HortyGirl is a horticultural design company that offers everyday and seasonal distinctive and elegant plant decor for the indoors. 35 years ago, Cheryl and her husband bought some property in Langley, British Columbia and she began gardening. Although she wasn’t in the horticulture industry at this point, this wasn’t the first time she had picked up a shovel and dug through soil.

“I was influenced in the garden area from both my grandmothers and my father. I would always rather be outside working in the garden with my dad than inside doing anything at all,” says Cheryl.

The irony that she now owns a successful company that is focused on the “indoors” and indoor décor is not lost on Cheryl. “HortyGirl is about bringing the best of the outdoors in,” she says with a laugh and a smile, “Being surrounded by beautiful plants rejuvenates and inspires us,” she adds.

Back to her home property; whenever Cheryl wasn’t working, she was gardening. Cheryl recalls it became apparent early on that “Everything we planted in the yard got eaten by rabbits, so it’s like oh okay, we’ve got to change this game.”

Out of necessity, she began putting her plants in pots and containers and found that those little plants that would have normally gotten lost in her garden, actually stood out much more in a pot. Cheryl also loved how the colours in her plants and flowers picked up on the colours in the pots and in doing so created something unique and beautiful. That’s how she became an avid container gardener and pretty soon she was surrounded by 50 plants in containers all around her home.

When Cheryl’s office manager job of 20 years at a car dealership began “sucking her soul” she decided to quit and grow in another direction. She visualized herself semi-retiring and working in a garden centre for the next phase of her life. And then she saw a sign – literally. While reading through a local paper, she saw that Kwantlen Polytechnic University was starting a Horticulture program and knew it was what she wanted to do.

In that program, her marketing teacher told her she had amazing ideas and the industry needed her. Upon graduating at the age of 40, Cheryl had arrived in the horticulture industry, exactly where she needed to be. However, working for other people, and trying to infuse new ideas and thinking; was like trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

Cheryl decided, with the amazing support of her husband, to jump in and take the risks herself.  This was the start of her entrepreneurial journey. She kicked off her start up in their garage, surrounded by her husband’s tools and her step-daughter’s furniture and using a mechanic’s workbench, Cheryl began creating her own potted plant designs to sell to floral outlets.  Cheryl’s father kindly pitched in a few hours a day, and a recently retired friend also lent his hands.  The family cat, Koner, kept Cheryl company into the wee hours as she worked alone to finish orders for delivery the next day.  Cheryl recalls how she often talked to Koner saying “if only you had opposable thumbs. Koner would plant himself between me and the product I was making and I learned to work with long arms.”

Cheryl owes a big thank you to her first ever buyer, Christine, who was then working in the Floral Dept of a high end Vancouver grocer.  Many of the original and unique HG concepts were inspired through this relationship.

Sometime later, Cheryl took a big leap of faith and invited the buyer from ‘The Bay’ to her hotel in Toronto during a gift show.  The buyer loved her products and put them into local BC Bay stores; then eventually introduced her to the buyer at Home Outfitters; who put HortyGirl in all of the Mainland stores. The product performed very well and very soon the Home Outfitter buyers insisted that she expand to their 64 stores across Canada, all the way to Ontario. For the first time ever, Cheryl was shipping outside of her local region.  “It was a really crazy time.  We were then working out of a 1,400 sq ft new garage space with real employees. HortyGirl had squeezed out the normal things you would find in a garage and replaced that space with pallets of glass, plants, boxes, and people (some of which are still part of the HG team). We soon after shipped a large order to a US retail grocer and had to learn all the ins and outs of exporting.  From the start it has always been about stretching yourself and inspiring others to follow you.  We’ve now grown into a tight knit team working out of a commercial facility; shipping truckloads across Canada and the US servicing large and small grocery retail outlets.”

“You really can’t predict how big it’s going to get and how quickly,” says Cheryl.  After the waiting, the buyers, the tradeshows, eventually, Cheryl reached 1 million dollars in sales – one of the most satisfying moments in her business. This was another catalyst for her. She had wanted to be in this business and now she knew she belonged here. When creating something from scratch, “there’s going to be self doubt, but you have to be super brave and move forward anyway.”

