Here's the link to the article and to see the video of the piece, go to "click to view" on the right side of the page.
Posted by Susan Harris
New coach has her say
Emily Ogrinz in Montclair, NJ, the new gardening coach mentioned in the previous post, sent me such meaty comments, I'm giving them their own post. Here are the highlights, with headers added:
WHAT WE TEACH
You mentioned how you bring your pruners to every meeting and teach all your clients how to prune. Thus you are providing on-the-spot training, as well as demonstrating how a little effort can have dramatic results. I think one of the great things about garden coaching is that it is primarily about the sharing of information. I see that there are 3 types of information we can provide for the client: technical or factual information (species, soil and light condition and needs), design principles (plant in odd numbers, create garden rooms, etc.) and technique or skills (how to prune which shrubs when, how to divide perennials, etc.)
OTHER GREAT INFO WE DISTRIBUTE
Another topic we discussed was how useful it can be to bring books and other reading materials with you, such as plant ID books and other gardening books to give people examples of plants to use. I told you how I was very inspired by an article called "Envisioning Your Dream Garden" by Rand B. Lee, in the March/April 2003 issue of Fine Gardening, and already have a stack of copies that I love to share with friends. This article is a guide to brainstorming about your personal vision for your own garden, and supports your concept of giving people permission to do what they like in their gardens. I could see how if you knew specific questions or issues that your clients had that you could provide them with copies of articles on the topic or suggestions for books that they might be interested in reading.
(Emily, I feel the same way about the Renegade Gardener's article "Landscaping 101", which I posted with some other great info on the "Getting Started" page on my website.)
MARKETING
I asked about the idea of giving workshops on gardening locally, such as at a local garden or at a local community organization. I've also noticed that there is a garden coach in California who does workshops, I believe at her local farmer's market. My first client said she could imagine me sitting out at a table at our farmer's market, answering questions and handing out brochures about my services.
(Great ideas!)
INSPIRATION FOR NEW COACHES
I have also found all of the listings on your Worldwide Directory of Garden Coaches to be incredibly informative and inspiring. It's a great source of ideas about what other people are doing that can help you figure out what you can do. It's also inspiring to see so many people all around the country who are reaching out to other people to share their love of gardening.
ON THE GENEROSITY OF GARDENERS
Another thing that struck me in our conversation was when you told me how you like to work with people locally, because it makes it possible both for you to swing by and see their gardens and also so that it is easy for them to come see your garden and get extra plants from you. You are both creating a community of gardeners and also beautifying your own community. There is so much generosity in gardeners, you see it in our desire to find good homes for our offshoots and extra divisions, in groups like Dave's Garden, as well as in the donation of extra produce from the summer vegetable garden to food banks and to neighbors and friends.
EX-ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATOR PREFERS GARDEN COACHING
I used to be an environmental educator, and I got turned off by the environmental movement because there is so much negativity and hopelessness in it. Environmental problems seem so overwhelming, how can one person possibly make a difference? I've found that gardening is a positive act I can do for the world, by creating wildlife habitat, growing organic food locally, composting and minimizing the waste stream, and most of all by creating beauty. In my garden I feel like I am a part of the great force of nature, and I can actually see how I am making a difference. When I see my extra plants beautifying my neighbors' gardens, and see my neighbors becoming more engaged with their gardens as they become more beautiful, I sense an outward flow of positive energy into the world. I feel energized and excited by the thought of all these people throughout the country passing on their knowledge and extra plants, and creating beauty. There is an ever expanding networks of gardeners and gardens and it is making the world a more beautiful, more engaged, and more positive place.
(You said it, sister!) Posted by Susan Harris
Garden Coaching 101 with Sue Goetz
Garden Coach Sue Goetz gave offered about a zillion bucks worth of garden-coaching advice to garden writers and coach wannabees in Portland, Oregon last week. She's been coaching full-time in Gig Harbor, Washington for 4 years now, since way before there was so much buzz about it, having been a buyer for a large nursery and in the hort biz business one way or another since 1993. She described her work as a combination “coach-mentor-consultant” - take your pick - but "coach" is the most user-friendly of the possible terms. She described coaches as equal parts botanist, plant nerd, soil scientist, marriage counselor, therapist and cheerleader.
Notes from Sue on the Business of Garden Coaching:
WHAT A PROSPECTIVE CLIENT IS LOOKING FOR
Most clients searching for coaches have a vision for their outdoor space but need an expert to flesh it out - maybe simply by adding designer touches, or by providing basic nuts-and-bolts information. Some have moved into a new space and need ID and care guidance. All want the satisfaction on doing the work themselves; they just need some confidence to move forward.
