Horticulturist, gardening consultant, and designer, Jonathan Garner, has his head in the cloud, and it’s done wonders for the running of his projects.
Now the management of the garden is handed over to us, it’s time to commence your management regime. I thought it might be useful covering the benefits of what project-management apps and systems can provide to small- and medium-sized businesses.
When running my firm of eight staff, I overlooked utilising management software systems thinking they were focussed towards larger companies. I now see how wrong I was.
For large and small businesses
You might be starting out, may be satisfied employing a small team, or keen to have your business grow. There are several project-management apps available that can help with managing and organising your garden-maintenance and landscape firm.
I’ve evolved my business to now assist other landscape companies and large private gardens with managing their assets and training staff. I started using Asana two years ago and it’s made life so much easier.
Before I go on, I declare no interest from Asana or any other software providers.
Asana wasn’t so much recommended to me. It was more like I had to use it for a large estate project. The various management systems available are probably all quite similar. Check out product-comparison websites and forums to see what might be better for you. Most of these companies offer a cloud-based, basic subscription package that’s free to use. I find the basic package works well for the small organisations I work with. Stepping things up a level, for around $20 a month there’s a whole lot of functions the systems can perform to improve efficiency.
I’ll leave you to investigate these further.
Don’t be frightened
Don’t be spooked by the thought of having to spend hours programming or inputting information. Getting started is easy and can be undertaken in a gradual process.
The first step is to set up each client as a separate project. Once this is done there’s an outline of what they can do, the benefits they bring and some examples of how they may be relevant to your game.
Organising the week and scheduling the daily operations
Once you’ve set up projects you can create task calendars for all clients. This obviously ensures everyone on the team knows the schedule and can plan accordingly. You can break down the tasks into subtasks for greater clarity and to create checklists. For instance, a lawnmowing task can include subtasks like trimming the edges first so the mower can collect the clippings, cleaning the equipment afterwards, and so on. There are plenty of tasks (and people unfortunately) that require a step-by-step process so the work is done properly.
Tracking specific projects (aka ‘clients’)
Each client may have different needs, likes and dislikes. There’s plenty of ‘needy’ clients out there who can frustrate us with simple issues. Highlighting specific project/clients’ items such as ‘Don’t park in the driveway’, ‘The paving stains easily’ and so forth can only help to reduce the headaches associated with a dissatisfied client or the hassles of fixing avoidable errors.
Enabling your team to add notes within the project file for future references towards upcoming works or requests from the client reduces the embarrassment or frustration of forgetting things. Enabling your team to itemise the materials used, chemicals applied, and fertiliser spread enables you to invoice the project accordingly.
Monitoring environmental conditions is also simplified. Pests and diseases can be recorded along with the spraying documented.
Identifying, assigning and monitoring tasks
This is one of my favourites. I’m able to visit the garden in my own time when using my phone. I can draft the subtasks, photograph the relevant issue then upload it onto the project file while I’m still in the garden.
Clearly defining tasks and responsibilities helps ensure everyone knows their responsibilities and what it is which needs to be done.
Beyond this, priority levels can be added that outline important duties such as watering needs or additional care for recent transplants. Understanding who is doing what and how well they are doing it enables you to identify areas for praise and improvements during performance staff-appraisal meetings.
Improving client communications
Naturally these systems will enable you to provide clients with regular updates on the project. They can include progress photos, along with estimated completion dates. Again, these systems demonstrate to your client and staff that you care.
Seasonal planning
Our profession revolves around seasonal tasks. By having these logged into each project file, it’s yet another item we don’t have to remember. Reminders can be automated to recur. Once it’s programmed, it’s in the system. These reminders can also increase sales by informing and educating clients of important seasonal tasks.
Improved team coordination and collaboration
Enabling your team to actively participate within the particular project or across the whole platform will help empower them to feel an important member of the organisation. Encouraging them to discuss challenges, share updates, post questions, and upload photos for identifications or problems they may be having helps to share the knowledge across your firm. Often it can be the case that gardeners work in small groups within a larger organisation. They may only catch up at the beginning or end of the day. Creating a communication platform where they can actively engage within the process of the company helps to build ownership and a sense of belonging.
Improve your team and company-knowledge base
Centralising important information into one system makes life so much easier and greatly improves efficiencies. Saving detailed instructions on particular techniques, maintenance schedules, company policies and procedures for projects makes it easier to share with all of the team. It also becomes a valuable reference tool for training and inducting new employees.
Moving with the times
Chances are the picture I’ve just painted sounds like loads of work to get started. I’ve found the process of inputting the information has occurred gradually and has been quite easy. The wonders of copy-and-paste functions make things quite simple to transfer relevant information between projects. It’s taken me some time to develop faith or trust in cloud-based systems, but I’m now confident these large companies have sufficient security in place to keep the vital information safe from deletion.
The major benefit I’ve found is the fact that I can operate across several gardens, managing various tasks and projects, all via my smartphone.
I better go and back it up then.