I have talked about writing a book for several years . There are hundreds of business lessons I want to share with people who may be struggling with various aspects of business, or thinking about starting one. It's a daunting task with so many angles to consider.
Writing a book may be a little like having children. I doubt there is ever a convenient place to schedule such things, and one could easily could put it off indefinitely and miss the opportunity.
Every time
The Book Idea comes up, I think to myself that our success should be more obvious. "Something Great" needs to happen before anyone cares about a book on the subject of Green Eggs & Hammocks.
I haven't ever written a book, but I am fortunate to have 2 beautiful children who remind me that growth and success is a daily process. Success is a journey, not necessarily a result or a destination. My kids remind me that great things happen every day. Sometimes it's little by little, and sometimes it's several things at once.
Great things happen gradually. Sometimes I'm the only one who notices.
Success doesn't happen when the whole world notices, but the whole world notices a Great success story. So, I will learn as I go, rather than putting it off forever trying to find a convenience that doesn't exist. I'm going to hammer away at
The Book when I have moments of spare time. I love to write, and edit, and revise.
The Book is a work-in-progress, and some day the completed version will be here to read, with a real title and all.
The background of my business experience is a cornerstone of my character. My character is the underpinning of our company.It is easy to write this: I have spent the better part of every day for the last 12 years focused on building our brand awareness, designing and developing new products that increase hammock utility, and spreading the word about comfortable hammocks, and our dynamic seating innovations, one person at a time. Living it has been the ultimate challenge.
I grew up active in outdoor sports like soccer, and tennis, basketball, long distance jogging, cycling, hiking, and swimming. Each of these are physically demanding, and all require general muscle coordination plus a specific skill set, and mental acuity. I tried to be the best at everything, but I loved playing. I loved testing the limits of my body, enjoying the sport, and playing with the rules of the sport more than winning. I noticed how much that irritated people who were intent on winning at all costs, and focused on THE RULES. But I didn't care.
I grew up with 4 older brothers, and a younger sister. That was a sport all its own, requiring a tricky mix of espionage and diplomacy.
I was fortunate to grow up in a family business that my Mother began when I was about 10 years old. Her love of plants and gardening was at the root of the little venture she started on the site of an old gas station that she and my Father bought in 1984.
My Mom is an natural businesswoman, driven to improve and be the best at anything she starts. My Dad was a Professor at the Texas Tech School of Law, so his full-time occupation kept him busy. However, he was always in the background "at the drawing board" as a major part of the operation on the planning side.
I was regularly on hand at the plant nursery, from the early age of 10, helping my parents where I could, learning the ins and out of plant care, customer service, and general building maintenance renovation, and expansion. I remember long days of hot summers and cold winters working alongside my siblings and my parents, growing the family business.
It was an odd little venture that went through several business models and different products and services before settling on the "garden center/plant nursery model."
I vaguely remember that my parents planned on selling medical supplies (and plants). I remember how they worked over various names and letterhead designs, finally settling on a something like "Aero Medical" and a logo that was shaped like a blue shield. That ended before it began - no medical supplies were ever bought or sold, as I recall.
All the while we were ripping out old gas station fixtures and hauling away shattered bits of the interior. I may not have been much help, but I have mental snapshots of those days inside the old oil-change section of the building . . . tearing out benches and smashing things to bits in the process. I clearly remember the demolition phase. It was lots of fun for a crow-bar wielding 10-year old, working alongside my older brother, Mark, "breakin stuff."
In 1984, there were no Blockbuster Videos or Hollywood Videos, and the VCR and movies on tape were relatively new technology.
So the "Video and Plant Station" was the first official business name I remember. We rented VCRS and a small selection of family oriented video tapes, and sold some house plants which came mainly from my Mom's collection at home. I remember how all the plants that used to populate every corner of our house, eventually moved to the empty spaces of our little gas station - making that place look very homey and welcoming.
The downside of renting valuable items became evident as the number of VCR machines and tapes being rented exceeded those being returned. The Plant Station side of things grew naturally while the videos dropped off after a couple of years. We did end up with a fantastic library of movies, though! My sister and I had our favorites, like Superman, and Starwars, and Raiders of The Lost Ark. It amazes me that we didn't wear them out as much as we watched them
Directly across the street from our little Video Plant Station was a big successful garden center called Wolfe Nursery, part of a nationwide chain.
One of my older brothers, Mark, has a knack for creative names and one day he suggested that our name should be "Little Red Riding Hood Nursery." Since the Big Bad Wolfe was across the street:)
Little Red Riding Hood Nursery became the new name.
I can remember watching Wolfe Nursery through our windows across the street with my Mother, always hoping for some of those cars to come to our side. They had 3 times as much space, a wider selection of merchandise, a big clientele, and a parking lot that was always full or filling.
People did trickle over to our side of the street, and Little Red Riding Hood grew successful over a 12 year period. My mom became known as one of the most knowledgeable nursery-women in town. And people shopped at her nursery because of the direct personal interaction that she provided, and the unique selection of plants available no where else. Each year she added new plant selections, improved signage, built new fixtures, and renovated our old filling station. It was the most lush and enjoyable
nursery experience in town.
I claim my small contributions to the success of that little nursery as well. I was a fast learner, a plant lover and an avid gardener, and I worked my tail off at mom's nursery helping customers and doing every job there was.
I worked there after school during the school year, spent summers there, sold Christmas trees in the winter, and life revolved around that nursery. Sometimes, during March, after the first shipments of bedding plants had arrived, my sister and I would wake up to frantic parents, bundling us up and hauling us down to the plant nursery at like 2 in the morning!
An unexpected freeze was cause for serious alarm, so we would often end up hauling hundreds of flats of bedding plants and packing them into every corner and space inside our little gas station. We never thought it could hold it all, but somehow we always made room for another tray of plants. Sometimes we got there too late, and I remember one such occasion when we got there a little too late. My mom was so upset, crying and trying not to show it, while directing traffic, and just beyond herself with frustration. She lost about $10,000 worth of bedding plants that night - it was a big loss, and we all knew it.
Nothing ever stopped Mom, though. She is a trooper, and her determination drove the success of that first nursery location. She saw to it that we out-performed Wolfe Nursery, and kept close tabs on every other nursery in town and within 300 miles.
As I recall, Wolfe Nursery filed for bankruptcy around year 2000. Their big store across the street became available for sale, and my parents, shrewd real-estate buyers they are, bought that property. Little Red Riding Hood Nursery ate the Big Bad Wolfe:)
Flashing forward to today, my sister, Anna, now runs Little Red Riding Hood Nursery with her husband, in the old Wolfe Nursery building. My mom has since developed another garden center called Mary Lee Gardens. It's a spectacular place - a masterpiece that is the culmination of all her experience and learning that began as a little Video and Plant Station on 34th Street.
And that original location on 34th Street, the old gas station - that has been the headquarters for Green Eggs & Hammocks and Global Hammocks Incorporated since September of 2004.
