Horticulture Connected Spring Volume 6 Issue 3

Page 25

08 / INSIGHT

WHY ARE YOU IN BU SIN ES S

©DMITRIY SHPILKO/123RF.COM

As the owner and operator of BHL Landscape Group, Terry O’Regan reaches retirement, he asks a question we should all consider

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s I work my way through a rather long-drawnout retirement process - ending 50 years of close involvement with the landscape sector, old and new questions circle my head like a noisy murder of crows. The most irritating new question from well-meaning friends and neighbours inevitably is – “What will you do now that you are retiring?” I usually respond that I expect to continue to be busy with ventures linked to horticulture, landscaping, the greater landscape and more besides and I will continue writing for as long as you keep reading. For 44 of those afore-mentioned 50 years, I have with my fellow director run a landscape services business. One day, in the early years (before grey hair and geriatric pains arrived) I was chatting with a client - a successful Cork businessman – and out of the blue he asked me, “Terry, why are you in business?” Caught off-guard and thinking that he was referring to our landscaping activities as such, I stumbled through a few answers all spun around a qualification in horticulture, a lively interest in plants and gardens and a desire not to be confined to an office all day. He listened patiently and then said, “Terry, you are in business to make

money and never forget that reality!” His question and answer have echoed through my head over the intervening years as I strove with my fellow director and work colleagues to run a quality landscape business and make money. I am sure it was at the back of my mind some twenty years later as we discussed the year-end accounts for the preceding year when I posed a question to our accountant – “We never seem to make much profit in this business, despite hard graft and long hours?” He replied that we do make money – we earn our salary and that is our profit. It made no difference when I protested that I could probably earn the same salary as an employee and go home free of work worries at 5.00 pm each day. He smiled kindly and added, “that is the price of being self-employed.” Another awkward Q & A exchange occurred regularly in association with the year-end accounts when I would question the outcome for the year noting that I probably should have taken some different decisions. He regularly responded that I should prepare monthly accounts. I only finally took his advice in 2012 as we faced the full painful impacts of the Celtic Tiger crash. The exercise proved vital

Autumn/Winter 2019 / www.horticultureconnected.ie / HORTICULTURECONNECTED

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