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From Red To Black To Green

Bill Schnetz knows all about the trap of working so hard in your business, you never get your head far enough above the fray to work on it. The difference, he says, can make or break you as the leader of your company, and is especially crucial as you weather a tough economy. Since early 2008, Schnetz, CLCA’s Director Of Events, has been helping contractors make that all-important leap from having a job to running a business. He’s the facilitator of CLCA’s three-year “Red To Black To Green” mentoring program, named for the progress contractors can make from operating in the red, to being in the black and ultimately bringing in the ‘green.’

“The more I get involved with the program, the more I realize how many small-contractor members we have who don’t really have a business, they have an hourly job,” Schnetz said recently. “When I look back at my own career — I’ve been doing this for 34 years — I thought if I worked really hard, and did bigger and better projects, I’d be successful. But I never became successful to the point where I had a consistent income, where I had something left at the end of the year, where I could find good employees so I could take off a weekend. I was having to do everything myself ” working 16 to 18 hours a day and it was killing me.” It was his wife, he says, who pushed him to join CLCA, where he learned that running a business was much more than being a crew leader with a couple of helpers. “The light bulb in my head got switched on,” he says.

Today, Schnetz’s firm, Schnetz Landscape Inc. in Escondido, is a design/build/maintenance firm with 30 employees. It’s an accomplishment Schnetz says he never would have achieved by simply working in his business. “I’ve taken some of the skills I learned in CLCA and in other business groups to help other contractors,” he says about Red To Black To Green. “I have a strong feeling that for people who haven’t had the light switched on, haven’t seen the possibilities ... they are out there every day and doing the tasks and they can’t see past that.”

The idea for the program grew out of board of directors’ discussions about professionalism, Schnetz says. As Director Of Events, his thoughts naturally turned to making CLCA’s events more successful: in other words having more members able to attend. “Yes, I want more successful contractors and more successful events,” he says. And what better way to enable small contractors to go to those events than by teaching the leadership skills they need.

CLCA members who had never been to a state event and were making less than $500,000 a year were notified about the program; about 10 expressed interest. An important component of Red To Black To Green was a half-day visit to each business this March from noted green-industry business consultant Jim Huston, who examined the businesses’ operating budgets and overhead recovery numbers. Because Red To Black To Green was structured as a three-year program, each contractor paid 25 percent of Huston’s fee. They’ll pay 50 percent next year, and 75 percent in the third and final year. But because Schnetz knew it would take more than a visit from a business consultant to get a contractor fired up about working on his or her business instead of in it, group meetings play a big part in the program.

After Huston made his visits, the group gathered at CLCA headquarters in Sacramento in May and again in August. The first meeting was a real eye-opener, Schnetz says. Once the contractors told their stories, Schnetz says he found himself talking to the group not about goal-setting or leadership skills, but about how to survive in a down economy. “I’ve survived more than once,” he says simply and was happy to switch gears, and start handing out advice and encouragement.

Everyone in the Red To Black To Green group was assigned to write out their business and personal goals and then answer three questions:

Why do you want to grow your business?
If I’m an employee, why would I want to work with you? and
If I’m a client, why would I want to hire you?

“So far, it’s been very positive,” says Chris Ferris, owner of Paragon Gardens, Inc., a design/install and maintenance firm in Chino. “Bill’s doing a great job of moderating the program and getting us to think outside of ourselves — to view our businesses as they ought to be. I had never been one to think on paper or do much goal-planning; but the exercises are good for helping us to think in those ways. I want to work more on my business rather than in it, but it’s tough when you’re small. But I want my company to be systems based rather than based on me. That’s what is nice about the peer group — there is accountability. Bill keeps pushing us and it’s great to have a sounding board in one another.”

For Daniel Wilson of Wilson Environmental Landscape Design Inc., of Santa Barbara, Red To Black To Green has offered not only an opportunity to look at his business from a financial and systems perspective but to put some practical ideas into use. “The book Bill bought for us has helped me to stop procrastinating,” he says. (The book title is Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time, Brian Tracy, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2001. Amazon) “It’s easy for me to get sidetracked by details, and I’d like to clear my desk so I can focus on the big things. From the first meeting and from the book — I’m starting to learn how to ignore the small stuff and go for the big stuff — I’m getting much better at focusing on the priority tasks at hand.”

Participant John Vetter of Vetter Landscaping Inc. says working with Schnetz has been a high point of the program. “He’s been extremely helpful and has a lot of valuable insight. I’ve really appreciated the input he’s given me and the group and I think he’s a great leader. He’s definitely on the right track.”

Plans for the future include a meeting at the Landscape Industry Show in February. Schnetz says he will see this first group through the three years of the program, and will line up the next Red To Black To Green facilitator if the program warrants the formation of a second group. It’s an important way for CLCA to connect with smaller contractors, he says. “It’s people asking them questions that no one has asked them before,” he says. “They can start thinking about things other than pushing a lawnmower or fixing sprinklers. That’s really what I’m trying to do.”

Joining Red To Black To Green

CLCA is now accepting applications for the next round of the Red To Black To Green program. If you are interested in expanding your business, please review the selection criteria below and then email rbg@clca.org

To qualify, you must:

Make a three year commitment
Pay for a portion of expenses (See percentage in each of the 3 years)
Gross sales between less than $1.5 million per year (you will be sharing financial information with the consultant, so double check your numbers before entering the drawing to make sure you qualify).
Participate in a Northern or Southern quarterly peer group for three years at your expense.
Agree to be interviewed to qualify for program.
Agree to do “homework” assignments. Shouldn’t exceed more than 4 hours a quarter. First quarter may be 6 hours.
Agree to be interviewed and share experiences for articles and magazine, etc. once in the program.

Year 1:

Attend 3 board meetings (your chapter or a neighboring chapter)
Pay 75% of Consultant’s Expenses ($975) - payments may be made by automatic monthly payment,
Participate in a Northern or Southern quarterly peer group for three years (at your expense).
Attend the 2010 Landscape Industry Show in Los Angeles in February and attend a scheduled seminar with others in this program.
Provide requested profit and loss, etc. etc. etc., information

Year 2:

Attend 3 board meetings (your chapter or a neighboring chapter)
Attend the 2011 Landscape Industry Show in Los Angeles and attend a scheduled seminar with others in this program.
Participate in a Northern or Southern quarterly peer group for three years at your expense.
Pay for 50% of expenses to bring consultant in for 1/2 day session ($650)

Year 3: