In celebration of spring, here are some fun and fresh ideas for sprucing up your business. Just as you might break out the trowels, gloves, and seeds for planting that new garden, you can also leverage tools to plant seeds for business growth! After all, both require careful planning, an implementation strategy, tender care and maintenance. To get you started, here are five gardening-inspired techniques to help you on your way:
- Toil the Soil | Good soil is the foundation of any good garden. Growing and nourishing healthy plants requires healthy soil. Growing and nourishing healthy profits requires a healthy business strategy. When is the last time you looked at your business plan? Do you even have one? Remember, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
- Separate the Wheat from the Chaff | Early spring is a time to decide what you want to grow in your garden. Your choice here will influence how you protect growth from unwanted blight including parasites and evasive weeds that can choke out and limit growth. Taking the same view in your business, think about what worked well last year? What didn’t? How might you restructure your operation to attain better outcomes? Be honest with yourself. Avoid hanging on to something just because it’s how you always did it when it may be wiser to start anew.
- Gather Nutrients | While sun and water offer the basics for any healthy garden, nutrients also play a key role. In business, this is where your team can plan a valuable role in helping you to achieve growth objectives. If you’re self-employed, consider engaging your customers, suppliers or your local university. Start by inviting input individually to avoid group think. Next, hold a more formal meeting with a group to gain a team perspective. The more you can engage your team in plan, the more they will buy-in to making the plan come to fruition.
- Don’t be Afraid to Ask for Help | A little extra help can go a long way. Many gardeners leverage “helpers” to ensure plant growth. It might be as straightforward as using plant food or releasing lady bugs to eat pests, or as advanced as calling in a horticulturist. In business, it may be as straightforward as updating a computer system or investing in new software, or as advanced as leveraging a staffing agency to help recruit and secure new talent.
- Let the Sun Shine In | You might be surprised to learn that just like people, plants can get sick as a result of stress. Also just like people, this stress will lead to stunted growth and other unwanted outcomes. If your spring growth strategy lacks the above ingredients, you could be placing undue stress on yourself and your team. Instead, have a plan. Be sure to nurture and encourage healthy work habits that offer work-life balance.
For the philosophical at heart, nature routinely offers productive analogies that can be useful when applied to different aspects of life. For those in business, it emphasizes a proven strategy for guiding prosperity and abundance.