Let's Review and It's Time to Focus on Fall Customer Service!

by Danny Summers

Now is the BEST TIME to make sure your customer service will be the best it can be in the coming weeks. Each year a larger percentage of Mystery Shops are performed in the spring and summer weeks. While we still have four and a half months to go, we can take a look at YTD performance compared to Group Averages. Now is also a great time to order shops at your center for preparing for the Fall Season (if you don't already have them scheduled). So, first, let's take a look at how we did so far this year.

The following chart shows us The Group Total Score YTD for each major area of shop reporting compared to the same period in 2016 and the 15 year average (2002-2016). This includes shops performed through August 11th in both 2016 and 2017.

Sharing Spring 2017 Results

Danny Summers... with lots of help from my friends!

On July 17th Steve Bailey released our Mid-Year Weekly Department Review (WDR) to those participating. While not all 102 centers participating in the 2017 program were able to report, it still provides a good view of how Spring from each region. Steve featured some of the graphs on the cover page and there were some real differences (ups and downs).

Overall, The Group is showing a modest increase in sales and average sale year to date with a slight negative on transaction counts. But there are a number of very strong positives. There's lots of great things to share around each center's successes and we hope the comments offered below by these Group members will help to give you ideas. We started this process looking at figures reported in the MidYear WDR, however many centers have continued to add to their positive numbers in July so the following figures shared are from Week 29 of the WDR.

Retailers' Choice Awards™ at Cultivate'17

by Danny Summers

A Millennial’s Garden Comes Into Its Own - Part 2

by Tom Kegley

In an ongoing saga, the journey into gardening for the intrepid millennial has hit stride. Now 8+ weeks into the season, Lee’s garden is blooming with the delight to be expected if you’ve been around the track, as all in our circle have. Not without a few stumbles in the beginning, natural and otherwise, all in all, a well-placed source reports pleasure and bounty from efforts to date!

As a reminder of scope, this first-time gardener resurrected the former house owner’s dilapidated raised bed garden consisting of 6 - 4’x7’ beds. He filled it with a host of veggies and herbs well suited for the city garden– tomatoes (6 varieties), cucumber, squash, zucchini, peppers (banana, jalapeño, bell), and a range of herbs, including parsley, sage, basil, oregano, mint, and eucalyptus.

Denial is Under-Rated?

by Sid Raisch

She actually said this? I could hardly believe my ears, and had to ask, “would you please repeat what you just said?”

She said it again, “Yes - denial is under-rated as a coping mechanism.” Having just met her for the first time, I was both aghast, and willing to give her the benefit of doubt. Maybe she had it backward in her mind? Sadly, the further the conversation went, the clearer it was that she actually believed herself – that denial is a good coping mechanism. But of course, she’s dead wrong.

Revitalizing Reviews

by Jean L. Seawright, CMC

There’s no question that employees are more effective when working in an environment that promotes regular communication about expectations and results. The reality is that people want to know where they stand—even if it isn’t good. A performance review is one important tool that can help address this need by answering the burning question every employee has: “How am I doing?”  

Unfortunately, in many organizations, performance reviews have gone by the wayside, even though the younger generation of workers—the Millennials—are known for their need to receive regular feedback (and praise!) from management.

Every Strategy Matters

by John Kennedy

As we near the end of the magic “100 days of Spring”  in our garden center industry, the three short months of “driving dough”, or as the Stones kinda sang “I see a red ledger and I want to paint it black”, it’s a good time to sharpen your strategic tools and deliver every revenue-generating opportunity you possibly can.  

When 60-70% of your revenue is generated in such an abbreviated amount of time, every activity, every step, every touch, every strategy matters.

A Millennial’s Journey to His Garden of Eden - Part 1

by Tom Kegley

News Flash:  After 9 years of a somewhat nomadic existence across two states and three cities, Millennial Son Lee Kegley is now the happy owner of a lovely and renovated 1940’s vintage colonial in the quaint Forest Hills section of Richmond, VA. He intends to stay for the foreseeable future, well entrenched in residential sales with the company he’s worked for since college, Ferguson Enterprises. Ferguson is the nation’s largest wholesale distributor of commercial and residential plumbing supplies, pipe, valves, fittings, waterworks, and HVAC/R products. Recently he attended a National Association of Home Builders conference where the keynote speaker shared insights on the dynamics of millennial home buying these days. Lee’s report to me on that coinciding with his April home purchase was revealing.

