As a small business owner I felt I had to do everything myself, not because I had something to prove to the industry, but because I didn’t know how to ask for help. It’s not an easy thing for many of us to do. We’ve been trained to be self-sufficient throughout most of our lives.
The beauty of working of in the green industry is that most of the time, people are purchasing your services because they want to upgrade their property. This is a great foundation to start a relationship on; they want to make something better. An upgrade is much less stressful than a maintenance call. Granted, I’m sure you also have the occasional maintenance customers whom have a chip on their shoulder, perhaps because of shoddy work by the previous contractor. Take that opportunity to establish a new vision of what they ought to expect from their service provider.
Once you’ve established a connection with the property owner and they’re pleased with your work, it’s okay to ask them for help, i.e. referrals, reviews, or criticisms. Ask them what their worries were while the job was being completed and if you’ve put those concerns to rest. If you haven’t, then you’ve gotten some valuable information on how to improve on your next job. The more in touch you are with your customers, the more apt you are to know what triggers their purchases.
But customers aren’t the only ones who can help you succeed:
- Your peers, young and old, may see a little of themselves in you and remember back to when they were naïve in some areas of the business. Establish relationships with them, bounce ideas off them, and see what input they have. Yes, even your competitors may want you to succeed. Remember these people are your peers, they have bills to pay and families to feed just like you do. They are more sympathetic to your issues than you may have thought. It’s probably not best to ask other operations in your area, as you are competing for the same jobs, but online forums are a great place to gain advice from more experienced contractors, as well as help others with their questions.
If you own a green industry business and are a member of PLANET, consider being a part of the Trailblazer program. Basically, PLANET will connect you with an industry leader who will spend one-on-one time helping you improve your business. Visit https://www.landcarenetwork.org/membership/trailblazers.cfm to learn more.
- Another valuable avenue for quick tips is your distributors. They work more closely with product developers than your peers or customers. They have the low down on the newest innovations and techniques. Trying a new installation? Ask your local supply business what other contractors have done while you’re picking up materials. Need some lawn care software? Ask a distributor, they probably know a lot about what’s available. This is a great, informal situation to shoot the shit and learn a thing or two without seeming like a fish out of water.
As a small business owner you probably get overwhelmed at the amount of work on your plate every day. Your employees can help. Ask your employees to take on more responsibilities. In my experience, delegating tasks to some trustworthy employees is a great way to boost their confidence and take some of the pressure off you. You’ll be surprised at the level of enthusiasm your guys will put into their work when they know that their name is attached to its success.
I recently did this in my own field service management software business. I was trying to manage too many departments, departments I had no real experience leading, such as our technical support staff. I am not a whiz on computers or at programming, so how could I accurately manage my employees whose job it was to deal with this? I decided to put our head software developer in charge of the support and development staff. We still have weekly manager meetings so I know what is going on within my company, but our lead developer is able to listen, comprehend, and provide useful feedback to the other developers and support technicians, where I would struggle to know what they needed or were attempting to do.
Sometimes, we as business owners try to do everything on our own. This is okay for the first couple start up years, or when your company is 3-4 employees strong. If you want to grow however (and also limit the chances of having a heart attack from all the stress), you need to be able to reach out to others. Although difficult at times, asking for help is one of the smartest things field service business owners can do.