I receive e-mail all the time from folks interested in starting a new garden center, or nursery. The latest was from a mother of two small children, wanting to start a nursery in Nebraska. She has a successful landscape business now, and feels a garden center is needed in her town. There are so many questions. Where can she find the answers? You can try and find a local garden center owner who will work with you, although as the new competition they may be less than willing. You can search the internet for your answers. This has been one of my favorite ways to find the info I need. What I have found is just because I enjoy looking for the answers in a million different places on the web, most other people do not. They don't have the time or inclination to spend hours staring at a computer screen. That's the nature of the internet, the answers are generally there, but it's finding them through all the noise that is the hard part. So you want to start an e-mail campaign, or a company blog, or just want to know if this idea or that makes sense in the garden center world. Wouldn't it be nice to have a friend in the business already? Someone who could help answer the questions you think are silly, but have been driving you nuts? Someone who has been there before, has a eye to the future, and speaks honestly about the issues.

I am interested is starting a garden center mentoring program. This would be a program geared toward the smaller type operations that I have been involved in over the years. It would be very reasonably priced, something just about any one starting out could afford on a monthly basis. This is not a on site nursery consultation business, or meant to take the place of a nursery consultation business. There are some really good consultants out there that can cover that aspect. (I can always give you the name of a couple whom I like if you need that type of service).

Late at night, ideas come into your head that you wish you could bounce off someone who has been there before. Of course, just because they have been there before doesn't necessarily cut it. You also want someone who has an eye to the future, and the willingness to embrace change. Imagine the possibilities!

If this kind of program interests you, I would love to hear from you.  Actually I would love to hear from anyone on what they think of this? You folks have always been there for me with advice I can use. You can either leave a public comment here at the blog, or e-mail me at trey@thegoldengecko.com to keep it private.