The spring season rush for the landscape season is almost over. Is your company making the profit you wanted? Did your sales meet the plan you created? Did your customers comment how good your services were? If not what do you do for the rest of the season? Hope that sales and that profits begin to improve? It is time to take stock of where your company is in the market place and determine how you will improve that position. If you don’t have sales for the next 2 to 3 months what are you going to do? The economic recovery is not happening as fast as you planned, the busiest part of the season is almost over, what is next?

Now is the time to take stock of where your company is compared to your plan. You say you don’t have a plan, or the budget just never was completed. Well, do you know whether you make a profit for the first and most important months of the season? Let’s take a look at what do we need to do now. First, do you have a written plan and budget for the 2012 season? If yes, where are you compared to your plan and budget? If the answer is no, then let’s start writing it today. Every season you need to create a plan and a financial budget for you to track the progress of the company. THIS IS YOUR REPORT CARD! If you don’t know where you have been then how can you know where you are going?

In many cases you have, at best, 6 to 8 months to make the business work and produce the profit you need to survive. That is a short period of time and without a plan and a report card how do you know where you are? It is not too late to start a plan and a budget for 2012, but you need to do it now. Here are the things you need to do to get on track:

A written plan by month, describing the Revenue plan, the Labor plan and the Marketing plan.

A financial plan or budget by month with target numbers of sales, labor and profit.

A monitoring system that will help determine whether you are meeting the plan or not. This is your monthly budget spread.

A look at the future to determine what work you have ahead of you, this is a projection, but one that can determine whether you are profitable.

Many companies have no idea whether they are making a profit, or not. These companies are doomed for failure. To say that I don’t have the time is to say I don’t understand business and we hope that we survive this year. The fundamental basis of business to to make a profit, for reinvestment in the business, to pay yourself and the employees that work for you,  and finally to know how you compare to the projections that you make at the beginning of each year. By following these simple rules of business the business experience will be much more pleasurable and fun.

Start today by developing a plan and a budget for the rest of 2012. This will be the beginning of a great business. If you are not sure where to start then call me and we will do it together. But please start the planning now, there is no worse feeling than to go through the season to find that you didn’t make a profit and you can’t pay your bills. Know where your company stands on the financial basis before it is to late.