Join hosts Christeen Era and Steve Bousquet in Episode 7 of our podcast, where they will discuss pumpkin planning - a financial strategy that can help any business thrive.
In this episode, we will take a deep dive into financial planning for business owners, discussing key strategies for budgeting, time management, and finding the right balance between growth and profitability. Our hosts will share their insights on how to use pumpkin planning to ensure that your business stays on track and continues to grow.
With concrete examples and practical advice, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to take their business to the next level.
So, tune in and hear from our financial experts and experienced business owners as we explore the world of pumpkin planning and provide valuable insights into how to achieve financial security and success in this challenging and rewarding field. This episode is sure to inspire and inform - don't miss it!
The Green Profit Academy Pros Podcast digs into the challenges in growing a Lawn Care and Landscape business while maximizing your profit. Christeen Era, and Steve Bousquet. are green industry experts in profit, growth, and leadership.
Join hosts Christeen Era and Steve Bousquet in Episode 7 of our podcast, where they will discuss pumpkin planning - a financial strategy that can help any business thrive.
In this episode, we will take a deep dive into financial planning for business owners, discussing key strategies for budgeting, time management, and finding the right balance between growth and profitability. Our hosts will share their insights on how to use pumpkin planning to ensure that your business stays on track and continues to grow.
With concrete examples and practical advice, this episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to take their business to the next level.
So, tune in and hear from our financial experts and experienced business owners as we explore the world of pumpkin planning and provide valuable insights into how to achieve financial security and success in this challenging and rewarding field. This episode is sure to inspire and inform - don't miss it!
The Green Profit Academy Pros Podcast digs into the challenges in growing a Lawn Care and Landscape business while maximizing your profit. Christeen Era, and Steve Bousquet. are green industry experts in profit, growth, and leadership.
Good afternoon, Christine Error, how are you doing today?
[christeen_era]:I'm doing great. Steve, how are you today?
[steven_bousquet]:I'm excellent. It is a Monday we're doing this recording on, and this is being recorded on the first day of spring in 2023, one of my favorite days of the year. It kicks off our green season, and my team is excited to get out and start working. And we have a beautiful clear sky, and it's so bright and sunny here. It's a little deceptive because it's in the low 40s, but it looks like it's like 80 degrees outside until you walk outside. in Colorado.
[christeen_era]:We're starting to warm up a little bit. My grass garden is starting to come to life, which is a little shocking because it is still March. But yeah, the first day of spring, I think everybody's excited about it. Even Jameson asked this weekend, is tomorrow the first day of spring, mom? And he was very excited to know that, you know, this week is the first week of spring. So
[steven_bousquet]:Yeah.
[christeen_era]:he did a little dance for that one.
[steven_bousquet]:Nice. And James is your son. So he's going to probably be enjoying getting outside soon and enjoying that nice turf that you have at your house.
[christeen_era]:Yep, he definitely likes yard work and lawn work for sure.
[steven_bousquet]:So today we're talking about one of your favorite subjects. We're talking about pumpkin planning, but particularly what we're going to focus on is the sweet spot of your business. And
[christeen_era]:here.
[steven_bousquet]:at the end of, in the show notes, we're going to be giving away a free sweet spot assessment. Tell me a little bit about a sweet spot assessment. Or first, why don't you tell me what a sweet spot is? Peace out.
[christeen_era]:Yeah, so the sweet spot comes from the book, The Pumpkin Plan, and there's a great diagram in there. I also share this diagram in the Profit First for Lawn Care and Landscape Businesses book, because pumpkin planting next to profit first is one of my favorite topics. And I actually got into pumpkin planting and certified in that before profit first and, you know, implementing for the profit first system. with the sweet spot. So there could be things where you feel like in your business, you're doing all the right things, but your marketing might be falling on deaf ears. You might feel pressure from your customers, your prospects, leads that are coming in, and even your competitors to lower your prices. So you might feel some price pressure going on. And also you can't take on any more business because you can't work any more hours based on the business model that you have set up. So if you're feeling burned out and you're unsure how to continue to grow, it is telling you that you're not in your sweet spot of your business. So
[steven_bousquet]:So,
[christeen_era]:there's, oh, go ahead.
[steven_bousquet]:no, go ahead. So I was gonna say, so we're gonna discuss the elements of the sweet spot and you were
[christeen_era]:Yes.
[steven_bousquet]:kind of, and what they are and how they can impact your business. So it's kind of like, you're so overworked and overwhelmed right now that you can't keep up or barely can keep up. You're getting price pressure from your customer
[christeen_era]:Yeah.
