Some years ago I was consulting for a large company that had bought several interiorscapers.  They had visions of opportunities we, as an industry, had yet to explore.  They were trying to see what other products and services our existing client base might want or need.  They had already looked at Exterior, Cut Florals and so on.  What else is out there, they asked.

And so it was that I found myself attending Gift Basket Shows.  Yep, I attended several and found out the following.  You need to:

1. Have products with long shelf life.
2. Organize your designs around basic themes, Holidays and Life Events (Birthdays etc).
3. Set Budgets Price and Cost Points.
4. Be able to wrap beautifully and make bows.

At the Gift Basket Industry Trade Shows , you will find a wealth of product and wrapping material as well as gain a pound or two (all those samples!)   The accompanying seminars were very basic and a camera is a must as there are a million design examples.  Also available are any number of CDs showing "How To".  These span levels of expertise from "Basic/Beginner" to "Advanced".  There is at least one industry trade publication and this is always a must have when you are entering a new business.

I spent days, weeks working up basic sales and design formats but, in the end, it was decided not to pursue this new offerring.  Too many pitfalls, not enough demand, a new skill set, not everyone’s cup of tea, and so on.  Mainly, they opted to concentrate on the core business and leave Gift Baskets for a possible future opportunity.

For me, it was an education.  If I were still in the ’scaper business today, I might look at doing something like this IF I polled the Human Resources people at some of my large corporate accounts and determined if they wanted or needed gift baskets for employees who were ill or were celebrating a significant event etc.  OR, instead of a Gift Basket I might offer a program of live plants or blooming to mark special occassions.  It’s all about what you feel comfortable with, have a market for.  My one word of caution is, just because someone else is doing something does not make that an option you have to follow.  Know thy business and do not over think or over promise. 

However, I do miss those free samples!  Now go out there and……

For an Interioplantscaper, there are no more chilling words than, "We’re thinking of going inhouse with our plant care".  Your heart drops three stories, your palms (not that kind, the other kind), go sweaty, and you stammer your dire warnings. 

May I suggest you take a deep breath and get your arguements together. 

• In House Plant Care works when it is for a large venue where the same staff cares for both interior and exterior.  Example:  Large Vegas Properties where the staff cares for Interior, Exterior, Floral, Events, Holiday etc.
• For regular corporate work it can be a nightmare.  The employee is treated like all other regular employees and receives all the benefits and other perks.  This may end up costing far more than an outside service.
• What is the in house persons capabilities?  They will be responsible for thousands of dollars worth of plants, live plants.  If the coporation is thinking of poaching one of your employees, let them know you have non compete agreements with all of them and that you will pursue any infraction.  (Then make sure you have npn-competes.

Also, make sure the contact person understands that the fee they pay you monthly is not just a labor charge.  Sometimes they do not understand the replacement factor which can be a third or, even, half   of your charge.  This cost will still go on only now it is out of their pocket on top of salary and benefits.

Then there are the anecdotal warnings.  Example:  A friend of mine had a one man plant care business.  One of his largest clients was thinking of going in house Feb. 1, possibly hiring my friend as their in house employee.  On Jan 2, he was removing a 6′ wreath from their exterior entry using a 12 foot ladder.  It was lightly snowing, he looked up, got disoriented, and fell ,shattering his leg.  He was off for three months and his workman’s comp went sky high.  The change to in house never happened and, in fact, the corporate contact was heard to say to a coworker, "Boy, what a nightmare.  Glad we didn’t hire him in house.  It would have cost us a fortune."  Meanwhile, a friend maintained the account for him for the three months he was off, he got ell and retained the account as an outside vendor.  And, they all live happily ever after.

So, take a deep breath and get your ducks in a row.  E mail other scapers you know and get their anecdotal stories as well.  Remember, the contact person wants to be a hero and not make mistakes that higher ups see.  Help him avoid doing so.  Now, go out there and get ‘em, Tigers and sell some TOPsiders and use those Joeys.

Back in the day when I had my interiorscape company, we had among our clients 7 Hotels (mostly 4 and 5 star), and a number of legal firms.  Visiting my contacts at these locations, I often noticed a large cut floral arrangement on registration or receptionist’s desk.  Hmmm.  I thought.  Why can’t we do that and make some bucks as well?  My Holiday gal had a long history of floral work, she even "did" weddings for her family and friends on the side.  Why can’t we do this?

There were two local floral product wholesalers in my area so Sarah and I visited them to get pricing and availibilty.  We learned that product was readily available and we found a used "cooler" at a reduced price.  We were ready!  I called on clients that already had floral and found that there was, indeed, an interest.  Usually they asked, "how much" and could they get the arrangements on Mondays for the legal firms and on Fridays for the Hotels.  No problem, said we.  We found that we needed two vases or containers for each arrangement.  One for the one in place and one for the replacement so we could round table them.  Still no problem.  We sold three to one firm and two to a hotel and we were off and running.

Sarah would go to the wholesalers and pick out the floral product, oasis, vases etc and bring them back to our cooler.  She would arrange them and our van would deliver,  The office sent a monthly bill.  Still, no problem.  Then we had a call.  The receptionist at Legal firm ABC was allergic to lillies, the hotel wanted only yellow and bronze florals.  The other hotel had special guests this week so they needed them on Weds.  Another hotel didn’t like that weeks arrangement.  Every month there were "consderations".  Then, we had a spate of large installs and the vans and delivery guys were out 40 miles away and the florals had to be delivered downtown by 10 AM.  Hmmm. 

