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.

Have you ever watched someone trim a tree?  Unless they are a professional, it is usually one ornament at a time.  The hand goes down, grabs an ornament, the hand goes up, they climb the ladder, they come down from the ladder.  This goes on for an interminable time period, over and over and over again. 

From a time management point of view this is excruciating.  Long ago I watched someone do just this on a Holiday job we were installing and agonized as the time we’d allotted quickly grew and grew til the job was never going to be profitable.  Sheer agony.

That is when I asked Sara our Holiday Chief Elf (not the one hanging the one by one ornaments), what could we do to save time and speed things up.  Sara, bless her heart, showed me the trick she used for decorating large trees.  To get ornamentation that fit the scale of 12 and 16 foot and larger trees, Sara made up what she called "elements".  Some call them swags, others have other names.  No matter what you call them, they are several regular size ornaments with bows or strands or silk flowers attatched so that the finished piece is both beautiful and LARGE!  These "elements" are made in the facility beforehand by a crew that copies them from a prototype Sara made in advance and then placed on the tree on site.

Talk about time savings.  48 times instead of 480.  Piece of cake.  Storage is easy too, just wrap and box and they will be ready for next year. 

I tell you all this even if you already know about this and even if Holiday is many, many months away,  because periodically I run into a ’scaper still playing the onesy-twosy game and because by applying this same principle to just about every thing your business does, you can save steps, time, materials, and stress.  And, that, as Martha Stewart would say, "Is a good thing". 

Can We Talk?
So, what’s your game plan?  How are you going to meet your sales goals, this month?  This year?  Do you have a plan?  Or are you just going to – A) Wait for the phone to ring or B) Sell stuff to an existing client?  Either A or B are legitimate methods but they lack the really important component, C) New jobs.  New jobs are the critical sales component, the important life force for company growth and must be a major part of your plan.  Oh, I know, when you first started in this business, all your jobs were new jobs but, then the years went by and it was just easier to be an order taker not an order creator.  Well, its time to dust off those “new jobs sales skills”.  Get on the phone; ask existing clients to help you find new clients, go to IFMA and BOMA and LEED meetings and follow-up on construction or moving leads.  In short, fill the pipeline with both the easy stuff (the bird in the hand) and the not so easy (the bird in the bush).  Then, a month or six months from now you’ll be so pleased when you see what you’ve accomplished and your confidence will see no bounds.

Now is also th e best time to sell Holiday ‘08.  Yep, while all the stuff is in place for ‘07, now is the time to visit your contact and point out what new can be added for next years display.  A new wreath over the Door, a second tree in the other part of the Lobby or some Props strategically placed.  At the very least, give them a budget number so the dollars will be available.  What dollars to quote?  Give an estimate or a "not to exceed figure".  Come June and July the client will appreciate your forethought.

Now go out there and get‘em Tiger!

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.

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.

Holiday ‘08
Yep! It’s not a typo.  Even while you’re setting up Holiday ’07, you should be planning for Holiday ’08.   In fact, as you bring back trees and wreaths in January, you should be compiling lists of what you will need for the next Holiday.  Now - before all that stuff goes into Holiday Heaven and you can’t remember who needs replacements of damaged greenery.  You know the bank needs two more trees next year and they want a larger wreath for the conference room.  And the restaurant’s prelit tree needs either to be relit or they’ll need a new one.  It’s also the best time to take an inventory of all those gold balls and miles of ribbon.   Then, once you have this information you can establish an "open to buy” list.  Since your Holiday business has grown, on average 15% each year, you know you will need new materials to fulfill these future orders.

 Then what?  Well, if you are doing $50,000 of Holiday business you can take a breather and at the appropriate time contact local floral wholesalers for the fill in stuff.  However, if your Holiday business is large enough - it is time to go to market.  In January, Marts in Dallas, Atlanta, New York, LA, and Chicago will open their doors for Holiday Product buyers.  If you have never been to such a show, your first time can be pretty intimidating.  How do I register?  How do I establish credit with these people?  What about hotel reservations?  A lot to learn in a very short time.

