Perennial gardening requires planning, preparation and many steps to see the project to completion similar to the steps to build a business in online marketing. Who knew?
I started a perennial flower garden years ago when I was a stay at home mom, raising four kids, trying to handle housekeeping, laundry, meals, homeschooling, boo-boos, rolling of eyes, and a home daycare business. It was my therapy, my escape, my natural stress-reliever. (better than any Calgon take-me-away soaking bath.)
After eight years in the online marketing industry, I’ve realized how very similar are the process of planting a perennial garden and the process of building an online business.
HOW PERENNIAL GARDENING IS LIKE ONLINE MARKETING
Finding a Solution
We had this hill in our front yard that was a bitch to mow. You had to tie a rope to the lawn mower handle and ease it down the hill, then pull it back up – hoping the knot held, hoping you didn’t slip as the mower rolled downhill. The solution was to plant a perennial garden to eliminate the difficult mowing job.
And this relates to business how? Eight years ago, when we first started building our online business, it was a bitch to get bills paid every month. There was always too much month left over at the end of the paycheck. Oh, I suppose we could have taken on another job or two, but we saw what was possible online, and we decided to take control of our lives by building an online business.
That’s the reason most people start an online business – as a way to create extra income, get out of the 8-5 rut, get out of debt and a whole variety of reasons too numerous to list here. The bottom line is people are struggling and they are concerned about what’s ahead for their family. They have lost all faith in the government and in the system. They are hurting, they are tired, and they find the solution in online marketing.
Clearing Out the Old
With shovel in hand, I began to dig up the clumps of grass on the hill. Little by little, one wheelbarrow load after another, I cleared the hill from the grass that had been growing there. Clearing out the old to make way for the new.
In business, there is much clearing out of the old to be done to assure that you will achieve the results that you desire. There are self-limiting beliefs of fear, doubt and worry that are ingrained in your subconscious mind and will surface time and time again as you begin to take your life in a new direction. The best way to clear out the old to make room for the new beliefs is to study and apply what you learn from personal development leaders. Learn this and you will open the floodgates of endless possibilities. Ignore this study and you will allow any obstacle to knock you down and keep you there.
There is an employee mindset that needs to be dug up and tossed – for now, you are the boss. No one is going to tell you when you must be at work or what your tasks are. You are now the CEO who makes those decisions. With that comes planning, responsibility, leadership and commitment.
Prepare the Soil
Now it was time to enrich the soil for the perennials. For this step, I consulted a master gardener to find out the best way to assure the flower bed would be a healthy environment for the plants. I added nutrient rich top soil and organic material. (yes, organic as in cow manure. Who would ever buy a bag of manure? Me!) I mixed in peat moss and sand to aerate the soil and help it hold moisture for the plants. Next came fertilizer – just the right proportion for the plants.
In business, you are the soil being prepared to nurture and grow new plants (teammates.) Finding your master gardener, your mentor, is so crucial to this preparation step. He/she will teach you, train you and provide the right nutrients for growing a successful, lasting business. For this reason, be selective of the mentor you choose. Look for someone who is honest, supportive, and leads with integrity. And look for someone who is doing what you desire to do – in life, in business, in personal development; really, in every aspect of your desires.
We found our mentor, Franco Gonzalez, who from the start, exemplified the qualities and characteristics we desired to model. He’s still our mentor, still guiding and teaching. But he’s now our best friend and business partner.
Choosing the Plants
This was the fun part of the whole experience. There was much to take into consideration. The colors of the flowers and foliage, the height, the growing pattern (whether they were ground cover or climbers), the blooming times. Some plants are creepers, growing low to the ground. Some are climbers, needing a trellis or the metal garden gate I had. Some grow tall, some not so much. Some require direct sunlight while some will only survive in the shade. There are perennials that bloom in early spring, others in summer and still others in the fall. It took planning to choose the plants and design the layout of the garden.
In your online marketing business, you will attract a huge variety of people to your team. These are your “plants.” Some will bloom (take off and have success) early, some after a few months, and some much later. Some teammates will be creepers (not creepy I hope) and others will grow to great heights. Some will thrive in the limelight while others will prefer to work more quietly in the background.
Watering Daily
This is a daily task of love for your plants. They need just enough to keep them hydrated, but not too much to drown them.
You will water your team daily with training, motivation, support and inspiration. They will need just enough to keep them going, but not too much to overwhelm them.