What had started out as a way to get extra income became a way to increase costs and disrupt our usual routine.  Hmmmm.  At one point we hired a floral delivery service to make deliveries and that got rid of that problem but added to the cost.  Next, the cooler broke down.  More $$. 

Finally, we subcontracted with a real florist to make and deliver the arrangements, we sent the bill to the client tacking on a 25% upcharge and for a number of years this worked well.  Extra dollars, less stress. 

So what did I learn?  Cut Floral service?  Maybe yes, and maybe no.  You need a large number of clients willing to pay for this service and you need to set it up as a systematic program.  Set delivery days, set people, set arrangements and so on.  If you have lots of potential clients, I suggest you go for it.  If your hotels are in the Budgetel, Holiday Inn format, fuggedahboudit.  Best markets are the very large cities and tourist destination venues.  If you have this, you need to explore it.  Otherwise, think Holiday and maybe exterior containers.  Now go out there and get ‘em Tigers.

You walk into one of your clients buildings and you notice they have some exterior containers.  It is Spring and their landscape firm has installed the usual geraniums and petunias.  They are small, they are ugly.  Hmmph, you think.  I can do better than that.  And so, an exterior container/beds division is started for your company.  Actually, it is a slam dunk.  You are the expert in Instant Gratification .  You use 6", hanging basket material, filling the container with lush color sure to stop a visitor, sure to set off that logo. 

Time goes by.  You’ve learned to mix in some tropicals in the Summer, some hardy greenery in Fall and Winter.  You’ve learned to light exterior bushes and topiaries for the Holidays.  In fact, you’ve gotten pretty good.  The client notices.  He asks you, "Joe, we really like the work in the planters.  Can you do our other landscape work?"  Aha!  A whole other kettle of fish.  Do you want to, Can you, do MOW, BLOW, and in some parts of the woods, SNOW?

Lets look at the situation, shall we?  For containers and beds the heaviest, largest equipment you need are some trowels, shovels, a rake, and some tarps.  For Mow, Blow and Snow, you need large, heavy EXPENSIVE equipment.  I attended a seminar at ALCA some years ago where the presenter was an exterior guy going over his financials.  He had TWO whole pages dealing with the costs, repairs, and upkeep of large equipment.  Riding mowers, Blowers, tillers and tree spades.  Hundreds of thousands of upfront and ongoing costs.  Plus, he had a crew that spoke little English so he had on staff a bilingual interpreter.  His insurance costs were astronomical, ditto his workmen’s comp costs.  Hmmm.  Did I want to go into exterior?  The answer was NO!.

I watched with interest several of my ’scaper friends in other parts of the country, excitedly go into exterior.  Some are still doing it today, others are long out of that business and took quite a financial hit.

So is this for you?  I suggest you do some homework by attending a PLANET seminar for exterior and talk to the others already in the biz.  You will find it is not a "boutique" kind of business like interiorscaping.  Their employees trim using large shears: ours use scissors!  Get it?  Do your homework and limit your services til you see how profitable it is …or isn’t and how adept you are at managing such a business.  Just because we "do plants", does not mean we can do it all.  Now, have a good day and go get ‘em, Tigers.

 Vegas Baby.  And,boy, was it great!  Several hundred ’scapers and vendors showed up last week at the Flamingo Hotel in Vegas.  It was great to see so many old friends and several Inner Circle members.  The seminars were well presented and, more importantly, relevant in these difficult times.  Jim Mumford of Good Earth in San Diego addressed GREEN ROOFS and it was the best presentation on this topic I’ve seen yet.  For more info and a slide show of his talk, go to pia@piagrows .org.  It will be on that site at some point and you should view it and download the info.  Maybe, you are not interested in tackling this new opportunity but you need to see what it is all about.  In short, to do this work you need to have an architect or engineer, a water management person and a roofing professional on board.  Do not think you can do this by yourself.  Talk around the convention centered on the Joeys and Freedom Squares.  I can’t even count the number of companies that "get it". 

The Awards Program, while a tad too long, was inspiring.  Projects both for regular green installations as well as Holiday and Special Events showed what we are capable of doing for our clients.  Pretty spectacular.  Several Installation winners had large plant material being hoisted high by cranes to get into the site.    Lots of ooohs and ahhhs.

The general feeling from both ’scapers and vendors is that this is the economy from Hell.  Not only are we dealing with cutbacks, cancellations and so on, but we are being pressured by the money boys.  Credit Card companies are cutting credit lines, raising interest rates, and Banks are lowering line of credit limits.  Since we are small and usually undercapitalized, this additional stress makes every day….challenging.  Still, we wil get thru this.  Inner Circle members, please go thru the IC Archives and review my prior Newsletters about how to cope, reengineer etc.  You will read this stuff with a new understanding and just might pick up some pearls.  Make a necklace.

Also at Calscape, Jerry Shipe of the Plant Place in Dallas put together an excellent panel on Reinvent and Innovate, Opportunities to Review.  Panelists presented information on Cut Florals, Exterior and Patioscaping, Web based Sales, , Short Term Rentalsetc.  Now, doing these different but related businesses depends on several basics.  The market you’re in, the Needs of your client base, the ability of your staff, and the extra dollars you will need as "seed" money.  I will be posting info about each of these in future posts to help you determine if they are right for YOU.  Otherwise, keep you chin up and go get ‘em, Tiger.