Frankly Speaking Florally

On the Floor, On the Fly Management

2012-02-01T08:38:00.000-05:00

Over the past severalmonths I’ve been reading a lot articles about various Employee Management andReview processes. It’s quite commonduring this time of year because everyone is thinking of how to review theiremployees performance for the previous year and, if appropriate, how to rewardthem. Over the past 30+ years I’veworked for all types of Company’s, Large and Small, Public and Private, Productand Service based so I’ve been involved with various types of reviews. Which type of review you use depends on a lotof variables including how large the staff is and your industry. At our Company we’ve tried the written reviewprocess, noting strengths and areas for improvement, grading systems etc. but Ithink for a small company this is overkill and “worn out”.

I know the importance of documenting positiveand negative behavior of an employee, and we have a separate system for that,but a few years ago we changed how we review job performance. I like to call it “On the Floor, On the Fly”management. For the most part it’sexactly as it sounds – reviewing your staff each and everyday as you or yourmanager(s) interact with them. Don’tworry about doing this in an open environment, if you handle it properlyeveryone will benefit. At the end ofeach week our staff knows exactly where they stand concerning area’s that theyshould focus on to improve, as well as their successes. 99% of the time everything that we talk tothem about evolves around customer satisfaction. The greatest strength of this system is its timely;no one tells us “I wish you would have told me sooner”. Your customers deserve the best servicepossible and for that to happen your staff deserves the most constructive andtimely feedback possible. To accomplishthis I suggest trying “On the Floor, On the Fly” reviews, once you start notonly will your staff benefit but more importantly your customers will.

Kevin Vinicombe has over 25 years of management experience, first in Manufacturing and then assisting Georgianne at the flower shop. He has an MBA from Rider University with a concentration in Finance.

The Story Told of Cherie's Bouquet

2011-06-28T18:47:00.003-04:00

The Story Told of Cherie's Bouquet, a photo by Georgianne at Monday Morning Flowers on Flickr.

It's not all the time that we get to do wild and crazy things with flowers but boy did we ever get to do that with Cherie's flowers in May. Don't you just love the natural feel of her bouquet? Roses, berries, callas, arabicum, soft green hanging amaranthus, hydrangea, loops of curly willow vine and galax leaves all combine to be anything but boring! The brides maids carried simple cream hydrangea which looked so pretty against their soft, antique lavender dresses. The mens boutonieres were green hypericum with a double galax leaf treatment behind. The amazing and unusual - Grounds for Sculpture of Trenton was the setting for the ceremony. A wedding made in heaven if you ask me! To see more of this wedding check out the "Photos Sent By Our Brides" album on our Fan Page at www.facebook.com/localflorist or visit our wedding website at www.perfectweddingflowers.com

A special thanks to Reena Rose and Erin Hoyt for their amazing photography.

Society of American Florists Convention

2010-10-10T15:14:00.003-04:00

Society of American Florists
Originally uploaded by Georgianne at Monday Morning Flowers

It's been awhile since I've written a blog for Speaking Florally but it's not for lack of something to say! First off, I want to thank both Rick Canale and Mandy Majerik, AIFD for sharing the stage with me at the Orlando Conference last month. It was not only wonderful for me to pass on whatever tips I had about Social Networking for Florists but it was wonderful to learn from them as well.

Ok, which brings me to the point of this blog. What a wonderful time at the Conference I had. Kevin and I met so many amazing people and how inspiring they were! People that I have read about for years in the pages of floral magazines became real people to me. If you are in the floral industry and you are not a member of SAF, then you must become a member right away. I'm not going to twist your arm I'm going to let you find out for yourself. Visit their website at http://www.safnow.org/ to see the wealth of information available to it's members.

In their words: "SAF is the only national trade association that represents all segments of the U.S. floral industry. Our 15,000 members are the industry's top retailers, growers, wholesalers, importers, manufacturers, suppliers, educators, students and allied organizations. SAF is the face and voice of a strong, unified floral industry". If you think you can't afford to be a member, you are wrong. You can't afford not to be!!

