Garden Centre Town Hall Series 2024

February 7, 2024

Video replays:

The Financial Key to 2024

March 5, 2024
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
There has always been a rule of retail that the way you make more money occurs in three ways: increase sales, increase margins, decrease expenses. All three can work and we will look at each. But there is a fourth that we will introduce you to. Put forth an effort on all four and 2024 can be a great year for your garden centre. We will use a free online calculator that you can use to calculate what will happen in your garden centre.

Tom Shay is a savvy fourth-generation retailer whose expertise helps businesses. His family business was a general store, started in 1924. Tom began work at the bottom, learning lessons in management and ownership from the older generations. They filled Tom with knowledge and situations to help him understand the intricacies of financial understanding; the strategy of the business deciding the products and services to be offered; unique and non-traditional ways of marketing a business; and importantly, how to develop and build a great team of employees and co-workers.

Garden Trends Report - Eco Optimism

March 19, 2024
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Why should you care about trends? It’s simple. Trends drive consumers, and consumers drive sales. This year, the Landscape Ontario Garden Centre Town Hall Series is the place to learn about new trends, stay relevant, and make data-driven decisions to grow your business.

Join Katie Dubow, global trendspotter, president of Garden Media Group, and QVC guest host, in this informative session. Katie will outline the seven 2024 Garden Trends, including the colour of the year, and offer tips on how to apply each trend to your own business.

Garden trends are more important than ever to guide us in uncertain times and give us hope. When you’re ahead of the curve, your company becomes a trendsetter, and you become the go-to place for what’s new – whether you are a breeder, grower, or retailer.

Katie Dubow is president of Garden Media Group, a second-generation women-owned and run public relations firm specializing in the green industry. Author of the annual Garden Trends Report, Dubow presents the report worldwide – from Italy to Chicago. Dubow is also a guest host on QVC for Cottage Farms, judge at the Philadelphia Flower Show, the inaugural recipient of the Emergent Communicator Award from GardenComm, serving her third term on the board of the Pennsylvania Landscape and Nursery Association, and a member of the Forty Under 40 from Greenhouse Product News.

Financial Management

March 26, 2024
12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m.
In this session, George will cover how to set up an income statement and balance sheet, how to read financial statements and how to analyze cost of goods sold, labour, materials, equipment and subcontracting ratios, including gross profit and overhead as benchmarks for success. Finally we will look at technology to aid us in bookkeeping speed and accuracy.

As a co-founder and visionary leader of Oriole Landscaping Ltd. and Solid Space Construction, George Urvari has built some of Canada’s top design/build firms in the landscape/construction industry. For over three decades, he has led his companies to win numerous awards for excellence and innovation, including the highest honours in Ontario’s landscape industry: the Casey van Maris Award and the Dunington-Grubb Award. He is also a renowned consultant for the business trades industry, with over 15 years of experience working with hundreds of companies in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. He helps business owners streamline their operations, overcome common challenges, and achieve game-changing results using techniques such as the Eisenhower Matrix, Kaizen Philosophy, and First Principles. These are proven methods for prioritizing tasks, improving processes, and solving problems creatively. He believes that people, culture, and process are the key ingredients for creating amazing places of work.

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