Some of us only provide Poinsettias, some install 40 foot trees, whole Villages, and Exterior Holiday extravaganzas.  Wherever you fall on the Holiday scale, the disruption of schedules, shorter work weeks, and delivery demands on top of the regular maintenance work results in..stress. 

How to Combat it?  
First, just accept that there will be glitches and discombobulations.  To minimize it as much as possible, think back to Christmas Past.  What went wrong?  Not enough ornaments?  Shipments didn’t arrive?  How did you handle it then and was that, in retrospect, the best way? 

Our Holiday business was  from 250,000 to over 350,000 dollars each year.  Oh, it didn’t start out that big.  It started with 120 poinsettia and a  seven foot tree.  Ten years later it was 350,000 bucks.  During those ten years we made every mistake that could be made but we also had one Rule.  Never make the same mistake twice.  Remember and fix it for the next year.  And that is how we ended up with the Mistake Book. 

Write it Down  
Every glitch had its solution, every solution was reviewed and improved upon.  For example, I discovered one year when a shipment of ornaments failed to show up, that Lowe’s and Target carried great substitutes and for not much more than we would have paid delivered to our door.   Need more lights?  Same thing.  So after that learning year, we never again worried if a product failed to show up.  Solution?  Less stress.

People Are Your Greatest Asset.  Take Care of Them  
Not only is work stressful at this time of year, but life at home is at well.  Families need to shop for themselves and friends.  Extra company shows up.  School and Church demands increase.  Time is valuable.  With this in mind, consider allowing full time workers the ability to take some of their vacation or sick day allotment to get personal things done or, even better, during that 2 week time period from December 19 to Jan 1 when set up is pretty much done and take down has yet to start. 

Along with time, money is also scarce for families.  If you give year end bonuses, consider handing them out early December or mid December instead of waiting until the last week.  This way people can use it when they need it.  And, if the bonus is relatively small consider a gift card to a store like Walmart or a local Grocery. 

Sometimes You Just Need a Hug 
A couple of companies I know hire a Masseuse to come in to their facility on Thanksgiving weekend when all their crews are installing jobs.  Then they schedule people so they can stop by the facility and get a 10 minute neck and shoulder massage.  It isn’t that costly and it sure feels great.  Most of all it is what it says.  "We care about and appreciate you".  That and a hot cuppa something can make all the difference.
 
Thank You 
And lastly, tell them.  Tell them how much you appreciate their work.  Tell them in front of everyone.  Tell them often.  And sometime in the middle of December hand each one a beautifully dressed poinsettia for their own homes.  Happy Holidays.

One of the hardest letters to get from your client is the testimonial letter.  Usually you get something like this, "Green, Green is a great company", or "  We’ve used Green and Green for a long time and we like their work and would recommend them".  No brownie points here.  Results like these are not even worth the paper they are written.  Nope, if you want really powerful Letters, it is up to you to guide your clients hand.

The 4 Questions 
    1.  What is the Product or Service Used?
    2.  What benefit did the Client get by using it?
          Was time saved?  Money?  By using it did the client’s job become easier?
    3.  What did the Client most enjoy about your Product or Service?
    4.  What would you, the Client, tell someone about the Product or Service.
By getting these questions answered, you will have powerful testimonials.  Don’t be shy.  Ask the client to include their answers to these 4 questions.  Even suggest or remind them of some stellar performance you gave or the length of time you have been their vendor.

Once upon a time, my company had a large, prominent hotel as a client.  We were there when they first opened in downtown Cincinnati.  Every year, the Manager held a special lunch for the hotel vendors and during the lunch he would acknowledge each one and say how long they had been with the hotel.  As the years went on, fewer and fewer had been there at Day 1 so, after 18 years it was just us and the window washers.  The next year they were gone and we were the only ones left from the very beginning.  I asked the GM for a letter stating that fact.  He did and  as time went on and I showed the testimonial letter, I was always pleased to see how new clients were impressed.

 That is the power of the Testimonial Letter.

It is so important to get your Client’s testimonial that I recommend asking for one after the first year of service or after a particularly well done installation.  Ask while your superior performance is still fresh in their minds. 

For the Second Generation of Client 
These letters are a treasure trove for ongoing relations as well as going after new work.  Think about the new GM at the Hotel.  Having a letter of your worth written by the preceding manager is worth its weight in gold particularly as the new guy is trying to decide what and who to change.

Ask that the letters be on the Client’s company stationery and keep them in a file by categories so you can show hotel managers letters fro other hotel managers, mall managers letters from other mall managers and so on.  Sometimes it is best to cull a few choice quotes from the various letters and put these one to two line tidbits all on one page with the client’s name, company, title, and phone or email underneath. 

