Southbrook Consulting

Happy New Year! Wishing you a joyful New Year despite these difficult times. We hope that the New Year brings you good health and plenty of new and exciting opportunities. Tell us What is your New Years resolution?

This Christmas is different from many in the past. The most important thing to remember during this time is the gift of Jesus’s birth. Merry Christmas!

As businesses and individuals navigate through the pandemic, Southbrook Consulting is on your side as a trusted advisor. Like you, we must regularly assess and adjust our actions to reflect the local COVID-19 situation. Although we have embraced virtual platforms like Zoom, nothing can replace in-person meetings with our clients and friends. With December now upon us, we want to ensure you are informed to adapt to this dynamic business environment. Above, we have summari...zed important information about approved updates to some key government relief programs and CRA reporting requirements. Over the last few months, we have helped many of our clients in getting more money than they first thought. It has been frustrating for many as the rules of each claim period keeps changing. If you are unsure and wonder if you have capitalized on all the potential CEWS, contact us directly at [email protected] WE CAN HELP! See more

This is the time of the year when employers ask of themselves, am I going to give my employees a Christmas Bonus? Many employers have a practice of paying Christmas bonuses partly as a reward to staff for their contribution to the success of the business during the previous year, and partly to mark the festive season itself. Christmas bonuses, by their nature, typically differ from performancerelated bonuses, which employees may be entitled to earn during the year (...although, obviously, if there is actually a performance component to a Christmas bonus, employers need to ensure that the performance criteria or KPIs they are employing are clear and fair). However, many times Christmas bonuses are based on how the employer feels. In cases where employers pay a Christmas bonus selectively or based on feeling, the road can be difficult. Firstly, a Christmas bonus that is selective can give rise to disgruntled staff and dissatisfaction in the workplace. This is especially the case when staff do not understand how the amount was derived, or if the amount is very different from the year before, or if is not the same amount across the board which can result in thinking that the employer is playing favourites. NOTE: If your company’s fiscal year end is December 31st, you may a bonus or profit sharing based on the company’s performance. Paying this at Christmas time is different than a Christmas bonus based on feelings. Swipe to read 6 questions I challenge you to ask yourself if you are paying a Christmas Bonus. As an employer today, I do not give out a Christmas Bonus, but (pre-Covid) do take time out of the busyness to have a Christmas Party for our staff and their significant others where we would celebrate the year by enjoying a nice meal together, celebrate service milestones, give out awards for sales etc. and have some entertainment. With respect to a Bonus, Incentive Plan or Profit Sharing, I currently use the Gain Share concept based on The Great Game of Business (www.greatgame.com) where we have one plan, one target for the whole. Probably the best approach for an employer when considering a Christmas bonus is to pay one See more

We are pleased to introduce & welcome to the Southbrook Team of Associates, Laura Murray. Laura will be assisting our Finance Associates with day to day bookkeeping services, including data entry of A/P and A/R, reconciliations, payroll, and government remittances, etc. Laura brings 18+ years of bookkeeping & Quickbooks experience to Southbrook and she is looking forward to working with and supporting you for all your bookkeeping needs Welcome Laura!

It was great to visit some Landscaping crews after being laid up for 2.5 weeks. Thanks fir everyone’s support as I recover from my mountain biking accident.

It was truly great working with Vandenberg Landscapes! Thank you for leaving a review To check out more reviews click the link in our bio!

Pleased to welcome Deborah Gendreau as a HR Associate to the Southbrook team! Glad to have you on board as we help our clients with their Recruitment, Health & Safety and Human Resources needs. We do it all! #team #outsourcing

When reading this title, you may first think of taking a swim in a pool during the summer heat of 2020. Yes, diving deep into the pool where the water is cool would be refreshing. However, the Diving Deep that I am thinking of is not about swimming but about a mid summer Diving Deep into your Company’s financials. Three months ago, many contractors were sitting at home during the COVID19 lockdown. Yet today, many contractors are running their feet off. Sales call... volumes are high, operation teams are stretched thin and administration functions are an after thought. But do you know whether you are making money, breaking even, or making a profit? Being busy is good, but not if you are not profitable. A financial deep dive involves summarizing the profit & loss statement into a 1-page report, cross referencing actuals to budget, reviewing each Cost of Goods Sold account (Materials, Equipment, Subs, Labour) and Overhead account. Many times, amortization and depreciation aren’t accounted for and ends up being a big surprise at the end of the year. The review includes questions around production & labour rates, material, and subcontractor markups, KPI’s, job costing and incentive programs. If sales are below budget for 1-3 months, adjustments need to be made to the hourly rates and overhead recovery %. Otherwise profits will not be realized. Bert Hoytema Earthworks Landscaping knows firsthand and made this comment. Two years ago, I was going crazy, discounting my services to get work, and jumping from job to job trying to please everyone. Sure, we had lots of work, but we did not have a clue whether we were making money or losing money. We then decided to work with Southbrook Consulting. Today, we complete monthly financial deep dives where we review our Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet. We know exactly where we stand, and Nathan continues to challenge us to become more efficient along the way. The difference is night and day! In the end, its important to have your finger on the pulse of your business. See more

