JEL Language

**Initial ask**

**Problems**

**Discussions toward solutions**

# Summary

Bootstrapped native-plant landscaper.

Solo founder is burned out and ready to change how the business runs, not all on her.

Experiencing major challenges scaling past "founder knows everything".

Becoming aware of inefficiencies throughout the operation. Revenue growth was flat last year due to these bottlenecks, and worse, stress/labor levels were up.

Well-established, has a market and is growth-limited by these issues. Would love to franchise or similar.

# Raw (redacted) language

Hi John, Could you suggest a project management app/software that might work for our business. We are looking for a calendar and a digital filing to store info. We use Keybase a lot for day to day info but over time info could get lost in the feed. We do have a invoice app we like, so it doesn’t have to have this. Thanks ———

Project info. It’s been all in J head, so she needs a place to drop it, where the team or I can access it. Client request more items. Plant Inventory. Training Manuel. Garden designs map. Notes on the project. Then a calendar for us and the team for finalized project start date, time work site address, materials. We’ve been using Google calendar but think we could do better. ———

Our *project leader* shows up to work completely uninformed about the day's plans. We add the day's plans to Google calendar and a unique keybase channel for each project. Ask R to review it because being informed is a part of his job. He shows up like, "what are we doing today? Where do I go?" My blood pressure is something I've had to start doing breathing exercises to control, I'm not exagerating. ———

Thank you. There's also so much intra-office stuff that happens. "Called ____ to discuss embroidered uniforms." Wish for a "bucket system" to dump all this data that just exists in our heads now. A central, sharable datastream. Will check out Basecamp, thank you. ✅ ————

(Thanks, you're awesome.) Emotions temporarily running high as we review the year and I get clear about a bad tradeoff we made. Old friend was hired late season. Should have been fired for disrespect. I made a concession like, "well we have X projects in the hopper and ~1 month to live thru. Let's just sit tight, she's trained + shows up on time." Derailed our company culture and often the day's instructions were discarded because she wanted to boss R around. So, this is all hiring related and not software issues. But, we can't very well demand that R adhere to a system that's ill defined and squishy. ————

No, thank you. It was very helpful + illuminating. We are both excited and... determined. ———

*Pain points* Best I can begin with. V likely to update. - Staff wastes time on *foolishness*. "Doggie costume parties" is such a great summary of this. Same category, "J! I have this _idea_ for something you can do here!! Do (this 100% offbrand, not related to reality or remotely lucrative thing)!!!" *Excluding R*: some of our staff is too familiar with me. Weak boundaries on my part, admittedly. *Unprofessional staff* also. "Ecology club for gifted youth" was how we staffed much labor last year. 5 teens total, 2 very commited. I love them all. Can't express how nice to have them here and be a mentor. But: - One 14 yr old boy Mom confused the job with daycare. At dropoff time, "I need to pick him up at 1PM today!" Or on Friday, "Oh btw, we be out of state allll next week! Haha, sry short notice!" *Scheduling staff* So much depends on the weather. Also, communicating about the schedule is hard to figure out. An office person helped for awhile. A web based "schedule bulletin board" could rly free up some mental hard drive space. - *Meetings* 🤮 A decade of BNI trained me to agree to meet with anyone + everyone who reached out. This has served me well! I am grateful for all the connections thru the years. But I've outgrown this, and there's _always_ somewhere I'm better off being. - *Subpar Nursery Management* results in ubiquitous weeds in our plant stock. Have strategized for better mgmt this year, sawdust. And have actually successfully educated the staff to endrun rescue weed at production day planting. Yet, I wasted est 50-100 hrs in 2022 personally fixing this problem. - *Project planning lifecycle* needs an overhaul. * what happens after the deposit arrives? How does the project advance to a "greenlight" bucket? * why is _every_ email addressed "Hi J," even if our estimate software default lists "The JEL Team" as the communicator? * A "Secondary Design Phase"* is needed. Current practice is a couple days before a project is scheduled, I review the budget + plant quantity-count. I compare it to the (often partly mental, but attempted monthly updated written) greenhouse-nursery inventory. Plantlist is generated on an index card, hopefully also typed into an invoice at the same time. Plantlist is generated by referencing the estimate, because at the time the estimate is written a "site specific if available" list was composed. From that "dream wish list" a reduced "actually available" list is exacted. Quantities commensurate with the design that I am also putting together off the top of my head, on the fly. 🤮😅😂 (Greg + I dug into my unique design theory + practices today. I'm shocked how well formed it is and... *duplicatable!* There's 100% a structure I discovered by doing it, that I use as a repeated design template anywhere I work. It exists in my head right now. I love to get that out on paper for management eyes only! R is given the index card, oftentimes like, "Don't lose that critical data piece of the project we've yet to document R! A LOT riding on that! $5000 of plants on the index card that's not catalogued _anywhere_ else yet, haha!" Index card is returned to the shared bulletin board, often with mud + rips. _Maintence Jobs_ Big cringe right here🫤 - Doing the weeding + culling, steering gardens to maturity is über-skilled work. And paradoxically, low pay, non-lucrative work. Benefits to doing maintenance are: clients stay close in contact, when they want more $$$ projects they definitely don't hesitate or go elsewhere. And, we get free mature plants to re-sell. And we do seed collection in fall, adding to our seed vault + seed sales quotient. - *Weeding pain points* Biggest time sink of all. The paperwork, the scheduling, the phonecalls with upset clients when our not-über skilled techs make mistakes, the DRAG. - If we cut 50% of weeding clients out of our schedule right away, moved to a "Stewardship" program (50% deposit in April. We stop by whenever the heck we feel like it, text to alert. 50% balance in Sept) for our best-best-best clients, most the pain would resolve. Seriously: taking the staff for an educational nature preserve field trip is a better use of time. - *Phonecalls/emails* with legacy clients who feel entitled to my time and are angry someone "other than J" shows up. "We never see J anymore. She hasn't even been here this year once!" ———

