Holiday is over for another 10 months and the good news is that you survived.  Congratulations.  Thinking back to Holidays Past, I recall several that were, shall we say, learning instances.  The truck on Thanksgiving weekend that drove the 100 miles to the large install and the large wreath was back at the warehouse.  Result?  A second trip the following day, a perturbed client, a second truck rental, and two installers time driving and installing.  OOOPS!

The next year we fixed that problem but on another installation, my key designer showed up 2 hours late keeping four other techs waiting.  4 techs X 2 hours = 8 hours paid out not originally budgeted.  I could see the $$ flying out into the snow.

The moral of stories like these?  Plan ahead.  Have lists of materials to be loaded on trucks, check the lists more than once, and allow extra time in your price quotes.  Extra or delayed trips mean dollars lost.  And not just for Holiday.  The second trip for the plant left behind, the containers that didn’t arrive in time-all cost you.  DIRTFT is important in businesses like ours.  Extra time spent in advance is going to save you on the tail end.  DIRTFT should be a motto instilled throughout your company.  Now get out there…..

Banks? Nope.  Wall Street?  Not hardly.  But, even in this crazy economy, some businesses are growing and that is where the potential lies for new Sales.

Unemployment Equals Job and Career Training     With the Unemployment rate rising, many people are going back to school.  Couple this with the world of the Computer and I’ll just bet you will find classroom settings and offices for the Colleges and Universities helping people get degrees and retrain.  Call on these folks.  They have to want to keep their offices inviting to new potential students.  Check it out.

Ditto, temp agencies, Non-government job services, and the like.  And, Healthcare continues to seem impervious.  This includes not just Hospitals, but rehab centers, Sports Medicine facilities, Assisted Living and Higher end Long term care.  Yes, I know some of them have opted for artificial.  In fact, one assisted living facility in Cincinnati solve their "foilage problem" by going to Sam’s Club and buying 60 of the same 6′ tall artificial Ficus Tree in a wicker basket.  They are everywhere in the facility.  Clones, Soldiers, Same Old, Same Old.  Ugly!  Now, it has been some time since they were installed.  Maybe places like this are ripe to present the live Green/Health/Cleaner Air/Happiness scenario.

And, it is never a good idea to lose contact with former clients.  Periodically, call and touch base to get a pulse reading of when things might pick up.  Now, go out there and………

Went  to the bank the other day, Feb.25th, and on the teller counter…a still-living poinsettia!  And on the bank officers desk.  And on the coffee table.  Then, I stopped at a local restaurant and, you guessed it..another one!  Now, mind you, there were only a few bracts visible, but, there they were,  Devil Plants.  Kinda like finding a spath living in the desert.

So, what does this have to do with anything?  Maybe, just maybe, inspite of all that is going on in the economy, we should think of ourselves like these remnants of Holiday Past.  We are the survivors.  And, even though the Holidays are months away, how would you like an inexpensive variation of the Joey Pouch created just for Poinsettia and Blooming?

Well, inventor Joe is working on it and it should be announced this summer.  Just think.  One change of poinsettias lasts for all 6 plus weeks.  Watering once per week or longer!  Reusable.  A ’scapers dream and a surefire way to help lower our costs.  Stay tuned as we work on this industry changing innovation.  And, just a heads up.  As you quote Poinsettia for Holiday proposals, do NOT quote so much per point delivered (the old 2 changes).  Instead, quote so much per "spot" and use the two point formula.  Do not commit to a number but, instead, the resulting look.  That way you will be charging as if there were two when you will need only one.

Just thought you would want to know.  Barb

Over 30,000 showed up this past November in Boston MA for the 7th annual GreenBuild Show.  Attendees were impressed with the Seminar offerrings as well as the Huge Trade Show of "Green" Vendors.  This impressive attendance again shows that the Environment is still a very hot topic.  In fact, several were heard to say that "if you are not in a Green Business, forget about it. 

What does this mean for interiorscapers?  Its another bullet in your holster.  Learn about Green and how our products and services are green and say green.

Lastly, I want to wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year.  Go get ‘em Tiger.

Recently I purchased a boxed appliance and upon opening it was amazed at all the stuff used to package it.  Plastic wrap, cardboard, twisty ties, at least three diffent pieces of paper to warantee and promote other products.  And, on top of all that…..big blocks of white styrofoam.  All destined to become part of a landfill or semi recycled.

Well, what if you could become a small part of the chain?  What if you could set up some agreement with a store that sells TVs and other stuff packaged in styrofoam and then, once a week or so, pick it up and reuse, repurpose, recycle it for staging plants??

Granted, a bit of trouble to go through but….what a neat win/win situation and what a good thing to point out to your clients.

Just a thought…..

It is September 2nd and on the interiorscape.com web site someone asked about the best thing to use for Poinsettias and two responses cited Sippers as the best.  One post, however, asked if it wasn’t too early to begin tthinking about Points and Holiday.  Nope, in fact, it is a bit late.  If you will need Sippers, call now.  We get sold out often in late October.  Call the TOPsider office (800)533-7661.

