The Blogging Nurseryman - The Art of Running a Small Garden Center or Nursery

Over at Open Register they say, ” Retailers remain upbeat despite economic pressures”. “Consultant Ian Baldwin’s talk, ‘Maximizing Profits in a Soft Economy,’ drew a big crowd of retailers attending the Independent Garden Center Show in Chicago…” I would have liked to attend that seminar, but unlike many of my fellow nursery people there was no way I was going to make it to Chicago for this event. Are there others like me who find making trip away from the nursery just about impossible?

The future of the trade show is to take it to the internet. Why can’t we take a virtual tour of the show? Walk up and down the aisles with our mouse (computer type) and stop at each vendors booth. Aim your cursor at the booth and up comes information on that company, with links to the companies web site. Why not offer vendor specials to people touring the show virtually. Want to hear the speakers? The talks would be live, with questions from the virtual and in the flesh audience. The talks could be downloaded for a nominal fee and used by nurseries for employee training or inspiration.

While trade shows can be fun, how can the majority of small garden center owners make it all the way to Chicago? The people who can use this information the most won’t be able to take advantage of it. Put it on the web where we can decide which speaker to listen to, pay the fee and learn. This would involve a lot more small garden centers that want, but just can’t get away from the nursery. With the tough economic times some just can’t afford to.

Wanted to thank Jodie of Glenwild Garden Center in northern New Jersey for the tee shirt. Monica is now a “Glenwilder Gardener”. Jodie has commented here at this blog before. This is great as we had sent Jodie a shirt from our store and the same person, Jodie’s childhood friend delivered the shirt.

The interesting thing here is that through this medium of the internet we are making connections as real as if we we’re meeting in flesh. Thanks Jodie.

Meanwhile over at Fishing for Customers blog Chuck has a post called “Bad news for business owners” That got my attention. He list 7 things business like Jodie’s and mine can do to make it through this slowdown, and let me tell you out here in California it’s real slow. Here are the areas he focuses on,

1.Concentrate on business and customer service.
2.Cherish your existing customers.
3.Accelerate your advertising and PR.
4.Adjust your staffing.
5.Lower your profit margins.
6.Speed up cash flow.
7.Cut overhead.

He is going to discuss each one over the next week, so if your interested head on over to Chucks Blog. I thought we could go over these things here, and discuss how we here at the Golden Gecko have already implemented most of these ideas. Right now though I have to take care of #1, and that’s great customer service, which I won’t providing if I sit here any longer.

A day in the garden center involves a lot of socializing. By the end of the day you are often tired of socializing, and just want to rest. This is one reason I believe trade organizations have a hard time getting members to the meetings. It’s not that we don’t want to share information, it’s just we are so tired. That’s what I like about sharing on the Internet. We can do it in our own way, in the bedroom in our robe or sitting under a tree not having to physically interact. I think the possibilities for interaction amongst similar minded people is so important that it shouldn’t be missed. How do we connect?

LinkedIn is a social utility that seems to rank high on search engines. As such it is a great place to start. Many of you already have LinkedIn accounts, and opening a account is easy. I started a group called “Garden centers, nurseries, and new media.” If you have a LinkedIn account you can simply request membership in the group through my LinkedIn page. It would be great for like minded people to be able to identify one another, and by being in the group makes it that much easier.

As a small agricultural business there are a lot of forces that can be allied against you. It’s nice to know you can communicate with others that share your concerns, in a quick and timely manner. It connects you with people in your line of work, and others that have other lines of work that involve garden centers, nurseries, and gardening. Garden writers, trade publications, garden bloggers, nursery owners, managers, employees, wholesale operations, etc. The two binding features of the group are an interest in the business of gardening, and the use of new media. You know who you are, and if you feel it would help you, then join up. This should not be a trade group, but a group of like minded people from across the gardening spectrum. With so many trade organizations, you are surrounded by people who share the same profession, but not necessarily the same philosophy when it comes to social media.

If you don’t have a LinkedIn account open one here. Once you have that account head to my home page here. To become a connection hit the yellow “Full Profile” for my page and then hit the “add Trey to your network” button on the top right. Once I have accepted your invitation to connect you will see the groups I belong to. Look for the Felco pruners and scabbard, that’s the group’s (really cool) logo. Hit that button and follow the instruction’s. It’s all so easy.

There is nothing for you to do after that. How much you interact with other people is completely under your control. I think you will find once the group gets going, the possibilities are endless. What a great opportunity to interact with others who share our same passions.

Something happened here a month or so ago that might surprise you. We got a cell signal! Verizon built a new tower on a mountain near here and now we can use our cell phones. Yes, just 40 miles from the state capitol of Sacramento we we’re unable to receive a cell signal because of the hills and mountains. So for the first time the other day a customer used the phone to call home and see if they already had the fertilizer I had recommended. Now the sales reps that dare to make the trip up here won’t act like they are in Timbuktu because their cell phones don’t work. I actually liked not having the service here. It was different and forced people to focus on the garden rather than the cell phone. Oh well.

We don’t have high speed internet up here either. Comcast hasn’t strung a cable yet. If you want something that resembles high speed you have to go with Satellite, which is quite expensive to set up. What all this means is my attempts at new media don’t effect most of my customers or readers here, yet. I am hoping that the technology I saw, where you can use your cell phone to allow internet access on you computer will bring the high speed to more people up here.

Even without the high speed internet we continue to build our presence on the web. When the time comes we will be there.

