Business Education

Business Owners Thinking about Switching to a 4-Day Workweek Here’s What You Really Need to Know

The 4-day workweek continues to gain traction, though it’s a long, long way from becoming standard. Still, recent trials by companies have shown promise for reducing the workweek by one day (something instituted almost one-hundred years ago in 1926 by Henry Ford).

The change is definitely full of ostensible advantages – and big potential. But, this certainly doesn’t mean it’s all upside and no downside. So, let’s take a look at what business owners need to know about switching to a 4-day workweek and what to expect.

4-Day Workweek Pros

Switching to a 4-day workweek can have several benefits for a business. While some are obvious, others may not be so intuitive. Here are a few reasons a company might want to switch over:

Increased productivity

Research shows that shorter workweeks can lead to increased productivity. Employees may feel more motivated to get work done if they have more time to rest and recharge.

Better work-life balance

A 4-day workweek can give employees more time to spend with their families and pursue personal interests, leading to better mental health and job satisfaction.

Cost savings

A shorter workweek may lead to reduced operating costs for businesses, such as lower energy bills and reduced use of office resources through less use of computers, lights, climate control, and more. It can also help to rein in office expenses as it offers an opportunity to scrutinize spending expenses.

It’s hard to say if many employers will find the 4-day workweek structure agreeable. Everyone is watching these kinds of experiments and learning. Plus, it depends on how the economy and workforce evolve and whether these become new expectations from the vast majority of the workforce—as being able to work at least part-time remotely has become for most knowledge workers. —Boston University

So, the very fact that a business will be operating fewer hours translates directly into operating expense savings. (This is something that generally comes to light when there’s a big change and businesses are forced to examine their spending amounts and frequency.)

Attract and retain talent

Offering a 4-day workweek can be a unique and attractive perk that helps businesses stand out in a competitive job market. It can also help retain current employees by increasing their job satisfaction and loyalty.

4-Day Workweek Cons

While these are certainly compelling reasons and sound good in theory, in practice they may not necessarily materialize (or simply manifest in different forms). Of course, as with any new idea, there are bound to be possible drawbacks and problems that could arise unexpectedly. Here are some things you might encounter by adopting a 4-day workweek:

Reduced hours

A 4-day workweek means employees will work fewer hours, which could lead to reduced productivity and output, especially for businesses that require around-the-clock operations.

Workload distribution

Businesses may need to redistribute workloads or hire additional staff to compensate for the lost hours of those who are working a 4-day week.

Operational difficulties

A 4-day workweek could create operational difficulties, such as coordinating schedules with clients or customers who operate on a 5-day schedule.

Reduced profits

Reduced hours could lead to lower profits for businesses that rely on hourly work or have tight deadlines to meet.

Ultimately, whether a 4-day workweek is a good fit for a business depends on its unique needs and goals. It’s important for businesses to carefully consider the potential advantages and disadvantages before making the switch.

What other considerations would you suggest be a part of these? Please take a moment or two to comment so others can benefit from your thoughts and experiences!

Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.

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Punctuality vs. Performance: When Your Top Talent Routinely Shows Up Tardy

July 17, 2025 No Comments

Very few things are as frustrating as a brilliant employee who consistently arrives late.

