The Site Gardener Blog

Garden Centers and Nurseries will have an added challenge thanks to our wonderful banks. With banks closing or reducing operating  lines for small business’s, cash flow is going to be the big problem this spring. This is going to affect the wholesalers and  the consumers. If the retailers hold back and do not  buy direct at least in the spring,  consumers will have limited choices as retailers play it safe and will shop elsewhere or wait.

Here are a few things you can do to avoid this.

• Talk with your suppliers:  .Though it’s hard for small business owners to ask for extended terms. Talk with your sales reps or growers you may have a long history with.  They will be glad to go to the grower on your behalf. They are there to help and want you to be successful. Truth is,nurseries are already bracing for slow payments. Believe me, they want  their plants in your garden center or re wholesale nursery vs. throwing them on the burn pile.  My nurseries are going through the same things and believe me they are not judging anyone who is late in pay. Don’t avoid getting the product you need.

• There will be traffic this spring, but customers will not overpay. You will not stay competitive unless you buy right. Inventories are going to stabilize a bit this year. Some varieties of trees and shrubs are going to be short by the mid year due to major reductions in production. Just ask the liner growers. Many growers do not have anything smaller than 2 1/2″ trees on their nursery. Some  have not planted anything in 3 years. Growers have been cutting container production for three years in a row. There seems to be an over adjustment happening. The $4.00  18″ birdsnest spruce and spirea days may be coming to an abrupt halt.

• Don’t cut advertising and get a marketing plan in place to bring early . It can be difficult, but getting those early customers can really help your cash flow. Use eMarketing for weekly special.

• Seminars: I know of a garden center in Ohio. Rob Cowie from  Suncrest Gardens  has regular seminars on Hydrangeas  for one. He gets a great turnout , gives out coupons, refreshments and has a great sale day.  Fruit trees and vegetable gardening would be a great seminar for early spring. If you do not feel comfortable with public speaking, ask your sales rep or local hort professors. I do them all the times for my clients.

These are just a few ideas. Some are obvious but still work.

Let me start with one very obvious fact.

When the economy is in the dumps you need to be keep marketing .

Here is another fact, It is very hard to do!

When you are trying to make payroll , keep your truck running or make your house payments to name a few. It’s not real exciting to think about putting big money into advertising.

Here are a few ideas that might help you get your message out there and keep your truck running, pay keep your employees and keep the house.

• Build a website. I can recommend a great company (HaHa). This does take an initial large investment. 2 to 3 thousand for something you want to have people come to.

• Emarketing is the new way to advertise.   First thing Get email addresses from everyone who enters your store, calls you on the phone (even a wrong number) or visits your site! This is a great way to get your message out . With a cost of 10 dollar a month you can  send out  personalized emails with the professional look of the big guys with over a 90% delivery rate. Send hundreds or thousands with no postage.

• Community Events are a great way to create loyalty in your local area. I remember a great book I read called “Things they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School”  Mark McCormick was a sports agent for some of the biggest players in world, Here’s a great comment that I have experienced over and over. …People like to do business with people they like as long as they are close to the competition.  I am going to add my own observation..People will go to great lengths to justify doing business with you if they like you, even if they have a better deal out there.

• Donate a plant or something to local fundraisers. I have always tried to buy from people who worked with my causes.

These are very rough times and we can all get very get discouraged at times. I have to tell you, there are days it seems nothing is working.I have to tell you. When we get out there and make a few calls, send a few emails……Things happen!  Just don’t give up.

If you are still here, you are a survivor and I truly believe the worst is over.

I just got back from the CENTS show in Columbus, Ohio. I went into the show not really knowing what to expect. With all the mixed reviews and opinions about the Mid Am show in Chicago and the MANTS show at Baltimore we weren’t expecting much/
Monday morning at 10:00 the doors opened. We were swamped until about 2:00 that afternoon and steady until 5:00.
The biggest news is the attitude of the attendees. They were very positive. We wrote new orders and had people adding to their existing orders. I wasn’t ready for this. It was great.
I don’t want to get too political here, but many of these garden center owners and landscapers are not exited about national health care and tax hikes that go along with them.
A few Tuesdays ago in Massachusetts there was a clear message to Obama. The majority does not want the government takeover.
Business’s not hiring because of unclear details in the bill are not going to start hiring until this bill is dead.
Also a large sector of our customers have been holding onto their money, That is the medical field namely doctors. With the unlikely passage of the bill, They probably feel they have dodged a bullet.
They could start buying new homes, cars, vacations to name a few.
I was not going to go into politics , Oh well.
Don’t get me wrong. I want everyone to have affordable healthcare but I feel the government is not the answer and the tax and spending is keeping us from the recovery we so need.

