Being a “boring” lawn and garden company gives you significant competitive advantages in today’s environment.

A definition of a boring lawn and garden company

A boring lawn and garden company is a company that offers dependable and staple lawn and garden products at a healthy margin that meets consumers’ needs now, and will do so in the foreseeable future.

If run correctly, boring companies are likely to generate a consistent source of long- term revenue not by looking for hype or the next flash of a product , but by focusing on improving customer service, promoting its brand and strengthening its financials. Success often rewards lawn and garden companies that stick to the basics time and time again no matter how boring the basics may seem. Scotts Miracle-Gro is a perfect example. It has never forgotten it is a branded fertilizer company no matter how many deviations to its product line it introduce s . I am sure the conversation at cocktail parties quiets right down when the company tell s someone it sell s fertilizer for a living. Though boring, this is a minor social inconvenience as it   has few major competitors , and I can't think of anything more exciting to brag about th a n being a market leader. Lawn and garden companies like Scotts Miracle-Gro are boring , but they recognize their status and are happy to continue with their boring but very profitable role.

You may also be the most important and boring lawn and garden company no one has heard of. If your company has a key product(s) that has a healthy margin, your company is probably boring and may   be invisible. Without a solid margin to rely on , many lawn and garden companies will tend to expand product lines beyond core competencies in an attempt to increase profits, or to just stay above water. Lawn and garden companies without a healthy margin have a tendency to get distracted chasing every dollar and every new hot product category , and will need to spend a disproportionate amount of their margins staying visible and promoting their most recent new “thing .”

Companies that repeatedly launch new products are definitely not boring companies. There is never an opportunity in these lawn and garden companies to focus on reducing costs or improving resources, quality, distribution or training their sales people. Boring companies on the other hand produce the same product for years, sometimes even decades. These companies can quite successfully drive down all of their production and material costs and take the time to penetrate deeply within the fragmented lawn and garden industry by managing their resources , making them a lean highly profitable business.

The current environment demonstrates the wisdom of being a “boring” lawn and garden company. Boring companies not only usually do well in the good years; they also do well in the bad years. They have a whole management process designed for that outcome. When you are doing well in a tough competitive category, you are probably doing something right. Your competition shouldn’t be letting you do that. At the time you are doing well, you have to prepare for a change to take place. Boring companies realize that and remain stable and are the ones that find ways to make money when things are tough.

Rick Pontz is founder of The Lawn & Garden Performance Group
www.LGPG.com