Make a Career in Wholesale Nursery Management
To make a success of wholesale nursery management you'll need to build relationships with suppliers, growers, distributors, and customers. You'll also need to stay up to date with market trends and adapt to seasonality. This course will enable you to:
- Be more flexible in changing circumstances.
- Develop business skills and knowledge.
- Improve your marketing skills - determine market demand and suitable strategies.
- Build strong industry relationships.
- Learn how to enforce quality control measures.
- Understand logistics.
- Develop your leadership skills.
- Boost your horticultural knowledge.
Learn form industry professionals.
Become skilled in the wholesale nursery industry
- A comprehensive course for a better career or business.
- Learn both plant production and business management in the same course.
- Develop a foundation to choose and grow plants that are valuable; and market them effectively.
Modules
Note that each module in the ADVANCED CERTIFICATE IN WHOLESALE NURSERY -APPLIED MANAGEMENT VBS001 is a short course in its own right, and may be studied separately.
Starting a New Nursery
New nurseries, like many other small businesses, often fail because they have not been properly planned. Nurseries can be started with minimal cash investment, but the size of the operation must be geared to the amount of cash invested. If the initial investment is small, then the nursery should be small and grow slowly. Even if a sizeable investment is made initially, it is wise to retain up to one-third of the cash available to carry the business for the first couple of years. Nursery profits can fluctuate greatly from year to year. If the first year is a bad season because of pests, diseases, bad weather or poor sales, then a reserve of cash is necessary to carry the nursery through to the second year.
A new nursery manager is often limited by a lack of skills, poor knowledge of the market, and small reserves of money available to develop the operation. As mentioned in lesson one, it is possible to start a profitable part-time nursery in the backyard. This type of operation will provide a supplement to a normal income and, at the same time, allow you to learn from your experiences. A serious business venture is a different proposition where learning from mistakes is not an option.
Also, as mentioned in lesson one, the correct choice of plants is important and is influenced by location and demand. Furthermore, new nursery operators should avoid growing the more difficult plants and adhere to standardised packaging
The "Mission Statement"
Any well managed business should have a clearly defined purpose. A mission statement is produced by writing down this ‘clearly defined purpose’. The mission statement then provides a point of reference for managing the business.
If the aim is to make money, management decisions should be made to optimise making money. If the aim is to build an asset, then management decisions should be made to optimise building an asset. If the aim is primarily to produce quality plants while remaining financially viable, then the management decisions should reflect that aim.
Quality Control
The best way to control any nursery business is to develop written procedures and follow them. However, nothing should be set in stone. Strategies and procedures will need to retain some degree of flexibility in order to allow change as the situation and demands change in a nursery.
What Plants to Deal with?
One of the most important decisions for new nursery managers is what type of plants should be stocked.
The first decision is whether to specialise or not. A nursery can specialise in terms of the plant species grown, or in terms of the size of plants grown. Some nurseries grow a wide variety of plants but only in the one size container, or perhaps only in the open ground (where they are dug up and balled or potted before selling). Other nurseries might concentrate on one particular group of plants such as herbs or natives, but they might grow and sell those plants in a variety of sizes and containers. Some growers choose to be even more specific, selling only one genus of plants, such as fuchsias, geraniums or carnations.
There is a very real danger in choosing what to grow on a whim or a fancy. It is not a good business decision to specialise in something just because that is what you like! Just because you like a particular type of plant doesn't mean that many others will, or if there are several people who have the same attitude and make the same decision in the same locality, then supply of that type of plant is likely to exceed demand.
Developing a stock list should be an ongoing task. Plant varieties should be added to and removed from your stock list continually. The numbers grown or stocked should also be added to and reduced regularly. Each year, an annual assessment should be made of what has sold, what has not sold, and what has been requested or ordered.
Someone new to the industry may need to experiment to find their niche. Remember 'in-fashion' plants that you read about in magazines and see everywhere are sometimes being grown or sold by every other new nurseryman, so there might be a lot of competition. It is also important to remember that many of the newer varieties being widely sold are protected by plant breeders’ rights so it is illegal to sell them unless you have an agreement/license with the owner of the rights to do so.
Who Should Study This Course?
This course is aimed at different people including:
- Anyone looking to start, or work at a higher level in, a wholesale nursery business.
- Managers
- Supervisors
- Foremen
- Assistant managers
- Propagators
- Wholesale nursery staff
- Entrepreneurs
- Market gardeners
- Urban farmers
Enrol today and begin your journey into wholesale nursery excellence.
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