Its Canada Day. Its time to engage in celebrations! Enjoy this beautiful day which reminds us of the precious freedom that we got as a gift for the sacrifices made by our countrymen. Warm wishes on Canada Day to you.

If you are looking to fill managerial, sales & administrative positions within your company and need assistance, please contact me at [email protected] or through the contact page on the website. @ Waterdown, Ontario

Last October, Gelderman Landscape Services received a visit from the Ministry of Labour requesting to see our Heat Stress Policy. The representative did not like our response when we questioned the need for a Heat Stress Policy in October. We did however complied and shared the policy. The representative also asked if all our staff members were aware of our policy and knew the details of our policy. With the summer months upon us, we have already experienced Heat S...tress. We now send out Heat Stress Warnings (see sample) to all our staff via EZTEXT whenever the temperature and humidity go over a certain threshold. During our employee orientation, our Heat Stress Prevention policy is now included at any time of the year. If anyone is interested in a copy of the Gelderman Landscape Services Heat Stress Prevention Policy, contact me directly. @ Waterdown, Ontario See more

Swipe to see my 5 Cash Flow Tips @ Waterdown, Ontario

How are you communicating your appreciation to your team? Over the last 12 months, I have used video messages to communicate with my team at Gelderman Landscape Services. We have used EZ Texting (eztexting.com).

So thankful that Sunday is a day of rest where we can worship God and enjoy His creation with family!

Thanks for having me on today! Here is the link of the session. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08tNj34gzB8&feature=emb_logo

In this part of the workshop, you’ll learn how to lead and thrive during times of uncertainty by building a strong business foundation. Understand how to lean into your WHY and values to make business decisions, the importance and tactics of cash flow and budgeting, and how to build a plan for the best but expect the worst. We’ll be covering the following: -The Power of Re-inventing yourself & your business for 2020 and beyond... -Developing a Post-COVID-19 Strategic Plan -Laser focus on your WHY & Values -How To Recession-Proof Your Business -Understanding your numbers & reducing Overhead Costs -Making your customers sticky -Building partner relationships with suppliers Click the link in our bio to sign up for FREE! See more

Waterdown, Ontario

No more group BBQ’s, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t thank our staff for their hard work and dedication! Giving out snacks and water are some simple ways of saying Thanks! Great to see the Gelderman teams wearing masks and practice social distancing! How are you appreciating and saying Thanks to your staff? #teambuilding #geldermangang #culture

Maximizing Efficiencies in Maintenance Routing Each year Landscape Maintenance contractors go through planning their weekly cutting routes. Hopefully, renewal rates are high, and all staff return from the previous season. However, we all know that there is turnover in both clients and staff. If you believe reducing time that is unbillable to clients, then you also understand that you must measure this time. Like the phrase would suggest, Measure what you Treasure. So ...how do we drive the non-billable time out of our businesses? Here are my top tips on how to maximize maintenance route efficiency and reducing non-billable time: 1. Geography (keeping a crew within a smaller work area so their travel time is minimal between sites) - Having crews work in tight clusters allows us to minimize travel downtime between sites - The tighter you build the routes, the more profit you will make - This also allows us to focus on garbage days and avoid or service the property after garbage pick up so that we can ensure property is clean of left over debris/garbage that may have been blown around 2. Quoted Weekly Hours (put days together with a 10 hour work day in mind for whatever size the crew will be) - Crew size would dictate how many hours in the day, whether that requires 2, 3 or 4 man crews to accommodate amount of work required on properties 3. Client Type/Tenure (placing clients appropriately in schedule based on type/tenure) - Placing industrials on Monday so they look good for the week and allows for flexibility when holiday Monday’s occur - High rises/condos begin servicing on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - Longer tenured clients (condos) and estate residentials Friday to look good for the weekend 4. Crew Leader Experience - More experienced crew leaders to be working on larger sites (managing more people) or more complex property See more