Every year, my wife and I talk about planting a tree. This has been going on now for the last 15 years, and, finally, I am happy to report that we have followed through and planted three trees this past Memorial Day weekend.
The Best Time to Plant
There is a Chinese proverb that says, “The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second best time is NOW.” Why did it take so long for us to do it? It’s not hard. In fact, it’s kind of fun to do. Plus, these days you can get immediate satisfaction by buying a tree that is already 3-5 years old.
Trees are a lot like websites. Putting off planting a tree is a lot like putting off getting a website built or finally upgraded. Why do we do that when the benefits of completing this task are so obvious? Mature trees provide shade to decrease cooling costs for your home. They add beauty to your landscape and increase resale value. Trees make a great first impression on your home, and the same can be said about websites.
Websites are the first image a potential customer has of your business. They allow for an easy way for your customers to do business with you. I suppose my wife and I kept putting off planting a tree because we got busy or distracted, and honestly if it didn’t get done it was not the end of the world. We still have our house, the yard to roam around in, and not having a new tree was not that big of a thing to worry about.
I think this is true in business as well. Business owners might think, “I’m just so busy still. Since no one has said anything about my website (either good or bad), I’m not going to worry about it right now.” But by then, it’s too late! You’ve just lost that potential customer to your competitor because your website didn’t have online ordering capabilities.
A “No Matter What” Item
My wife and I finally put planting trees on the to-do list as our, “no matter what” item. No matter what we did this spring, one of those things had to be buying and planting trees. So, we put our heads together and decided where to plant them. We went to a reputable nursery, got some good advice, as well as some great looking, 3-year-old trees. Delivered and planted this past weekend using the nursery’s easy planting instructions, we achieved that great feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction.
Business owners, please put your website or website upgrade as a “no matter what” item on your to-do list. Get your team together and approach this task as a way to share the work and insight. Don’t put off that first impression any longer. Then you, too, can have that wonderful feeling of, “Finally, this has been accomplished!”
