Thank You Steve & Bonnie Bailey

April 1, 2022

Steve Bailey's blog message Thank You (and more, there's always more!) provides a story of their journey and how he (and Bonnie) became the craftsman behind all of The Group's Financial Sharing Programs over the past 20+ years. Steve's observations and teachings have helped so many Garden Centers set their path for success and has laid the foundation for more to come through Tim Quebedeaux.

On Friday, April 1, 2022, The Group gathered in a GROUPtalk LIVE Session to salute Steve and Bonnie Bailey and say THANK YOU for all you have brought to The Group, our Centers, and the industry! Even on an extremely busy Friday morning, in the beginning of spring, many took the time to honor Steve and Bonnie Bailey for all they have done for their Garden Center. In the words you hear in this session, you can get a clear feeling of what the work Steve and Bonnie have done for each Garden Center, The Garden Center Group, and the Industry as a whole.

Thank You (and more... there’s always more!)

by Steve Bailey

I’ll say it right off the bat - I despise the word “lucky”. The only word I dislike as much as “lucky” is “hate”. So, I won’t say I “hate” the word “lucky”.

What’s all this got to do with me riding off into the sunset? In just a few words, quite a bit. The Roman philosopher Seneca said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”. I beg to differ.

Category Growth Strategies: Moving Toward Improvement

By Steve Bailey and Bill Calkins

The following is the Part 4 of the series... Category Growth Strategies: Moving Toward Improvement. This was originally published in the June edition of greenPROFIT magazine and can be seen HERE. If you missed the Part 1, you can see it HERE, Part 2 - HERE, or Part 3 - HERE.

Earlier this year, Ball Publishing's Bill Calkins approached Steve Bailey about co-writing a series of articles that could lead garden centers through the basics of analyzing category performance and some of the measurements developed for The Garden Center Group Clients through the Annual P&L Study. The result is a series of four articles published in Ball's GreenPROFIT magazine in this spring.

Category Growth Strategies: Creating the Plan (part 3)

By Steve Bailey and Bill Calkins

The following is the Part 3 of the series... Category Growth Strategies: Creating the Plan. This was originally published in the May edition of greenPROFIT magazine and can be seen HERE. If you missed the Part 1, you can see it HERE. To see Part 2 - HERE.

Earlier this year, Ball Publishing's Bill Calkins approached Steve Bailey about co-writing a series of articles that could lead garden centers through the basics of analyzing category performance and some of the measurements developed for The Garden Center Group Clients through the Annual P&L Study. The result is a series of four articles published in Ball's GreenPROFIT magazine in this spring.

Category Growth Strategies: Your Metrics (part 2)

By Steve Bailey and Bill Calkins

The following is the Part 2 of the series... Category Growth Strategies: Your Metrics. This was originally published in the April edition of greenPROFIT magazine and can be seen HERE. If you missed the Part 1, you can see it HERE.

Earlier this year, Ball Publishing's Bill Calkins approached Steve Bailey about co-writing a series of articles that could lead garden centers through the basics of analyzing category performance and some of the measurements developed for The Garden Center Group Clients through the Annual P&L Study. The result is a series of four articles published in Ball's GreenPROFIT magazine in this spring.

Strategies for Achieving Category Growth (part 1)

by Steve Bailey and Bill Calkins

Earlier this year, Ball Publishing's Bill Calkins approached Steve Bailey about co-writing a series of articles that could lead garden centers through the basics of analyzing category performance and some of the measurements developed for The Garden Center Group Clients through the Annual P&L Study. The result is a series of four articles published in Ball's GreenPROFIT magazine this spring.

It’s A New Financial Landscape

by Steve Bailey

As the COVID-19 event unfolds, we are seeing garden centers closing down temporarily or reducing hours. Either one of these actions reduce Revenues and the ability to fulfill your Center’s financial obligations.

Profit - It’s All About Change

by Steve Bailey

All of you joined The Garden Center Group for a reason. Maybe it was for the camaraderie of networking with peers, possibly to work more closely with Service Providers within The Group, to access the financial tools such as the Weekly Department Review and P&L Study, or any of the other numerous reasons there are to be a part. Most likely the underlying reason was you needed Change and all of the above enables you to enact it.

Revenues, Profit, and Bubbles

by Steve Bailey

As I recall, I was sitting on a plane in 2005 when I first saw it. If a light bulb has ever gone off for me, it was in that moment. My seatmate looked at me in a funny sort of way since he couldn’t understand my excitement while reading a USA Today.