WHAT YOU ARE
Good garden coaches are always learning. Be as well rounded in gardening knowledge as possible. Soil, bugs, plants, pruning, plant identification: be in the know. Pay attention to what trends the public is reading and hearing about in the media - without slavishly following them.
How to distinguish coaches from landscapers? Unlike landscapers, coaches teach homeowners how to nurture and take care of their landscape. Coaches should also set themselves apart from the mow & blow guys and the neighbor who'll help out for free. Garden Coaches have experience and education in all aspects of gardens and should impart their knowledge in a professional manner.
CLIENTS AND HOW TO REACH THEM
Pick your passion and build a business around it. I don’t believe you can truly do good business until you know who you are catering to. It's a basic rule of business; know your market and then you know your target. Niche markets to go after:
- Realtors or people trying to sell their house - a service also known as staging. [For more about this, see Billy Goodnick's article on the subject.]
- New Home Owners. Offer classes and “house calls” to new homeowners to help them become familiar with their new spaces. Plant ID, care and maintenance, etc. are all a big knowledge base needed for this one. The new homeowner niche is tapped into when you build relationships with realtors. I have gotten to know them by word of mouth and actually been hired by a few realtors for their personal homes and after working with them, they have referred me to people they have sold to. If you don't have realtor contacts, drop a postcard to local real estate firms, target the wording to new homeowners, and offer to do a seminar - if you have experience in speaking.
- Tap into the DIY explosion: Coaching is personalized guidance in their clients' own gardens. Coachees are guided do the work themselves and, with your help, do it successfully.
- You can either be a generalist or you can specialize - in perennial gardens, container gardeners, vegetable & herb, organics…you get the ideas.
WHEN YOU'RE ON THE JOB
Get to know your client. Before my first visit I send clients a questionnaire that asks about their goals for the coaching session ("consultation"), problems, redesign needs, pruning needed, how much work will be done by the client or hired out, clients' level of expertise or interest, time frame, types of plants they like, favorite colors, and special problems, like allergies or deer. Sometimes the clients then include photos of what they have or what they like with their responses. The questionnaire and photos are invaluable in helping me tailor my advice to the individual client, especially how much maintenance they're able to provide.
Upon arriving for the consultation, it's also helpful to see the inside of the house to take note of their style and how tidy or relaxed they are, and to observe the presence of kids, muddy shoes, etc. Take side notes during the garden walk-through (soil needs amending, move that plant, etc.) so that it is a holistic approach, not just what is bugging the client about their garden, but the overall scope of it. Clients love sketches, so take paper with you and sketch, even if it not very artistically done using only stick figures of trees and shrubs, with plant names indicated. Be honest; suggest what work should/could be hired out if needed to implement the bigger aspects of the job - to manual laborers, stone masons, etc. "Let's just get a bid" often leads them down that scary road.
FOLLOW-UP
Coaches get invested in their clients and their gardens, so ask for follow-up photos and emails. Make it a “stay in touch with me” approach. Keep notes and their questionnaire all filed and easy to find if they are on the phone with questions. Remember the details of their gardens so you can ask something like, "Did you correct that drainage problem"? It can lead to follow-ups…good for business and good for the success of the client. It is never a good idea to throw out a bunch of advice, hard work projects and then walk away. You will probably find it didn’t get done. Make yourself accessible. Take emails without charging. If the phone calls and emails are very detailed, however, suggest a follow-up appointment.
IT'S A BIZ
- Get nice business cards printed, and use professional invoices and letterhead.
- Have a website; it is a great calling card/portfolio for new calls that want to see your work.
- To convert your first visit into callbacks, stay in touch - with emails and/or quarterly newsletters. Nurture those clients for follow-ups and referrals.
- Offer a 4-times-a-year package and encourage people who need more help to use it. It can be a fee that is prepaid for one year.
- You are never too small a business to brand yourself. Image is important, so get a tagline and logo and stick with them and use them everywhere.
- Send postcards saying "It's spring; how can I help you?" and so on, ending with "Now scheduling appointments." This keeps your name out there. Sent in the fall, postcards can help book up that slower time of year.
MARKETING
- People still ask what I'll do for them if they hire me as a coach, so it's important to do that PR thing - defining what you do and who you are, get the word out and do it well. As with most businesses, networking & "getting yourself out there" is the best advertising.
- Nurseries and garden centers are great sources of referrals. They know you will send their customers back with plant lists. (and will help keep the plants alive). One nursery offers a 20% off coupon for clients if they're new customers.
