Overcoming Stress and Chaos

Following is a blog post by Jeffrey Scott a consultant who helps landscape business owners to fix, scale, or exit their businesses.

How do you stay calm, cool and collected during the busy season?

Do you have a system that works well for you?

I asked my best and highest performing clients this question, and the answers were eye opening in their consistency.

There is a common thread in what the best entrepreneurs do in both their personal lives and their approach to the business.

Here is a checklist to see how many of these best practices you follow to stay calm and collected, with some anecdotes below that elaborate the most important elements.

PERSONAL: Best Practices to Stay Calm and Collected

• Maintain your personal fitness regimen during the busy season.

• Eat well (don’t succumb to fast food).

• Spend time in nature on a regular basis – gardening, pruning, walking in the forest, fishing, boating, etc.

• Turn phone off when with your family.

• Practice some form of daily meditation, breathing, enumerating your gratitude.

• Get out of the office to change focus.

• Sleep well, getting a full nights rest. More important than ever during the busy season.

• Staying spiritual, e.g. reading the bible, or what ever this means for you.

• Maintaining self awareness, focus on the big picture e.g. family, knowing “this too shall pass.”

How many of these do you adhere to?

BUSINESS: Best Practices to Keep Organized, Proactive and Productive

• Communicate (and over communicate) to remove the doubt from people’s minds (employees and clients), and keep everyone in the loop. Communicate even when the update is “there is no update.”

• Have a business plan and anticipate bottle necks before they happen, be proactive.

• Spend quiet/alone time in the morning and evening for daily and weekly planning.

• Interact with your crews, either at your yard or on your job sites, to keep you engaged and keep them pumped.

• Delegate. Proactively before the season and reactively as things fall on your plate.

• Receive clear metrics of success: sales, operations and morale.

• Be a positive force with yourself and with your people.

• Remind people of their past successes, current importance, and timeline when the storm will pass.

• Have a Plan B, incase things don’t work out per plan, again, be proactive.

How many of these do you adhere to?

Read the rest of Jeffrey’s post which includes best-practice anecdotes from his top clients on how to proactively overcome the stress and chaos of the busy season here