[steven_bousquet]:and they're saying your competitors are cheaper than you
[christeen_era]:right.
[steven_bousquet]:So those are kind of those are triggers or tells that you're probably not serving your sweet spot
[christeen_era]:Yeah, so these are some symptoms to where if you're hearing these things or you're experiencing these things in your business, you're experiencing symptoms of not operating from the sweet spot of your business. And I really love this diagram because it helps you get focused on the things that you need to focus on that's going to get you there faster. So it's almost like a tool to where you can shortcut your way to success by identifying symptoms assigned to these elements. So from the pumpkin plan book, and I'm not sure how many of our listeners have heard of it, it's one of my favorite books. And in this book, Mike talks about giant pumpkins, right? So this
[steven_bousquet]:Hold
[christeen_era]:is one
[steven_bousquet]:on,
[christeen_era]:of his
[steven_bousquet]:hold
[christeen_era]:stories.
[steven_bousquet]:on, hold on. I thought we were going to talk about business. Now we're talking about pumpkins. What's this about?
[christeen_era]:So in the pumpkin plan book, one of the simple strategies that Mike used was the strategy to grow giant pumpkins, right? So he met up with some pumpkin farmers, he did all this research and they found that to grow a giant prize-winning pumpkin, you need a prize-winning seed. And some of the things that they do from the pumpkin farmers is they weed out, right? in their pumpkin patch, they weed out all the pumpkins that are not the winning pumpkins. So the ones that are taking up the life out of the vine, they're getting the weeds out of the garden, the rodents, the pests, things like that. So they're really investing all this time into this one pumpkin. pumpkin and they want to grow this giant pumpkin and the giant pumpkin represents your business. So your business, that's your pumpkin, that's your prize-winning pumpkin. So what's going to go into this prize-winning pumpkin? So the pumpkin plan book that Mike McCallowitz wrote is all about the focus and using some of the same strategies but applying them to business that pumpkin farmers seeds from these giant pumpkins. So the sweet spot assessment and the sweet spot diagram comes from that concept of grow a giant pumpkin, you know, grow the best business you can grow and how to streamline that and kind of get those magic business seeds, you know, so you can optimize those and the opportunities around those in your business.
[steven_bousquet]:So the concept is instead of trying to grow a thousand pumpkins and Of all varying sizes and weights and color variations and everything I want to grow I want to grow the biggest pumpkin and so I'm going to put all my energy I fertilizer my water my weeding and I'm going to make sure even like sun like too, if it's too windy, on a giant pumpkin, like to win the state fair away, instead of trying to focus on a thousand pumpkins, all my time and energy is going to go into winning at the state fair with this giant pumpkin. And it's the same thing, identifying our giant pumpkins in our customer mix, our customer blend, and focusing on them instead of trying to be everything to everybody at all times.
[christeen_era]:Right. Yeah. So the sweet spot is really the underlying strategy, which is your special seed in your business. So that's what we refer to as a sweet spot. And that seed is going to grow that giant pumpkin, you know, which is your business. So this is one of my favorite strategies. It's a real easy assessment to take. It gives you so much insight in your business. And it's these elements today so you can better understand, you know, it's like what are the three things that you have to focus on in order to scale and grow your business? And this is the sweet spot diagram. And what you're doing is you're using these elements and assessing them to stay focused on what matters. So you're spending time, you know, being more efficient in your business just by focusing on these three elements and getting them dialed in. And the symptoms of these are you how far away you are in these three different elements from getting to your sweet spot. So you might be really strong in one and then in others, you know, you may not be so great. So you can correct course and get on track with all of them.
[steven_bousquet]:Okay, so you're going to tell us these three elements are, and I would imagine, because I know Mike McAllivis and I've read everything he's written, they're going to be easy, they're going to be simple, but not easy right away.
[christeen_era]:Right.
[steven_bousquet]:It's going to take some work to get there, right?
[christeen_era]:Yeah, yeah, and we took the sweet spot assessment. So being a pumpkin plan strategist, you know, I have access to all the tools that we use for pumpkin plan coaching. And one of my favorite tools that we have in our toolbox is the sweet spot assessment. So I took the sweet spot assessment and I worked with some online tool developers to get the assessment to where you could take it online and it instantly gives you your results with your symptoms. take the assessment by hand and then kind of study it and read up on it, it's automatically going to spit out like, hey, these are the issues or the trouble areas that you need to focus on. So I really love this tool and I love how we have streamlined this at Green Profit Academy for businesses to use.
