Editing Down: What NOT to do in Your Horticulture Business is as Important as What you DO
Plant For Profits Column, Leslie F. Halleck
Take the Red Pen to Your Business
Never at a loss for words, I find that editing down is one of my greatest challenges. I’m currently on a book deadline and it’s not writing the book that’s daunting…it’s figuring out how, in the next couple of weeks, to edit the word count down to about HALF of what it is now, but still deliver the information I feel is key to the reader! Ouch.
If you also happen to be a creative person with lots of passion, interests, and things to say, figuring out what not to do is often your biggest challenge. We want to do it ALL, right? Many of my new horticulture business owners, business dreamers, and students often face this very conundrum; how to pick exactly what products and services to sell, when they see so many needs and opportunities.
Sometimes this is simply business FOMO; you desperately want to make money in your business, so it can seem like not providing a specific product or services will be a deal breaker. So you say yes to everything everyone asks you to do or wants you to sell them. What you may quickly find is that you’re not yet great at doing all of those things, or have a good handle on that type of inventory. You could be damaging your brand by not delivering on your promises to your clients and customers. You end up feeling stretched too thin with margins eroding because clients are asking too much for too little. Or rather, you’re giving too much without demanding your value.
Taking a red pen to your business operations can feel understandably daunting or overwhelming. Saying “no” in your business, and deciding what you will not do, is just as - or often more so- important as what you choose to do. Often, saying no can save the life of your business - not to mention your own.
When honing in on your business strengths, in regard to which services or products you should or shouldn’t be offering, you need to get honest with yourself not only about your skills, talent, and time; but also about who you do and don’t want to work for or with.
Most often, happiness and fulfillment in entrepreneurship will come down to whether or not you actually like and enjoy working with your clients and customers and the people you have to work with to serve them. If you find yourself not liking the type of clients you’re attracting, or the people you’re hiring to help you, then it’s likely you fall into the 2-3am stress wake-up crowd. It might be time to fire those types of customers, or an employee you don't align with.
You also need to have a healthy profit-based mindset in order to make the right decision about what you should and shouldn’t offer. How do each of your services or products benefit the bottom line? Are there some commodity services you need to do because they provide stable recurring income, or are those types of services and products dragging your business down because of too-slim margins?
As a solo-preneur you can’t do everything by yourself forever. So how you edit your business and your time also comes down to getting the type of help you need when you really need it. If you hate bookkeeping and can’t make yourself do it - or simply do not have enough time to keep up with it - then it’s time to contract out that function. Same with any other admin task that you either don’t do well, or can’t do, that holds your business back.
In my “The Business of Horticulture Course” one of the activities students do is a simple list exercise on what things they are doing or know how to do in their business, what types of customers they really want to work with, and who they want to work with to get the job done. By listing everything, then going back and crossing out what they really don’t want to do, who they don’t want to serve, and who they don’t want to work with, an interesting cross-reference pattern can emerge. Sometimes you don’t realize what’s dragging you down - or what could lift you up - until you put it on paper.
It’s ok to let go!
