The $5.26 Million Dollar TOO High Cost of TOO-LOW Prices

Are you LOSING 2% or MORE of your Bottom Line to Poor Pricing?

As moderator of the session on Pricing Strategies for Profit at Today’s Garden Center magazine’s Revolutionary 100 Roundtable held in Atlanta’s America’sMart I asked the people representing the 22 companies in the session if they would write down on the note pad in front of them the number representing 2% of their annual sales. Then came my challenge to them.

The challenge was to put the piece of paper on the front of the table for me to pick up if they had learned enough new information about pricing in the previous hour of the session to add a minimum additional profit of 2% of sales to their bottom line in 2010 – WITHOUT THE CUSTOMER NOTICING. I would then pick the note paper up and have the event staff total them and share the number at the Town Hall closing session. ALL of them did. And what a number we had to share!

A total additional profit of $5,261,000.00, averaging $239,000.00 per company was produced. The least amount claimed was over $30,000.00. And think about it – every one of these companies has left those dollars on the table every prior year. Did you?

This was not about cavalier price raising. It was about increasing prices where and how the customer doesn’t notice. 100% of the additional price goes directly to the bottom line. Who cannot afford to do that?

If you don’t know what you need to know about pricing to make your company more profitable now when will you acquire that knowledge? Oh, and to those now wiser companies at the Rev 100…how much more profit might you have been able to add to your bottom line if we could have invested the rest of the day learning more about pricing? (We can, just call me. (If you can’t afford to have me show you call anyway and I’ll split the additional profit with you. Let’s see, my share would be $2.63 Million.)

A lot of people in our industry have been doing a very good thing the past month or so. They’ve been attending various events in hopes of taking home some (even just one or two) “good ideas” that would help their company be more successful this year. Those hopes almost always focus in on promotions, events, and new products that will give their business a sharper edge against the economy. Nothing wrong with a sharper edge to battle a tough economy is there? Certainly not. But it will never make up for making the money you should be making in the first place. You see, it is what you don’t know about fundamentals of your business such as pricing that often costs you the most.

Hey, why not leave a comment or reply to tell us what are you doing to make 2010 your most profitable year ever?

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Will this be the Year of the Fairy Garden?

Are fairy gardens even on your radar screen?

Fairy Garden at Tonkadale Greenhouse

Chances are you have very little interest in Fairy Gardens. Maybe you should take an interest, even for the unusual reason that doing so may build traffic for your garden center.

I posted an article titled Building on an Old Plant Category back in May 2009. In the article Fairy Gardens was briefly mentioned. Since then nearly every day brings at least one visitor to the blog via a web search for “Fairy Gardens”,”Fairy Tree Garden”, or similar. When I tried my own search the page doesn’t even come up in the top 20 Google search pages so that tells us something about how serious these hobbyists are.

Before you disregard the possibility of promoting Fairy Gardens do your own search and check out just how active this little corner of gardening is. Miniature gardens are within reach of anyone. They seem to be drawing the interest of young and old. Very little space is required, with many gardens being constructed in containers of all sorts.

All you believe…may be ALL WRONG – Belief #6

Merry 2010 CHRISTmas to all! Did your business return a gift of profit to you this year?

(Read time approx. 3 minutes.)

This is the sixth misconception in a series of six. The concepts being discussed here will likely be counter to your beliefs. The comments left on the previous posts are quite interesting so you may want to go back and read them.

Click HERE to go back and begin with the first post related to this series.

“Was any profit left in your business this year?

“My salary is in the profit.”

“We don’t want to be ‘greedy’ about it.”

“If we do everything ‘right’ it will all work out in the end.”

“We leave all the profit in the business.”

“I get paid in the rent.”

Those were common responses to our questions about garden center profit going back several years:

All you believe…may be ALL WRONG – Belief #5

Misconception #5 – Lower Your Prices and Make it Up on Volume

(Read time approx. 3 minutes.)

This is the fifth misconception in a series of six. The concepts being discussed here will likely be counter to your beliefs. The comments left on the previous posts are quite interesting so you may want to go back and read them. Click HERE to go back and begin with the first post related to this series.

Possibly one of the greatest travesties to befall the independent garden center as an industry is the fallacy that if you offer lower prices you will “make it up on volume”.

This is what I  call Fifth Grade Economics. The general level of knowledge about economics in our industry was learned in fifth grade social studies class. In my fifth grade class Mrs. Woods taught us about supply and demand, and how if you lowered the price you would “make it up on volume”. Unfortunately this same macro-economic principle has been perpetuated in higher education and has not been balanced with understanding of the micro-economic application in an independent garden center serving niche demographic and psycho-graphic customers.