Connections are being made online. If your not online you won’t know these connections are being made. Your on line if your reading this, but if you have been waiting to get involved now is the time. It’s funny how the same people, or type of people show up at the various social media. I spent yesterday getting connected with others on LinkedIN . I hadn’t done much with this the last year or so, but now I have connected with all sorts of people who I have met via my blog. The same goes for Twitter. Many of the same interesting people who I have met through the blog are there.

The idea of a garden center blog is not about driving customers to your store, but rather in allowing you to express yourself. That’s the fun of a blog. You can write what you want, and if it’s interesting people will interact. I have found that in my corner of the horticultural world there is a great interest in connecting. In the past the only way for the nursery person to connect with others was through trade organizations, and the attendant monthly meetings.

Now we are connecting on our own! Like minded people are finding each other. The next big things, as well as the little things are being talked about on the Internet. If you feel you have something to say, then now is the time to get out there and speak your mind. How can we connect if your not out there in the game? Remember, lot’s of this social media is so new that the only people using it are what’s called “early adapters”. Sure you won’t find a lot of your customers or fellow nurserypeople online YET. That will change over time. The sooner you start the better.

Everything you do builds your brand. You have a personal brand and some have a business brand. You can tell a lot about a business by reading their blogs, if they have one. If I know that a company, be it one person or hundreds, looks at it’s blog posts simply as a way to monetize the interaction with the customer that tells you a lot. My blog seems to confuse those who would like to see customer interactions simply as a way to make money. They don’t understand that sometimes you want to blog about stuff that might just interest you.

Susan’s comment at my last post was, “Gee, I always thinking how great it would be if I were local enough to shop at the Golden Gecko because I feel I KNOW YOU through this blog, but retail blogging is so new, who knows how the finances will shake out a couple of years from now? Anyhoo, you enjoy it and not everything can be measured in cold-cash calculations. Certainly not the joys of writing.”

Gee, my brand is recognized by a lady who lives on the other side of the country. How does that make me money? I don’t know or care. I do know that if I we’re to start a internet plant business I have friends in different parts of the world who just might champion the brand when it comes their way. They know me and my company. They have been reading my blog for the last three plus years, and can expect a certain response from my company.

Blogging is also about learning. I have been inspired and fortunate to interact with the people who visit this place. How can put a price on my blog relationships. They are priceless.

So follow your muse. Write about what you want. Save the web page, e-news, and other communications for business. Use your blog to express yourself. The most successful blogs I see out there are the ones that people write because they love what they do.

Over at Doug’s Blog he writes a post titled “Garden Centers Shouldn’t Blog”. Read it and see if you agree or not. If you already believe that blogs are a waste of time, this will validate that.

I was recently interviewed by a magazine that asked if I could cite how much our revenue has grown since starting my blog. I have no idea if it’s driven any new business into the store. Just wanted to write about stuff that interested me. If your going to blog do it because you want to, not because it’s cool. I love this quote, “you’re in the nursery business - not the information-business.”. Next time somebody brings a leaf in and wants it identified I’ll tell them, “I am in the nursery business, not the information business.” ‘What’s the difference between organic and synthetic pesticides?” “I am in the nursery business, not the information business. Get your answers at Doug’s Blog.”

Doug’s advice on web pages, ” You need a website and you need it optimized for local searches. You need to have something up there that that speaks to local folks so when they search for a garden center in “anytown” - you’re going to pop up.” This is excellent advice!

This is why blogging is looked at suspiciously by those who want to measure the results of the time spent. Why spend time blogging if you can’t monetize the experience. Blogging is not about driving customers to the store. It’s about SHARING INFORMATION and learning from one another.

I am sure Doug would laugh at my new found interest in “Twitter”. No way that’s going to bring me customers. Here is the bottom line. All this stuff is so new we can’t possibly know where it’s going or how big it’s going to get. You are either “on the bus” or not. Doug and I are.

Per Steve’s comment at my last post ” Is the term ‘garden center’ the limiting factor?”. This was in response to my idea that we in the garden center business could become the trusted source for information on all things natural. My question to you, is the term Garden Center a limiting description of what we are? This is a big question in the garden center businesses these days. Just like the issue of not using the term “gardener”, which is suppose to be seen negatively in the eye’s of the modern customer. I don’t know if I agree with that, but I have been calling our store The Golden Gecko Garden’s and Nursery.

Is the term “garden center” limiting? Does the younger generation know what the term “garden center” means? Does it give a false impression of what we do? Should we even be worrying about this?

According to The Independent newspaper, “Sir David Attenborough warned that children who lack any understanding of the natural world would not grow into adults who cared about the environment.” The paper continues, “Children have lost touch with the natural world and are unable to identify common animals and plants, according to a survey.”

This comes as no surprise here. A whole generation, or two has lost touch with the natural world. This could be a huge concern for us in the horticulture business, but I will look at it as a huge opportunity. We talked about this last year. Small garden centers can become the new information place for all things natural. We have an incredible opportunity to be be the place that teaches the next generation how to be better stewards of the land.

I was going through my Twitter page when I read a “tweet” from Genie in Oakland. She mentioned how she had been awaken by a huge crashing sound on the freeway near where she lives. A few minutes later the news was on the tv. Right when you think Twitter is just a social conversation piece it shows up as a first on the scene news report.

We are getting close to throwing out the old tv we have had for 12 years. Buy a new flat screen, plasma, tv? No. We get the news via the web and that’s great. We can download most of what we really want to see on the computer. So the tool that I grew up with is now outmoded and a whole new world comes into being. I think it’s better. More chances to interact and that’s a great thing!