New Garden Centers in THIS Day and Age?

You’ve got to be crazy! Who, in their right mind would dare start a garden center now?

Well there are some people who are. Read about them in the Garden Center Birth & Re-birth room.

It is in the nature of our business that we’re approached by wanna-be garden center owners. The reasons for starting a garden center now are many, but these five are the most popular.

1. The green movement is pointing our direction – now that you can sell the organic, grow-it-at-home lifestyle to customers whether they really care or not at least there is this choice of a new career.
2. Cashing out from corporate America is in-style – when you don’t have a choice and your job is eliminated. The folks who’ve been hating their job all those years have been looking at the greener grass on our side of the fence all those years – never mind the synthetic fertilizers. Working with plants and in nature is actually so much more fun than pushing paper and people, making quota, and commuting.
3. They’ve always wanted to own a store, and a garden center and gift shoppe would allow them tax deductions, a way to buy wholesale , and would give them and their friends a really cool place to shop that they don’t have locally.
4. This greenhouse place is for sale. It’s a mess, but I could clean it up and make it really cool. It’s near my house. My kids, friends, and family will help.
5. I’ve already got this other business. I won’t have to duplicate everything I do. Putting more money in the bank and writing more checks will only take a little more time. I can hire people to do the rest. (This one most commonly comes from the mouths of landscapers and accountants.)

The reasons each of them give give vary. Mix & match from the list above. We hear mostly from people who do have some real money to invest, but really no clue as to how they will make it really work.

Generally speaking, we work hard to convince these folks NOT to start a business. Any business. Why would we do that? Because if we can talk them out of it they didn’t have a chance of making it very far in the first place. They’ll save themselves and their family a lot of grief. They’ll save a fortune, if they have one to save in the first place.

Most of the time as soon as they figure out how much it will cost for us to help them not make mistakes they decide to hang on to their money because they need it to get the business going. They can always hire a manager and people with experience, right? Well yes they can, and that is likely where they will go wrong the most. Many of those experienced people who are looking for a job in a garden center are looking for a reason, and its not because they know what they need to know about running a business, especially someone else’s business.

Actually, there are very good reasons to own a garden center, or any business for that matter . Did you know that there is a real purpose of owning a business? In the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter two reasons are identified.

1. Financial independence
2. Freedom of time

After you boil it all down, these are the real reasons garden center owners are gravitating toward. Sometimes it takes years, even generations to come to this understanding. We help some of them cut to the chaste.

So how are you doing at these?

Don’t confuse cash-flow with financial independence.

Don’t confuse flexibility with your time with freedom of your time.

We’re going to have to work on both of these aren’t we?

Yes, working with plants would be so fun and rewarding. It’s the perfect lifestyle in an ideal world. Yes, in the ideal world it could be perfect. But here in the real world it is more likely to become a nightmare for those who don’t really know exactly what they’re doing. Those people are few and far between. Even the seasoned veterans are having a really tough time in this business. And you think you’re going to make it work as a newby? Let’s get real, or let’s not play.

Yes, it is a good time to get into the garden center business – if you know what you’re doing, if you’re doing it for the right reasons, and if you have a lot of money to work with and nerves of steel. Oh yea, better get some good help with it – it might actually be less expensive than making all the classic mistakes, or even one of them.

Why did  you start your business? What did you learn the hard way? Leave a comment!

“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

In a competitive world you must stand for something and stand out.You must, as Steve Martin said, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

Most small businesses have a difficult enough time figuring out what to sell. They often become a “wandering generality” of their business type. They by default become “A jack of all trades and master of none”. To the general public they are second citizens to the predictable although not perfect national brand experiences whether carpet cleaner, lawn care operator, security alarm system, garden center, restaurant, etc. Don’t you also find it to be  easier, faster, and “safer” to choose the national brand over the mom & pop motel? One of the reasons the general pull of national brands is true is that the better brands re-invent themselves the way Holiday Inn has been doing.

How do you rise to the top in the customers mind?”

Steve Martin achieved outrageous success by developing a unique method to his apparent madness, which led to his becoming “so good that the entertainment world couldn’t ignore him”. And, as they say, the rest is history.

The same wisdom applies to steady growth, taking a step to the elusive “next level”, or catapulting to even higher levels.

The Steve Martin Method

STAY OUT of the Garden Center Graveyard

Graveyard of Defunct Aircraft

Why do they not ask for help?

The grave yard of garden centers is growing like the Arizona graveyard of defunct aircraft. Contraction of the airline industry has caused many older, inefficient and costly to maintain aircraft to be retired permanently. It used to be the case that new upstart competitors would buy older aircraft to start their companies, but it is actually less expensive to make the payments on newer machines that use less fuel, require less labor to operate, and require less repair and maintenance.

