Making a Game Plan for Those Inevitable Slow Periods

From episode: EP42 - Slow Season Survival: Staying Right When Money Gets Tight

So what I feel we all need is a game plan, because without a game plan, how are you going to execute anything? And one of the first things I like to do is not focus on anything negative. Nothing negative. I like to just start with a clean slate. So the bank accounts low. We already know that. Your emotions are all over the place, we already know that. You feel negative. Things might upset you. You need to pause all of that and learn how to do that. And then now positivity and looking forward. So it's like, all right, expenses. What am I spending money on right now that I might not need? What can I hold off on right now that I don't need to spend? If you have staff, they can go through things for you. If not, you can jump on, take some time. Remember, you're an entrepreneur guys. So it's normal to be up all night long and then go out and kill it again. I don't know. That's just a mindset of a warrior. When you become an entrepreneur, that's what you build. And when it comes to expenses, what I'm referring to is like, do I need the same amount of people that I had before? Do I need the same amount of trucks that I had? Can I consolidate my debt? Right? Can I get it and jump into something where now I get to, let's say you have two, three, four, five credit cards that they're maxed out. Can I call a company, a bank, that now I can put it all into one lump sum. And now I make a monthly payment, stay away from the weekly payments. The ones that suck out money from your account automatically, that is brutal, that will, that will kill you. So I would jump into something like that. See if you have the credit to do that and all that. And all goes back to what you've done in the past. And this is all a learning experience and the whole nine. Running a business is very important to take everything serious and to stay disciplined enough to do so. Another thing to think about when it comes to cutting expenses, do not cut expenses on what it costs you to produce your product, unless you're buying used pots or something like that versus new, you got a deal, I get it. But I would not stop using the fertilizers that you use, I would not stop your spray program if that is something that you guys do, which I think everybody should be on a spray program. You want to keep your product 100%. There's too many nurseries, at least down here in South Florida, that I see with my own eyes that are cutting on those type of things and what happens just us alone, we show up with a big list that we can help this person out and spend 10, 20, $30,000 there, and now I can't spend a dollar there because the product doesn't look right. When it comes to product, I think of opportunities. And when we're going to get into that later, but product creates opportunities. Who never stops moving? The people that service the top, the top one percenters, those people really don't stop moving. You want to be able to cater to them. You really have to think outside the box. It's like, all right, I was creating product that I was getting away, growing it cheaply, and I was able to sell it at a decent cost. I was able to make a decent margin, but who were those clients? Who were they servicing? You got to really think. So if you are selling plants for $3 and $3.50 and something like that, I'm just giving you guys an example. Think of who your customer base is. Your customer base might be the landscaper is doing renovations on homes and stuff like that, mediocre jobs, 2000, 3000, $5,000 installs, maybe $10,000 installs. Those are the group of landscapers that I have seen, that have been hit the hardest, when it comes to that, and have had to pivot and start doing other things, tree trimming, maintenance, other things to be able to keep the flow coming in, because that market dried up with the high interest rates and people not flipping homes and all those things. You got to really think of why this is going on. So now you can create the best game plan that can help you move forward and get out of it. You can't cheap out on the products that you use to keep your product number one. And if your product isn't number one, maybe it's time to start thinking and doing a little bit more research on how to do so. There's videos on YouTube. And there's websites where you can learn of what your plants need, if you're a grower, to create the best product possible.