What My Garden and Business Systems Have in Common

I learned to garden when I was very young. I was the oldest of eight grandchildren, so I spent a lot of time at my Granny and Grandaddy Simpson's house. I remember riding with my Grandaddy on his red tractor. I remember his massive garden overflowing with vegetables. Most of all, I remember how much work it took, and how rewarding it was when harvest season finally arrived.

One of my favorite memories came years later when I visited Rodale Gardens in Pennsylvania, home of Organic Gardening magazine. I was fascinated by how they mixed flowers with vegetables and how every part of the garden had been thoughtfully planned. It wasn't just beautiful. It was efficient. Looking back, I realize it wasn't just the beauty that captured my attention… it was the efficiency.

For the past twenty years I've been tinkering in my own gardens, trying different methods and learning what works. Every season teaches me something new.

Even though I'm an accountant by profession, I've always had the mind of an engineer. I'm constantly asking, "How can I build this so I don't have to keep fixing it?"

• I think that way in my garden.

• I think that way in business.

• And I definitely think that way when I'm building accounting and finance systems.

The more I garden, the more I realize the two have a lot in common.

Pull the Weeds or They'll Keep Coming Back

I'll admit it. I'm a total weirdo. I actually enjoy pulling weeds. Not because it's fun, but because I know I'm getting to the root of the problem.

My husband, Randall (bless him!), prefers using our big orange tractor. And he's absolutely right: the tractor is the fastest way to break up hard ground and prepare the soil for planting. But eventually...someone (usually me) still has to get down on their hands and knees and pull the weeds. Otherwise, all you've done is chop them into smaller pieces, and you'll spend the rest of the summer pulling the same weeds over and over again.

Businesses do the same thing:

• A spreadsheet gets added because the accounting system isn't quite working.

• Someone manually fixes a report every month.

• One employee becomes the only person who knows how a process works.

The shortcut solves today's problem, but the weeds are still there. Eventually someone has to dig into the data, understand why the process is broken, and fix it at the root.

That's rarely the owner's favorite job. Most trades owners would rather be serving customers, taking care of their team, or growing the business.

So the weeds stay. Month after month. Year after year. Maybe what your business really needs isn't another spreadsheet. Maybe it needs a master weed puller.

Shortcuts Usually Cost More

Last summer gardening was easy. South Carolina received plenty of rain in May and June, so I could almost throw seeds on the ground and watch them grow. My yard was full of my beloved wildflowers and zinnias.

This year has been completely different. As I write this on July 1, we're dealing with drought conditions. Many of my wildflowers are barely an inch tall. Now I'm spending hours digging irrigation trenches that I should have built before planting. It's taking four times longer than it would have if I'd simply prepared properly from the beginning.

The lesson isn't really about gardening. It's about systems. A little preparation today prevents a lot of frustration tomorrow. Or, as we used to say in the corporate world: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.

In accounting, those irrigation trenches are your data flows.

• How does information move from your estimate to your invoice?

• From your supplier to your accounts payable?

• From your accounting system to your dashboard?

If the trenches aren't there, the information never reaches the places it's needed. Healthy gardens don't happen by accident. Neither do healthy businesses. Every thriving garden is built one decision at a time.

• Healthy soil.

• Good irrigation.

• Regular maintenance.

• Pulling weeds before they spread.

Business systems work exactly the same way. Reliable financial reports don't happen because someone worked harder at month-end. They happen because someone built systems that make good information flow naturally.

That's what I've spent my career doing. Not just fixing numbers. Building systems that help businesses grow.

Focus on the Harvest

There are plenty of moments in the middle of a hot South Carolina summer when I'm tired, sweaty, covered in dirt, and wondering why I ever thought gardening was a good idea. After hours of pulling weeds, it's easy to focus on the work. Then I remember why I started.

Maybe it's seeing someone smile when I hand them a bouquet of flowers from our garden. Maybe it's a cold winter day when Randall and I are eating vegetable soup made from tomatoes we picked months earlier. Or maybe it's my brother-in-law, Darin, sheepishly asking my sister if I can bring over another jar of my sweet and spicy pickles. Suddenly, the weeds don't seem so important anymore. The harvest was worth it.

I think about my work the same way.

There are days when QuickBooks changes a report for no apparent reason. A Power BI dashboard decides not to refresh. An API connection breaks overnight. Or I spend hours chasing one tiny piece of data that refuses to behave. Those are just today's weeds.

What keeps me going isn't solving the technical problem. It's knowing that tomorrow morning, a business owner will open a dashboard and immediately know how yesterday went. A controller will save half a day of tedious work. A salesperson will have the information they need before they even finish their first cup of coffee. That's the harvest.

• I don't build systems because I love spreadsheets.

• I build systems because I love giving people their time back.

When technology handles the repetitive work, people get to do what only people can do: think, solve problems, serve customers, and build better businesses.

Whether I'm writing DAX, troubleshooting an API, fixing a QuickBooks issue, or pulling weeds in my garden, I'm really doing the same thing. I'm making tomorrow a little easier than today.

That's why I do what I do. I guess you could say… I'm a professional weed puller.

The Hound's Take

Every business has weeds.

The question isn't whether you'll have problems. The question is whether you'll keep pulling the same weeds every month or take the time to fix the roots.

Healthy gardens and healthy businesses are built the same way: one thoughtful system at a time.

Meet the Lead Hound

Howdy Yall!

I'm Kathy (aka Shepherd), founder of Data Hounds Finance.

I am a CPA by trade, an engineer at heart, and happiest with dirt under my fingernails.

I'm a wife to an amazing husband, a Jesus follower, and the proud caretaker of an ever-growing collection of cats, dogs, chickens, turkeys...and whatever else decides to wander onto our little farm.

For almost 30 years I've helped businesses untangle financial messes by doing one simple thing: fixing the system instead of fixing the same problem over and over.

Life's too short to spend it manually updating spreadsheets or redoing work a computer can finish in five seconds. I'd rather put technology to work so people can spend their time thinking, creating, serving customers, and building better businesses.

Whether I'm pulling weeds in the garden or weeds out of an accounting system, I'm usually asking the same question:

"How can we fix this once, and fix it right?"

Thanks for spending a few minutes with me.

Until next time...

Until next time...keep pulling weeds at the root and don't forget to enjoy the harvest.

Kathy