The Landscape of Resolution
So, here were are at the end of February, and our New Year's Resolutions are to be implemented in a few short weeks. Yes the merry-go-round we call spring will be here in a few short weeks and there are those of us it seems who have already forgotten our new year's resolutions.
Here's a sampling of the few I've heard:
"I'm going to follow up every job with set periodic phone calls to gauge our customers satisfaction"
"I'm guaranteeing our work by returning to job sites for follow up inspections."
"Actually doing the basic soil testing we swear we are going to do on each new job site."
"I'm going to actually bill my clients the day I finish a job, instead of scurrying around a month later calling vendors for plant lists to sort out who got what."
Is 2010 the year we will actually _____________ (fill in the blank.........bill, prune, divide, conquer) the way we promised ourselves we would? Are we spending enough time building a relationship with our clients? Are we educating them in the process?
If you're new year's resolution is as simple as mine: never ever again stick your thumb in molten-lava- right-out-of-the-oven-hot baked clams; then perhaps this spring will be a breeze for you. But if you've made a pact with yourself that you will follow up with clients or spend the extra buck to go back and prune then the application of that resolution comes from one simple action: Sacrifice.
The act of sacrifice is the way all resolutions come to fruition. You give something up to see another thing through to the end. So you get up earlier or stay out later each day so you can swing by a job site and drop off a business card, that shows you are concerned follow-thru kinda guy, and then you go home and watch the end of Man vs. Food.
Or you take 15 mintues at the end of each day and call back every customer you visited last month to find out how the planting is getting along, or if they're interested in a walk-through the natty looking side yard just to go over some ideas that you are really excitied about, and then you go home and fix up the natty looking side yard at your house.
One year my new year's resolution was to actually water my own garden through one whole season. Every day. Actually water. I had to sign a blood oath to myself.......eeehhhh I won't tell you how it turned out.
Sacrifice 15 mintues each day for your resolution and don't ever stick your thumbs in molten-lava -hot baked clams and you'll escape second degree burns, and your customers will appreciate your diligence and tell their friends and neighbors about you.
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0 comments - Posted by Laura at 7:12 AM - Categories: Garden Smarty