It wasn’t easy. The early growth spurts of her business were scary and intimidating, but Cheryl felt the fear and did it anyway. “What’s the worst that could happen?”, another question she often asks of herself, the business and her team.

You’re supposed to have bumps in the road, she explains. You’re supposed to launch your business before it’s ready and figure out what worked and what didn’t work and then relaunch again and again, she says, referring to one of her favourite books: The Art of The Start by Guy Kawasaki. “What was so important for me is that he said if your first launch goes smoothly, you’ve waited too long,” That’s why Cheryl wants to inspire people to feel the fear and do it anyway.

When she is asked about legacy Cheryl pauses and reflects. She thinks about the 89-year-old living in a care home, who has mobility issues calling the HortyGirl office to get advice on how best to keep her plant alive because it means so much to her. She thinks about the employees who tell her HortyGirl is the best place they’ve ever worked. She thinks about how she asks for help when she is unfamiliar with something and the relationships she’s cultivated as a result of that.

As HortyGirl founder, how Cheryl leads her employees with their personal development is to encourage them to stretch themselves and to make decisions without her, and to support them with a flexible benefit plan that allows them to invest in their own well being. How she separates all of the hats she wears as a leader to ensure she can lead to the best of her ability; all make up the different pieces of that legacy.

“When you talk about what my ideals are, it’s being in a positive environment while doing purposeful work, and believing in yourself ” Cheryl says. “If I inspired one person to believe in themselves more, that feels satisfying enough,”

The post Cheryl Dawn Smith – HortyGirl Founder & CEO appeared first on Horty Girl.

As a loyal and supportive retailer of Horty Girl, IGA Thunderbird is always stacked with Horty Girl products, offering a great selection to all of our loyal fans and new followers.  On February 24, 2011 Cheryl (Horty Girl’s owner) sat down with the owner (Charlie) of the Thunderbird Marketplace IGA Langley location and his managers in an attempt to capture what makes this store such a great place for customers to visit and shop.

The store, located on B101-20159 88th Avenue, Langley, BC, has been open for the past 4 years.  Owned and operated by Charlie Lee, this store offers its customers a comfortable and relaxing atmosphere where they can get all their shopping needs met.  The store even showcases the latest game or sporting event on their big screen televisions for the added convenience to its shoppers.  Charlie’s managers, Dan (Produce) and Mary (Floral) along with their co-workers, ensure their departments meet customer and store standards day in and day out.  Dan reports that presentation is an all day every day priority for his product department.  This Langley store has a great selection of products, offering a little bit of everything and include a wide range of organic items.  The staff believes that they offer great quality products at fair prices.

Charlie and his family has operated several Langley locations for many years, including a store front in Fort Langley, and they have always believed in supporting community efforts.  In fact, many of the products are ordered from local suppliers, carrying as much local product as possible.  The in-store manager’s specials are also a means of passing on greater supplier’s deals to customers, and keeping everything fresh.

A real example of Thunderbird IGA giving back to the community is their telephone and internet ordering system for sensiors and those unable to travel.  The delivery is offered free of charge to people who are unable to shop for their groceries personally.  Local volunteers, supported by the store, come in on Thursdays and Fridays to take phone orders and also do the personal shopping for each customer’s order.  Orders placed by noon on these two days will be delivered the same day.  If it isn’t Charlie delivering these orders personally in the company Cruiser, it will be Lloyd.  Lloyd is a 77 year old gentleman, who is loved by all who meet him.

Here’s what Charlie and his managers had to say about their store and its staff members:

“I feel blessed to have this store and all its employees”
“We have a good team (working at IGA), working in a good (positive) environment”
“Lloyd…our regular delivery man…remains a valuble asset to the company and the community”
“Service is in our blood…we are here to serve the community”

IGA 87 – Thunderbird is open from 7am till 12am everyday.  For more information on store location, services and to find other locations near you, please check out http://www.marketplaceiga.com/grocery-stores/langley-87.aspx

Horty Girl would like to thank Charlie, Dan and Mary and their store team, for allowing Horty Girl to get to know our customer better, and for their extremely amazing support of our products over the past 3 years.  We wish you much continued success!!

The post Horty Girl’s Feature on IGA Langley (Thunderbird) appeared first on Horty Girl.