[steven_bousquet]:So quickly, easily, they can figure out what they need to do, where they need to focus, and where their
[christeen_era]:Right.
[steven_bousquet]:lead spot is.
[christeen_era]:And the challenging part, I think, for business owners, and once they identify the symptoms in the sweet spot, is they may not be the champion to fix this problem. So
[steven_bousquet]:Oh.
[christeen_era]:I think that's where the difficulty comes in.
[steven_bousquet]:Tell me more about the champion.
[christeen_era]:So when we say you're not the champion, it's you're not the person. It's not gonna be something that you should focus on where you're working from your strengths. It may not be something that you're good at. Let's say systemization is a great one, right? So if you need to focus on systems and processes in your business, but you're not that detailed, slow down type of person, you may need somebody else to be the champion of that. is hand it off to somebody that can work on that area of systems and processes in your business. It's their strength. They love doing that. They're not going to get too much in the detail, but they're going to provide enough information to start documenting things for you.
[steven_bousquet]:Okay, sounds like a plan.
[christeen_era]:So the three elements in the sweet spot, so these are the three key elements, is your top customers or clients, depending on how you refer to them, your unique offering and your systems and processes. So picture these in three overlapping circles, top customers, unique offering and systems and processes. And these, all three of these elements must be present and aligned with each other order for you to grow your business. So if you can find your sweet spot in Leaser, focus on growing your sweet spot, then you have the seed of a giant pumpkin, or in this case, the secret to growing a giant business. And every business is going to be different. So once you find your sweet spot and you're operating from that, you're going to experience organic growth and growing your business will stop being hard. So you're really fine-tuning your business and you know, we've heard so many times Steve, especially in the lawn and landscape industry My business is special. My business is special, you know And the reality of it is is there are special things about your business, right? And these special things are going to come into play when you're assessing your sweet spot
[steven_bousquet]:Yeah, everybody has, everyone's special. They have a special market, a special way of doing stuff. And a lot of times, you know, just the owner is unique in their own right. So they offer, whether it's communication or a very particular set of skills, it does make it special. And also location is such a big factor. You know, things are done very differently in Florida than Connecticut and Texas and California and Oregon.
[christeen_era]:right?
[steven_bousquet]:the people, the products. So absolutely things are completely different almost no matter where you go.
[christeen_era]:Yeah, and people have heard me say several times, like, you know, your business isn't John's business. What works for John may not work for you. So you really have to know what are the elements of your business that are going to create success for you, based off of so many different factors. So, you know, I wanted to kind of spend some time today to unpack these three elements of the sweet audience can better understand what this looks like.
[steven_bousquet]:Sure. Let's start unpacking.
[christeen_era]:All right, so the first element represented in the sweet spot diagram is your top customers. So they're your niche or your ideal customers. So they're the ones you want to focus your attention on. They're the clients that you would love to be able to clone over and over and over again. They're probably your favorite customers. They buy everything. They're also your most in the past, they may be your favorite, but you're paying them to do the work. Right? So those would not be your top customers if you're not making money off of them. Another indication is that you and your team love working with these customers and serving them. You know, it's not that cringe factor if the phone rings and it's Mrs. Jones and you're like, oh, it's Mrs. Jones. You're like, oh, Mrs. Jones is calling again. You know, I how we can help her. So, you know, as a certified pumpkin plan strategist, when I've worked with clients through the pumpkin plan, we've helped them learn to identify their top customers. So this is a process, Steve, I know you have been through identifying your top customers, and then you figured out, like, how to clone them. What about them, you know, is similar to where you can market to them and this technique has been a game-changer for anybody who's ever used this technique.
[steven_bousquet]:Yeah, it was a big change in my business. You know, we found out where our like giant pumpkins lived, what they like to do, how they like to be communicated and what they valued from my company. And so it enabled us to reduce our marketing spend and build
[christeen_era]:Mm-hmm.
[steven_bousquet]:up more density. So it's paid huge dividends.
[christeen_era]:Yeah, and one of the things that I remember is, you know, you have customers, some of your best customers are located in, you know, on a court, like versus on a main street. So you know, you are able to market to them a little bit easier once you identified that. Other factors that we've helped them identify is, you know, their top customers are, you know, they're working professionals. attorneys own their own business, dentists, doctors, you know, so they kind of live this certain lifestyle. And that's something that's similar to where you can identify, oh, all of these customers buy these particular programs, or are interested in these type of landscape designs. So there are certain things that are going to be similar to where you can identify who are best how can we market to them? So how can we speak their language?
