Other Goals for 2007

Although it's been a very light snow year, I can take something positive out of this winter. My second snow clearing crew I set up this year has been doing great. We've gone out about 3 times, but the second crew kicks ass. I managed to get a very responsible fellow to drive the route with his truck, and one of my good employees from the lawn season is working with him. I have 45 plus snow accounts this winter, and I basically split the whole thing in two. I start them on the other side of town and have them work toward the center. I start in Ypsi and work toward the center from the other side. It has cut down our response time in 2, and taken a lot of stress off me. I actually enjoy doing snow, which is a miracle, and it has become less of a stressful, burdensome job. I know I won't be out for 12 hours, and I have a manageable amount of work to do. And despite the fact that I pay that crew pretty well, it's still incredibly profitable for me. I've even considered setting up two new crews next year to do snow, and for me just supervise the work.

So this has built a lot of confidence within me for moving on to more employees and adding a lawn crew in the near future. Other than the obvious capital expense, starting a second crew has always seemed like a headache for me. The success I've had with the snow, and the possibility of actually finding good responsible employees makes it less of a headache, I think. And seeing the business work for me instead of the other way around also makes me happy. The possibility of taking TJ's from basically a job for me, and making it into a business that actually works on its own and works for me is promising. For a while, especially after Joel quit, it seemed like it was not a possible task, and I had doubts I was up for it. That whole addage of success building confidence and confidence building success seems to be true.

Now, this might seem as a no brainer, but you've got to remember I never went into this whole TJ's thing as a business major or even someone who had a clue as to what I was doing. I've kinda stumbled on success, and done things unconventionally the whole way. Which was a good thing in some respects, but bad in others. Had I understood about growth I would have kept pushing forward instead of sitting on the success Joel and I had early on. Things stagnated, I was happy working my ass off for little gains, partly because I was consumed with the business and convinced things would get better on their own out of sheer hard work. That's how we started successfully, after all. Had we kept growing and taken the next step 6 years ago I think TJ's would be a lot bigger today and I'd be closer to getting out of the field.

Not that I'm blaming anyone. Like I said, I didn't know what I was doing. Even after Joel quit I resisted growth and didn't understand basic business principles. The E-Myth really helped me understand about growth and being an entreprenuer, not just a technician who created a job for himself.

Anyway, I digress. My goal for this year is to, at the very least, carry two part time employees the whole year and to utilize my time with them better. The problem I get into every year is right around mid summer things are going so well I think I can scale back on employees. Last season I was getting everything done and even managed a day off on Sundays. So I scaled back on payroll to save a buck, thinking I could just work 7 days and save some dough. Problem was I couldn't do that, ended up behind a lot, and I couldn't handle the strain on my body. When the slow down from mid summer ended and things picked up in the fall, I couldn't keep up and ended up losing out on a lot of money I could have made had I kept the employees. Didn't save on payroll, and wasn't happy in general.

This year I want to utilize the employees better, keep a better schedule, and stick to it. I know I can do it, I just have to want to do it, set aside time to make things work, and keep it up. As I get older, I have to recoginze I can't power my way through problems, and that I can't do the same things I used to on my own. I wouldn't mind a day off a week, and I've got to learn that having a day off doesn't mean I'm not being efficient. If things go well enough, I want to start acquiring the equipment for expansion to a part time second crew either later this year or by next year.

The other thing I really want to get back to is doing things my way. Joel and I started this business not knowing how things worked with other lcos and just feeling our way through it. I think that helped to create a better company and service, and we didn't fall prey to the problems other companies do in this business. For a while I stopped doing that, and spent a lot of time listening to idiots on Lawn Site and trying to live up to other people's businesses. That stopped somewhat last year when I stopped spending so much time on that site. I am going back to listening to my gut and want to stop comparing TJ's to other companies. I don't care what other guys are doing, I'm going to do what's best for TJ's and me, focus on building a business that suits my needs instead of trying to keep up with the rest of the green industry pack.