I’m aging myself with this statement, but when I first started Grunder Landscaping Co. (GLC), the internet didn’t exist. You couldn’t find YouTube videos that showed you how to do something, or Google and get a quick answer to your business question. And actually, the roots of The Grow Group and this weekly Great Idea email you’re receiving predate internet bloggers – in its original form, it was a printed, mailed newsletter.
I started writing these Great Ideas, actionable tips, and tricks for landscape pros to help their businesses, because I wished they existed when I started my business.
Since then, our team at The Grow Group has grown, and now this weekly Great Idea comes from me, Vince Torchia, or Emily Lindley. We try our best to make it a quick tip that can help you improve your company or make your job easier.
We do it because we enjoy watching landscaping companies across the country succeed, and we know that our experience can help. It’s the same thing that I see my team at GLC doing when new team members start: those with experience pass on their knowledge to new team members.
We’ve had a lot of new team members join our team this year as we’ve grown and added a second location. Internally, we're facilitating knowledge shares, too:
Team members, our production workers, are paired with more experienced team leaders, who manage their time and tasks, and show them how to do new-to-them tasks. They work with them on plant ID, safety, and teach them the way that GLC does landscaping work even if they have prior experience. In addition to this on-the-job training, we also do weekly all-team training, monthly all-company updates, and weekly skills training for our team leaders.
It adds up to a robust training program for our production teams, whether someone is new to the team or continuing their education. And we’re using Greenius to take this one step further, too.
New salespeople spend at least 2 weeks shadowing our existing salespeople. The way we have Aspire set up makes it simple for salespeople to create proposals and accurately bid work, and then our experienced salespeople walk them through the process. We often give new salespeople leads to screen and sell with supervision so they can get some early wins, too.
Similar to our production teams, we spend time during our weekly sales meeting doing training to continue our education.
You’ll notice that both examples have one thing in common: They rely on experienced team members spending time teaching, sharing expertise, and supervising new team members as they try out skills for the first time. Passing on experience is how we started The Grow Group, and it’s a key part of our success at Grunder Landscaping Co., too.
So that’s my weekly tip for you: share your experience and look for opportunities to learn from others who have more experience than you do. It’ll serve you well in the long run.
My second weekly tip: you don’t have to have all the knowledge within your team. There are great resources out there that didn’t exist when I was getting started, and that my team takes advantage of today. Things like Grow Group events, YouTube tutorials, and Greenius training help us move forward.
Founder & CEO
The Grow Group & Grunder Landscaping Co.
P.S. Come see us this fall! Our Grunder Landscaping Co. Field Trips are scheduled for August, September, October, and December this year, providing an opportunity to learn directly from the experienced and talented team members I have the good fortune of working alongside. Will I see you in Dayton this year?