Happy New Year! As we step into 2018 and celebrate Goldleaf’s recent 1-year anniversary (this past November 28), we thought it would be a good time to sit down with Kyle and Monica and reflect on some of the highlights from our first year in business.
Q: What are some of your favorite memories from your first year in business?
Monica: My favorite memory of our first year would have to be our Grand Opening celebration in April. We had hundreds of people come out for the event and it was great to see such strong support from the community. The turnout continues to inspire us daily and to see those returning customers is very rewarding.
Kyle: My strongest memories from our first year revolve around our outreach efforts. Late Friday nights closing the shop and early Saturday mornings packing the truck full of plants for the Farmers’ Market. Being physically exhausted before sunrise and loving every minute of it. Meeting new friends, being recognized and sought after as the local plant experts.
Q: How has Goldleaf Hydro been received by the local community?
Monica: The community has been wonderful and received us with open arms. We decided to participate in the seasonal May-October Bloomington Farmers’ Market selling exotic plants and we loved it! Getting to talk about plants all morning every Saturday during the season is the best part of our job. Plant people are friendly people and we are passionate about answering their questions, improving their growing methods and fulfilling their curiosities.
Q: How are your short- and long-term goals shaping up after a year in business?
Monica: A major goal for Goldleaf this year is to get our YouTube channel going with easy-to-follow tutorials and step-by-step explanations on how to use our products. We are so excited to share our knowledge with other growers and hope that they utilize our videos to the max.
Q: Is anything different than you imagined when Goldleaf opened a year ago?
Monica: The abundance of new products we have brought in during the last few months has given the store a major facelift. As well as our new store displays featuring CMH lighting and larger reservoirs in our show room filled with exotic plants from East Africa. The plants, displays and variety of products allows for us to show each grower new possibilities they had never imagined before. Customers love our displays and show interest in replicating them at home. In fact, we’ve already had our first local indoor lighting installation, and our customers and their plants are much happier now.
Q: You’ve already hired another employee during your first year. To what do you attribute that growth?
Kyle: Our online growth has been phenomenal. With a very capable and creative team behind our website and online sales, we’ve been able to stay on top of marketing, new products, and strategies. We have a great conversion rate of customers that find us online and continue to order direct with us due to our personal customer service and lightning fast shipping rates. Fortunately, in this era of e-commerce, more and more customers are realizing the importance of having a personal sales rep that remembers your name, has legitimate gardening experience, and checks in on how things are working out since we last spoke.
Q: How have online sales impacted Goldleaf?
Monica: Our online sales have enabled us to grow on a retail level. We’ve accomplished so much more as a company due to our full spectrum service. Being competitive in the global market place really keeps us on our toes innovating.
Q: What have been the greatest challenges to getting Goldleaf off the ground?
Kyle: From a business perspective, we would advise all prospective entrepreneurs to beef up their bookkeeping and accounting skills! While we do spend a good portion of the day “just watering plants,” it takes a lot more than one realizes to actually run a business doing everything in-house that’s typically outsourced.
Q: What’s the next year hold for Goldleaf?
Monica: Growth. Expanding into new territories and demographics is always on our mind. It is easier to do so through our e-commerce involvement; we currently ship from east coast to west coast, Puerto Rico to Guam and are now offering shipping to Canada, Mexico, Europe and beyond.
Thanks for being a part of our continued growth here at Goldleaf! Be sure to check out our 2018 Class Schedule. Wherever you grow, may 2018 bring you bountiful harvests and flavorful fruits!
-Goldleaf Hydro
