Jeffrey Demott ’05 ’06MBA is the Director of Business Affairs for Redland Nursery, Inc, a family-owned and operated nursery located in Homestead, Florida. His main role is to keep up on the nursery’s books, making sure there are no surprise transactions. And because it is a family business, Jeffrey often finds himself pitching in with sales and marketing.
Transcript
>> My name is Jeffery Dumont and I'm a bookkeeper/nurseryman. For my dad it was always about the plants and the growing and everything. For me it's pretty much the business aspect. I love just anything business. We always -- my dad and I always joke, you know, it could be widgets and as long as I'm doing the bookkeeping, and the accounting, and the strategy and marketing, and all these other business aspects, you know, I would be happy. So whether its plants or, you know, something else it's pretty exciting for me. On a daily basis I'm really just looking at all these different companies' books making sure, you know, the accountings in line and, you know, there's no surprise transactions coming out of any of the accounts or anything. I might be working on sales for a new client's base or working on, you know, some different marketing avenues we can approach for the plant sales, and because of the different businesses we have a lot of different types of customers. Our largest portion of the business we sell to dealers and brokers who then turn around the plants to the big box stores; the Home Depot's, the Lowe's, you know, some up in Canada and everything and exporting. And then, you know, we have smaller businesses that are selling, you know, directly to the landscaper or homeowner or smaller retailer operations, and so, you know, I may work on one aspect of the business with that clientele in mine when another would be completely different. It's not very structured and I think that's directly because it is a family business. It's very flexible for me so that's, you know, one of the best things about being in a family business and being a part of that family is it can be flexible. As much flexibility as there is, you know, there's no clock in clock out. You know, you're on call and what happens to the business directly relates to you and your family. So, you know, you're pretty much on call at all hours and, you know, what needs to get done needs to get done.
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