[steven_bousquet]:Yeah, we did identify. So a big majority or large majority of our customers live on cul-de-sacs and they live at the bottom the later half of the cul-de-sac So not in the beginning of the cul-de-sac Usually toward the end and it got to the so even before we did the pumpkin planting whenever I pulled into a cul-de-sac I didn't even start looking at the address until I was at least halfway down the street Because I knew they were going to be in the back. They were never in the front so when we developed our cul-de-sac mailing list just to address that particular type of buyer. It's a psychographic or a demographic that does that. I was trying to fill in between these cul-de-sacs
[christeen_era]:Okay.
[steven_bousquet]:and we didn't have any success, no success, but we just focused on the back half of that cul-de-sac. That's when we got the same better market results for half the dough.
[christeen_era]:Yeah, so those are some of the elements for your top customers, what that looks like. So the next element I want to talk about in the diagram is your unique offering. So this is what you sell, how you sell it and how you deliver it. And this makes you stand out from the competition. And every company is going to be different. So the difference is between what you want to stand out, you don't exactly want to figure out what your competitor's doing and then go and say, oh, we're going to do exactly that. You know, you want to offer a service offering that serves your vision, your business mission. They're aligned with your immutable laws and all the elements of your unique offering. So in addition to the product and service itself, so you don't want to say, oh, we just do lawn application. Well, how do you do lawn application? to your customers? You know, how do you connect with them? You know, do you try to have as little connection as possible and you're very fast? Or do you try to communicate and you know communicate with the client whether it's leaving them a video or some notes or even talking to them in person and saying hey you know you've got maybe some fungus here we need to do this type of treatment this is why I couldn't help but notice you know this tree over here is sick and it might need some kind of identify how you want to serve your customers and how that ties to your unique offering. What makes you different from the other landscaper, lawn care business that is in your service area and how can you stand out? So in the pumpkin plan program, you learn about your area of innovation. And I know this is something that several, landscapers and lawn care people that I've connected, about which we call your AOI, so your area of innovation. So this is also one of the key elements of your unique offering. So when your unique offering intersects with your top customers and what they want and need from you, that means that will make your unique offering so you want to match what your top customers are looking for and what they want to experience in your market. So that's where we're looking at your unique offering and your area of innovation. So how those two kind of come together and your top clients are going to tell you that. So they're going to say, hey, I love how your team will let me know, what they treated that day or what I should focus on in my yard. Or if I have a problem with something in my yard, or even let me know like, issue on my property and if I don't fix it, it's going to drain towards my house. And so that they're going to have, you know, maybe a landscape technician contact me to talk to me about this problem. So this is kind of the feedback that we've gotten from our customers that we've worked with of what they've learned about their customers, what their customers need, and the unique offering is something that is an area of innovation for them. So the more that they can communicate and kind of approach their services in this way, they're kind of, you know, serving that unique offering in that area of innovation in their landscape and lawn care business.
[steven_bousquet]:So the way they're communicating is their area of innovation. It doesn't have to necessarily be product-based. It could be communication-based. It could be product-based. It could be offering custom grass seed and custom fertilizer made specifically for a region, or it could be a style of planting. I visited a lot of landscape companies, and each installer kind of had a very unique style. Maybe they used more boulders and raised beds, evergreens to create different types of looks. So, you know, and that goes back to like, what are you really good at? Natural, kind of naturalistic landscapes or formal landscapes or hardscapes and dialing in your niche on that. So, with communication,
[christeen_era]:Right.
[steven_bousquet]:it could be even billing, like making billing and payment super easy, super convenient, super fast for clients and taking out any kind of like confusion friction points around payments is another unique offering that you can have.
[christeen_era]:Yeah, yeah. So there's areas of innovation there that can serve your unique offering. And it's interesting, you know, in working with so many businesses over the years, is they're even discovering that one major thing in their unique offering, like in their services and how they provide it, is the one reason why their top customers will not only continue to resign with them, but they don't object to higher prices because that one thing or those two things really speak to them and they're like, well, nobody else does this. So yeah, I don't mind paying more or I don't even question about resigning, you know, with this vendor because they do it this way, or I don't have to worry about that. So those are, you know, things to think about when you're looking at your unique offering and the sweet spot diagram, are there things that your customers really value and what are those things that they value? or potential customers that you know that's going to be their same language they value that as well.
