4 Tips and Tricks to Help You Get Off the Truck and Into a Management Role

Research shows that people who own businesses are happier than people who work for someone else, but for many business owners struggling in a rut, that happiness can seem far away. Owners of landscaping companies are particularly prone to getting stuck in a state of stagnation, working from morning until night on landscaping. In order to grow your business, you have to be able to get off the truck and spend time as a manager and leader. Here are four tips to make that happen.

#1 Invest in Yourself

It’s simple: Good leaders make good business owners. Investing in yourself means training yourself to be a good leader so that you can empower your employees to do quality work while simultaneously empowering yourself to grow your business. If you can step out of the worker roles—gardener, mower, crew leader—and into the responsibilities of owner, your business can grow. Essential to making this happen is learning how to be the strong leader of a commercial landscape maintenance franchise.

#2 Trust Your Crews

We see it all the time: Business owners work hard, mowing lawns and planting flowers day and night, spending all their time serving their clients in the most literal way. So often, these owners do such quality work that they do not trust their employees to meet that same standard, so they micro-manage every job and do it all themselves. The fact is that when you are doing all the labor yourself, you cannot spend time growing your business, finding new clients, or nurturing client relationships.

You can break this pattern by trusting your employees to do jobs to the same high standard that you do. When you trust your crews, you can delegate work to them which frees up your time to manage your business.

#3 Train Your Employees

There is one fool proof way to ensure that you can trust your employees to work at the same high standard that you do: train them.

The only way to increase your revenues and grow your business is to invest in yourself and your people. Your crews are essential to your business, and with proper training, they can perpetuate the great service that you have built your business around.

Creating a culture of training goes further than simply teaching your employees on the services they will provide to clients. You also need to invest in people development, starting from onboarding on the first day and continuing with growth opportunities. Give your people opportunities to grow their roles within the business—from gardener to crew leader to manager to manager. When you have grown your business to the point where you have several crews, you can give your employees a clear career path that motivates them to work their way up through the ranks.

#4 Convert to a Franchise

Converting your business into a commercial landscape maintenance franchise empowers you to do the previous three things on this list. The support of a franchise like U.S. Lawns allows you to be confident in your strength and leverage your abilities to serve others. When you invest in a franchise, you are investing in yourself and getting the tools you need to train your employees to provide the same outstanding work that you do.

U.S. Lawns gives you all the tools you need to get off the truck and be a true leader. The members of our franchise team have 20+ years of experience in the green industry; allow us to assist you in scaling your business. Read more about converting your business into a commercial landscape maintenance franchise and get started right away!