Talking about Profit First for your landscaping business brings up a lot of conversation about preparing your finances for the off-season.
It’s an important conversation to have because of how seasonal the landscaping and lawn care world is – but in all of the of-season preparation, the importance of planning for the busy season can be lost.
Busy season for your business has the potential to be the most profitable time of year for your company, but not if you wait for profitability to just happen to you.
There are ways to prepare your organization to have a successful busy season that sets the stage for a successful slow season, and now is the perfect time to do it.
In the slow season, focusing on your profitability is about finding ways to incorporate seasonal lawn care offerings and using the funds you’ve previously saved for the slow season.
These warmer weather months are for actually saving those funds and focusing on using your money as wisely as possible.
It’s easy to have tunnel vision when the jobs are moving along steadily and you have a waitlist of customers behind them. In the midst of the sheer busyness your company faces during warmer months, it’s tempting to lose track of what’s happening in your company’s finances – which can lead to overspending and losing money you could have saved.
So, while the busy season gets its name for a reason, how can you slow down and make sure you aren’t losing track of your most valuable profits before they’re gone.
Profit First is a system used to help you track where your company’s cash is going so that you never miss another dollar.
Here are our top 3 ways to prepare your business for busy season:
Evaluate your profit goals
If you are already using Profit First for your company, you should have a good idea of what your current profits are and what the ideal profit percentage you’re working toward is.
If it’s been a while since you considered what a reasonable profit goal is for your company, take some time to sit down and figure out what your target profits are for this year.
Check your percentages
If you haven’t used Profit First in the past, we recommend starting there. And if you are a Profit First user, it may be time to evaluate all of your allocation percentages – not just your profit percentage. Profit First is so useful because once you determine a rough idea of how much needs to go into each account, your only job is to allocate those funds (bi)monthly, and then you’re set. But things change quickly in business – maybe you have more employees on payroll than you did when you began Profit First, or your client-base has fluctuated. Whatever the case may be, it’s important to revisit your percentage calculations quarterly,but most especially as the busy season approaches.
If you haven’t opened a “slow season” account to pull from in the colder months, now is a great time to do so.
Stay focused on the end goal
Becoming lax with your allocations and spending limits can feel inconsequential in the moment. As summer approaches and your business remembers what it’s like to have a bit more cash on hand, this is a huge temptation!
But our encouragement to you is to remember why you’re being intentional with your finances in the first place.
You started using Profit First for your business because you were sick of using a confusing budget, feeling out of control with your company’s finances, and wanting to see real results from all the hard work you and your team put in. The tight margins you’re working with in some areas won’t last forever – and you’ll look back at this season and know it was so worth it!
Ready to revamp your landscaping bookkeeping ahead of the busy season? We’d love to help.
