about it either. The only way forward was to embrace this change and make it work for us.
We aren’t the only company that has faced this shift. Many of you reading this have probably navigated it yourselves, or maybe you’re young enough that you started out relying on a few digital tools.
At The Grow Group, my team of coaches has one big recommendation regarding technology: use industry-specific software. This theme will be evident to our attendees when we tour Hidden Creek Landscaping later this month as part of GROW! 2025. As my team previewed their sessions, one big takeaway we know attendees will have is Hidden Creek’s approach to technology.
There are two things I see them doing well that we can all learn from, whether we run the same software or not.
First, Hidden Creek’s team members have embraced technology in their workflows and are constantly looking for ways to improve their use of it. As new functionality is added, they evaluate whether it could help them be more efficient. This is exactly the right mentality to have — the more we can work with the system we’re using instead of fighting to make it work with the processes we used before we adopted the software, the better off our companies are.
Second, they keep looking forward. During the finance and accounting session on the tour, our attendees will hear the Hidden Creek team talk about how they’re using accounting as a tool for growing the business and getting away from “reactionary accounting.”
Good managers make good decisions with good information. We need the information to be accurate, and we need the information in our software systems to be readily available so we can make decisions on the future of our business.
We’ll hear more about what tools they use, how they use them and what the team is still working on during our in-depth — and indoor — tour of their facility during GROW! 2025, Feb. 24-26, in Columbus, Ohio. If you’re already signed up to join us, I’ll see you there. If not, sign up or stay tuned; I frequently recap what we learn at our events in our weekly “Great Idea” emails that we share through The Grow Group. You can sign up to receive those at growgroupinc.com/weekly-great-idea.
I hope you’re ready for a busy spring ahead. Let’s make the 2025 season our best yet.
