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.

Strategies Blog Updates: Really Cool Stuff and More

(Read Time: approximately 3 minutes)

Friends,

This post is to let you know What’s Coming and to Fill You In on how some features work on Strategies Blog so you can get more out of your experience here today and in the future.

Fair Follow-up to Proven Winners Fair Test?

(Read Time, approximately 2 minutes.)

There has been quite an interesting dialogue of comments following the post here on August 28, 2009 titled, Is THIS a Fair Test? Mark Broxon and Dave Konsoer from Proven Winners and Kip Creel from StandPoint reacted with more information and their views on the research conducted at Churchill’s Gardens and Rolling Green Nursery, both located in New Hampshire. The additional information they provided did not include additional photos of their research, however there are new pics of the researched displays on Garden Center Magazine’s website.

Click Photo to See Tested Displays

Are we to always assume reported research is different than it appears? StandPoint’s Kip Creel said, “You cannot fairly judge the quality of the research from one photograph and a magazine article.” (That was the original point.) While this is now apparently true, it is exactly how research is judged when one photograph and an article are all you have to go on. (At the time of writing this I have not found any other stories on this particular research on the Internet.) It seems like judging the quality of the research from the information provided would be prudent.

Do You Have Zombie Defenders?

Read time: Approximately 3 minutes

Defense Against Zombieconomy

Your best defense is a great offense.

Not long ago I wrote posts on the Horticulture Zombieconomy, Zombie Stores and Zombie Departments, and Horti-Zombies Come Alive! Next thing you know, during The Garden Center Group’s Fall Event awards cruise Robert Hendrickson presented me with the NY Times bestselling book, The Zombie Survival Guide – Complete Protection from the Living Dead.

The book is a sort of spoof (so excuse and think through the metaphor) on How-To survive the complacency and fearless tactics of Zombies to recruit others to join the living dead who are constantly yet un-remarkedly at work among us.

Open Letter to Independent Garden Centers

Read Time: Approximately 5 minutes text, 15 minutes with links and video.

Friends,

Independent garden centers are my future. I am a fortunate person to love what I do and do what I love. I sincerely want that to continue, and I realize it is entirely dependent on the success of my clients.

Today I feel compelled to share with you some information you would probably rather not hear or would rather not consider. Sticking your head in the sand is a possible reaction to this.

Consider carefully how you choose to respond. This could be a decision that changes the course of your business and your life completely within a very few short months.

Is the sky falling? No, it definitely is not, however, just because the sky is staying where it is does not excuse us from examining other things that may be falling.

Is THIS a Fair Test?

Read Time: Approximately 2 minutes.

NOTE: Click HERE to read a November 10, 2009 follow-up to this post titled “Fair Follow-Up to Proven Winners Fair Test?”

You’ve probably read or will soon about yet another recent case study claiming again that branded plants outsold non-branded 5:1. CLICK HERE to go to a report on the research in Garden Center Magazine’s OPEN REGISTER blog.

A Fair Test?

Maybe I just don’t understand how  anyone could dispute the results of the study after looking at the photo of the two displays that consumers compared. What were they trying to prove? I would HOPE that the display in the foreground would outperform the other.

Which bench would you lead a well-heeled customer to if the grass is even damp? One is on a gravel paved area, and the other on grass. What would we see if we watched the customers approach identical benches in the same physical environment?

A New Link or 2

Read Time: approximately 3 minutes

Summer tour and trade show travels bring with them perhaps the most frequent question everyone wants to know the answer to when we talk or meet:

“What’s New?“

One of the new things I learned this summer was that things are changing faster than we imagine. If you think you’re on top of what’s going on I challenge you to Click HERE to watch a fascinating short video titled “Shift Happens” that was shared during a panel discussion at OFA, and also the title of a presentation by Clint Albin at the IGC Show.

I am not into new for “New’s sake”, however, given the pace of change it is no wonder why we have all become “new junkies”. The trouble is that a lot of what we discover is not relevant, not useful, and not productive. What we are really looking for is what is relevant, helpful, and productive. And we could find and implement the new things we need faster and better if we share.