Building Our Team!

by Steve Bailey

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was in March 2001. I was trimming the boxwood in front of our house. Bonnie and I had just sold our garden center the month before, and I was still considering my options for employment over the next fifteen to twenty years. That’s when Bonnie came to the front door and said, “Robert is on the phone and wants to talk with you”.

The Pulse of the Garden Center Industry – Part 2

by Steve Bailey

Besides Revenues, what’s the most important ratio for a business selling a product? I’ll answer that one for you; it’s the COST of the product being sold.

The Pulse of the Garden Center Industry

by Steve Bailey

You might think the title of this article is a bit of a stretch when describing The Group’s 2018 Profit & Loss Study. I don’t. There’s nothing in our industry that even approaches the depth of information reporting centers receive.

There’s Gold In Them ‘Thar Hills

The Group's Special Mid-Year 2018 Weekly Department Review
by Steve Bailey

Go ahead, admit it, the title including ‘gold’ sucked you right in, didn’t it? Maybe the thought of a gold expedition at The Fall Event (gold is indeed mined a couple of hours west of Salt Lake City) or some other promise of riches pulled you into reading this article.

The 2017 P&L Study – Where Do We Begin?

by Steve Bailey

Where Do We Begin? Actually, I’m just messing with you, I know where to begin telling you about the 2017 Profit & Loss Study. But there is so much more than I can fit into one article that I’ll be dropping into GROUPtalk from time-to-time to give you even more information from the Study that you can use in your daily management of your Center.

But for right now, let’s get into the who, what, and where of the P&L Study participants. Although we were down a few centers in reporting compared to 2016, the Revenue level remained steady. The seventy-one participating Centers as a whole generated more than $150,000,000 in Revenues.  That means that the average reporting Center came in at about $2.1 million. If that is more (or less) than your Revenue level, don’t think these results are not relevant as there is much more for you to compare with on the Sales, Mode of Operation, and Regional group level.

Static vs. Dynamic Pricing At Your Garden Center

by Steve Bailey

IMPORTANT: This is one of Steve's articles you need to read, re-read, print, and share with all your staff!

Another Angle On ‘Another Timely Topic’

by $teve Bailey

In last week’s GROUPTalk, you read Robert Hendrickson’s description of how we often have different views of the same subject. Mr. Gray meets Mr. Black and White. And never the two shall meet, right? Most definitely wrong.

The 2016 P&L Study – Let’s Talk Actual Numbers

by Steve Bailey

A few weeks back, we looked at the basic Profit & Loss Study, how it is constructed, and using your results to improve your Center’s performance.

Within the P&L Study, there are different subsets of Centers, most notably Retailers and Retailer/Growers. Also within the Study are subsets of Regional groups. Both are important as some results and ratios are more relevant to a mode of operation, others are tied more closely to a region of the country.

Revenues and Expenses by Steve Bailey

The basic function of any Profit & Loss Statement is to measure the performance of an entity, in the form of Profitable or not. But most P&L’s are not exactly like the one you find in The Group’s Profit & Loss Study. In most cases, the P&L your CPA or tax reporter gives you is geared toward tax reporting, and not business management. The Group’s Profit & Loss Study measures Operating Profitability, allowing a direct comparison to other garden centers in a like mode of operation and/or size. Better yet, it allows your center to compare your numbers with all of the centers that reported as well as the Best Practices/High Achiever group.

Let’s begin with the basic Profit & Loss section, which encompasses all of the incoming money in the form of Revenues and the expenses going out in the form of Cost of Goods Sold, Operating Expenses, and Wage & Wage Benefits.

The 2016 Profit & Loss Study Results are in!

2016 may be past history, but history in the form of garden center financials can teach us many good lessons. Measuring what occurred in the past and using that information to set a more Profitable course is the key to good retail management. 

2017 Weekly Department Review... and More!

by Steve Bailey

The Garden Center Group prides itself on sharing information. Rightfully so, with the various GroupEs available, Fall Event, and the other activities that promote Owners and Managers communicating with each other.

Nothing typifies this more than the Weekly Department Review (WDR). The weekly sharing of numbers is a source of wonderment when I tell other traveling consultants about it. They can't believe any group or retail segment is as sharing as this one. Plus, they are envious.