Imagine telling your boss she's in desperate need of a makeover. Now imagine doing so on television.

That's exactly the venue Head Designer Kate Daley chose to inform Colleen Oncay that she needs to update and organize her business, Mendon Greenhouse & Floral.

"The boss needs help figuring out who we are, what the customers want, how to make a business plan and setting goals," Daley wrote to the producers of MSNBC's "Your Business." When the cable show announced it was taking submissions for a business to remodel, Daley looked around the 13-year old greenhouse and florist operation in Mendon, Mass., and saw the perfect candidate.

Colleen Oncay, owner of Mendon Greenhouse & Floral in Mendon, Mass. takes JJ Ramberg (far right), host of MSNBC's "Your Business" and Simon Sinek, business consultant/Columbia University lecturer, on a tour of her business.

She wasted no time in nominating Oncay, but plenty of time in letting her boss know what was going on behind the scenes.

In fact, it was the producers, worried about a potentially "not made for TV" reaction from the winner, who asked Daley to clue in her boss. Still, she only let a few details slip. So, although Oncay knew her shop was a finalist, she had no idea it had actually been selected until she showed up for work May 20 and was put on camera. Daley had made sure her boss thought a wedding consultation was on the books that day and therefore would be "dressed up" for it, Oncay explains. (The producers originally wanted to film on Mother's Day — a date that would have almost guaranteed a less-than-pretty picture.)
 
During the on-camera, five-minute segment, which aired Sunday, June 22, Daley explained her motivation.  "There's just so much potential — we can do so much, we just need to get organized," she said.

Oncay welcomed the attention. She felt "very supported and very excited," she told E-Brief editors.

During the segment, host JJ Ramberg had Oncay take her, the camera crew and business consultant/lecturer for Columbia University, Simon Sinek, on a tour of the greenhouse. One look at the variety of inventory — flowers, fish and horse feed, etc., and Ramberg cut to the chase, "Do you feel an identity crisis because of all the things you're selling?" Oncay admitted having trouble narrowing the focus, a fuzziness that makes a simple task, like updating the sign out front, nearly impossible. "How can we fit everything we have on a sign?" she explained to Ramberg.

Sinek's on-air advice: Focus on what makes the greenhouse "a unique experience; a giving experience." He also suggested putting certain products out to pasture, such as the horse feed, and some office organization for Oncay. 

"You need to work on your business," Sinek said during the tour. "This all looks like you're working in your business." 

Oncay's homework was to think about how to reorganize her business around its new "giving" identity. Already revved up about the reinvention, Oncay has an added incentive to complete her assignment: the return of the show's producers.

She's already had one follow-up visit from the camera crew. Sunday's broadcast included an interview with Oncay and Daley, which was taped last week in a studio in Newton, Mass. Although many changes are still in the planning stages, the restructuring is a work in progress. The advice offered by the show has definitely given the small business a boost of confidence.

"We're redoing our logo, but at least now we feel more comfortable going forward," Oncay admits.

They've already gotten some positive feedback from customers. "They got a big chuckle out of it," Daley says. "One customer thought it was great we were trying to make improvements."

You don't need to win a makeover to score some advice on updating your look or finding your identity; members can head over to the Sales and Business Tools section of SAF'S Web site.

--Morgan Schimminger
mschimminger@safnow.org

 

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