Learning New Things Through Experience

A Lesson My Garden and Business Taught Me

When you're a novice at any hobby, it's rare that you get your first attempt right. Somehow, though, that's exactly what happened with my family and gardening.

When we bought our current home, there were several citrus trees on the property. Caring for them became my very first experience with citrus trees. Luckily (yet unbeknownst to us), caring for these trees is a pretty simple task. We mainly just water them. They don't require regular pruning or extra care, and it turns out it's better for these trees that way. Without giving them a second thought, we enjoy healthy, delicious lemons and oranges every year.

After having this experience, we thought, wow, gardening must be so straightforward! So, my wife and I set off on starting our own vegetable garden.

Tomatoes were the first crop we tried. They grew well, and as the plants sprouted, our family was so excited. We watered them every day, just like the trees, and they grew and grew. They finally bore delicious fruit, and we ate them! Then, at the end of summer, we noticed the plants were wilting and dying, unlike our citrus trees that produce every year. What were we doing wrong?

After doing some research, we finally realized that tomato plants are annuals, and they only last one season. There are tricks to help your tomatoes live longer each season, but tomato plants aren't meant to live year after year. If my wife and I wanted to ensure we'd have garden vegetables all year round, we'd have to keep cultivating new crops and removing the old ones.

This realization reminded me of a similar epiphany I had with my business: Nothing lasts forever. For many years, I hadn't prepared myself for a future that included my clients retiring, and neither did the previous owner of the business. In all the years working here as an employee, we never did any marketing. We were doing great without marketing, and just like our citrus trees, our doctors worked with us for many years. But then, much like the tomato plants, within the last five years, our dentists slowly began to retire and wilt away. I needed to make some changes and focus on marketing.

Even though I am learning and building more marketing to grow my business, I take much comfort in one fact: I always keep my customers happy. Once a new dentist tries us out, they become a lifelong customer and friend. I work very hard to provide a customized, personal service to our dentists and to build trust with you every day. Experiencing it firsthand and hearing how you and all your patients are benefiting from the results you get when working with us brings me great pride.

Marketing is like gardening, and I've learned that in order to grow and gain new customers, I have to continually plant ways to attract dentists to us that are a great fit with our lab. My efforts with marketing have helped so far, but I know — just like how I learned with our tomato plants — there is so much further I need to go with growing my business. Marketing is something I will continue to learn and implement throughout the seasons.

Thank you for reading, and I look forward to meeting all of you from our new marketing efforts!