Scott the fireman turns scott the flowerman

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scottthefireman

New Member
May 23, 2008
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San Clemente
State / Prov
CA
Greetgins all,
My wife,Steffani, and I purchased an established flower store in March of this year. We have had no previous floral experience my working full time as a teacher's aide and I a full time firefighter. I bought the store for two reasons, one, my 18 year old daughter has a passion for floral arranging and not much else and two, I'm getting ready to retire in around a year and wanted to work in an industry that always intriqued me. We have one full time designer who is wonderful and she is teaching my daughter and dauther-in-law the trade. I am doing all the books, PR etc. Long story short, this is a very tough business. I have completely revamped the store to give it a fresh look, we have changed old policies to reflect freaher flowers and yet we are barely making it. through our pos system i am able to track how the old owners did compared to what we are doing presently and we are down at lease 40%. Very discouraging. The old owner did have around four wire services and we eliminated all of them. This is partly the reason for the decline and another I believe is the economy. I would be interested in what other members feel about wire services. To me they were a pain the rear and wanted to dictate too much of our operateion. Sorry about all the spelling errors. My right arm is in a sling from shoulder surgery last monday. I love this sight and appreciate all the great suggestions
Scott
Owner of the Flower Company of San Clemente
and
marcrobertsphotography.com
Thank you
 
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Welcome to Flower Chat.
 
Welcome!
:)
 
Hi Scott, you sound like a lovely guy, what do you think you could offer to our community??
 
I cannot resist.

Scott this is the first time I have heard of someone jumping from the fire (your firefighting career) back into the frying pan (the flower business).

All the best to you and welcome to Flower Chat.

Doug
 
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Hi and welcome. We too dumped the WS and at first sales were poor but after putting up a good website with unique content that can be easily found, sales improved and continue to. In my opinion, you are smart to dump the WS, but in lieu of them you must have a kick-butt website with a decent selection of your own designs. Make it easy for people to find your website and shop on it and it will help a lot.
I think walk-in sales for florists are tough these days but we can clean up when it comes to delivering flowers in our neighborhoods and surrounding areas. Good luck!!!!
 
Scott

You are going to need a lot of help.

You probably should have a wire service. We have Teleflora, seems to be the wire service florists dislike the least. That's sad, because they should be and could be a great service to the industry. Hopefully they are moving that way.

You need a website, an absolute must. We have Media99, works great for us.

You need to do more than "keep the books", you need a floral accounting system. We have FAS which includes POS, but you say you have a POS. Does it integrate with your bookkeeping?

Don't expect the former owner's customers to stay with your shop. You are a brand new shop, you need new customers. The previous owner's customers are "old customers" but you are a "new florist". Customers may have stayed with the former owner out of loyalty, now he's gone and they can try out a different florist. Zippo, they are gone. Doesn't mean you can't get them back.

You said this is a "tough" business. I would say it is a "difficult" business. Tough work you can handle. Tough work makes you sleep well. Difficulties are a whole different challenge. Difficulties keep you awake.

Would like to help if I could. I am on central time, 608-755-7700 [email protected]
 
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Scott,

Welcome to FlowerChat. Feel free to call or email for some website advice.

You are ranked well on Google, but the TF site is offline. Make sure you call TF ASAP and get control of that domain name.

Cheers,

Ryan
 
Hey Scott Welcome!!

You will find a lot of lively conversations regarding WS's on FC. We all have our opinions and you are always welcome to voice yours.

I like many others, have gotten rid of all the WS's just this year, and we are realizing more sales and profits because of that decision.

You say you purchased in March this year, so you've only been at it for 6 months, that's not enough time to see what is going to happen with old customers, the shop etc.

You also, just happened to have taken over in the slowest time of year. Don't worry so much, it's too soon for that.

My suggestion is not to spend any extra money on frills etc. I understand you have a POS that came with the shop, that's great, but keep things simple until you build up a new clientele and convince the old customers that you will do a good job for them.

I find that local advertising (print) whether newspaper or yellow pages is a waste of money. As someone suggested get yourself a website. Make sure it is done by someone who knows this business. Once again I'm going to throw Clays' name out here. He is a fellow florist and FCer, with a shop in south Texas. Clay can help you with a site and he knows about independent images to use on that site.

You don't mention, size of town/city, number of other shops, etc.
Give a few more details, and you'll get lots of very sweet people offering help.

You know, I always tell new business owners don't look at your first year as any kind of measure for success. There are way too many variables.
In your case a learning curve, firefigher to florist is a leap. ;)

Will enjoy reading your post, many blessings!

Carolyn
 
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Welcome Scott... you are in for the ride of your life. :)

Doug... well done.

V
 
Welcome, Scott...

What type of POS system do you have...I am assuming it is independent seeing as you dumped all the wire services...

How are you wiring flowers???

There are alternatives to the big expensive wire services especially if you do limited amounts of wiring...

Ask away!!!
 
Evaluate everything you read. If it sounds easy, beware

roysecityfloristand gifts said:
Hey Scott Welcome!!

I like many others, have gotten rid of all the WS's just this year, and we are realizing more sales and profits because of that decision.

Carolyn
Click to expand...

I alway cringe a bit when florists imply that "as soon as they get rid of the wire services they realize more sales and profits."

I do not doubt Carolyn's comment, but I can say that with more than the average accounting knowledge, I don't see how one can feel or calculate immediate results.

Here is an example. I had a nice % net profit until I took a physical inventory and had to make some adjustments to Cost Of Sales and then 2/3rds of that net profit disappeared.

We keep a constant dollar amount in cut flower inventory and then all purchases of cut flowers goes directly to cost of sales. An additional dollar amount has to come out of hard goods inventory at the end of each month. That is quite simply, a gut level guess. Until a physical count is taken, the bottom line is just a guesstimate.

When wire sales are dropped, the % cost of payroll is going to go up unless some design, sales and delivery payroll is immediately cut. That's not an easy thing to do.

I was wire service free for over 5 years. None of those years were very profitable. Then I moved our store after 79 years in the same location and decided I needed to rejoin a wire service. And in the process, our % labor cost has gone down. More sales, less payroll %. That's good.

So all my commnet is meant to be is: Every florist operation is unique and what one florist says works but may not be a good deal for another shop.

EXAMPLE We heard wonderful things about the Boseon operation in Iowa, buying up mom and pop shops everywhere, even bought Amlings in the Chcago area, and today it appears they may be closed up. Some shops get big write ups in trade papers and it makes one wonder, "why can't I make that work?" In fact, it starts to feed an inferiority complex. Then a year or two later, the real truth comes out.

I've been interviewed a few times in my 60 years. And when I go back and read those old press stories, I sure sounded good. But it was not always that way. Maybe it's just that I am not a good businessman.

Evaluate everything. If it appears it will work for you, fine. Do it. BUT, if it doesn't work, don't blame the guy it apparantly worked for. The buck stops on each of our desks. You take the blame.

May I repeat it again. "If mountains were smooth, we could not climb them." Use the "rough spots" to improve your foot hold.

Hang on for a good ride. You will be learning a lot in a short period of time.
 
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Welcome from one firefighter's wife to the firefighter and his wife !!
 
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