Next, we are shipping Joey Pouches and you are already trying to figure out what to do with them.  Read the instructions and watch the dvd instructional video on the TOPsider website, www.topsidersinc.com.   And, for those of you who want to do Green Roofs, contact the TOPsider office.  We are now the sole distributors for the 42" squares that weigh only a pound and a half dry (instead of hundreds of pounds for soil and drainage material).  The squares are $96.00 each and have irrigation hook ups attatched to them so they can be attatched one to one to one etc.  No soil is needed and they are 2.5 inches (that’’s right, I said INCHES) thick. 

Be aware that it takes much more than just throwing a bunch of planted squares on top of a roof to have a green roof.  There is working with the roofing guy, the construction people, and making sure the liability and safety aspects are all covered but those parts are true no matter what product is used.  Our Freedom Squares as we call them, are the lightest, the easiest components ever.  We have a minimum of squares per order required.  Again, see us at Calscape.

That’s right.  Here it is almost Fourth of July in Ohio and I’m thinking about Holiday…and so should you. 

It goes without saying that Prelit trees and wreaths are the way to go.  That large ornaments take less time than the itsy bitsy ones and that, while we all love hot new colors, your customers will still fall back on red and gold, burgundy and gold and gold and gold.  You get the idea.

There is one new twist you should be aware of however, and that is the evolution of LED lights.  LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights have become ubiquitous.  They are on keyrings, in flashlights, hanging in closets and on the front end of cars.  Everywhere.  And why?  "Cause they are longlasting (anywhere from 100,000-400,000 hours), bright, and low energy users.

For interiorscapers, trees prelit with these babies will last 10-15 years.  Once installed to outline a building it would take decades before they have to be removed and reinstalled.  They are an opportunity to make your Holiday life infinitely easier. 

Check them out for the coming Season.  You’ll be so glad you did.

There’s a new word in the lexicon.  It is "Greenwashing".  Nope, it doesn’t mean washing your veggies and friuts to rid them of pesticides, nope, it refers to the practice of some manufacturers, builders, and others to make "Green" claims that are false.  The problem is that you the consumer, have practically no way to verfiy claims.

The real problem is that because Greenwashing exists, some people use this as an excuse to negate everything "Green".  This is equvilent to throwing out the baby with the bath water.   A big mistake.  Going Green is a journey and everyone is traveling this road.  No one is 100%, perfectly Green.  But we are all at different points along the trail and learning as we go.

In a few years there will be agencies that will document and verify every product and service as to its "Greenness".  Yep, at some point every product will be certified as to how much of its composition comes from recycled origins, is recyclable, is from sustainable materials and so on.  It will read much like the Nuitrition Code on Packaged food products.   Remember, this is all new and kinda new and it takes…time.

Until then, just keep learning and keeping up with all the changes. 

In tihe most recent Green Lodging News (www.greenlodgingnews.com), it was reported that "Florida Governor Charlie Crist-a potential running mate for Sen John McCain-issued an Executive Order requiring all state agencies and departments to do business only with Florida Green Lodging Program participants.  The executive order went into effect Jan. 1 of this year and eventually will become a law.  Faster than you can say "Go Gators", hundreds of hotels got moving."

The article goes on to quote Karen Moore, Program director for the Florida Green Lodging Program . The guesstimate is that  500 properties  will be part of the Program. by 2009.  This means that 10% of all lodging properties and 12% of all rooms will be "green". 

An opportunity for the smart interiorscaper?  I think so and, up the road, will this be the template for other states?  Probably.  To learn more about the criteria, check out the green lodging news web site to get a sneek peek at the future.

Just spent a few days at the Hospitality and Design Show in Las Vegas.  Huge show  completely geared toward the specifier, designer, architect, and owners and operators of Hotels and resort properties from all over the world.  I met architects from Dubuque and I met them from Dubaii.  From Paris, Kentucky and from Paris, France.  It was a Plantscapers dream but, in reality, we are so small we would have gotten lost in the shuffle plus this is global and we are local.  Anyway, it was a heck of an experience.

The first day was Green Day with seminars all focusing on GREEN.  The seminars were packed.  In fact, I was told that the attendance for the GREEN Day was double that for last year.  Another indication how Green is the new Red, White and Blue. Everypne there agreed that Green construction and operation is here and now. 

So, I give you a repeat warning that you must look at your plantscaping business and decide how you will meet this challenge as well as how you are going to incorporate this into your Sales presentation.  My suggestion is that you join whichever chapter of LEED or the USGBC that is in your area.  And, after joining, attend and meet specifiers and so on.  Folks, the train is at the station.  Its time to climb aboard. 

One ’scaper I know is speaking before his BOMA group on Green Roofs.  Another company just did a Lunch and Learn for a large archtectural firm in their city.  Another participated in a local "Green" mini trade show.  However and wherever you do it, the goal should be to set your company up as the Green experts of interiorscaping in your city.  And one head of Marketing and Sales for one of our premier suppliers just had a phone call from an architect doing a huge project.  He has been trying to see her for months but to no avail.  Then he let her know how GREEN his product line is and she called him to set up an appointment.  Imagine his surprise!  Now go out there and get ‘em. Tiger.