Weeding is a Given
As much preparation you did to provide the perfect growing environment, there will be weeds. There are remnants of the grass you thought you cleared away and there are seeds from weeds carried by the wind, by birds, by animals. If you don’t pull the weeds, your garden will be quickly choked and the beautiful, pristine garden will turn into a mess.
With your team, there will be weeding to do. Weeding as in removing negativity that some will bring to the team culture. Make it clear that the “garden” you are growing will not tolerate negativity of any kind. If the person can’t comply with your rule, they have to be pulled out or else they will choke and destroy the team.
Deadheading
No, this isn’t a Jerry Garcia thing, it’s a way of prolonging the blooming cycle of your plants. After a plant blooms, you can pinch off the dead bloom on some plants to extend the blooming cycle. This is called deadheading.
Your team might require deadheading if they start to get distracted by too many other shiny balls (tools, other opportunities or systems) and if they don’t stay focused, they will soon become confused and overwhelmed because they are trying to do everything instead of mastering one thing. Help your team keep it simple. Provide an example of a simple daily method of operation that can be achieved. Teach them to master one skill before taking on another. Master Facebook marketing before diving into Instagram. Master blogging before diving into paid advertising. Pinch off the distractions. Keep it simple.
Enjoy the fruits (blooms) of your labor
Your garden will bloom from spring to fall and delight you in the beauty of your creation. It will bring you smiles and will make others smile. And it will continue to do that year after year after year. Was it easy, no. But it was so worth it.
Your business is blooming now. Your team is producing results, creating income, changing lives and serving others. It’s a beautiful thing to experience. Was it easy, no. But it was so worth it.
AND NOW … A WORD ABOUT ANNUALS
Annuals start showing up in the gardening centers in early spring, and yes, they are beautiful and there’s nothing wrong with sticking a few annuals in among your perennials for a splash of color.
Now about prospecting and choosing between annuals and perennials. You will be eager to sign up new people in your business, but if you take time to qualify each person, you will plant a perennial garden that blooms year after year, rather than planting annuals that wither and die after one season.
How do you qualify a prospect? These questions will help you do that. Don’t present them as an interrogation, just ease them into your conversation.
What are your goals or reasons for starting your online business?
How much time do you have to invest weekly to work on this?
How much money to you have available to invest in your business?
Are you coachable? Willing to follow directions?
When you can get answers to those questions from the start, you will quickly be able to see if the person you are talking to is serious about doing this, or is just looking for a lottery ticket fix to their circumstances.
Now GO and GROW!
Hopefully, this comparison of the similarities between perennial gardening and online marketing has helped you see the steps it takes to build something that you will delight in and be proud to showcase.
Your perennial garden graces your home and brings beauty to those who live near you or pass by your home.
Your business, planned, designed, planted with qualified teammates, nurtured and watered by your leadership will grace the industry and bring beauty to the families who are now working with you.
It’s a rewarding experience to build your online business. Not only will you gain confidence, new skills and freedom, but you will also be helping other do the same. And isn’t that the ultimate reason after all is said and done?
You think right now that it’s the money that is driving you to start your own business. I will argue that after you start seeing your teammates succeed, you will realize that the money is secondary.
You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want. -Zig Ziglar
We’ve been in the online marketing industry for the past eight years. We’ve continually tended the “garden” we first planted. Continually plugged into training to keep up with the latest developments in social media marketing. We’ve watered, fertilized, deadheaded and yes, even weeded our team to produce a lasting and beautiful business.
The rewards have been priceless. We’ve developed close relationships with many of our teammates who now invite us to come park our camper in their driveway so we can spend time masterminding. Our mobile lifestyle allows us to meet and visit teammates all over the country.
We started with nothing but a strong desire to build this to the level that we could live our dream. Was it easy, heck no. Was it worth it? Absolutely. Last year we traveled to 18 states, drove over 20,000 miles.
We walked beaches on the East coast, the West coast, the Gulf Coast. We camped in the mountains of Arizona, under starry skies, nestled in the Redwoods, on the Pacific coast, in canyons, beside rivers, and even in Walmart parking lots.
And everywhere we went, we worked. As long as we have a laptop and a phone, we’re able to run our business from anywhere we happen to be.
When people ask me “how are you?” I reply with a huge smile …
I LOVE MY LIFE.
What is the dream come true that having your own business would bring to you?
Trisha
p: 573-881-6715
f: http://facebook.com/trishajbarnes
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