New in 2025!

by Danny Summers

We are just 2 days away from the arrival of the New Year 2025 and in some ways, it has already begun. Just look at Week 1 above!

We have been busy working on a number of changes, tweaks, modifications and leap-forwards in a number of Group programs. Most of these have come through your input and suggestions along with sharp observations by our Service Provider Team.

Here's a quick recap of just some of them. I am sure I will not cover all of them. I reserve the opportunity to cover more as Irealize what I have left out!

WDR and Annual P&L Study Updates

1. Multi-Location Reporting - with No Extra Store Fee! If you have more than one location, we want as many to participate in the WDR and P&L Study as possible. In previous years we have had a minor add-on fee for the extra locations... but no longer! We want all Centers to report in 2025!
2. Chart of Accounts Revisions - Tropicals! We are separating Tropicals-Indoor and Out by moving Tropicals Outdoor to the Annuals category. Tropicals will become only Indoor. Both income and expense are reflecting this change. It will also give us better observations on both areas of these categories.
3. Chart of Accounts Revisions - Operating Expense-Internet! We are updating this category to be Website and adding another category of Social Media (NOT labor dollars).
4. Chart of Accounts Revisions - Wage & Wage Benefits Refinements! We have added more details to 4 of the S&W categories (see bold add-ons here): S&W - Officers/Owners, S&W - Seasonal/Part Time, S&W - Staff/Full Time, and S&W - Support/Contracted. These will help all Centers report more consistently.
5. Annual P&L Study Additions - Shrink By-Category! We are announcing a new section for Retail Value on-hand by-month to add a totally new Section 6 - Pricing Margin. This will allow us to show where centers are pricing product, and then show the margin erosion By Category - which is the ultimate measure of shrink - By Category!
6. January GROUPtalk LIVE - with Tim! See and hear first-hand details on these changes as Tim Quebedeaux will share this and much more on how to drill down into the many areas of the WDR Online, on January16th. Don't just settle for the Friday summary reports by email... dive into much more online!

Financial Basics Workshop Series - Expanded for 2025!
This popular financial training program is entering its 10th season and is being expanded to allow for more details being emphasized. This virtual 7-Session Series includes 6 Online Sessions (was 5 in 2024) plus 1 Individual Session to Review Your Worksheets and Data. The series will cover more than 24 financial topics, as well as key Group benchmarking and ratios. Here's one participating Center's comments:

"Participating in the Financial Basic Workshop Series was extremely beneficial to us as new independent garden center owners - in particular, it helped us better understand inventory turns for different categories (perishables/non-perishables) and empowered us to change up our buying practices. The worksheets and final worksheet were very helpful in terms of giving us a detailed look at our garden center products and sales and where we were spending too much (or too little) money. This course and the material also gave us a leg up in participating in the yearly P+L study (which we find valuable) and has helped us achieve independent garden center best practices." Devon Klingman, Co-Owner, Rockledge Gardens, Rockledge, FL (Best Practices Award 2023).
Full details and sign up can be found HERE.

Group Mystery Shop Program - 14 Changes!
With much input from both Group Centers using the Mystery Shop Program over previous months and our Service Providers (with extra observations from Sid Raisch), we have made 14 wording/criteria changes to 5 Sections, including Appearance, General Employee, Specific Employee, Departments, and Overall. These changes are designed to help make each shop report more relative and useful for today's managing challenges. To see a new Sample Report, login to The Group WebSystem, go to Clients-Only menu and scroll down to Group Mystery Shopper Program link. Both sample report and order form details will be there for your download.

New Group Ad Planner for 2025
The new Group Ad Planner Calendars (both USA and Canada) are now available. We have added several areas to help make this spreadsheet-driven tool even more functional. It is fully customizable for you with no lockdowns or password-protections. Here's just a quick sample of one idea added... Do you know there is an official holiday for just about anything... any career, any position, any hobby, almost any area of interest. For instance, here's just a few you could consider as a Garden Center, a.k.a., Nature Center, Health Center, etc. (think about what you sell or what activity in your Center that can apply to each): For January 2025...

• January 5,  National Bird Day
• January 10, National Houseplant Appreciation Day
• January 16, International Hot and Spicy Food Day
• January 21, National Hugging Day
• January 23, International Integrative Health Day
• January 24, National Fun at Work Day
• January 26, National Green Juice Day
• January 28, National Daisy Day

To download the New Group Ad Planner for 2025, login to The Group WebSystem and go to the Power Tools link.

More Peer-to-Peer Sharing in 2025!
We see and hear of the many benefits for smaller Peer-to-Peer sharing opportunities and we are making changes to allow you to engage and learn more.

1. Best of MANTS Gathering - As I have mentioned earlier, our Best of MANTS gathering is evolving to be more like our Sponsor Tables at The Fall Event, with plenty of time (5:00-6:30pm) to explore some of the best new plants and products while having some lite food and beverage of your choice. Stay as long as you like. No long presentations. Just casual discussions and great new products to explore!
2. The Fall Event 2025 - As we plan for The Fall Event 2025 in Raleigh, North Carolina, we will be crafting more smaller breakout sessions to encourage sharing and creativity at its best!
3. New Ideas - More Small Peer-Group Sharing - We are exploring how we can organize and facilitate small peer group functions. We are collecting ideas on how we can create Group Circles that will help bring Group Centers together on a regular basis, outside of The Fall Event and GROUPtalk LIVE sessions. Watch for more ideas on this.

And a Few More... If you were with us during The Fall Event 2024 and reading GROUPtalk each week, you will have seen indications of several other new opportunities coming for you, our Group Centers.

New Varieties Preview Boxes - We are working with Lloyd Traven at Peace Tree Farm to allow Group Centers to apply to receive New Variety Sample Boxes from some of our industry best genetics producers. If selected by the breeders/brands, Retailers must agree to plant the new varieties upon arrival, observe and provide feedback on any new varieties received, and of course, show off these new varieties to consumers of great things coming (possibly to your Center) next season! Stay tuned for sign up details.

New Marketing Series Being Developed - If you were at The Fall Event 2024 and at the preview session that Steve Kendall and Kim Nelson presented, you saw the level of interest to drill down more in the number of areas that together should make up your marketing efforts. Since then, both Steve and Kim have been working on a new 12-month program beginning in 2025. Watch for more details soon.

There's even more but this is enough for today. Watch for more in the coming weeks!

Danny Summers
[email protected]
Tel: 678-909-7770
Cell: 678-761-7145

REMEMBER: Your interaction (by phone and email) with Group Service Providers such as Tim Quebedeaux, Sid Raisch, John Kennedy, Jean Seawright, and of course Danny Summers are included in your retainer!