[steven_bousquet]:And I just had I just had a thought like so you can be unique in your communication and pricing products and everything But one thing that isn't really unique is low prices because All it takes is someone to come right behind you and just offer lower prices and now you're not unique at all So that low price offering or trying to beat the market on price Now only works until somebody else comes along and offers a lower price. I mean be profitable as low cost provider, low price provider anyways, but that's why that innovation of low pricing only works for a certain period of time, even for one.
[christeen_era]:Right. Exactly. Yeah. And that's a good point because I know people that won't even go shop at Walmart and they're like, I don't really care that I can get a low price. I don't want to deal with the environment. I don't want to deal with how many people are in there. You know, it is a place where it's like a lot of people go shopping as a family. We've identified that Steve, when we've been on business trips and we pop into a Walmart for something and it's the entire family shopping there. So, and it's kind of funny that that's been communicated to me because that's what I remember. And you know, when someone says Walmart, I'm like, Oh my goodness, all those families shopping at one time, there are so many people, and it's such a friction point for me to get in and get out. Right.
[steven_bousquet]:It
[christeen_era]:And
[steven_bousquet]:was.
[christeen_era]:that's what other people have communicated as well.
[steven_bousquet]:It was quite a phenomenon. I think it was nine o'clock. We were at Elevate down in Orlando when we went to Walmart. It was nine o'clock at night. And there was the mom, the dad, and the three kids. Sometimes the mom, the dad, the mother-in-law, and the three kids at seven, eight. It was nine o'clock. But I've been in one more other times, and the same thing, seven, eight, nine o'clock, even on a Sunday night. And you'll see the whole family shopping. So it's, and we, you know, that scales. There's a lot of people in this store, to shop quickly. But yeah, that was an interesting phenomenon. So we know who their sweet spot customer is, because they were walking out, these people were walking out with two carts full of
[christeen_era]:Oh yeah,
[steven_bousquet]:products. So
[christeen_era]:right.
[steven_bousquet]:that's a Walmart customer. That's their
[christeen_era]:Right.
[steven_bousquet]:sweet spot. Where you're looking for convenience and price is not really the issue, or you're not doing bulk kind of shopping, it's definitely not, we're not their sweet spot customer for sure.
[christeen_era]:Right. Yeah. So that's a great example right there on, you know, your area of innovation, what your unique offering is. And price is not necessarily one of those differentiators where, you know, it's like, what else can you bring to the table? So the third element in the sweet spot diagram, which is something that, you know, I always like to talk about is systemization. systems and processes, you know, what systems and processes businesses have, how they're, you know, serving you and your team, you know, how they're serving the client, you know, or customer that you have. So systemization creates scalability. So this is why it's one of the elements. And scalability means that you have the ability to grow the production, or the delivery of your unique offering, like exponentially. So it's something, you know, towards it's adding resources without depending on any one specific person in your business, usually the business owner, right? Or maybe your most valuable employee, you know, that you have in your team where you're like, oh my gosh, if I lose this person, you know, then what? Or maybe it's both of you, you know, so this is something that your business to scale and grow your business without it being dependent on you. So this is why systemization is the third element. So this can also be the most difficult, you know, for owners who founded their business themselves, right? So it's like, especially I think in the lawn care and landscape industries or service-based industries because, you know, most of service-based industries, you know, they started a business technician or they are really good at their craft. So you know they're not experienced in well how do I turn something over? How do I document a process? You know how do I manage the administrative needs? So this is this is kind of a tough spot you know that systemization which is why earlier we use that example of they you know you may not be the champion when it comes to creating systems and processes in your business. They may this may not be your strong suit. But if you don't have these around delivery and things that you're trying to turn over to a technician, then it's going to stop you from growing your business and being able to scale up. There's going to be a capacity point. And some businesses, they may not be so And maybe it just needs to be tweaked. Maybe there's like one or two changes that will allow other people to step in and take over these tasks. Also some automation, or a combination of the two can be the solution in order to systematize your business.
[steven_bousquet]:I've been on mute. I've been on mute that whole time. What the heck had it done?
[christeen_era]:Yes, that will have to be cut out. I couldn't hear you.
[steven_bousquet]:Oh man, we'll have to edit all this out. Well, let me mark that down. All right, ready? We'll start up again, go.
[christeen_era]:Well, I just finished talking
[steven_bousquet]:Go.
[christeen_era]:about systematizing your business.
