Usually, my mom and I go to the garden store on Mother's Day weekend to pick up a couple of flats of flowering plants for the flower boxes she has around her deck.

Last year, this provided a lovely break from the humdrum activities of social isolation and had the added benefit of giving my mom several days of planting, getting her gloved hands down in the dirt, and many months of caring for the plants, which got her outside on the regular.

This spring, it's been rather cool in New York, especially at night, so we've had to wait longer than usual to get our gardening on in order to avoid having everything ruined by frost.

Like so many things in life and in business, gardening has a lot to do with timing and working around things you can't control, like the weather.

While it's tempting to forge ahead and figure out how to deal with those uncontrollable, out-of-left-field situations only when they arise, it's also not necessarily the best approach.

If this past year has taught us anything, it's that the more prepared and nimble we are the easier it will be for us to adapt and recover from whatever the universe throws at us.

In other words, timing is important, but so is planning, which is why you should have both:

• A Business Strategy Plan that helps you make the right moves at the right time to build and grow your business, and
• A Business Continuity Plan that guides you through the necessary actions to support your business when the unexpected occurs.

This way you're tending your garden in the best way to keep those flowers happy and healthy for as long as possible, and if the temperature quickly drops, you know exactly what to do to protect them from the frost.

If you need help with either of these critical plans for your business, let me know—I'm happy to help.