Lawn Life SYNDROME! LOL

[CHEESE2009]

I don't know if this is a problem, but I can't stop thinking about the business. It's a great thing for sure, though it really takes over your life. How do you escape? Escape thinking about your business for a day at least? It's really difficult to explain, though I'm sure some know what I'm talking about. On my spare time I just spend it looking up mowers, or investment plans, thinking about the future. It's really hard to live in the now & just relax & hangout. It's like being in a relationship, something is always there nagging. I guess it's an obsession? Or I've canceled out a lot of things I used to do, & filled in the time with work or business planning. When you work as a teenager doing "jobs", times are good & carefree, owning a business, you lose a sort of explainable feeling! Maybe freedom? I see myself as my business, I just want it better & better. When were kids, we don't really give a damn about holding a job, it's the last thing on our list of priorities. What is it that causes this issue? Is it working too much? Or could it be the fact that this business is very exciting, growing every day, & you block out things that are getting in the way, aka FUN, just so that you can keep the ball rolling? Has business consumed your life? Have you been able to take the handcuffs off & balance your life so that you aren't always dreaming about work?

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

I think this is a fascinating insight. I bet you could answer all of your questions if you thought for moment about it. When you are sitting there during the day and thinking about business, what are you thinking about? What are you doing? On my spare time I just spend it looking up mowers, or investment plans, thinking about the future. When you take all of this as a whole, what is it doing for you? What does it do for you mentally? What are the outcome of these thoughts?

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[mark123]

One of my friends let the business consume his life and he ended up in the hospital. Too much stress. I refuse to let that happen to me.

[CHEESE2009]

I feel as if there is always work to be done, & even when there isn't I'm trying to tackle future projects. I always finish something I start, this is lawn service & you never finish, I'm kinda mixed up!

My room is covered in maps of my lawns & city, every room is an office. The truck is no longer a vehicle, it's a portable office.

I have pens on every table, desk, etc.

If I have no work, I find & make work for myself. I'll write customer letters that I never send, I'll make one every few days & then scrap it.

I'm married to my equipment & as I said in another post, I wax my mower once a week.

Everything has to be up to date & one step above, always. I never want to be behind, always ahead.

I have a collection of Breeze shirts, it's all I wear. Even when I'm going out, I wear the Breeze shirt, "it's me" other clothes are inferior.

Maybe I just want to get so much experience, the good, the bad, the ugly, then I can adjust.

Kinda like your first day back at school (5-6 years ago lol) when you are excited & the first day is like a party, then it fades & becomes crap that you take as it comes.

In other words, I'm over excited... ?

[Steve]

I wonder if a lot of it has to do with, when you get a business going, you have so much energy. You want to do so many things and you want it all to happen now. You don't feel like your energy is being fully harnessed and it is frustrating as hell.

The beginning can be very frustrating cause you are at point A and want to be at point B and you want to run to it but you can hardly walk so you sit there thinking why why why! Why can't I get to the size I want now. Why cant I do the things I want with my business now. Why can't it be the size I want now.

What's your take on this?

[Steve]

To add some further thoughts to this, I am currently reading a book called "Call Me Ted." About Ted Turner. I made mention of this book in another post about my GopherHaul Book of the month.

In the book Ted talks about how his dad ran a large outdoor billboard company when he was growing up.

During the summers he would work with his dad and then when he left college, he came back to work with him more.

His father had recently acquired another billboard company in another area that was smaller than many of his other operations and he put Ted to work there.

Ted was able to get in there and raise the prices of the ads as well as get more signs up around the area. When his father came to see how he was doing, he was thoroughly impressed.

As Ted took him back to the airport after his visit, his dad said "Ted you are starting out your life where other men end theirs." Meaning it could take the average guy his entire lifetime to get such a sign business going. And here was Ted, lucky enough to have the where with all to have the sign company, have the knowledge how to operate it and have his youthful energy to push it forwards.

I do think that many young guys find themselves with tons of energy but they don't have a way to focus it. They don't have enough money, business, creativity or connections to really harness it all and blast their business off into out space the way Ted was able to do.

This to me is part of the reason why Scott or others of us tend to sit there all the time thinking what can I do to make this business bigger, better, faster, and stronger. And I think it can be frustrating as hell because you want to do more but you can only push the business so far and so fast until it picks up more momentum.

It's kinda like trying to push a car from a dead stop. It takes tremendous initial energy just to get it going. And in business, it takes tremendous mental as well as physical energy.

I welcome your reflections on this.

[swstout]

Rodney Dangerfield once said "he used to be self employed but had to let it go. He couldn't get along with his boss! I know this was in a comedy routine, but it brings out the realization that if you don't really enjoy your work, your business, you can't succeed.

All the energy, the money, and the creativity in the world won't grow your business or make it faster and stronger if you are not emotionally committed, flexible, and ready to change on a daily basis. The Japanese define quality as the continual improvement of the product/service, the process that produces that product/service, the productivity of the people in that process, and the communications of all involved. Compared to the American definition of quality - conformance to specifications. constant improvement is their way of life.

What the Japanese realized is that continuous improvement mandates continual change. Conformance is a dead end street. No improvement can happen. If you keep doing the same things in the same way, how can you expect things to improve!

Successful entrprenuers:
1. Are always looking for improvements in their products and services
2. Are always seeking improvements in the processes that produce their products and services
3. The productivity of the people in the process
and
4. The communications between all concerned - workers, regulators, customers, and are always demanding changes for the better.

Steve