What To Focus On In The Off Season

Say what? Focus? The off-season is the time to catch a breath, sit back, think about the past year, then look forward and plan for the upcoming year.

We all know the quote of the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again while expecting different results.

Chance to Focus

Winter, or the off-season, is our chance to determine what we’re going to do differently this year so that we DO get different results. Aka, growth, better profit, winning more jobs, increasing my close rate, helping the team work more efficiently, and so on.

One thing I would always recommend is not to keep this reflection and ideation to yourself. Don’t assume it’s only your responsibility, and only you can come up with ideas to improve and grow. Make it a team thing. Invite your team to share what was terrible last year, what was great last year, and what you’d like to do focus on doing differently this year.

You’ll be amazed at the great ideas and perspectives that get thrown into the pool. And they (the good ones anyway) will love that you care enough to ask them what they think. I’m speaking from my experience as an employee at Tussey Landscaping for 15 years. Believe me. And the ones that think this is nuts that you’re asking them to contribute in this way, that this is your job as the owner, hmmm…. should they even be working for you?

Ok, I’m getting off track.

I wanted to share what needs to happen in the off-season, regardless of whether you are brand new, or an old dog that’s learned all the tricks.

  1. Build your 2023 Budget
  2. Get your sold jobs and schedule all populated out for the year in your system & calendar
  3. Train your crew on new processes in the upcoming year

Build Your 2023 Budget

Regardless of whether you have been budgeting for years, and know exactly what your numbers, pricing, and labor rate should be, there’s no getting off the treadmill. Build your 2023 budget. In fact, I like to build my budget for the next year about the time I start sending out quotes for jobs that will be installed next year. If it’s going to be installed next year, it should be based on next year’s budget.

If you’ve never built a budget, it’s not that it is that hard. The hardest part is the time-consuming work of focusing on pulling all the info together to plug into the budget. And that is only hard if you haven’t been keeping good records of things in your Quickbooks, etc. If you have ready and easy access to your P&L from last year, this is a breeze, just plugging in the numbers.

You can build a budget for free using our budgeting calculator. Or if you want help from industry experts that have walked this road before, you get a one-on-one call to build your budget with our budgeting experts when you sign up for SynkedUP. If you already use SynkedUP, you can book a call to have us give you a second set of eyes on your budget and make sure things are dialed in.

Conclusion

If you haven’t already, get all your sold jobs for 2023 into your software, (or spreadsheet, or napkin, whatever you use) and get them all populated out onto your schedule.

It’s time to focus!

Weston-Zimmerman-SynkedUP

Weston Zimmerman
CEO and co-founder

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Learn how you can use SynkedUP to power your landscaping business, with scheduling and time tracking, materials, costs, billing info for service tickets, and more.
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