Grow What You Want To Eat

One sunny Sunday morning recently I was harvesting produce from my ‘allotment’ – that is the area at the side of the house where I grow fruit and vegetables in containers and raised beds – and feeling smug to be gathering lettuce, beetroot, courgettes, basil and carrots for our meal that day.

“We are going to have an amazing crop of tomatoes this year.” I said to Chris to which he replied, “But I don’t really like tomatoes.”

At least he didn’t like tomatoes until I made roasted tomato soup!

At that moment Chris was bent, elbow deep in the soil in the potato planters searching for the golden gems hidden beneath. There were gems indeed but not that many of them – was it really worth it?

We paused to sit on the wall and drink a coffee in the sunshine and discussed what we wanted to grow next year based on

  • What do we like to eat?
  • What are we good at growing?
  • What do we have the space for?
  • How much time and effort versus reward (profit)?

Does your heart ever sink when you win a piece of business or take an order because, while it is a sale, it is going to be difficult to deliver or it is going to be hard to produce? Perhaps it is work that you don’t really like doing or that isn’t profitable.

In business, as business owners or sales people, are we sowing seeds, are we searching for business, are we selling or looking to sell what we actually what we want to deliver? Are we attracting the type of business that is right for us, what we get satisfaction out of doing if we are a service based business or what we can sell profitably if we are a product based business?

  • What do we want to produce?
  • What work do we like doing? (service)
  • What do our customers/ the market want?
  • What are we good at? What are we experts at?
  • What can we do easily and profitably?

I have recently been through this exercise for my business based on what type of work I really like doing, what work is the most profitable and what I do really well.

The answer for me is executive coaching and sales and leadership training while working in inspiring environments and promoting wellbeing.

What about you and your business?

And, as for my garden we will definitely be growing more beetroot, courgettes, carrots, raspberries and rhubarb next year. We will carry on growing tomatoes (for the soup!) but no potatoes.

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