There are 3 things that you'll be doing as a business owner, and you will probably only be doing one of these at a time.
Number one: Weeding.
You should be doing as little weeding as possible, and weeding should be someone else's job, but it is absolutely necessary to keep the weeds out of the flower beds and out of your grass, because the weeds in your business (whatever they may be) will suffocate the flowers and kill the grass.
Weeds can be costs that increase and extend, sucking profit away from your business.
Weeds can be people- well, poisonous people who affect the culture, the mood, the style of how the business is provided, and weeds can be cultured themselves. Accepting and allowing behaviours and patterns in a business that simply don't match up with the promise you're making, both to the rest of the team and to your customers.
Number 2: Cutting the grass.
Every gardener will tell you that cutting the grass feels a little bit like a waste of time, because what they want to be doing is planting, but there is no point in having a beautifully planted garden where the grass is out of control.
You'll find you have to cut the grass a lot more than you do the rest of the things, and therefore, it's ideal to get someone or someone's who can cut the grass beautifully for you, to your standard or better, to allow you to do the next thing.
(There's obviously the option of a robot grass cutter.)
Number 3: Planting and planning the planting.
This is, for many business owners, the most exciting; this is where we get trapped in ‘vision without action is a daydream’, but planting is essential because without planting, there will be no flowers next spring, and therefore you'll end up cutting the grass and weeding without the joy of the colour, the growth, the expansion, the extension, the development.
Deciding what to plant, when to plant, and where to plant is actually the job.
Weeding is essential and has to happen almost continuously.
Grass cutting is scheduled, but planting and ploughing the planting that's where businesses get good; that's where businesses win.
As I said to you a little while ago, in a recent interview, Jeff Bezos was asked about last quarter's excellent financial results. His reply was, “We baked that in 3 years ago”.
What are you planting for the future?
Leave a comment