Do You Train Your Team to Think or Just Work?
Every Monday, we hold a short training session with our team. We train on communication. leadership. & mindset. The reason being most tradespeople aren’t struggling because they can’t do the work. They’re struggling because they were never taught how to: Speak with clarity Handle conflict Lead a crew Represent the business professionally These tend to be the issues I see bottling up, either from our exit interviews or customer feed back or when things are misunderstood. Thats why I'm curious: Do you train soft skills with your crew?Upsides and downsides of hiring a summer helper?
I am thinking about hiring someone to help me in the busy season and the idea of a high school kid as a summer job sounds like a promising idea. I wouldn't have to pay them a crazy salary, they are like sponges with information and they are typically more physically full of energy. I wouldn't be able to send them on their own, but they could help me get a few more jobs done in a day. I am wondering if anyone has tried this and what would be the pros and cons of doing it?
Health Benefits for Seasonal Crews in British Columbia
Has anyone found a good solution for offering benefits to a seasonal crew? Traditional group plans seem expensive and not very flexible for our structure, so I’m currently exploring Health Care Spending Accounts instead. I’d love to hear what providers others are using for either/or and what’s worked well for your team. Any recommendations or insights would be appreciated. For context - my business partner and I are on salary year-round for our landscaping business but 99% of billable operations, and staff are seasonal from March to December. We lay-off and try to rehire anyone who has worked in previous seasons. Goal is to have health care spending and / or benefits for ourselves as well as our staff in order to retain staff and grow the business despite the seasonality of our services (no, we do not offer snow removal or plan to go that avenue).Delegation & Hiring for a Maintenance-Heavy Landscaping Company Trying to Scale
I’ve been looking into accountability charts and delegation after listening to the Jobber podcast where they talked about this, but I’m not sure where to begin. Right now I’m still heavily involved in day-to-day residential maintenance landscaping operations—quoting, scheduling, managing crews, and even some marketing—which makes it hard to step back and focus on growing into larger/higher earning project work beyond maintenance. For those who’ve gone through this at a similar stage, what responsibilities did you delegate first—and to whom? Also, what was your first key hire that really helped free up your time to focus on growth? Any practical guidance would be great.Transitioning from Landscape Maintenance to Higher Earning / Project Work
For those who started in maintenance, how did you transition into larger projects like hardscaping and design? Did you train your existing crew or build a separate team? I’m trying to figure out the best path forward without disrupting our current operations. Any advice from those who’ve made that shift would be really helpful.
Time Clock / Employee Time Tracking
Hey all! We have approximately 20-25 W2 employees who clock in and out using the ADP app. Processing payroll has recently been a hassle due to time discrepancies. Adjusting time cards for each employee is not only time-consuming but can be very costly if things are missed over time. What have you found to help with maintaining accurate time cards for employees? Please paste the link to any hardware you use. I'd love to see what systems you all use for employees to clock in physically instead of over the cell phone.
Hiring the right person for growth
Hey everyone, I run a lawn care business that's been growing steadily. I work full time as a firefighter and have two part-time employees, but we’re pretty maxed out on what we can handle right now. I’m at a crossroads—I need someone I can trust to take on more responsibility, especially when I’m on shift. But I’m also not sure how to afford another employee unless we grow more, and I can’t grow much without that help. Bit of a catch-22. Any advice on finding someone who could help scale the business? Also open to creative compensation ideas beyond just hourly pay. Appreciate any input!
Need advice on scaling
Hi everyone need some advice. The phone has been ringing off the hook and I just can’t keep up with all the work coming my way. I’m a small one man operation and full time firefighter looking to add a couple guys to my operation. any tips would help on how to properly go about expanding. Thank you guys!
