After being a small business owner for around 30 years, one thing I know for certain is that business growth does not happen in a straight line.
There are seasons when growth explodes.
Everything seems to be working.
Sales are climbing. New customers are finding you. Opportunities are opening up. The team is busy, excited, and confident.
Then there are seasons when growth slows.
And sometimes, if we’re being truthful, business can become stagnant or even shrink.
Those seasons feel very different.
But over the years, our team has developed a phrase that we come back to again and again:
Keep planting good seeds.
And then do your best to fertilize them with love.
Business Has Seasons
One of the easiest mistakes for a new business owner to make is assuming that rapid growth means everything they are doing is right.
When sales are increasing quickly, it is tempting to believe:
Our marketing is perfect.
Our pricing is perfect.
Our strategy is perfect.
Our team is perfect.
We figured it out.
But growth can come from many different places.
Maybe the market is expanding.
Maybe a competitor disappeared.
Maybe an investment you made a year ago is finally paying off.
Maybe customers are referring you because of relationships you built years earlier.
Maybe a product category suddenly became popular.
Sometimes you are simply harvesting something you planted long before you realized it would grow.
The opposite is also true.
When business slows, our first instinct can be:
We just need to do more of what worked before.
Sometimes that is the answer.
But not always.
Markets change.
Customers change.
Technology changes.
Competitors change.
What worked five years ago may not produce the same result today.
That doesn’t mean the answer is to panic.
It means we should keep learning while continuing to plant.
We Are Often Harvesting Yesterday’s Work
This may be one of the hardest things to understand in business.
The results you are seeing today may have very little to do with what you did this week.
You may be reaping something you planted months ago.
Sometimes years ago.
A customer may call you today because somebody recommended your company six months ago.
A vendor may give you an opportunity because you treated them fairly for ten years.
An employee may go above and beyond because of the way you treated them during a difficult time years earlier.
A customer may come back after a long absence because they remember how you helped them when there was nothing immediately in it for you.
Good seeds can take a long time to grow.
So can bad ones.
Planting Good Seeds Is Not a Marketing Strategy
When I talk about sowing good seeds, I’m not talking about some clever tactic designed to generate a return.
I’m talking about how we choose to operate.
For me, that means trying to be a blessing.
It means doing the right thing even when the easier choice would be more profitable in the short term.
It means trying to love our neighbor.
And in business, our neighbor may be:
A customer.
An employee.
A vendor.
A delivery driver.
A competitor.
Someone calling with a question who may never buy anything from us.
Or simply a person who crosses our path that day.
You may never know which interaction becomes a seed.
The Customer You Help Today May Matter Years From Now
It is easy to evaluate every interaction based on immediate value.
How much is this customer spending?
Is this lead likely to close?
Is this worth our time?
Businesses have to be responsible with time and resources.
But if every human interaction becomes a calculation, I think we lose something important.
Some of the most valuable relationships in business do not begin with a large order.
They begin with trust.
Maybe someone calls with a problem and you spend time helping them even though they bought the product somewhere else.
Maybe you tell a customer not to buy something because it isn’t right for them.
Maybe you recommend a less expensive option.
Maybe you admit that another company has a better solution for what they need.
You may lose a sale today.
But you may plant something much more valuable.
Trust.
And trust has a long growing season.
Vendors Matter Too
Customers are not the only relationships worth nurturing.
Vendors matter.
Manufacturers matter.
Sales representatives matter.
Freight companies matter.
Service providers matter.
The people who help your business operate are part of the ecosystem that allows your company to succeed.
It is easy to treat vendors well when everything is going smoothly.
The real test comes when there is a problem.
An order is late.
Something arrives damaged.
A mistake gets made.
A bill is disputed.
Those moments reveal what kind of relationship you really have.
You can still be firm.
You can still hold people accountable.
But you can do it with respect.
Sometimes the seed you plant in a difficult conversation becomes the relationship that helps you years later.
Employees Remember More Than We Realize
The same is true with employees.
People remember how you treated them when things were difficult.
They remember whether you listened.
They remember whether you kept your word.
They remember whether you took credit for their success.
They remember whether you blamed them unfairly when something went wrong.
And they remember whether you treated them like people or simply like labor.
As owners and managers, we are planting seeds every day whether we realize it or not.
The question is:
What kind are we planting?
Slow Growth Can Be Dangerous for the Wrong Reason
When business slows, the financial pressure is obvious.
But there is another danger.
We can become impatient.
We can begin making decisions from fear.
We stop thinking long term.
We start looking for shortcuts.
We may cut corners.
We may become less generous.
We may treat employees differently.
We may squeeze vendors.
We may oversell customers.