The global warming group have a long way to go in convincing me. I am very cold and very wet. We have been getting hit everyday with at least 2″ to 3″‘ s of snow. Instead of getting annoyed though , I am thinking of the many landscape contractors and garden centers plowing and salting lots around the area. If they aren’t locked into contracts , this could really bring some cold cash for the credit strapped industry. Many bills were left unpaid from fall form the luke warm finish. THis also can give the smaller guys money for spring startup. Thanks to the banks, after getting bailed out with our money and making record profits with NSF’s from cash strapped people, they have called in loans,credit lines and refused to give any loans to the average business guy. Thank God they were not right on the global warming or there would be no money.
Let it Snow!

We are sitting around Christmas evening watching the fifth movie and something reminded of an experience I had a few years back. My family at the time used to get three trees for various rooms and levels in our house. Since we sell nursery stock to some of the local garden centers through our parent company ” M. D. Bolin & Associates”I decided to share the sales around and get my live Christmas trees from my top three Garden Centers in my area.

What an interesting night. While I have always observed how a business takes on the personality of it’s owner. Friendly accommodating owner equals friendly staff and vice versa.

We are naming them garden center A,B,  and C.

Garden Center A has two locations. I have always seen even a stark difference in the two locations.

My night started at thisfirst location. We get out of the truck and start browsing the trees.  They were priced a bit higher than the box stores  and quality was fine. We were there for 20 minutes and not one sign of anyone coming out of the office.  Actually if i had not seen someone look out of the window of the office. I might have thought it was an over site.  We left with no tree, never speaking with anyone

We then proceeded to garden center B

We pull into the lot get out start brousing. This time we do find an 18 yearold boy and girl out there. No greeting form them. I was ok with that. We find the tree we want and ask him if we can get it bundled. I get an annoyed look. You can imagine when I asked about cutting the bottom of the trunk of the tree. He managed to hand me a saw. I reallt was not excited about asking for rope. He found a box of sical twine. After I got the cut tree tied down I paid him and we were on our way.  My wife actually started laughing. By the way we were the only ones there at the time.

We went back to Garden Center A but the other location. There we did get help and paid more than we should have. It was not really bad service but it wasn’t really good service. They did everything they were supposed to and were pleasant enough.

Now we get to Garden Center C.

We get approached immediately by a young guy with a smile, asking me if I need anythin g. The trees were about the same price, actually a few dollars less. I pick out the tree and pull my SUV up. I go in to pay. I come out ready to deal with the Christmas tree only to find it baled, trunk  cutin the process of loading it on my car. On top of that, they ask me about the type of stand we use. They actually drilled a hole in the bottom.my family was blown away at the whole experience. By the way, We were not the only ones being taken care of by a long shot.

Here is the best part. No one ever really knew I was there. It was like being a secret shopper.

I was dying of curiosity on how everyone did with Christmas tree sales.

Garden Center A did not do very well at the first location. It was blamed on the economy and the trees not being brought in cheap enough.

Garden Center B told me they were getting out of the live Christmas tree business. People were no longer loyal to the Garden Centers and were buying from the box stores. They said there was nothing they could do to stop the trend.

Garden Center C. Told me they sell about the same amount of trees and sold out for the most part. No talk of box stores,bad trees or dis loyalty.

I think many of us can be like A and B more than we want to admit. I really have asked two of my most trusted friends to be brutally honest with me and it is not so bad after the first few revelations. Ouch!  I am actually getting less defensive and more receptive every time,. I might start looking forward to the self exams. Who knows.

The one common theme I keep noticing this summer is for next year garden center owners are looking for different plants to have for their customers.
I believe this is really going to be very profitable. One example is the Japanese maple market. there are more bloodgoods,red dragons and crimson queens than anyone knows what to do with.
Go to Lowes or Walmart and you’ll find plenty. What you won’t find is
some of the more cool ones like Acer orange Dream, Acer fullmoon,
Acer palmatum spring delight.
These are so unique it almost becomes an impulse buy.
Here is a link to some really great new varieties.
www.bizonnursery.com. Browse the plant section
or go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/42299627@N03/
or Iseli Nursery http://www.iseli-nursery.com/

http://www.buchholznursery.com/our_plants.html

These are cutting edge conifers and maples.

I recently attended the 3rd IGCS Trade Show www.igcshow.com a few weeks ago. From what I understand the attendance was up almost 40%. I spent three days talking with attendees. I am always amazed by how people in our industry look for the positive side of things.

The overall feel was of unsureness of the future. No one seems to know where we are going as a country. The funny thing is, this is the same overall feel everyone had this last winter.I thought after the positive spring we had, garden center owners would have at least be assured spring is going to be there and customers will be in. I must say though, How does the small business owner make decisions on spring purchases when all they keep hearing over and over from the media and administration about how bad everything is.
I do know this.Without exception and I mean not one. The garden centers that were stocked with fresh product had a good spring. Those that didn’t had a disastrous spring.
I hope they learned form it but I was a bit concerned about how some of them were blaming everything else even when it was brought to their attention.

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