It’s December, and 2021 is winding down. Will you end the year strong in your landscaping business?
You can still end the year strong by looking at your overall financial health, reviewing your marketing and sales plans, and committing to growth goals that will help you launch 2022 on a solid footing.
3 Questions to Ask before Year’s End
There are three essential questions to ask yourself and your managers:
- What do you want to keep in the New Year?
- What should you ditch because it didn’t work in 2021?
- What new goal or software to try in the New Year?
Meet with the key players in your landscaping company that keeps your business moving forward. Here are the key players to chat with:
- Your sales team leader
- Your accountant
- Your bookkeeper
- Your marketing team leader.
Watch more: ERGO-PRO 100lb. Ice Melt Winter Spreader with Variable Deflector
Let’s Consider Your Financial Books
Your finances tell the story of whether your landscaping business will be ending the year strongly or not. Maybe your goals for the New Year include fixing the broken parts of your overall financial picture.
Start with your bookkeeper to get standard financial reports for you and your leadership team to discuss during your end-of-the-year meetings.
Your bookkeeper should run standard reports on your cash flow, income statement, and balance sheet. If you use accounting software, such as Freshbooks, Quickbooks, or Xero, your bookkeeper should easily be able to generate those reports for you.
Here are the reports that you need to review to see how healthy your business is heading into the New Year:
- Balance sheet: A balance sheet takes what you own minus what you owe to give you your company’s worth in numbers.
- Cash flow statement: Tells you and your accountant how your company spent money throughout the year. The end goal? To have more money coming in than what’s going out.
- Income statement: A statement shows your profits and losses over the year (a P & L statement).
Make an appointment with your accountant to discuss these three reports to measure how well you’ve done over the past year as well as where you need to tighten your belt.
How Will You End the Year Strong with Your Growth Goals?
Now is the time to chat with your team leaders to see how close each team came to meeting their growth goals from the current year.
Take that information to tweak any goals that aren’t working and which ones you’ll get rid of next year. While you may have had good intentions with the goals you picked last year, some of them may not have been the best fit for your people to implement.
This year, commit to growth goals that fit your company’s culture. Consider these goal-oriented ideas:
- Visit high schools to bring on new hires. If you want to go old-fashioned, consider starting an apprentice program where you teach young hires the ropes of the business by starting them in the field. You may find these younger folks have more staying power than laborers looking for a temporary job.
Read more: Back Office Tips to Keep You Focused on Growing Your Landscaping Business
- Consider investing in software that keeps your company humming in the New Year. Some great options provide you with streamlining options, such as seeing how your laborers are doing out in the field and organizing receipts.
- Update your website. Every few years, analyze how well your current website design works for you. Are you able to keep it updated? How fresh are the photos in your gallery? Do you need to add any videos to it?
- Commit to a mid-year review. Put it on the company calendar and remind your managers to hold you to that mid-year timeline to examine how current goals and financials are doing.
- Plan out your marketing campaigns. If you have a marketing team leader, you can get their input from what worked and what needs a refresh in the New Year.
If you can’t afford to hire a marketing person full-time, consider hiring a marketing consultant to help you devise a social media and digital calendar for the year.
End the Year Strong with Year-End Equipment Purchases
Inflation keeps prices going up. Why not take advantage of current equipment prices that are good until December 31, 2021?
If you need a Spyker Spreader, now’s the time to buy a fleet of spreaders to help your snow management crews keep sidewalks, entrances, steps, and other areas clear of ice and snow.
At Spyker, we carry these three landscaping products:
You can find our Spyker Spreader products at your local dealer or online retailers.
Have a question about your Spyker spreader? Then, call our customer service at (800)-972-6130 or fill out our contact form.
Sources:
JeffreyScott.biz, Finish Your Financial Year Strong with 12 Practical Tips.
Quickbooks.Intuit.com, Balance Sheets: Everything You Need to Know.
Ibid, End-of-Year Checklist for Small Businesses.