- Being active in your community helps new clients find you, so do classes for garden clubs, local community gardens and at schools. The newspapers will typically advertise these as part of a community calendar.
- Avoid paying for advertising – it's too expensive. Just place yourself in the position of local garden authority. It works. One way to do that is by writing, and I write a regular garden column for the local paper and freelance articles for a larger-market newspaper and regional magazine.
- Interior designers are perfect referrers.
- Ditto for landscape contractors. I refer my clients to them and they return the favor. I'm picky, though, referring only to the ones I know will do a great job.
- Existing clients are definitely the best source of referrals. My quarterly emails to cli
ents lead to referrals, as do my good old-fashioned Christmas cards in the mail. Nice, personal touches.
Top photos: before and after views of a part of Linda and Doug Durant's garden. They did ALL the work themselves. Lower photo: Sue Goetz.
Garden Coaching in Washington Home and Garden Magazine
Guest writer and coach Helen Yoest of Raleigh, NC gave gardening coaches a nice write-up over on the Washington Home and Garden website. Here's the link and we thank Helen AND Nikki.
Photo by Helen
What I'm carrying these days
Now that I'm coaching a bit more regularly and sometimes unsure whether I'm going to be working in design mode or hands on, I've started shopping for a few extra goodies.
If I had to claim one area of expertise, it would be on the design end of coaching. I used to carry a typical shoulder bag that began with a clip board, a pad of 8.5 x 11 grid paper and a couple of pens and pencils. I'd also bring along my trusty Sunset Western Garden Book (lots of plants and lists) as well as a few other good list books. This got me through a typical scenario where I'd interview a client regarding their needs and desires, use paper to help illustrate simple concepts, suggest some plants, and rely on the client to take notes and put my ideas into practice. But I often felt like this type of advice ended up being somewhat ephemeral and not enough would come of it.
In these cases, I'd offer to return to the office and spend a few hours "on the boards" sending back a more or less scaled drawing of the concepts. To draw this type of plan requires measuring more accurately than just pacing off the general features and hoping to remember the other critical details. So I got a bigger bag. Into the bag went a range of measuring tools (100' tape and a screwdriver to hold down the "dumb end" of the tape, plus assorted smaller tapes), and a digital camera for capturing the details. This way I could more accurately measure the areasand be able to draft a reasonable base sheet on which to draw my design back at the office.
Next thing I knew, I was throwing an oversized clip board in the trunk and a few sheets of 18" x 24" paper, a T-square, drafting scale and a couple of drafting triangles. A few weeks later a bought an Alvin portable drafting board complete with an attached gliding drafting bar. It has fold-out rubber feet that I can either hold on my lap or set up on a patio table. I've also purchased a rolling measuring wheel so I can just walk the yard and read the dial--pretty slick, but close to $100.
I've been carrying this current kit for about three months and had occasion to use it three times. In each case, based on phone conversations prior to the visit, I had the sense that the design requests were relatively simple and could be knocked out on the spot. All three of these jobs followed the same track - an hour to walk the property and get to the gist of the problem areas, 30 minutes to measure and draw a base sheet, then a quick drawing on a sketch paper overlay to leave with the client. The drawing indicates categories of plants--large shade tree, background shrubs, medium perennials, ground cover, etc. On the side of the page would be a list of 3-5 plants that fit each category.
The whole shebang runs about 2-3 hours, I get a check on the spot and offer to expand the list from my office, sending the results via e-mail. I get paid in advance for the office work.
My most recent job has been a quick turn around "performance piece" with a few hours of consultation, shopping for plants, guiding the gardener in removals and pruning, then spotting the plants for him to install. So now the tool kit includes two pairs of gloves (one heavy and one light duty), a pair of loppers, a folding tree saw and my trusty pair of Felcos. Just to be on the safe side as our Southern California winter approaches, I've just purchased a rain-proof parka and rubber boots.
My most recent purchase is a digital video camera. This allows me to get the entire garden from many vantage points while narrating my design ideas and noting special features as I walk the site (I do this AFTER the interview and without the client in tow). I download the video to my Mac with iMovie, allowing me to "rewalk" the site as often as I need to. It will pay for itself in saved time, retention of my brilliant braindri
zzles, and improving my accuracy in responding to site features.
I think I'm ready for just about anything now. If more develops, I'll let you know. As far as I can tell, profits still exceed my expenses and word of mouth is sending a lot of work my way. I think people appreciate the ability to take on any type of work without having to schedule separate apppointments. They also seem to like watching someone else get dirty.
Nuff for now... Blogging at www.Garden Wiseguy..com. My website is BillyGoodnick.com