In GroupTalk issues to come, I hope to share Lee’s unfolding endeavors in his new residence pertaining to an amazing transformation (for him at least)– he’s become an enthusiastic home gardener!

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.

GrowIt! - Growth & NWF Effort

by Danny Summers

This week GrowIt! guru, Seth Reed shared details of their app usage growth last month. Here's the details on the app user growth.

April was our best month EVER!
We saw over 90,000 people log in to GrowIt! to find great plants, have plants identified, ask questions, and connect with other people that love plants. That brings our total member base to over 340,000. Engagement is high right now, this is the best time join our Garden Shop Program on GrowIt!. Spending as little as 15 minutes a week adding plants or answering questions can keep your content fresh and help you connect with the next generation of gardeners.
 
Crushing the Google Play Store
This week we became the 5th most popular app on Google Play's "House and Home" list. We even beat out Houzz! This is where people are going to find gardening help. Isn't it exciting that the only gardening app representing IGC's is this popular?

We are the only gardening app garnering this level of attention from consumers. Your customers and community are looking for apps like GrowIt! to find great plants to buy and grow. Join our Garden Shop Program and let GrowIt! promote you.

On the one hand, the Administration is committed to easing the regulatory burden for employers. On the other hand, government officials have made it abundantly clear that tougher enforcement of immigration laws is a priority, leaving employers who depend on immigrant workers uneasy.

New Form I-9 and Increased Penalties - Raise the Stakes for Immigration Noncompliance

New Administration, A New Day for Business

by Jean Seawright

If you're an owner or manager, it's no surprise to you that there is a government regulation for nearly every employment decision you make.  The reality is that you can't hire, promote, discipline, transfer, pay, or terminate an employee without considering local, county, state, and federal employment regulations. Depending on where your business is located and how many employees you have, you may have to comply with regulations that dictate everything from the precise questions you can ask during an interview to what you can legally deduct from the final paycheck of an employee who owes you thousands of dollars (zippo, in many cases!).

The cost of compliance is staggering. For the 28 million small businesses in the U.S., regulatory compliance costs over $10,000 per employee; 36% higher than the cost for a larger business. It's no wonder some business owners consider regulatory costs to be a hidden tax on businesses.  And it doesn't seem to quit. Over the last 20 years, the federal government has added more than 80,000 regulations---typically between 3,500 and 4,500 annually.

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.

Retailers are invited to participate in the Retailers' Choice Awards™ again this year as we search for the best new plants and products at both Cultivate'17 and Farwest 2017.

Join Sid Raisch and Danny Summers at Cultivate'17 and Danny at Farwest 2017 for a great way to find new products for your store. Here's why it is a great experience. You meet at the beginning of the show's first day to receive instructions and then work the show at your own pace. Then participants meet at the end of the first day to share finds. You share yours and then you hear what everyone else found (this is the great benefit for you). Sid and Danny take care of the rest, but this gives you a chance to see all the things you missed (and others found) the next day!

Who is SynRG™

SynRG™ is the founding organization behind the Handpicked for You® program and created by the following producers:
 

Bailey Nurseries Adds Digital Help

Here is a brief update on some of what our three consumers brands are up to from a digital perspective recently! These contain some great tools the retailer can use when developing customer interaction and providing educational content.

How Did They Do That? - Details from the 2016 P&L Study

by Danny Summers

As all of the Group Clients who participated in the Annual P&L Study for 2016 have received their own reports, Steve Bailey has shared some details for total Group results. One thing that stood out was Transaction Counts with the Best Practices/High Achievers (+4% when the Total Group was -1%).

So, under the heading of..."How Did They Do That?"... we have asked the question. You will be very interested in some of the answers they have shared.

Building Your Social Audience - Part 2

A How-To Series, by Danny Summers

Several weeks ago we began this series with several examples for building your social audience. This week, Botanical Interests' Brandon Coppin, Director of Social Media and Video Production, is sharing an infographic that outlines our social media strategy for gardeners along with two white papers shared here.

A Sneak-Peak into 2018

from Hort Couture's Kelly Staats