[steven_bousquet]:All right, hold on. All right, I wrote it down, 330. Okay, so what I've noticed, Christine, is that people, guys and women in the green industry, they'll kind of be struggling with profitability, they'll be overwhelmed, they're doing all these things, but they don't spend the time to create the systems and processes, and I've seen actually where they'll add a new service. So instead of like defining or refining what they are existing doing, they add another thing, control or mosquito control or curbing or annual flowers or driveway stealing. I did all that. So I know it's like that's going to make the money. That's going to make me more profitable. That's going to make my life somehow easier. It never
[christeen_era]:Mm-hmm.
[steven_bousquet]:worked for me. And when I look at them, I talk to people that are doing that, it's more frustrating because they have to hire more people, invest more money in equipment. And you know, I just desperately want them to read the pumpkin plan and know that they that they could niche down and find their sweet spot customer and they don't have to have all this additional investment, frustration, people, and resources. So, and they'll eventually find their way to that at some point, but we can get there much quicker using the pumpkin plant and the sweet spot process.
[christeen_era]:Yeah, and I think that's a great point because we were just having a conversation recently, you and I talking about, I believe we were talking about coaching and the right coach for you. And the subject matter kind of came up of we have experienced in the past where a coach who isn't familiar with an industry will make suggestions with good intentions, but they're not suggesting the right things. So instead of, systemizing, systematizing the business and really honing on your most profitable service and improving that and improving how you're delivering it. What they did was suggest like, oh, you should add another service. You should do pest control on top of spray application. And the spray application is really the sweet spot of their business. had with them focus on improving that application, the spray application, and not going down the route of the pest control. And pest control was not something that would have served their business. It would have maxed out their capacity faster. It would have complicated what they're already doing. So it was easy to kind of correct course and say, well, let's talk about if you add pest control, what would that look like? And now let's talk about systematize your spray application department and what that looks like in your business and opportunities there to serve better customers that buy at a higher price point. And that's the road that they that we went down and it was kind of easier to coach around just having the conversation of let's systematize this. Like what would make it easier? Where can we remove the friction points? does this. So I think there's a ton of opportunity in systemization in a business and looking at like how can things be more efficient and just talking about friction points will help you identify where that those systems and processes can be put into place.
[steven_bousquet]:Yeah, and adding new services is just, I've done it. There's a learning curve, there's these things that we don't know. It looks so simple, everything looks so simple when you watch an expert do it or you don't know anything about it. Like watch somebody make a pizza, right? They just spin the pizza, throw a little sauce on it, some cheese, but if you don't know how to spin a pizza, it can be ugly. I've tried it, it did not end well. And it's the same thing with this pest control, right? there's how many different insects and how, when do they pupate? When do they lay their eggs and all these things? And you know, what if you don't kill them and you have to go back? And there's just so many other things where this person was particularly, I know who you're referring to, they had a really strong niche and a really strong brand
[christeen_era]:Yeah.
[steven_bousquet]:and line here already. So it was much easier just to focus on that and identify the sweet spot customer and then expand upon that, then start a whole new learning curve, education, time,
[christeen_era]:Yeah.
[steven_bousquet]:branding, I mean just what a task that would have been to go down that road. So focusing
[christeen_era]:video.
[steven_bousquet]:on that SpeedSpot customer and their talents and tools and resources they had and they were already excelling with was absolutely a winning combination.
[christeen_era]:Yeah, so that's, I think that's a great area to look at is systemization. So, you know, we, you might be looking at these elements right now are thinking about them. And you might have, let's say, two out of three, like that's a common thing. And you're going, well, will that work? Right? If I have two out of three of these. And most businesses do like they'll have many small business owners are in the same boat where they're like, well, we have two out of three, need a little, you know, tweaking and we can make that better, but we don't have X, like whatever that element is. So two out of three won't get you organic growth. So let's just kind of clarify that now. It's like, we're going to have to get all three of them aligned and in place. Because I want to kind of go over some things of like, what might happen if you don't have these aligned and in place? Like if, if maybe you've got two out of place are kind of some good talking points to share with our audience. So if you have a unique offering and the systems to scale that offering, but your top clients don't want it, right? So nobody cares about your product or services and you can't sell them, but you're like, but we have this, and we have the systems, but nobody's going to buy it. So some symptoms of not being aligned deaf ears. Like you're like we're marketing like crazy and nobody's buying this. So or you're not attracting the type of clients that you consider your ideal clients, like your ideal customers. Like who are these people? You're out there marketing and you're like but we're not getting the right people. So another symptom would be if your current customers are not buying any new products or services that you're introducing. So that could be another another issue. So if you don't know who your top clients are or you don't understand what they want and need from you or you don't know how to define and categorize them into a niche and you don't know where to find them, so growth will continue to be difficult.
