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Tending business basics

This interior plantscaper moves from part-time job to company owner

Back in 1977, when Jim Mumford, CLP, was 19 years old and attending college in San Diego, he needed a part-time job to help fund his education. He responded to an ad to run a downtown plant stand. Three months later, the stand’s owner sold his small business to Mumford and the young apprentice’s father for $3,500. Today, that investment has grown into a $1.5 million interior plantscaping company, Good Earth Plant & Flower Co., Inc.

Along the way, the owner has learned a few tricks of the trade. When asked to define his path to success, he says it is “developing an understanding for the business side of the business and plain old perseverance.”

It didn’t take long for the young entrepreneur’s company to grow. He hired his first employee a year after being in business, and two years later, his father made him sole owner by selling back his half of the business. “At the time, I had become acquainted with several area business owners and was helping them arrange and maintain their interior plants, at no charge,” Mumford recalls. “I didn’t even know that I could get paid for doing this until the interior plantscaper at a nearby bank told me you could. He helped me bid my first job, which I didn’t get, but I persevered and eventually started to shift my business focus from selling plants to maintaining them.”

Later, when the organizer for a Joan Rivers concert asked Mumford to rent a few plants for the event, he obliged, even taking plants from his home to make up for what he lacked in inventory. When Rivers wanted to give a couple of plants away to her fans, Mumford went backstage between shows and explained to the star that some of the plants had been in his family for years and they weren’t for sale. The move endeared him to the show promoter, who then vowed to use Mumford’s rental ser vice for other coming events.

Decade of change

By the end of the decade, Good Earth Plant & Flower Co. owned two flower shops (the plant stand disappeared), continued to rent plants for concerts and other events, and was growing an interior plantscaping business with commercial clients.

“I enjoyed all three businesses, but it was a challenge to find individuals who were multitalented enough to manage a small flower shop while I focused on plants,” Mumford relates. “I realized I couldn’t be good at all aspects of the business, so I sold the flower shops and concentrated on maintaining and renting interior plants.”

In 1993, he leased a 16,000-square-foot lot and ran his operation from there until purchasing it 10 years later. Today, three small buildings occupy the space, with enough room left over for parking and plant storage.

Thinking back, Mumford says he was never a math wizard, but he learned relatively quickly a formula for a successful business. “It’s not how much you sell, but how much you keep and how long it takes you to collect your earnings, that counts,” he emphasizes. As the owner points out, this is a layperson’s way of describing profit and cash flow, something he learned from accountants who could speak his language. Since then, he has learned their vernacular and now enjoys the business side of maintaining plants, paying attention to trend lines, and embracing technology, all important for staying ahead in a very competitive marketplace.

One of the biggest challenges today for his industry, he adds, is getting a fair price for services rendered, and that means constantly educating customers about the value of retaining true professionals. “I don’t spend a lot of time trying to convince business owners to bring plants into their workplace,” he says. “I leave that up to PLANET’s Plants at Work initiative, which I wholeheartedly support. Instead, I find myself encouraging customers who already appreciate the value of both live and replica plants to take advantage of our professional services.”

Business mix

Good Earth Plant & Flower Co. offers interior plantscaping services primarily to class “A” office clients, and it still keeps its toe in the rental business, working a few big events each year. The company also installs and maintains exterior container plants for patios, rooftops, entranceways, common areas, and outdoor seating areas, again for its commercial customers. Some of the clients are what Mumford refers to as “blended accounts,” those that have a mix of replica and live plant material.

“We’re looking at a new niche or two,” relates Mumford, “but aggressive growth is not in our crystal ball for the near term. Instead, we’re concentrating more on efficiencies and systems than expanding our operation. Our focus is to have better systems in place, eliminate go-backs, and maintain a flat organizational structure.”

Part of Mumford’s future plans calls for finding ways to give more back to his community. One such plan calls for establishing a nonprofit organization to get used plant material into hospices, hospitals, retirement homes, and other places that otherwise could not afford, but would benefit greatly from, interior plants. The owner also is actively involved with local business people to link environmental concerns with urban planning. Says Mumford, “I think any of us in the green industry can enhance the direction of our communities’ growth. Helping to make cities and towns more environmentally friendly is good for our industry and good for residents.”

After nearly 30 years in business, the owner of Good Earth Plant & Flower Co. looks back with few regrets about decisions he has made. “Oh, sure, I could have done a few things differently,” he admits. “I could have hired this person or that, or I could have forged ahead with the flower shops. But all in all, I’m pretty satisfied with where we are.” And, as Mumford explained earlier, the real measure of success is whether you’re doing what you truly want to do. When asked that question, his answer is a resounding “yes.”