What Makes a Business Owner Successful?! PERSPECTIVE!

Hey, everyone, it's mike andes. And today I wanted to share a concept of business that I've been thinking about. And I actually came to this specific park because it has a lot to do with what I'm talking about. And here I'm in this forest, and this is a forest out in blaine, washington, not too far from where I live and where we have the franchise training facility. And the reason I wanted to bring you this park is because it really has a lot to do with business, in my mind, of what separates successful business owners from ones that don't do very well. And I think the big part of that is like, where I'm standing and walking through right now in this forest, it's very, very dense. Like, look at this, look around me. It's very, very dense. I can't see very far at all. You know, it's a beautiful day. You can kind of see the sun poking through the trees there. But in general, it's very much like I can only see maybe 50 to hundreds feet away from me at any given time, certain parts where it's more dense, maybe only 5, 10ft away from me. And I think a lot of times in business, that's the reason why we fail, is because we don't see outside of the trees, and we get so wrapped up in what we're doing.

Head down, getting things done that we forget to actually get above the trees and above the day to day operations and above what we're actually the what of what we do in our business. And we fail to really see where we're really at, where the business really is at, and where we can succeed and where we can grow. And one of the things that is really fascinating to me is that a tree, when it's small, like if it was growing this little sapling here, or one of these little bushes that are growing, I want to find an actual tree, like this maple tree right here, this little guy about 8, 10ft tall. Compared to one of these guys, they're, you know, 15 or sorry, 50, 80, 100ft tall. One of the amazing things is that maple tree knows that in order to grow, in order to succeed, it needs to grow higher. It doesn't try to go bigger, it goes up. Trees grow up. And the reason is because they're trying to get to the sun, they're trying to get above the rest of the forest. And I look at the same way in business when it comes to competition, you have a whole bunch of trees growing in the forest of your industry that might be lawn Care and landscaping like me at Augusta Lawn Care. It might be a host of industries where there's a bunch of competitors, a bunch of trees trying to fight for the same resources, trying to find, fight for the same sunshine, the same labor resources, the same attention of the customer, the pricing, they're all fighting and they're trying to get higher. And I think the advantage that you have in your business is when you can step above, you can step above and you can see above all of the noise and all of the things that are so encompassing around you that can get really distracted and really get you wrapped up. Like it's so easy to get wrapped up in our email, so email easy to get wrapped up in unsatisfied customers, so easy to get wrapped up in an employee that isn't working out. So easy to get wrapped up in all these day to day operations. Something that breaks a machine breaks, a truck breaks down, someone doesn't show up to work. All the little daily fires that we have to fight. And I'm not saying you don't have to fight those fires as a business owner, I'm just saying we can get so distracted by that, we forget that we're only seeing 50, 100ft away in that moment. We're only seeing the micro of what our business is doing. When we need a step higher, we need to become much more macro in our perspective. And the reason I think about this too is.

One of the reasons, I think so many times that small business owners do this and they begin to get so head down and entrenched in what they're doing, they figure out why they're doing it, they forget about the bigger picture and they really do get lost in the trees. They get lost in the perspective of only seeing what's close around them and they forget that there's, you know, 30,000 foot view, that there's a massive world out there, there's a lot of opportunity. And I think the number one reason, and maybe not the number one reason, but a major reason why small business owners.

Have this micro perspective, a lot of times it comes down to money and that is when they need money to survive and when they can't pay their bills or when they can't, they don't have the money to actually have a big perspective. And the reason I've been thinking about this is because I've been looking at the way, you know, I started Augusta Lawn Care, was it six, seven years ago now, and the way I started that and the speed in which I grew and then I Compare it to the way that we are starting our second corporately owned location down in Mount Vernon. And the rate at which we're growing down Mount Vernon is so much faster and more profitable, faster.

More system oriented. And.

I'm wondering, like, why is that? And it comes down to capitalization. Like.

I'm not struggling to pay. Like, when I first started Augusta Lawn Care, that was my, you know, primary source of income. You know, when I first started the first location and like, I was the one out doing the work in the field, I was very much head down, like in the work, doing the lawns, doing everything in the business. Whereas now I'm able to step back from a higher level view. And I know it's because, like, I don't. I'm in a place now where that money is not needed for my next, you know, paycheck or for my next rent or for my next. The bills that I'm trying to pay. And so I think it's. You hear from a lot of people like that under capitalization is a big reason why small businesses fail. And I don't think it actually has to do with the money. I think it has to do with the perspective that when we feel the.

Lack of funds or we feel like there's a tightening or pressure on us financially, we begin to have this mindset. Like, we're in the trees. We get so wrapped up in what's around us and you're the customer that it got unhappy. And like the piece of equipment and the flat tire and all the things that are going wrong and literally we're just, we're stuck in the forest. And I think what having that capitalization, having those funds, especially when you're starting out, allows you to do is be like, okay.

I'm maybe 2,000ft up in the air. I can see the forest, I can see the trees. This is how we get out of it. This is the solution. And I think this video has absolutely no purpose other than the fact that it's an observation of mine that.