Sunday, January 20, 2008  
That’s why you might want to consider joining a few dozen other scapers and myself at the Holiday Expo at the Dallas Mart.  Sponsored by PIA as an educational opportunity, we’ll be attending the show on Sunday, January 20, 2008 in Dallas.  They have blocked a group of rooms at a hotel on the Shuttle route and will help you pre-register so you won’t have to stand in long lines.  They’ve established Sunday as the seminar and buying day in order to accommodate ‘scapers who will be attending TPIE in FtLauderdale but still want to tack on a Holiday Buying opportunity.  TPIE is Thursday, January ^{17 th} through 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon, January 19th.  Make travel arrangements to fly into Dallas on Saturday evening and you can kill two birds with one stone.  We will be holding classes on “How to Buy”, “How to Price”.  Then we’ll be going to Lunch at the Autograph Showroom where top Holiday Designers George and Brad from Plant Solutions in Phoenix will give us recipes and cost breakdowns for several cutting edge designs right in frotn of your eyes.  Yep, the hottest new looks , how to fabricate and how to price.  Note, if you can arrive early enough on Sat or Friday evening, Tim from European Gardens will lead a tour of other showrooms or if you wish you can tack on another day to do this after the Sunday seminar.  Just be sure to plan at least two days at the Mart. One is not enough.  And, there will be a dinner event where you can get together with everyone.  This is a fabulous opportunity to learn, buy, and get the information you need to grow your Holiday business.  For more information, please contact PIA at www.pia@piagrows.org.

 Yep! Another year of Holiday.  Make this next one easier, less stressful, and jump-start your business up to the next plateau.  Come join us in  Dallas.

Couple of months ago I was visiting a friend and he took me to see a Mall he maintained.  There, every plant was healthy and perfectly pruned.  It was a beautiful job…except..except for the bromeliads.  Some were faded. some blooms were slightly brown, others were still OK.  "Barb,  he said, I’m having a heck of a time getting broms.  The replacements for these won’t be in for two more weeks and it is driving me nuts". 

My Solution?  Paint ‘Em! 
To his surprise, I walked him over to the Craft store in the Mall and went to the Silk Floral Paint Section where I purchased three cans of Designmaster Floral Paint, one can of red, one of purple, and one of pink.  Then we walked to the rear of the Mall having stopped to grab three of the faded broms.  As we walked,  I explained that years ago I found myself in the same position.  The broms at a Mall we maintained were gone and it was two weeks before the points would arrive.  To buy all new broms or even mums would have set us back over $2,000 for replacements and they would have to be removed when the points came in.  Huge waste of money. (Sound Familiar?)

Then, grabbing some newspaper lying around, I took one of the broms, fixed a cone of newspaper around the bloom, like the plastic cone colar they put on a dog when they don’t want it to scratch its ears, shook the can of Red Floral paint, and sprayed just the bloom lightly.  A second coat and the result was astonishing. 

My friend gasped.  "But won’t that kill the plant?" he asked.  Probably, I replied, in a few weeks after which your replacements will have long arrived. 

Here’s How It Works 
The part we buy a bromeliad for is the colorful bloom or spike and that is the first part to go while the foliage stays alive for a long, long time.  So, if you can get color back to the bloom either by clipping the old out and replacing with an artificial spike (another timely trick), or by painting the bloom with a floral paint, voila, you have just saved the look, the job and a bunch of dollars.

Designmaster, a Careful Hand and a Good Eye  
The trick is to get the right product, Designmaster, available at Craft, Floral Wholesalers, and some Fabric stores.  Choose the right colors from the wealth available.  The color on the can is not always the same as what comes out.  When just starting out, buy single cans of several different reds, pinks, and purples, then test and choose the most realistic.  And, when painting remember that less is more.  Spray one coat and then another.  Keep it light.  You don’t want gobs of paint on the spikes.  After a few tries, you will get the hang of it. 

My friend went back to the Mallthat very night and painted the 120 broms.  His client was thrilled and commented that they were the best broms he’d seen in a while.  My friend continued to water (remember it is still a living plant,  it just has some makeup on it),  And when they were replaced with the Points, he said they still looked great.

Now, we are not suggesting you do this to your broms instead of the usual replacement program you are charging a client for, but, once in a while, schedules and deliveries get screwed up and here is an answer. 

We’d love to hear about your creative problem solvers. 

When we start out doing Holiday work, we are so excited and it is all so new that we cannot even begin to think about five years down the road.  Well, suprise, surprise.  Five years is here before we know it.  Now we are covered up with so much "stuff", we can’t hardly turn around without bumping into a tree.

Storage Options is the Name of the Game 
Renting storage space is not that difficult.  Paying a fair and low price can be.  Every area is different.  In some places empty storage places abound and for a monthly fee, it’s yours.  For others who are more willing to explore, a space that is already in use by another company may have space that can be sublet.  For others, its a barn on Uncle Jim’s farm.

One ‘Scapers Solution…and it Works!  
Good friend Al Fini  (Fini’s Plants), has been an interiorscaper for a bunch of years and has been through the Holiday Wars many times.  Over the years he has tried many storage options and has finally come up with a solution that works for his company.  He buys used shipping containers.  Thats what you see on the backs of 18 wheelers and on cargo ships.  According to AL, "As far as used containers we are very lucky.  We are 100-200 miles from several major ocean ports so there are plenty of good used containers always available.  Prices range from $1,200 for 20 footers up to $2,000 for 40 footers.  I would buy 2-20 footers instead of one 40 footer ( a lot less walking from end to end)".  

