As companies get larger, it can be difficult for owners or even members of the leadership team to see everything that goes on in a day. It's inevitable that we end up a little bit out of touch with the day to day of the entire team as each person focuses on their own role and doing their job well.

Because of that, it's so important that we ask our team for their feedback and their ideas frequently, and that we listen to their suggestions when they have them. I like to remind my team to look for what I call low-risk experiments: 

• You think buying a new piece of equipment would save us time? Can we rent it or demo it from the dealer to try it for a week and see how much it's really used?
  
• You think a change to our webform would make it easier for us to organize leads? That's a simple fix, let's try it. 
• You think you can come up with an alternative to using enclosed trailers for container delivery? Why don't you make one prototype we can test. (We shared this idea last year, it saves us a lot of time!)
• You think reorganizing this could save us time? Bring me your plan and then let's talk. 

Start small, run the experiment, and then make a decision based on the results. This approach has served us well and resulted in small changes that have eliminated drips in our efficiency. The best ideas for improvement often come directly from the people doing the work, because they're the closest to the problem. 

Have simple tips that have helped your team be more efficient? We'd love to see them! Post them on LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram to help your fellow landscape pro, and make sure to tag @growgroup_.

It's the start of our big summer floral push at Grunder Landscaping this week - our annuals were delivered in two shipments last week, and they'll be planted on properties in the next two weeks. Solidarity to everyone reading this who is in the same boat, it's going to be a busy two weeks but the results are always worth it!

Marty Grunder
Founder & CEO
The Grow Group & Grunder Landscaping Co.