A mentor of mine once told me that structure always needs to follow your strategy.

This means that you need to have a strategy: simply put, an idea of what you’re going to do and not going to do. Then you can create a structure for how you’ll execute that strategy. It’s often easy for companies to skip the strategy part and jump right to the structure—many snow professionals are born problem-solvers after all. Jumping to the how is often second nature, but without a strategy, any structure created is often wasted and pointless.

For about 35 years, Grunder Landscaping Co. avoided doing snow. Looking back, I don’t think this was a smart strategy, but it at least was a strategy. We didn’t think the wear and tear on our equipment or the hours it would require of our team were worth it for the amount of snow our area receives in a year.

We reevaluated our strategy about 5 years ago and charged at some of the self-limiting beliefs we held head-on. We decided it was time to make snow and ice a key revenue item for our company so that we could do more work in the winter, and we got started putting a structure in place that we could follow.

As we landscape in the warmer months, we want to be sure we don’t lose sight of the winter work that needs to be done, so we already have a strategy and structure in place for snow for the 2024-2025 season and beyond. Here are my three tips to help you do the same.

1 - Stay ahead on the planning

Having a strategy in place that helps you to know what you are and are not going to be doing 12 months from now is important.

Our team at Grunder Landscaping Co. plans for the next 3-5 years during quarterly leadership team meetings; and with a clear strategy in place, we’re able to talk both about the big picture (e.g., we’re going to provide these services to these types of clients in this geographic region) and the detailed structure (e.g., how many extra trucks or team members we’ll need if we hit our revenue goal). We can get plans in place to make sure we’re ready.

2 - A vision without a plan is a hallucination

You can talk about what you want to do all day long, but you have to actually execute. Once strategy is in place, you still have to create structure.

I’ll confess something to you all now: I’m really great at hallucinating. I am the big-idea guy at our company, but executing is not always my strength. This has held us back in the past, and I’m grateful today to be running alongside our company president and master executor Seth Pflum. Surround yourself with people who make up for your weaknesses—it’ll help you go farther.

3 - Make sure everyone on your team knows the plan

If you want your team’s help executing, they need to know the plan. Communicate year-round with your teams so they’re always up to speed on the plan and their role in making it happen. And make sure you can clearly answer this great question: "A year from now, to know we’ve been successful, what specifically needs to happen?" Then set out to do just that.

Even when the peak of our work is seasonal, our businesses are not. We must be constantly working on our businesses if we want to get better, grow and reach our goals. I challenge you to do that this spring and summer, so that you’re ready to maximize the next snow and ice season.

Marty Grunder is founder of Grunder Landscaping Co. and The Grow Group coaching firm.