We may chase revenue that does not fit who we are.
That is when the idea of planting good seeds becomes most important.
Because it is easy to do the right thing when business is booming.
Character is tested when it isn’t.
Don’t Dig Up the Seed Every Week to See If It’s Growing
One of the hardest parts of planting is waiting.
In business, we often want immediate proof that something is working.
We publish content and check traffic tomorrow.
We launch a new product and judge it after a week.
We start building a relationship and wonder why it hasn’t produced revenue yet.
We train an employee and expect immediate improvement.
We make an investment and want instant return.
But many worthwhile things take time.
You wouldn’t plant a seed on Monday, dig it up Friday to check its progress, replant it somewhere else, and expect a healthy crop.
Yet businesses do the equivalent all the time.
We abandon good strategies too early because they haven’t produced quickly enough.
Patience does not mean ignoring results.
You still measure.
You still adjust.
You still learn.
But you also give good things time to grow.
Fertilize the Seeds With Love
Our team doesn’t just talk about planting good seeds.
We talk about fertilizing them with love.
That might sound unusual in a business meeting.
But I think it matters.
You can provide great customer service because a handbook tells you to.
Or you can genuinely care whether the customer succeeds.
Those are different.
You can treat an employee well because you want higher productivity.
Or you can genuinely care about the person.
Those are different too.
People can usually tell.
Love in business does not mean avoiding difficult conversations or giving everyone whatever they want.
Sometimes doing the right thing requires saying no.
Sometimes it requires accountability.
Sometimes it requires making a decision someone will not like.
But even those things can be done from a place of respect and genuine concern.
Success Can Hide Bad Seeds
Strong growth can sometimes hide bad habits.
If sales are increasing rapidly, we may ignore problems.
Poor customer service doesn’t seem urgent because new customers keep arriving.
Employee turnover doesn’t seem serious because revenue is rising.
Bad vendor relationships don’t matter because inventory is moving.
Weak systems get ignored because everybody is busy.
That can create a dangerous illusion.
A company may be harvesting good seeds planted years ago while simultaneously planting bad seeds for the future.
Then growth slows and the problems become visible.
That is why I believe the time to focus on doing things right is not only when business is difficult.
It is also when business is going great.
Maybe especially then.
Hard Seasons Can Produce Good Seeds
Some of the best things we have done in business came from difficult periods.
Slow seasons force you to look closely.
What are customers telling us?
Where are we wasting money?
What can we improve?
What relationships have we neglected?
What new opportunities are we missing?
Are we still serving people the way we should?
Challenges can make a company better if we respond correctly.
The difficult season itself may become a seed.
You Cannot Control Every Harvest
Business owners like control.
We want to believe that if we make the correct decisions, the results will always follow.
But business does not work that way.
There are economic cycles.
Competitors.
Technology changes.
Supply problems.
Unexpected expenses.
Customer behavior.
And dozens of other things outside our control.
We should plan.
We should measure.
We should work hard.
We should make good decisions.
But eventually we also have to accept that we cannot control everything.
What we can control is how we treat people and what we plant today.
Ask a Different Question
Instead of constantly asking:
“What can we do today to increase sales?”
Sometimes we should also ask:
“What good seed can we plant today?”
Maybe it is helping a customer.
Maybe it is teaching an employee.
Maybe it is improving a process.
Maybe it is creating useful content.
Maybe it is repairing a relationship.
Maybe it is calling someone simply to see how they are doing.
Maybe it is doing the right thing when nobody would know if you didn’t.
We may not see the return today.
That is okay.
Thirty Years Has Changed How I Look at Growth
After three decades in small business, I don’t get quite as excited as I once did when business suddenly explodes.
I’m grateful for it.
I enjoy it.
But I also know that seasons change.
And I try not to become as discouraged when growth slows.
That season will change too.
The more important question is what we are doing during both.
Are we planting?
Are we learning?
Are we treating people right?
Are we helping others?
Are we strengthening relationships?
Are we being a blessing?
Because today's sales numbers tell you something about your business.
But they do not tell you everything about its future.
Final Thought
We are all harvesting something today that was planted in the past.
Some of those seeds were planted last month.
Others may have been planted years ago.
And somewhere down the road, we will harvest what we are planting right now.
So whether business is booming, slowing, stagnant, or struggling, my goal is the same:
Keep sowing good seeds.
Do the right thing.
Help people.
Love your neighbor.
Treat customers, employees, vendors, and everyone who crosses your path with respect.
Then fertilize those seeds with love.
You may not know which ones will grow.
You may not know when the harvest will come.
But after 30 years in business, I believe this:
The seeds we plant today matter far more than we realize.