It saddens me to learn of such things as the pending closure of Porter’s Home & Garden Center near Ocala Florida. Ocala.com reported that liquidation of inventory has begun. The loan in default is backed by the business and the private homes of three of the Porter family owners.

Time to Push Your Reset Button!

Time to Press the Reset Button!

This is not a question, it is a statement! There are times that life becomes so confused that it is just better to press the reset button and reprogram our lives rather than try to make-do while the darned thing is out of whack.

Recently I was talking with Matt Horn, owner of Matterhorn Nursery about his plans to totally reinvent his garden center. While Matt has been one undisputed leader of innovation in the garden center business over the years he realizes that it is time to re-engineer the concept of Matterhorn Nursery. The story has something to do with goats, and you’ll have to ask Matt about that.

The Benefits of a Poor Economy

The Benefits of a Poor Economy

Who said the recession is over? Has the consumer finished cocooning? Are they all done with Stay-cations? I think not, but someone is going to have to inspire them to have one at home in their own backyard. Are we going to leave that up to Frontgate and Pottery Barn?

This economic near-depression is probably going to last a long time as long as our government has anything to do with it, and it does. This is reflected in a broad range of change in consumer and business spending habits ranging from SLD (spending lock down) to basic simplification frugality. Those who continue to earn and spend are paying down debt, saving aggressively, and have adopted a consciousness NOT to flaunt luxuries in front of their friends, relatives, neighbors, co-workers and employees. That’s pretty much everyone isn’t it?

People don’t want to BUY what you have until they WANT what you have

What Customers Want

Have you ever read an advertisement and then picked up the phone or got in your car and went about buying the thing with the thought, “I don’t need this and I don’t know anyone who does but the price is so low it has to be a good idea”.

To get anywhere near the full value out of what you sell it is a good idea to sell it to people who already want it, and there isn’t room for all of us in the garden center business today to survive doing that.

The Price of a Bad Economy – How Much Will THIS Cost?

The Price of a Bad Economy – How Much Will THIS Cost?

Rodney Johnson

This post has been incubating for a while and I decided to scrap what I had started in favor of pointing you to what Rodney Johnson with HS Dent has to say. Harry Dent and his organization have been accurate about our economy since the 80′s. That’s because they use what they call The Dent Method to make projections, not predictions. Click on Rodney’s picture to hear what he has to say about potato chips.

Dent’s basis for making projections is the birth rate and resulting demographics that can be projected in real numbers rather than subjective arbitrary opinion. No, they’re not 100% accurate on everything about the economy, mainly because they don’t make predictions about the economy. They only make projections of the impact of the birth rate and immigration on the economy. The fact is that a lot of what happens in the financial world is caused by people changing direction, sometimes irrationally, and that cannot be predicted accurately. But birth rate and resulting demographics can be projected so that is what they do – project.

The Second Half

Still Keeping Score?

Welcome to the Second-Half of the Business Year

This is the second half of the fiscal year for most garden centers, aka the un-profitable half according to one client.

The second half of a ball game is where it all happens most of the time. The second half of the calendar fiscal year of a garden center is not so exciting, but it is still where the game is won or lost. Although I’ve never seen a garden center add even one dollar to their bottom line after June 30 (in any year), every dollar that is preserved from July 1 forward is preserved for profitability.

BUT, if you want to end up with a small pile of profit at the end of the year begin with the biggest possible pile of profit by the end of the first half of the year. You can quote me on that.

Maximizing Second-Half Profit Starts in the First Half of the Year

Even though every dollar of margin earning income from the second half is to the good, there are no lines at the concession stand during the second half of the game, and thus, limited  potential to accumulate significantly more margin dollars.

WHY Do Customers Think of You?

What do customers think of you?

While they probably don’t just sit around and actually think much about the companies they do business with, consumers generally form specific opinions about stores over time and exposure to marketing messages, personal experience, and what they hear from others.

Whatever value equation a company brand has established with a consumer, unless it is a discount brand, it is lowered by constantly promoting deals and discounts on what customers already want to buy. These discounts do more than cost money. They also make it easy for the customer to categorize in their mind what type of retailer each store is to them. And once they’ve chosen the category, it is very difficult to change their perceptions.

Educate for Understanding, Train for Skill

My son Owen began his college career this past year at Xavier University in Cincinnati. It was interesting to see how various people who asked him what major he had chosen offered their style of advice to him. I think he made the right choice, but it will be a while before we know.

The education many college freshmen begin pursuit of today will be obsolete by the time they graduate four years later. Education is and always has been a constant pursuit. Learning to learn well is the only possible way to compete in the future.  It really always has been that way, but in the past you could have a career and retire before your industry of choice made your education obsolete.

Our world is changing faster than anyone can change with it. Can you beat the pace of change by being the one causing the change? No way.