Will weigh in as we have a chance to confer. ———

We'd like to do option #2. We're ready with dates that work. ———

Hi John, We agree and will be wiring the money tomorrow morning. ———

Wow, thanks. Yes, the systematization plus finding/training awesome people is all that's standing in the way of huge profits. Pressing "play" on a real marketing plan would result in.... ((well 9000 people visited the website in July 2021 with zero advertising.)) With an organized army at our command, we would colonize. ———

Greg + I discussed the "why" of our industry's blowup goldrush right now. What we won't say on the website. It's a literal warzone out there right now. We make home feel safe + like a beautiful escape. People want that. ———

Hi John, We will find out our tax obligation on ____. Until then, we’re not comfortable committing to any more investments. For the immediate-immediate, here’s what we’d like to do. Let us know how far the credit will stretch. 1. Help us get a template for estimate options that will be easy for any mgmt team member to fill in. 2. G’s done a lot on Basecamp already. Could you review what he’s got and suggest improvements? 3. We’re looking into Housecall Pro for scheduling/estimate software instead of InvoiceASAP. Do you have any other suggestions? 4. Our intake form + budget info. We need more info from inquirers. [Competitor] does this nicely with their “____” “____” et al bespoke budget ranges. This requires some creativity work on our end but would pay off in saved time later. ———

We want to be able to set up the schedule. Communicate internally about it. (Use it for allll the auto-reply templates. Disconnected to calendar function.) When it comes time to schedule with client, we don't want to invite them. But rather, _tell_ them. "We're coming this day- probably. If the weather cooperates, and everything in schedule between now and then goes as hoped, we'll probably be there that day. Or the day before, or a couple days after." ———

It seems like the form we have up on site rn is acceptable as is, if we can manually accept/reject them before sending the followup questionaires. - The "$XXX fee okay?" Q is one aspect of pre-qual. If they ✅ (and DON'T take space in the next field to argue the fee) then they're likely serious. - The "tell us about your project?" Q can also give us latitude to 👍or👎 - *LOCATION* Our service area is a 75 sq mile isosceles triangle shape region. People outside the north/east thresholds need to be rejected. (South/West thresholds are more malleable depending on time of the year.) $$$$ reasons- better market, worth the drive when slower. *Followup questionairres* 1. Gentle budget discussion. With photo buckets. eg: "Are you a Habitat Hero? A Junior Ranger? An Urban Mini-Biome? Or a Sanctuary Lakehouse?!" _Not exact final options._ Each will have a photo to soften the budget discussion, each will have a wiiiide range in the budget, two tiers: Design + Build. •ie: Maybe the Habitat Hero design cost range is $XXX-$XXXX + build cost range is $XXXX-$XX,XXX. 2. *Reasons we'd opt out:* -Is there any use of Roundup on your property? -Do you have dogs? 3. *Soil Type Q's* -Do you have sand, clay or loam? -Are there Black Walnut trees? -Is there roadsalt interference in any area we're working in? 4. Specific service _type_ request. - Native Plant Garden Design + Build - with shrubs? - mature trees? - hardscaping? - DIY planting design? (With Calendly's pre-automation, we may actually be able to help these people.) ———

In Basecamp: We have 2023 Project/Project. This is where we have used the card table to show where our 2023 projects are in their steps at anytime. _______ is our client for this season who has given us a deposit. So we have created a template and project for her. This would be a good project for you to review. I’ve created a checklist and folder for info on her project. ———

I am currently re-writing alllll the notes from our (5?) Miro sessions. So much gold can slip thru the cracks. ———

_Sent Pt 1 of the Questionnaire via email._ Where we allow inquirers to place themselves into buckets. 😃 I like this! Thank God for [competitor]. It's not plagerism if you change words around a bit. But seriously- I'd have had no idea how to do this otherwise. ———

Ultimately yes. For now I'll work on the stick figure one size fits all version. ———

Adding you to the mix is a new element that I explained to J would be overwhelming at times for me and I agreed to it because she is ready for big picture improvements and we could use some help with this. I am still learning day to day operations. I know a lot of this could change, however I get fear when it completely stops until big picture items are worked out. I have asked her a few times if she could just meet with you and she could ask for help from me on anything you both decide needs to be done moving forward. I just have fear that production has stopped. I wish J and I could work on day to day operations and also she would be able to work on big picture with you.