Wait? Isn’t this a site for editing and copywriting services? Why are you talking about gardening?

Ah, well, it’s just that time of year… No, seriously, it’s a metaphor.

In south-west Ontario, if you want to enjoy a beautiful garden for the whole of our – shortish – summer, then May/June,  is prime gardening time. A great deal of effort and hard work is required: digging, adding compost, planting, watering, weeding, etc., during the late spring – the reward is a garden that’s flourishing and that will continue to delight, with comparatively minimal maintenance required, for the rest of the season.

Sound familiar? If you’re starting any new enterprise, a considerable amount of effort is required at the planning and setting up stage. If this is done well, exhausting as it may be, once your business is up and running, it should hum along efficiently, with minimal maintenance needed going forward.

But do you not have to continue to work at your business? Of course you do! Let’s go back to our gardening metaphor…  As any gardener knows, the garden can’t just be ignored from June onwards; watering is required, and also weeding and deadheading. Possibly you might even find you want to change some areas and transplant things – pull out plants that aren’t working and replace with new ones.

Guess what? Business is just the same. Once you’ve done the initial hard work and your systems are all in place, you should be able to relax and focus on the day-to-day running of your business. But it’s never ‘once and done’. Some processes will work better than others and savvy business owners will adapt accordingly. There will also be regular maintenance required – marketing will continue to be necessary (think of putting out regular press releases and sharing information or posting blogs on your site as the regular watering your garden needs). Consider systems that need to be adjusted because they don’t work as well as you thought they would as the plants that need to be transplanted or removed; while – as your clientele increases, you may actually find you need to ‘weed out’ some time-wasting procedures, or even customers – if they’re causing you more hassle than reward.

Your business is like a garden in so many ways, ever changing, and needing regular maintenance; give it that and it should flourish and give you great pleasure. Contact us – info@promptproofing.com – if you need help with writing articles, white papers, blog posts or press releases – even the most ardent gardener sometimes needs to outsource someone to cut the grass!