Video Transcript: >> [Music] I had this job and I was working really, really, really hard. I was very conscientious and it was an opportunity for a promotion. My name is Teresa Carleo and I own Plant Fantasies. And my boss gave the promotion to somebody else. She brought in somebody from outside instead of considering me for the job. So I got pissed and we had a fight and she fired me and then I was faced with what am I going to do. You know I thought maybe I would start cooking. So my husband said, do you want to stand over boiling pots of water all day in a kitchen and I said no. And I, you know I just made the decision. I just went for it. [ Music ] I hung out my shingle, I worked out of my apartment which was traumatic for seven years about. So I didn't really have to worry about paying rent, and I think that's really an important part of the puzzle in terms of making a decision to go out on my own. I had one account for $100 a month. The decision to start the business was exciting. The determination to stay with the business was excruciating. [ Music ] My niche really is owners and developers in the real estate industry. So Donald Trump is one of our clients. Each account is different. Like 15 Central Park West, they want it spectacular at every moment, so they don't want my guys to go to the building and see a dead bush and then come back to me and say Theresa, the boxwood's dead and then for me to write a requisition to get a purchase order. So he gives me a budget and he says Theresa, make this place look gorgeous, okay? I don't want to see anything dead here. I don't want any lag time. Another building might be different. Right now we're working at John Jay College. There's a landscape architect who's done a design and we're implementing their design which is very challenging actually. In some ways it's much easier when we are the landscape designers because we're picking the plant material, we have a sense of what we want to do that we might feel comfortable with. We have faith in our design. We have faith in our choices. When you're working with a landscape architect, they could come up with something that we don't even really agree with necessarily. But if we want the business we kind of, we might sometimes say, hey we don't think this plant will do well in this zone; I've had that happen multiple times. But often they don't really, they don't really want to hear that. You know the landscape architect has his own vision and it's our job to carry it out. Do you feel that this needs yellow in it for the Crown Building? I'm worried it's like too-- >> I don't think so. >> You don't think so? >> Not for this [inaudible] no. >> You don't think it would-- >> What would you use? Orchids? >> I would, I'm thinking just like maybe some yellow in here. In terms of really listening and being sensitive and insightful to who your customers are, okay? And I like am really like crazy about losing accounts. I think I still have every account almost that I started out with 24 years ago, and I feel like I do that because I really try to get into what they want and discover it and like get into their mindset. Because it's not about me, it's really about them. Like at the Corinthian, this one, I know this account for a really long time, so I know what they like. I know they like red as an example. So I'll plant red tulips as opposed to yellow tulips. And then there are times when I have to think for them. For instance, they have tropical plants in their lobby that they've had for many, many years and they started to look really tired to me. And we maintain those trees for them, those plants for them. And like a year ago I said, you know what guys, let's take these out and put in all new trees. It's kind of my role as a business owner to give suggestions and ideas to them. They're looking to me for that. They don't know about plants and flowers. They might just know they like the color red. I like some structure. I don't, for instance, I don't like to just do a job and not let somebody know what it's going to cost. That makes me very uncomfortable. So I do like some structure but you know in terms of design and creativity, I'm very, very confident in my company and the people that work here and we, you know, we all Powwow and talk about stuff. So I like the creative freedom. I think we really do know better than most of our clients would know what's going to look good in their places. So a little bit of structure is good. Running a small business it's like, you know at one point I'm like opening every piece of mail, I'm dealing with every phone call that comes in, dealing with all the sales, all the design, all the flowers. You know I'm not doing them but I'm kind of overseeing them. It's a lot. It's a lot. You know and then all the field work and the maintenance and is the shrub cut straight or is it cut crooked? Did you pull out the weeds or did you pull out the flowers? You know there's so many kind of problems and little issues, minutiae in a business like this, and you know it's not like we're making screwdrivers and they come out of a mold and they go in a box and they, you know, it's all detail. So more and more as I've, I'm trying to grow the company, I'm trying to get my team to be more independent of me and cut the umbilical cord and have them be more taking care of stuff. Like I don't want to know every single thing. You know I don't feel I need to know every single thing. I want them to take care of it, but I want them to take care of it the way I would take care of it myself. And that's hard because not everybody's the same.

Teresa says that the decision to start Plant Fantasies was exciting. The decision to stay in business was

a.intuitive.

b.excruciating.

c.even more exciting.

d.exhilarating.

Question Content Area

Teresa claims she allows her employees to make their own decisions about what is needed to maintain their Central Park West account. This means Teresa's employees are

a.programmed.

b.empowered.

c.intuitive.

d.diverse.

How does Teresa feel about working with an outside landscape designer for a project with John Jay College?

a.She finds it difficult because she prefers making her own decisions.

b.She refuses to be involved personally.

c.She likes the collaborative relationship.

d.She enjoys the freedom from decision making.

Question Content Area

Teresa brought in new tropical plants to replace the older, "tired" plants at the Corinthian. She said she did it because

a.the client demanded it.

b.hotel guests complained.

c.sometimes she has to think for the customer.

d.her employees suggested it.