Another interesting list that garners credibility is a list of accounts with the length of service.  The fact that several companies have kept you as their service provider for 10 years or more speaks volumes as to the quality of your service.

Make it a point to gather these letters and make sure that you guide the Client so that you get Testimonials that really get the job done.

As the green movement continues to sweep the nation, the impact crosses over to plantscaping in some strange new ways….

Plantscaping Innovations From Outside The Industry

Finally someone figured out how to take a Huge Negative (Street Graffiti) and make it into Green Art and, more importantly, why weren’t we the ones to think of this?

Here’s the scoop from Inhabitat - a website for future forward design…

"In Brooklyn we’ve discovered ‘living graffiti’ — an idea which takes the idea of clean graffiti to the next level by creating street art out of living, breathing plants.

Eco-minded street artist Edina Tokodi is putting a new spin on green guerilla tactics in the trendy art enclave of Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Tokodi’s site-specific moss installations of prancing animal figures and camouflage outgrowths are the talk of a local urban neighborhood typically accustomed to gallery hype and commercial real estate take-overs.

Unlike the market-driven art featured in sterile, white box galleries, the work of Tokodi is meant to be touched, felt, and in turn touch you in the playful ways that her animated installations call to mind a more familiar, environmentally friendly state in the barren patches of urban existence."

Inside or Outside, Think of Ways to Use This 

This harkens back to Girl or Boy Scout days.  A little milk, a few spores, and, voila, living microcosms. 

Or, just take the green sheet moss we get from the suppliers, shape it yourself, add some dried fungi and some aticks and pebbles, maybe even a feather or two. 

How Can You Apply This To Build Your Interiorscape Business?

For those of you who periodically present talks to elementary students, here is a Project. 

For those wanting to create a living piece of art in an interior planter bed, here is another idea.  Fabricate this green moss art on a plank of wood on a stake and you could even spell out the building name. 

Innovate & Create

Let your mind run wild with possibilities/opportunities.  Have fun with it and set yourself off as "the creative company".  And, please, do let us know what you do with the idea.  Drop us a comment.

And don’t forget as the corporate pressure to work with environmentally responsible companies - your company will be impacted.  As the go green trend picks up steam you should prepare yourself to Start Selling Green.

I was kicking back a couple of weeks ago and there wasn’t much on the tube so I started watching one of the Home Shopping Channels “Christmas in July” shows.

There they were – artificial trees, pre-lit and not just with the ubiquitous white minis but with fiber optics specially tied to give primary focal spots of light.  Pricing?  Very user friendly.  Next they showed special electrical boxes that accommodate eight plug ins of 4 light strands each and buttons that made the lights blink, sequence, or stay on.  In short, the Holiday products for the consumer are getting more sophisticated every year.   Then, last night, I clicked on to QVC and there was the wreath of my Interiorscaper dreams.  It was 26 inches in diameter, artificial with  2 different needle types, completely Prelit with LED lights that had a crystal frame around each one to give off the whitest of white lights, and with its very own Battery Pack complete with sunlight off, dusk on timer. And, if that wasn’t enough, the batteries lasted so the wreath was good for 40 days!  No more 8-10 hours.  Nope, now you can buy a battery operated wreath that will never have to be relit and the  power will sustain it through the entire season.  This wonder of wonders cost all of 26 bucks plus shipping and was being presented on air by the Bethlehem (aka GKI) representative.  With my mouth open I watched as tens of thousands of these beauties went flying off to consumers.   Next time I go to Dallas, believe me I will look for these incredible wreaths not just at GKI but at other importers as well.  For us ’scapers it could give us the product our clients want-the on all the time wreath.  Still, it upset me that this was available to every Harry and Harriet out there in consumer land.

You’ve Got to Stay On TOp
Now what does this mean for the Holiday ‘Scaper?  It means that you, too, have to move forward and continually update your skills and Holiday offerings.  What once was out of the scope of most people is now available at every Home Depot, Lowe’s or on the TV.  To stay one ornament draped branch ahead of the pack you have to do your homework.  Homework, like going to market, attending Holiday seminars, visiting local distributors and talking to company reps.

If you are a relatively small Holiday Design provider – a visit to your local wholesaler, talking to company reps or attending regional gift mart shows may suffice.  Companies that are doing larger amounts of Holiday work probably should attend large regional market shows like the ones held in New York, Atlanta, Dallas, and Chicago in January and February.  For some companies attending once every other year is sufficient, still others do so much Holiday they need to attend yearly.  Let your needs dictate what you have to spend on travel.

And keep an eye on the Home Shopping Channels right about now.  They seem to have the very inside track.