All you believe…may be ALL WRONG – Belief #4

Misconception #4 – It is better to ‘Bootstrap’ than to borrow or wait until we make enough profit and keep capital investment low.

(Read time approx. 3 minutes.)

This is the fourth misconception in a series of six. The concepts being discussed here will likely be counter to your beliefs. The comments left on the previous posts are quite interesting so you may want to go back and read them. Click HERE to go back and begin with the first post related to this series.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for frugality, living within your means, and saving money where it doesn’t compromise quality. But when it comes to investing in an income producing business being frugal for the sake of being frugal can put a lid on income and profitability. It is a hard economic reality that the number one cause of business failure is under-capitalization. No business will ever outperform its level of capitalization.

There are several major reasons people in our industry are often led to invest less than they should in their business:

All you believe…may be ALL WRONG – Belief #3

Misconception #3 – Garden Centers Should Employ Horticulturists with College Degrees Full-Time, Year-Round and Pay Them Professional Salaries with Comprehensive Benefits

(Read time approx. 3 minutes.)

This is the third misconception in a series of six. The concepts being discussed here will likely be counter to your beliefs. The comments left on the previous posts are quite interesting so you may want to go back and read them. Click HERE to go back and begin with the first post related to this series.

Disclaimer: While I focus on the business side of the horticultural business my education, training, and experience is broad in the green industry including plant production and retail garden center with Scarff’s Nursery, landscape services with Horticultural Advantage, and marketing and sales of plants with Bailey Nurseries, and Sunrise Marketing. Let it be known that I am all in favor of the future success of the many educated and knowledgeable horticulturists in our industry, especially those that are effective in carrying out their responsibilities.

Necessity is the mother of invention. When the facts are laid out and we discover that it is simply not possible to 1) do what we once did, 2) do what others do, or 3) do what we would like to do, then why not open our horizons and explore opportunities we previously ignored? The title of this post is designed to get interest and discussion going rather than to discount the value of horticultural expertise. So please, read on then leave a comment.

Strategies ‘Fabulous Fall’ Edition – just released

Click HERE to read the latest edition of my seasonal email newsletter, Strategies.

Read the ‘Fabulous Fall’ edition of Strategies seasonal email newsletter – Coming 2010 – Make Hay RAIN or Shine, Bank on It, How We Help.

Direct Link: http://ow.ly/yXtf

All you believe…may be ALL WRONG – Belief #2

Misconception #2 – Garden Centers Should be ‘Full-Service’ - Says Who?

(Read time approx. 3 minutes.)

This is the second misconception in a series of six. The concepts being discussed here will likely be counter to your beliefs. The comments left on the previous posts are quite interesting so you may want to go back and read them. Click HERE to go back and begin with the first post related to this series.

Who says a garden center has to be ‘Full-Service’, and WHO DO THEY THINK THEY ARE to tell YOU?

Hint: (It’s NOT the consumer.)

Why fly your flag at half mast?

What would happen in your garden center if you were to do the things you must do to raise the flag of ‘annuals’ (for example) all the way up to the top of your flag pole?

Should you be building  taller flag poles for your core product lines?

“It is not enough to do our best. Sometimes we must do what is required of us to actually succeed.” – Winston Churchill

What is ‘Full-Service’ anyway?

All you believe… may be ALL WRONG – Belief #1

Misconception #1 – Garden Centers Should be Open Year-Round – Oh Really?

(Read time: approximately 3 minutes.)

Are Krispy Kreme's Hot NOW?

(Garden centers may be violating the Scarcity Principle)

A correct statement would be closer to this:

Belief #1 “In certain conditions garden centers should be open year-round, and in other conditions they should not be.”

The conditions for being open fall primarily into three categories.

All you believe about making money in the garden center business may be ALL WRONG

(Read time:  approximately 2 minutes.)

"What gets us in trouble is not what we don't know. It's what we know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain

Part One – This is the first in a series of posts that will address Six Mistaken Beliefs many of us have about making money in the garden center business.

I have arrived to the point of developing Six New Beliefs that may be unpopular among some of the “old-guard” establishment in the garden center business. Switching from the mistaken beliefs to the new beliefs may make the ground shake (like during an earth quake) beneath some of your own current beliefs. Some of our supplier friends may find this truth troubling to the future of their businesses. Others may embrace it and thrive.