How Does Your Garden Grow?

A garden is a lot like a business. I should know. I own a business and I have a garden. Fortunately, my business is more successful than my garden, but that’s another issue.

In gardening, we must plant seeds. For example, if we want to grow beans, we plant bean seeds. If we want to grow cucumbers, we plant cucumber seeds. If we want to grow birds, we plant bird seed. See how that words?

In business, we must also plant seeds. But these seeds are figurative (I haven’t found any business seeds yet) rather than literal. For example, in marketing our seeds are our advertisements.

In gardening we must have good soil. The best seeds won’t grow in rocks. In business we also need a good foundation—sound business principles, our company culture, financial stability.

In gardening we must nurture our young plants. We must water them and provide fertilizer. We must also nurture our business, providing it with leadership and guidance.

In gardening we must fight off insects that seek to destroy our adorable little plants. In business we must also fight off pests, in the form of “special” customers and employees.

Both gardening and business can be frustrating at times. But when we pick that first vine ripened tomato of the year, all of that effort seems worthwhile. However, even that doesn’t beat a happy customer at the end of a profitable job.

© BEP Enterprises Incorporated 2008