[steven_bousquet]:because your existing customers are not buying more from you. You're not attracting new customers. So if you're not in that niche, then what?
[christeen_era]:Yeah, so then what you're going to have to do is you're going to have to focus more on what your who your top clients are in the language that they speak. Right. And also you might have to look at those services that you're providing and going, is this what our really are what our top customers really need and want? What are they saying to us? Because as business owners, and I have experienced this myself, not only with services, that we provide our team, I make assumptions. I'm like, oh, they absolutely need this, or they're gonna want this. And then we find out they really don't. It's kind of like, it's not about the nail, right? They might be saying, oh, this is a problem, but that's not really the problem. So you could create a service offering around that problem, but that's not really what they need and want. It's really about something else.
[steven_bousquet]:Yeah, absolutely. Like, it's very interesting. I'm always like working on my program, getting darker green grass, you know, without adding nitrogen. I don't want the nitrogen, but I want darker green. So I work out what are the nutrients I can get. But when I surveyed my customers, that was not one of their biggest concerns at all. Their grass was green
[christeen_era]:it.
[steven_bousquet]:enough. You know, they wanted better communication, like are you gonna be there in the morning? Are you gonna be there in the late afternoon? Because if you're gonna be there in the late afternoon, I'll keep my dog on the lawn until lunch and I'll bring him in at lunchtime. But if you're gonna be there in the morning, I'll have my dog locked up until lunch and then let him out after you guys have come. So that way the dog doesn't have to spend all day locked up. That was one of their biggest concern was really managing around our applications and their dogs and not having darker green grass. So I could have spent, which I did, time on that, but I stopped at that point a concern. So now when we communicate to our customers, hey, we can work with you and your dog schedule around our lawn applications. So that was an element that I never considered. I'm not a dog person. I have four cats. So
[christeen_era]:Great.
[steven_bousquet]:it wasn't even on my radar, but it was a big help having these conversations with our clients.
[christeen_era]:Yeah, and that's a really good point. It's, you know, you can easily at that point, change your marketing message to speak to your ideal customers and their needs. So, and that way you'll get the right people responding to the right services. And your marketing will be seen and it will be heard and it will be effective. So now the next one is if your offering can be systematized and your top clients want it, but it's not unique. right? So then your offering essentially becomes a commodity. So you don't stand out, it's hard to get noticed. You know those are going to be some of the things. So your customers and prospects can't distinguish you from your competitors. And this is a challenge that I hear a lot in, you know, lawn application and landscape, especially with companies that are just getting which is kind of frustrating, right? Because it's like they're just kicking tires. So in this case, if you're not the lowest price, you will have a hard time selling your product or services, and you'll be subject to constant price pressure and discounting, or even canceling. So on the other side of the coin, if you can offer something completely unique that your top customers really care about, then you're not subject to price pressure at all. where, you know, I don't like the idea of price pressure. I've always been one of those people to where if I really want it, I will find a way to get it, you know, and then there's that if we really need it, then, you know, we look at the investment on what we're spending, we're looking at as an investment. So that's where I feel like, you know, if you have a unique offering that your top clients want, it's easier, right, systematizing it, they're going to buy it, they know why you're going to buy it, but if you don't have the systems in place to handle further growth, then you can't scale. So if you have low prices per se, you're not gonna be able to scale and grow your company because you're not gonna be able to afford more help.
[steven_bousquet]:Right.
[christeen_era]:So that's a great example.
[steven_bousquet]:Yeah, if you don't have the people, the profit, there's just no way to scale and people aren't buying it from you anyways.
[christeen_era]:Right. So, you know, you don't want to be that commodity, right? Like I know there's lots of franchises out there where they'll, you know, say, oh, we're going to price it this way. And this is what we do. You know, if you're not a franchise and you have your own business and your business model, it's something that you can control to where you're, you can point out how you're not unique. You know, it's to where you're like, Hey, this is what we do. This is what they do. know your competitor isn't unique with their pricing model and what their services are, but you are able to show up and say hey this is our pricing model, this is how we do things, and this is what makes us different. And that's where you can really stand out.
[steven_bousquet]:Great. All right.
[christeen_era]:All right, so the last one that we want to talk about today is the unique offering for your top clients. So if you have systems in place, you can systematize what you're offering. So this is typically a complaint I hear with business owners all the time to where they say, well, nobody's going to do it as good as me. This is how we do things around here. I created this brand. this process, this is how we do it. If I hire a technician or if I hire the person to do this, it's never going to get done how I do it. And then the next thing I hear out of their mouth, I need to find somebody to hire that's just like me and then it will happen. So I think that that's kind of a challenge is if we continue to systematize in our business in our business, we can easily pass the torch and keep the unique offering and how we deliver these services to our unique clients. So, our unique offering and our ideal clients. So with that being said, you want to make sure that the service that you are providing, it's unique, you're delivering it to your ideal customers, and then it's systematized. So it's not only you, and you're not keeping the processes way that you deliver things, you know, in your head. It's like, it's transferable. And you're building a company culture. I think that's the other piece of this that the sweet spot doesn't shine a light on is when you have these systems and processes in your business that really speak to your ideal customers and how you do things, you're automatically building a company culture through the training process and the systems that you're defining. tree in your business, which is kind of it's a and the decision tree comes from clockwork, right? So how to clockwork your business, which is another book by Mike McCallowitz and It is such a powerful tool to where just by doing this your team is going to know How things should be done based off of how other things are done in the business So it's kind of like that core values, you know You're how you deliver your services to your clients or customers what you deliver and the process that support them. So you're kind of training them as they're going through the process of onboarding in your company and learning how to deliver these services to know, well, what would my boss do or what would my manager do or how do we do things here at the company?
[steven_bousquet]:Right, right. That focus becomes part of the company culture.
[christeen_era]:Right. Yeah, exactly. So let's see, how do we? So I want to kind of talk about like how we can tie this up here is so we've already kind of talked about the three elements. They must be all present. Right. So think about that. What elements do I have and which ones don't I have? You can easily go take the sweet spot assessment in your business. on point on and which ones you're not. So what you can do is we're going to give you the link of the sweet spot assessment and I want to suggest that you kind of take your time going through this. So be honest, don't overthink your answers and in general if all of your answers are a five because it's kind of like on that scale of one to five, you know, then you should be doing all the right have these symptoms. So that's why I'm saying like really be honest and look at these different areas because if there is something that's off, you know, you can easily identify it and fix it and you're going to get there faster. You know, in addition, if all of your answers are ones that you know, on the worst side of the scale, right, where you're saying, oh yeah, I always get price pressure or this always happens or then you know that you have you're going to know what you need to do. And that's what I love about this assessment. It's like, focus on this, focus on this, this area seems good. And most business owners, they have a mix of responses when they take this assessment. So some areas they're really strong in and others they just struggle with. And there's no wrong answer here, right? It's just identifying, what do I really need to focus on? And it's going to explain, like the symptoms that you're gonna be experiencing if one of these are not aligned with your sweet spot.
[steven_bousquet]:Right, so just be honest, it's your company, it's your business, you're trying to improve it, you're trying to make it better. So do the best you can with your answers. We just wanna remember the three elements are your top clients, your unique offering, and your systems and processes. And you can work on those, identify those using our sweet spot assessment. It's gonna be in the show notes. I would highly recommend that you go through and like Christine said, take your time and do the best you can and then review the results.
[christeen_era]:Yeah, nuts.
[steven_bousquet]:Okay, any closing remarks Christine or do you have a closing quote?
[christeen_era]:No, I think that's it. Definitely take your sweet spot assessment. Once you take it, you can, you know, if you choose to book a consultation with us so we can kind of unpack it for you if that's something that you wish to do. And I think it's a great tool. It's only nine questions and, you know, to get through. So it's not a long assessment at all. And it's gonna focus on these three areas for you.
[steven_bousquet]:Super. Yes, if you want to unpack after you take it, you can reach out to us at Green Profit Academy and you can set up a call. We'd love to do that. All right, Christine, well, thank you very much for sharing this sweet spot assessment and the story about the pumpkin plan. And it is a pretty clever and interesting way to talk about growing our giant pumpkins in our business. And it's a big part of my company. If you talk to anyone in my company, they would understand and be able to tell you who our giant pumpkins were, and clients, and why they were. So it was a process, it didn't happen overnight, but we started and we kept at it, we kept improving, and we did it over a few years period, and we continue with it today. So thank you for joining us today, and I hope you enjoyed our podcast.