How to Start a Business in the Off Season

we're going to talk about how to stay crazy busy all year round the very first thing you're going to do is you're going to understand that you're going to separate yourself from the technical end of your business I don't care if you're in landscaping lawn maintenance I don't care if you're in construction work the difference is is to stay busy all year around you need to think of yourself as a business owner as an entrepreneur as the leader in your organization there's never a downtime for those people second thing that we're going to do is we are going to concentrate on what you have to do to develop your business maybe in the first year as the bit business owner here's what you're going to work on in the offseason your website is it a piece of crap probably if you're like most Landscaping excavating companies out there your website's hokey not very user friendly a lot of traffic a lot of people will come to it look at it and go that's your brick and more store that's what puts you on same page as five and10 million do companies fix that up how's your networking skills you meet with a lot of people in the off season no you don't don't lie to me do it networking is a key element to success it's the difference between you and everybody else that's trying to do what you do belly to belly face to face hand to hand shake hands meet people make things happen go do it learn the skills you're not comfortable doing it I'm not comfortable doing doing it nobody is the people that are at TH those meetings they're not comfortable get over it that's how you become a business owner that's how you become successful go out and meet people Network coffee everybody likes coffee even people that don't like coffee will still go out to coffee with you go out to coffee with your Banker go out to coffee with anybody that will meet you parallel companies companies that do something similar to you but slightly different every single day of the week I set up me meetings Chambers of Commerce I go out and meet with them I go out and meet with tree companies do I cut down trees no but I have tree companies that I meet with so when I have a job site that I can they can benefit from I can call them up they're a reflection of my company I know what they do and when they have work and they're appreciating the all the work I'm sending their way guess what they send work my way expand your horizons meet new people that's the off season that's what it's about here's a few other tips are you ready for for them you may not like them job costing job costing how much do you make an hour do you know for a fact or are you licking and sticking everybody licks and stick get over it if you don't know exactly how your business is running how do you expect to know exactly how much money at the end of the year you're going to make that's what the offseason's for the offseason is to put together all the formulas to set up the system so that when the on season comes and you turn the switch and you're ready to rock and roll you know how much money you're going to make on each and every job because your formulas are in place you can't do that when you're going crazy that's what the on season is about the on season is to make money while the I you got to strike while the iron's hot that's why you have that all set up and prepared so the off seon do you see where the offseason's even busier than the on season for you the business owner and as you put all these systems in place as you implement all these strategies to improve your efficiency to make your bottom line grow do you see how you're going to also be able to extend your services make the services you have more profitable and possibly open new doors to new services so that when the offseason comes you can start to put those crews in place and they can continue to work even when other companies are slowing down or shutting down that's the difference between companies that do half a million dollars and companies that do $5.5 million do they work year round but they've had they've taken the time to work on their company to build it up to the point where they can Implement those strategies they can work in the offseason you can't do that if you're just sitting there hoping and praying something's going to happen you know what else you're going to do in the off season you're going to go find your comfort zone you're going to find that nice happy place where you feel good and warm and fuzzy and then you're going to walk away from it you're going to find where you need to be as a business owner and then you're going to step outside of that zone and continually push yourself to New Horizons new Chann challenges if you don't feel uncomfortable about one two or three things every single day of the week you're not truly a business owner do you see the difference I know it's not fun it's not never going to be fun to be a business owner then you're also never going to have a boss breathing down your neck shouting at you doing you got to get this done there's a big difference you're going to be stepping up to bat and driving the home runs to yourself to your business to your organization