ROADTOSUCCESS
The good ones thrive BY ROD McDONALD
IN THE LATE ’70S AND EARLY ’80S, there was a build-
ing boom in my area. Anyone who owned a truck, a ladder and a hammer declared themselves a framing carpenter. On the surface, that preceding statement appears absurd or, perhaps, comical. Sadly, those self-declared framing carpenters got work — but only because the good framers were booked up. One afternoon in 1978, I was having a conversation with one of the reputable framing carpenters. He said: “I will always have work. When I am too busy to get to everyone who wants me, then the marginal carpenters get that work. They work, only in the good times, never when it is slow.” Those words proved true, again and again, as time went by. There were good homes and not so good homes being built in that time period. My brother built his first house in 1977. Two years later, a wind shear devastated his neighbourhood, including his home. The roof was torn off. A good thing that wind turned out to be, as the missing roof exposed an incredible number of deficiencies in not only the framing, but also the insulation. His front door had been framed with not a hint of surrounding insulation, which explained why it was always so cold at the entrance way. The builder was charged with building code violations, and with no great surprise, declared bankruptcy. This story was repeated again and again, as time went by, when homes were being renovated 20 and 30 years down the road. Workmanship that should have been carried out was either non-existent or poorly done. Framing carpenters and landscape contractors have something in common: During the good times, everyone works. When things are slow, only the good ones thrive.
I spoke with a staff member at Home Depot and she said customers were waiting around for trucks to be unloaded. Then they swarmed the racks before staff could even place plants on the shelf. As I wrote last month, impatiens had become to our trade what toilet paper had become to Costco. The title ‘The good ones thrive,’ could also has been ‘The tough ones thrive.’ One has to have a certain level of toughness to survive in this business. I, like you, had friends who commented while shopping at my garden centre in the spring, “When I retire, I want to open up a place just like this.” I told one friend she was not tough enough to handle this business. She was not offended, but she was confused. I explained that she thinks we wander around smelling the roses, when in reality, we spend so much of our time unloading trucks, organizing benches and answering questions. Our work is both physically and mentally draining. This is not a business for sissies. I knew one person who attempted to manage a large greenhouse by working from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. If she missed lunch, she thought she could leave at 4 p.m. When I tell that story to a group from our trade, there are always gales of laughter. If you want an 8 to 4:30 job, this is not the business for you. Good times or not-so-good times, you will never get rich working for the bank. Debt is both a positive and a negative, and those who are good business managers know how to manage their debt load. I was never afraid of debt; I used it to build my business when I did not have liquid cash to finance projects. I also paid down my debt with accelerated payments, whenever possible. I would never accept a loan with a penalty for balloon payments or paying off prior to maturity. There are banks that penalize you for paying back loans too quickly, as they want to keep you on the hook, collecting interest every month. Find a bank, or better yet, a credit union, that is flexible in early repayments. I don’t like working for the bank. I like working for myself.
“When times are slower, we have to provide even more reasons for customers to visit our garden centres and greenhouses.”
WE ARE IN THE MIDST OF UNCERTAIN TIMES, and one of the few sectors that thrived during the early part of this year were the garden centres and greenhouses. The family greenhouse where I work part-time closed down on May 25. There was nothing left to sell, and nothing left to buy from other greenhouses. If you did not make money this past spring, there was something wrong. Consumers were so desperate for plants that social media was filled with questions asking where someone might find this plant or that one. 18 | SEPTEMBER 2020 | LANDSCAPE TRADES
MANY YEARS AGO, a friend of mine got carried away with expansion and easy credit. He bought a lot of equipment with ‘nothing down and low payments’ and he bid a lot of work. He needed to bid
