8/1/2008
Think Pink
Barbara Mulhern
Sandy Richter makes no apologies for her garden center’s pink jeep, pink shirts or even the pink beads she throws to the crowd during her local community’s annual Santa Claus parade.
“Every garden center I went to when I started my business was a man’s place,” says Sandy, owner of Sandy’s Back Porch in Belleville, Illinois. “I spent $5,000, bought a Jeep Wrangler, painted it pink and logo’d it. No one could have ever given me a better idea. Everyone knows Sandy’s Back Porch. It’s a moving billboard.”
Sandy, a grower-retailer with two greenhouses totaling just 6,000 sq. ft. of growing space, is a certified public accountant by profession. She had no horticultural background, other than what she had learned from gardening, when she made the decision four years ago to change careers.
“I was ready for a change,” she recalls. “I was sitting behind my desk all the time. So I went to work in another garden center. Then my uncle told me to contact the owner of this place because he was interested in selling.”
The previous owner of the business had grown and sold trees, so Sandy had to clear the land. She then bought two greenhouses, but before they were even delivered, her first 15,000 plugs had arrived. “They sat in my shop for a week but I lost only one tray,” she says.
Today, in addition to the two heated greenhouses where she grows nearly 200 different varieties of annuals, Sandy has a 2,500 sq. ft. retail store. She sells hardgoods and products such as an organic mushroom compost, which has been a big hit with customers.
Marketing Matters
Sandy, who is passionate about what she does, constantly thinks about both the business side of her operation and new ways to market. “When I did my demographic research I found that 80 to 85 percent [of garden center customers] were women in the 35 to 60 year age range. That’s the audience we are aiming for. This has definitely worked to our advantage,” she says.
Last Christmas was the third year Sandy was in the local Santa Claus parade, but it was the first time she threw pink beads to parade viewers. “You would hear people in the crowd ranging from older ladies to little girls say, ‘Oh, wow, pink beads.’ After the parade we went to a local restaurant and two ladies came in with their pink beads on,” she says.
Sandy works hard to educate her customers and at the same time bring in new customers. One of the tools she uses is offering free hour-long workshops that are open to everyone. Topics range from how to use fresh herbs in your kitchen to container gardening to the mechanics of taking a soil sample.
She also instituted programs called Back Porch Bucks and Merry Money. Customers receive one Back Porch Buck ($1) for every $10 they spend during the busy months of April and May. They can then use their Back Porch Bucks toward new purchases by coming back to the garden center during the traditionally slower month of July.
Merry Money works along the same lines. It’s given out for purchases made in September and October and can be used by customers in December. Sandy didn’t give out Merry Money her first year. But she started it in her second year of the business, and “it doubled my sales for the month of December,” she says.
Ups and Downs
Sandy grows about 4,500 geraniums, 1,000 New Guineas and a number of other “good sellers” such as lantana and angelonia. But while Sandy loves being a very small grower-retailer, it does have its downsides.
“I bring a small amount of plants in from the outside because I feel you can never have enough,” she says. “I’m very limited by only having 6,000 sq. ft.” She can only find the extra plants she needs in early spring, so she has to rely on herself to grow what she’ll need in June, July and August.
Yet the toughest part of the business is the financial end. “It’s so seasonal and it’s very difficult to get the cash flow to get through the dry times. This is my fourth season, and it’s still very difficult,” she admits.
Among the additional steps Sandy has taken to help counter that is bringing in poinsettias from a local grower and promoting her hardgoods and gifts during the holiday season. “Last year we had our first Christmas open house, and we are open year round now,” she says.
She has found that a lot of people will come in to ask questions during January and February. Being open and having someone around to answer them “helps bring people back in the spring,” she says.
Barbara Mulhern is a freelance writer from Verona, Wisconsin.