Transcript:

Are you protecting your account list? I don't mean internally, are you keeping people away from claiming prospects that you put into the CRM so that you could tag them? I mean, are you protecting the accounts you already have? Are you protecting them from encroachment by your competitors? Are you protecting them from mistakes or problems that you could have proactively resolved? Are you protecting them from experiencing problems in their business because you didn't stay ahead of those problems, you didn't anticipate those needs.

You assumed things would be the way they've always been. Are you protecting your own business by protecting the accounts? Who brought you that business in the first place?

Protecting what you've got matters even more than going out and getting more. You've got to remember who brought you to the dance. It's the established client base that you already have that needs your time and attention and protection, not to the detriment of growing your business, but for the preservation of the foundation that you've already built. Be sure to allocate your time in ways that protect your account base. Those are the customers who are going to, over time, become loyal and bring your referrals and shore up what you've got so that you're never wanting or scrambling, starting from a place of of a deficit.

I will do just about anything to protect my plants when it's cold and there's going to be a late season frost or an early season frost, if I still have plants growing in the late season or if they haven't had a chance to take hold in the early season, I'll be out there with blankets and cups and doing everything I can to protect them from the elements. Recently we were about to have a very big wind and thunderstorm and I didn't want my lavender to get beat up.

It was still maybe one or two days away from the peak time to harvest it and I didn't want to take a chance. So I went ahead and snipped off about three fourths of it. And I'm glad I did because the rest did get quite battered.

Inside, before I transplant out into the straw bales, I'm also pretty protective, you'd think that was a safe environment. Heating mats grow lights and indoor environment. But even indoors, if the temperature doesn't maintain, if the watering isn't being done on a timely basis and that sometimes happens if I'm traveling, I've got to be out there looking out for these plants. They are there to know they're too fragile to do it on their own.

And even if they weren't, you know, they are counting on me and more importantly, I'm counting on them. So I want to protect them in every possible way. I might go overboard. For example, we have our straw bales on gravel. That's intentional. It's in a good sunny spot. But the fact that it's on gravel protects them from bunnies and deer getting up there and trying to eat the plants. Deer don't like to walk on gravel, but I have seen them do it.

And I figure if they get hungry enough or if they figure out all the goodness that's up here in these straw bales, that they might chance it. So I also plant Marigolds inside the straw bales on the sides of them. By the end of the season, they wrap around the straw bales and they're just absolutely beautiful. But I do this because they're a natural repellent. They repel some bugs, but they also repel rabbits and deer. And I put those marigolds in there because not only are they a protection, but they also beautify the garden gravel and straw bales.

Well, you know, they're not the most beautiful thing to look at. So I put a little extra in there. And that protects the beauty of the property as well. I think it's hardest to protect what you've invested in. If you don't know what the threats really are, you could easily mistake any of these bugs as potential threats to your plants. But actually, these ones are harmless. They're not going to eat much and they're going to do more good than they will do harm.

We want to be able to pollinate our plants and we want these dragonflies because they eat the bugs. That actually would be a much greater threat to the plants. What we have to be careful of are the real predators, the ones who could do significantly more harm knowing the difference and not treating all threats as the same is important no matter what you're growing. So what are the threats to the people in your business that you want to take care of?

What are the threats that you want to protect them against? You need to know and then you need to be proactive. Don't wait until it's too late until the damage has already been done. But take care of the people that you want to take care of you.