Bolster your backup plan

Photos: ©Andrii Yalanskyi| Adobestock

Growing a greenhouse business involves plenty of sweat equity. With an ongoing labor shortage, many hands-on owners are in the trenches for long hours each week to fill the gaps, and most don’t — or can’t — delegate as much as they should. Few have any formal contingency or succession plans in place.

You might think that having your business insured in case of fire, flood or theft allows you to breathe easier, but what happens if you face a critical illness or have a debilitating accident? What if a loved one falls ill and you’re their primary caregiver? Would your company or the wellbeing of your staff suffer if you’re not there?

Rushing to execute an improvised game plan in the middle of a crisis won’t protect your business or your employees. Here’s what you can do instead.

Shift your mindset to ‘systems thinking’

If you’re a grower that launched a business without any documentation, you probably hold most of the operational knowledge. Without formal systems, things get decided on the fly if you’re not around. With basic processes in place, someone else can immediately take over in case of emergency, says Dan Pestretto, a third-generation horticulturist and landscape business owner who is now a systems designer, business coach and founder of Systems Organized by Design (SOD Inc.) in Harvard, Massachusetts.

“Systemizing allows you more options: You can scale. You can pick and choose what you want to do in your business. When you go to sell it, it’s more valuable. And if you get sick, somebody can step in,” says Pestretto, who helps owners develop and implement effective business systems.

Begin by building a standard operating procedures (SOP) manual, he suggests. It may sound like a heavy, boring book, but an SOP manual can be created using a software-based business systemization platform. And while many companies succeed without one, everything’s on the owner’s back, which isn’t sustainable.

“There was a greenhouse retail operation near where I grew up and when the owner died, that was the end; they just closed. He probably died with a lot of money, but I don’t think he lived very well,” says Pestretto.

“That gets to the big question: What is success? If what you want is freedom and to offer opportunities to your people and your community, an SOP manual helps you do that.”

Work on your business, not in your business

Outline your vision, purpose and values, advises Pestretto.

“Why did you start this business? What’s its purpose? What are the values behind why you’re doing it, and where do you want to take it? How do you want to live?” he says.

Then, develop an organization chart that details your management structure and office support, and how everyone’s role relates to your overall strategic objective.

“We want your business to be able to work on its own with or without you,” adds Pestretto.

Dave Dickman, a fourth-generation greenhouse grower, adopted that philosophy when he and his brother Jim took over Auburn, New York-based Dickman Farms in 1997.

“A lot of growers don’t think about being prepared if you get hit by the proverbial bus, and lots of growers are going out of business — they just don’t know it yet,” says Dave Dickman, who is president of the company.

“Growers get wrapped up in the day-to-day, and don’t think about what they need to do to have a sustainable business if something happens to them. I’m in the other camp: I’m a world-class delegator, so if I get hit by a bus tomorrow, nothing stops at Dickman Farms.”

Dickman hires qualified people or trains newer staff, and lets them run their position, make decisions and learn from their mistakes. He’s also put a strong middle management team in place that can take over should he or his brother not be able to run the business.

“On the plant production side, we have a robust system in place with basic recipes or crop growing templates. It’s on a common hard drive everyone can access. We have an organization chart, and everybody understands what their job is based on their job description,” he says.

Photos: ©Adobestock

Get things on paper, so to speak

Greenhouse owners have so much information in their heads — from supplier and customer lists to maintenance and repair companies — and it’s crucial to transfer that data into a system others can access. SOPs can be bullet-point checklists or detailed pages that include what Pestretto calls the four key functions of your company: Getting the business, doing the business, running the business and guiding the business.

“Identify each process in an area and put an objective to it. Then, go back to your org chart and assign each process to positions on that chart,” he suggests.

Then, flesh out each system. For example, the process for finance would include the bank’s contact information, how you reconcile your books, how you do invoicing, and how you pay your bills.

“Typically, a medium-sized business has 200 different processes, so prioritize the most important ones with a mindset of ‘I’ve got to make sure this business goes on without me,’” suggests Pestretto.

Start small, but start somewhere

Overwhelmed just thinking about describing hundreds of processes? Break things down into manageable chunks, advises Pestretto.

“Put an hour a week into it and do 10 at a time. Take trusted people who are performing well and get them involved,” he says.

To create systems around irrigation, employees in charge of that department can provide useful checklists.

“They know certain things better than you, and if they have a hand in systemizing the process, they’re going to take ownership of it and make sure it works,” adds Pestretto.

No need to start from scratch; many software companies, banks and insurance companies offer free contingency plan templates online. You can also use artificial intelligence to speed things up. Provide a prompt like ‘how to do bank reconciliations’ and you’ll get 10 or 20 steps that you can then revise according to your company, he adds.

Leave room for your people to think on their own

Implementing business systems doesn’t mean creating a robotic staff who, in an emergency, look everything up in the manual, says Pestretto.

“You need to give people the freedom to make things better, and that’s based on understanding what your values so anyone make a decision about what constitutes better,” he explains.

Share your contingency plan with your tax planning accountant, attorney, insurance agent and banker and update it regularly. Being proactive about your business means making sure it can run independently of you.

Wendy is an award-winning journalist, content provider and TV producer based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Reach her at wendy@taketwoproductions.ca.