Six Guidelines for Better Budgeting. Start Now!

Six Guidelines for Better Budgeting. Start Now!

Budget season comes earlier than you think. It starts now. You need to budget early for a few reasons: It confirms your pricing for next year.It brings clarity to big investments. It forces you to get next year’s goals figured out now. The budgeting process should “ideally” start at the end of Q3 (September) after you have 8 months of current year actuals. Here are six critical guidelines.

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7 Takeaways from the Summer Growth Summit

7 Takeaways from the Summer Growth Summit

Our Summer Growth Summit at Mariani Landscape in Lake Bluff, IL was the HOTTEST landscape event of the year! Over 3 days, we had 26 speakers covering inspiring and cutting-edge topics to help any attendee grow to their next level of success. The Summit concluded with a discussion between Jeffrey Scott and Frank Mariani regarding how Mariani Landscape grew from 90k in 1973 to 59 million in 2020. Then they discussed what has happened since making a private equity deal in 2020 and where the company is headed now. Frank and Jeffrey were like two old friends talking around the fire pit. They also covered the pitfalls of the 4 day work week, how to solve the labor issue, and how any company could pursue an acquisition growth strategy. Many companies brought their teams, and the energy was palpable. Here are 7 takeaways to get your mind thinking:

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Building Branches: Secrets to a Successful Branch Model

Building Branches: Secrets to a Successful Branch Model

Building Branches: Secrets to a Successful Branch Model

Announcing our newest Virtual Masterclass: November 1st, 11am to 4pm ET

Once your local market is saturated, where do you grow from here?

Growth-minded landscape companies can develop a branch network, offering more growth opportunities to their employees and clients.

Building a branch model is a logical way to expand your business. But it also has many pitfalls and challenges!

Whether you are a commercial or residential company, In this virtual masterclass you will learn from proven landscape entrepreneurs how to successfully launch and expand your branch model.

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Gain an Edge by Hiring a “Continuous Improvement” Manager

Gain an Edge by Hiring a “Continuous Improvement” Manager

Continuous Improvement sounds like a cliche. Just like apple pie and motherhood (fatherhood), it brings a warm feeling to your heart, but it is much more than a platitude. It has the power to greatly tighten up your operations, whomever is leading it. Here’s a quick definition: It is “the ongoing improvement of products, services or processes through incremental and sometimes breakthrough changes”. It is mostly associated with process improvement. “How to continually improve processes, to give your clients a better experience, while helping your people become more efficient.”

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The Surprising Truth About “Retiring In Place”

The Surprising Truth About “Retiring In Place”

Last year I ran a webinar on the topic of Retiring In Place. We covered why owners are going this route, and what it takes to put in place.You can watch the webinar recording on YouTube. Here are some surprising truths about this goal. The future is now. All entrepreneurs are dreamers and doers.We love building businesses and having big goals. A common dream is building a business to run day-to-day without the owner. Often these are the ten-year or someday goals. (I know this to be the case, because when I take on a new peer group client or coaching client, I inquire about their short and long term goals). Here is what I have discovered, after working with close to 350 companies:

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Give Your Clients the Ultimate Five-Star Experience

Give Your Clients the Ultimate Five-Star Experience

How do you know if you are giving your clients a five-star experience? You can check your google reviews, but that gives very limited info.Here are two stories to illustrate the need for clarifying your customer service vision in today’s uncertain economy. I was recently helping a friend of mine (an entrepreneur in another industry) with his 3-year growth plans. Over the past few years his business has scaled nicely, and he was enjoying the sweet spot that he called ELF (Easy, lucrative and fun). He wanted to keep growing, but it was not clear what direction he should take his business. Should he change direction, or do more of the same?

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