Benefits  
What a creative and smart solution.  The containers can be moved from one plot of land to another, keep precious contents dry, can be locked or put behind fencing for more security, can be used as fabricating as well as storage space, and if ever not needed can be resold.  All you need is a place to put them.  And, one more idea.  If you get a humongous Holiday job (and I hope you do), you could attach the container to the job site, park it in the parking lot, and work out of it for set up.  Great idea, thanks Al.

Couple of other last remarks.   Make sure wherever and however you store to get the proper insurance coverage for offsite assets and make sure to increase coverage as the years go by and the value goes up.And, if yu haven’t ordered Sippers for your Poinsettias, do it now.  Supplies are fine right now but tend to get slammed as the season hits.  They will give you 2 weeks in between watering, replacement in the single digits (saving big dollars), and can be reused over and over again for all your blooming plants.  To order, call TOPsiders (800) 533-7661.

Holiday Safety
As we head into the Holiday season I’m reminded of Holidays past.  Most are a blur of red poinsettia and sparkle that won’t come off your hands and face, but some years stand out for other reasons.  There was the year we set up the 20-foot live poinsettia tree and the year we decorated the Riverboat and made it snow inside over the 30-foot tree.  And then there are the years remembered but not because of an outstanding design but because of something sad.  Like the year one of our installers was taking down a wreath and fell off the 10-foot ladder breaking his leg in two places.  Or the year another Holiday Elf fell back off the loading dock.
As I write this e-tip it is still September.  Still time to have a company meeting and review safety measures.  Still time to give out that ounce of prevention and save a pound cure.  From proper footwear to ladder work, from proper lifting techniques to how best to anchor a tree or wreath.  An hour spent now could save bones, dollars, and workmen comp claims up the road.  So, please take the time.  Have a safety procedures meeting.

 Poinsettia Organizing
And, speaking of poinsettia, you probably use them in several ways but, for the most part, you use the 6” red plant placed into a watertight decorative container or basket with saucer inside or speedcover.  You may or may not add a bow, and away you go.  Suggestion – standardize, standardize, and organize.  There is nothing worse than holding up a crew waiting in a vehicle while one-person hunts all over the facility for the basket or the saucer.  Figure out what you are doing and how.  Set the components in stacks so that everyone knows where they are and can see them as they sprint to load the truck.  Standardization and organization - the keys to a very Merry Holiday.

Fabricating Tips 
One of the crises that happens each year is that you buy Holiday Product back in Jan or Feb long before the new jobs are sold.  Then, come September, you find yourself out of the 4" red and gold balls you need for that big job.  Like a bunny you get on the phone to order from you importer only to be told, "no more available".  What to do?  Check out your local floral wholesaler and, even, your local Home Depot, Lowe’s and any other retail store for product that will meet your needs.  So what if you have to pay 2 bucks instead of 1.50?  Retail prices are still low due to seasonal demand and the ability of the retail venue to pay less than you pay, is just a fact of life since they buy such huge quantities.  So, save yourself some grief.  Buy it locally and get it done.

Yep, it’s 96 degrees outside here in Ohio in August ‘07.  Still, in spite of the heat, it is time to get going on Holiday. 

Do What you Should Have Done Last January
We all know what happens when clients are calling on January 5th asking that you get Holiday decor out of their lobby, your crew gets the job done on time but only by cutting a few corners here, a few corners there.  Trees are squeezed, wreaths get bent, decor silently waits in dark storeroom for you to come in and fluff and fix.  Well, now is the time to do just that.  Get a cold drink and tackle the task. Check lighting, replace damaged ornaments.  In short, do as much work as you can now before its November and the Holiday crunch sets in.

Check Orders Outstanding
Maybe back in January you ordered more ribbon and ornamentation.  Pull out those orders now and check status.  If something you ordered is not going to be here, not be manufactured, you need to know now so you can order new replacement inventory. 

Check Crew Status
If you have fill in help that comes in for the fabricating and or installation of Holiday, now is the time to call and check their availibility for  the coming season.  Plus, if you see you’ll be needing even more help, maybe some of these existing crew members know of friends ot relatives that would be willing to work.  Better to get your ducks in a row now instead of the week before Thanksgiving. 

Sales…Now
Next, pull out all of last years Holiday work orders and client files and start emailing, faxing and making phone calls.  Does the Bank of the West want to repeat their 12 foot tree in the lobby?  What about their 6 branch offices?  Are they repeating the front door wreaths?  Get the order confirmation, write up the work order and go on with your life. 

No Surprises
The whole idea is take advantage of time and decent weather now to prime the Holiday pump.  Then, come November 1 you won’t be scrambling.  Happy Holidays!