Where do you start when you decide to make a change in your landscape gardening business? You may want to increase profit, take on a new piece of equipment or employee, or try a new marketing campaign. You must ’know your numbers’ whichever direction you take in your business, otherwise, how do you know if the business can afford it and if it’s likely to be a sound investment?
An old school friend, Matt Eden, was my first client, and recently we established a Facebook group together called The Landscaper’s Hub. We started the group to help those who are about to start, or who have just started, a business in the landscaping industry. We provide knowledge and support on all the unknown aspects of starting a business.
Matt is the owner of Eden Horticultural Ltd, a successful landscaping and horticultural business based in Essex. Eden Horticultural Ltd has a particular niche, meaning potential clients source their services from far and wide. My business, Sones Accountancy Services Ltd, works with a wide range of businesses in the landscaping industry, from larger businesses that use our outsourced accounts department services, to smaller clients that have their Xero accounts updated monthly and everything in between.
From my experience of working with businesses in the landscaping industry for many years and seeing how quickly those businesses can grow when they get started, it is very important for a business to start in the right way and a crucial element of that is ‘knowing your numbers’. It’s much easier to start right than implement change further along the road when you’re busy running your business.
Matt and I host a weekly live session for our Facebook group where we talk on a variety of topics relating to starting and running a business in the landscaping industry. During those discussions, the common theme we come back to time and time again is that it is so important to know your numbers! Whether we’re discussing buying a van on HP v’s lease hire, how to sell your services or even finding your niche, the question we say business owners should ask themselves when making these decisions is how does this impact my business financially? You can only answer that question when you know your numbers.
Bookkeeping is the financial foundation of any business and when done accurately, it is a really powerful tool to help steer the business in the right direction. Do you know your numbers?