From Surviving to Dominating

July 30, 2026 No Comments

How Waters Business Consulting Group has helped transform many commercial landscape companies into more profitable, scalable businesses Every commercial landscape company eventually hits a moment that defines what happens next. For some, it’s growth outrunning the systems meant to support it. Revenue climbs, but profit doesn’t follow. Labor costs creep up. Cash gets tighter. The owner is working more hours and feeling less in control of the business every month. What used to feel like success starts to feel like an endless string of problems to solve from employees, field operations, customers to cash flow. For others, the challenge shows up faster and with more urgency. Margins have already eroded. Operations are inconsistent from crew to crew. Leadership is stretched too thin. Customers expect more, and the company doesn’t have the structure or financial visibility to respond. In both cases, most owners reach for the same fix: more sales. But more sales don’t automatically fix thin margins; the exacerbate them! With fuzzy accountability, inefficient processes, or an owner who’s become the bottleneck. Usually, what the company actually needs isn’t more revenue. It’s a better business. Waters Business Consulting Group has worked with commercial landscape maintenance and construction companies across the country, including Pleasant Places, Blue Star Landscaping, Genesis Landscape Solutions, Sun Country, and Creative Environments, to find what’s really limiting their performance and build practical paths toward stronger profitability and cash flow, tighter operations, real leadership capacity, and long-term value. Our goal was never just to help these companies survive. It’s to help them build what it takes to lead and increase the the value of their business asset. Struggling doesn’t always look small Some of the most challenged companies we’ve worked with had real revenue, loyal customers, experienced crews, and a strong reputation in their market. From the outside, everything looked fine. Underneath, the same familiar warning signs kept showing up: revenue growing while profit stayed flat, the owner still involved in nearly every major decision, labor costs nobody could quite explain, crews performing inconsistently from job to job, estimates that didn’t reflect what jobs actually cost, financial reports arriving too late to act on, managers held accountable for results they had no real authority over, cash flow swinging unpredictably, and roles and processes that were never clearly defined in the first place. These problems rarely show up alone. A bad estimate turns into a margin problem and project losses. A margin problem turns into a cash-flow problem. Weak reporting means leadership doesn’t catch it until the financial damage is already real. And without a capable leadership team in place, the owner becomes the answer to every question and the fix for every problem. Over time, the business ends up running on effort instead of systems. Our approach starts by understanding how these challenges connect to each other, then figuring out which changes are actually likely to move the needle in a lasting way … in the same way we moved the needle for Pleasant Places Landscape, Blue Star Landscaping, Genesis Landscape Solutions, Sun Country, and Creative Environments. Clarity comes before transformation You can’t fix a business you can’t see clearly. That’s why we look past the top-line revenue number and into the operational, financial, and organizational factors actually driving performance: profitability by customer, contract, or service line; labor efficiency and crew productivity; how accurate the estimating really is; direct costs and overhead; pricing strategy; cash flow and forecasting; org structure; leadership capacity; roles and accountability; the sales pipeline; operational processes; and how dependent the business is on the owner. We’re not trying to hand leadership another binder of reports. We’re trying to find the small handful of constraints actually driving performance, the levers, so leaders can stop treating symptoms and start fixing what’s underneath them. Pleasant Places: turning rapid growth into stronger profit Pleasant Places was already a real success story by the time the company partnered with us. Founded in 1984, this commercial landscaping company had grown fast, taking annual revenue from roughly $10 million to nearly $18 million in just two years. But that pace of growth had created its own problems. Margins were under pressure, processes and procedures needed real work, accountability was inconsistent from department to department, and the organization simply didn’t have the infrastructure to operate efficiently at its new size. We worked with the Pleasant Places leadership team to strengthen the financial, operational, and organizational foundation underneath all that growth. That meant digging into historical financial trends and building a model to evaluate cost of goods sold, margins, and breakeven performance; putting systems in place to track labor hours and materials against estimates; refining pricing to hit target gross margins; implementing real purchasing controls; identifying gaps in leadership and org structure; clarifying roles, responsibilities, and who reported to whom; supporting a management transition from father to son; establishing real performance metrics; and researching and implementing an ERP system to give the company far better operational visibility. The results speak for themselves. Pleasant Places gained real visibility into projected revenue, gross margins, profitability, and cash flow. Pricing discipline, tighter labor and material cost controls, and real leadership accountability helped push gross margins up from low 20’s to an average of 42%. Revenue grew past $35 million, and the company came out the other side with a stronger leadership structure, clearer expectations, and a healthier culture. The lesson here is simple: growth gets a lot more sustainable when financial discipline, operational systems, leadership accountability, and org structure grow right alongside revenue instead of trailing behind it. Blue Star Landscaping: building profitable growth, and a successful exit Blue Star Landscaping came to us with a different set of problems. The company needed to improve profitability, tighten up its pricing, get real control over labor and material costs, develop its leadership bench, and build a clear plan for growth. The team had solid industry experience, but they needed a more disciplined way to connect strategic growth to financial forecasting, pricing, cost control, and actual profitability. We worked with Blue Star

4 Foolproof Ways to Write Better Emails

March 23, 2018 No Comments

If you’re in business, regardless of your role, you need to know how to write good email. Let’s face it, email isn’t going away any time soon. We use it on a daily basis. And, it’s a great way to communicate on-the-fly. It also helps make organization easier. This technology is an effective one — if you use it right. The trouble is, too many people just don’t write good email. But, don’t worry, it’s super-easy to improve by leaps-and-bounds. In Business, Electronic Communication is Key There’s no getting around the fact that email is a critical business tool. It can easily be used for more than just day-to-day communication. After all, like social media, it’s also a powerful marketing tool. That’s why there is a bazillion email newsletter templates floating out there in cyberspace. Make no mistake about it, communication is key in business and email should make it all the more easy. The ubiquity of e-mail means that everyone in business, from lords of finance to programmers who dream in code, needs to write intelligently. By using simple, clear, precise language, and following a few other basic writing rules, you can become a better communicator and improve the prospects for your career. —Forbes.com The problem is, far too many people just don’t use it in the most practical manner. Now, that doesn’t mean every single message needs to actually be a work of art. But, it does mean, the more you make a habit of some good practices, the better you’ll become over time. 4 Foolproof Ways to Write Better Emails We all like the notion of “inbox zero.” That place where we’ve gone through every message and taken the appropriate actions. But, with so much, it’s often difficult to get to every single message. And, it’s even more difficult to write in a way that makes the most out of the medium. So, here are four foolproof ways to write better emails: Keep it short. There’s no need to go into painstaking detail. The longer the message, the less effective it becomes. You need to deliver your message in a quick manner so it doesn’t waste the recipient’s precious time. Always be direct. Limit the adverbs and adjectives. Keep them to a minimum because the more “flowery” the wording, the less clear (or boring) it is to the reader. Now, you can explain but be direct. Army service members call this strategy “BLUF”, which simply means “bottom-line, upfront.” Reread your message. Never hit “Send” without re-reading your message — at least twice. Don’t rush through it. Take advantage of the spell check and ask yourself if it gets your meaning across. Add the recipient(s) last. When you compose a message, be sure to leave the recipient field blank. And, don’t add his or her email address until you’ve written it entirely, and reviewed it twice. This way, you’ll avoid sending it out accidentally with errors (or without being clear). What other suggestions do you have for writing good email messages? Please, share your thoughts and experiences by commenting! Interested in learning more about business? Then just visit Waters Business Consulting Group.