You know, as, as business owners, when you, you know, you look like at this little, little road here throughout all this stuff.

I think as small business owners, we look down the road and like, okay, we might be able to look, you know, what, four or five hundred feet here down to that stump way down there. I don't know if you can see that. Four or five hundred feet. That's great. That's really good. But that might be like in your business, that might be like a year looking a year down the road when you have maybe a couple more employees or you're getting a second location, or you're going to start the business you've always dreamed of, or you're going to own a franchise or you're going to get a business partner and you can see like a year down the road and that's good. But I think sometimes we forget that if we were just 200ft higher, we could see miles and miles away from us. We could see in 10 years, 15, 20 years down the road and we'd be able to think bigger, we'd be able to have perspectives like, oh, instead of just thinking about how to get to that stump, I can think of a more creative way of getting across the whole county or across the entire town. And I think as business owners the thing we gotta remember.

Is that we can't get stuck in the forest, we can't get stuck in the trees and all the things. And there's a lot of interesting things all around here. There's a lot of different types of species and there's a lot of different types of plants and a lot of different things, you know, trees and all sorts of beautiful things. But like, that's not important. If I'm trying to go somewhere, I'm trying to get a direction, I'm trying to make progress. What's down here is not important. Where I'm going is important. And I feel like sometimes we got to think up, we got to think higher, we got to think above our day to day operations. Like what's the big picture here? Where are we going? You know, if you look at go, that's why I think goals are so, so important and so useful and everyone. There's always a different perspective or a different way of saying it. But at the end of the day, the reason goals are so important is because it forces you to get above the trees. It forces you to get above where you're at right now and start thinking down the road and in the future and where are you going? And above the trees and above your day to day operations, above making payroll, next paycheck for all your employees, above the issues that you're going through. I just wanted to make this video encourage you all to take a moment. Maybe you need to go through a forest like this and you need to name all these trees that are bogging you down in your business and that are taking your attention away from the bigger picture, taking your vision, taking your mindset away from what's actually going to move the needle in your business. Because guess What? There's not many things that move the needle in your business. Sales, marketing, hiring, getting a great team. Like, there's very few things that are actually gonna make a massive difference and are gonna actually move the needle for you in your business and everything around you. Every tree, as you like. Literally. You should do this as an exercise. Go into a forest like this and just name the trees. Maybe it's a relationship, maybe it's an employee, maybe it's a customer, maybe it's a piece of equipment. It's a bad business opportunity. And these are all the things that distract us. These are the trees in your business, trees in your life. Maybe it's health. Maybe it's, you need to get on a health regimen. You need to start exercising and having a better diet. These are things that can distract you. These are things that can keep you down and to the ground and not above the trees, above the tree line and seeing where you want to go in your business.

So hopefully that's a little encouragement for you. I encourage you. Get away. Get to a forest like this. This is on the weekend. I don't oftentimes have much time, but when I do have time to break away, I'm either reflecting on spiritual things or I'm trying to think about the bigger concepts, the mindset, and a bigger picture of what the business can become. The reason that we have a big goal, changing the landscape industry and changing the level of professionalism in the landscaping industry at Augusta Lawn Care, the reason we can have that big goal is because I'm able to step up out of the trees, out of the daily operations. You know, franchisees having problems, having hiring issues, having financial problems, trying to get capital get started. They're trying to get equipment stuff, know, going wrong. They're trying to break old contracts from before they were in the franchise. And those are problems. They're the trees. Massive trees like this. And it's. I'm not saying that these trees are not relevant. Like, look at this tree, man. Goodness. This thing's probably 70, 80 years old. It's huge. It's massive. Like, I'm not going to cut down the tree, and you're not going to be able to go through this exercise and, you know, start thinking about the things in your life that are really distracting your business and just cut down the tree. Guess what? If you have a massive issue with an employee, you can't just, you know, go kill the employee. Like, that's illegal. You're not gonna be able to do that. You know, you might not even be able to fire them. But how can you get above that? How can you think outside of that? How can you think bigger than that? That's really what I'd push to do. So again, capitalization is something I do think is a massive reason why people get bogged down. And you might be in the situation where you really are living paycheck to paycheck in your business and you don't have a lot of capital, you don't have a lot of funds to go try out different marketing methods, go try out hiring a couple more people, go try out different methods and systems or create some new software. You might not have the money to do that.

But you can have a different mindset and you can force yourself to start thinking on a bigger scale, thinking about why your business exists. Think about the future, the direction of where you're going, and don't get bogged down with the minutiae and all the details and the things that are big, that are important, that are really looming above you. But don't forget, you've got to get above the trees. Comment below. Tell me what your tree is in your life and in your business. What's the thing that's trying to hold you back, trying to distract you from really expanding, really growing, getting a better direction, going further and thinking bigger in your life and in your business. Thanks everyone. I hope you have a fantastic day. And make sure you do this. It's a lot of fun. Take care.