Build a Spreadsheet by Georgianne

2010-09-03T11:09:00.000-04:00

Dreaded words - build a spreadsheet. Well, at least they are dreaded by me but certainly not my husband, he's a whiz at those. Thank goodness I dragged the guy into working with me full time because I don't know what I'd do without him. Ok, back to the dreaded spreadsheet comment.... Actually, I love spreadsheets. I have no idea how to build them but man, I don't think I could live without them and so the inspiration for this business blog.

What spreadsheets do I use and love? Well, the hubby has built me a spreadsheet that I use for ordering wedding flowers. I put in the items needed such as bouquets, corsages, centerpieces, etc along with how many of each are needed. I fill in the flowers to be used, determine how many go in each and magically I get a grand flower total. As long as my math is good on giving the bride the correct number of flowers to fit the budget and I order that many flowers, everything works out perfectly. When the time comes to create each piece, I hand off my handy dandy spreadsheet to the designer and everything works out like a dream. No shorting the bride or stuffing the piece with extra flowers all done with very little hand holding being needed. The designer has everything he or she needs to create the wedding designs correctly.

Another spread sheet he built for me is one that I use for ordering my flowers each week. It breaks my order down to flowers, fillers, roses and greens and adds it all up so that I can stick to my budget. I send a copy to my wholesaler, put a copy in our incoming products book so the staff know what's coming in and when and then I can put my feet up and relax (just kidding on that one).

Anyway, I'd be happy to share a spreadsheet or two if you shoot me an email to georgianne@mondayflowers.com but truthfully, if you have a person at your company that is pretty good with Excel, they are easy to make. Sometimes the hardest part is making the connection between what can be done and how it can make your job easier!

Incorporating a Little Kaizen by Kevin Vinicombe

2010-08-27T14:50:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I made a point of discussing our Toss/Work Loss percentage with our Design Team. Over the summer months I noticed that our percentages had been "creeping" up. Basically when those percentages go up it could mean that we are “stuffing“ the arrangements with unpaid for flowers, tossing out too many flowers (perhaps proper rotation methods are not being followed) or we are purchasing too much for our current sales volume. I was trying to find a different approach with the staff and started thinking back to similar situations in my pre-floral career. I remembered the "Kaizen" concept I learned back in college. Kaizen was a concept I had used many times before in my previous corporate life.

Loosely defined Kaizen is the Japanese word for "Improvement" or "Change for Better". It's an ongoing, continuous process that never stops and teaches us to always look for a better, more efficient way to conduct our business. The process of continuous improvement can be applied to all industry's, including the floral business. Lets face it, the floral industry is "a hybrid industry" comprised of Service, Manufacturing and Consultative all under one roof. Not a single day should go by without some kind of improvement being made somewhere in the company. Toyota is one of the leaders in the Kaizen process and among other things they promote:

Everyone's involvement in continuous improvement
All processes and areas of a company participating
A strong desire to eliminate waste at every step of the process
Small incremental improvements resulting in big results
Team work
Discipline
An open environment for staff suggestions

Each area of a flower shop should try to incorporate some Kaizen, as outlined above by Toyota, and make it on-going and continuous. After all, trying to do better each and every day results in a better product and service experience for our customer. Isn’t that the point of being in business - to serve the customer better? In our shop we are constantly measuring our performance against our previous best and trying to do better. We not only know what to do but now know what to call it! Kaizen!

Employee Incentives - Yes or No?

2010-08-16T12:44:00.000-04:00

Honestly, Kevin and I were very resistant to giving our design and sales staff incentives over the years but a recent visit to a floral conference had us rethink the concept. We thought - hey, they work for us, we are good to them, our employees should do whatever is in the best interest of the company, right? Well, human nature doesn't work that way.

Let's face it, as business owners, we have a big incentive each and every month to have our sales be as high as possible and our expenses and low as possible - it's called paying the bills. If you don't do what needs to be done, you can't pay your staff, yourself or your bills. Each month as owners we stare at that check book and know we need to get out there and sell effectively or die trying!

Sometimes even the best employees in the world could use a boost and why not reward them for their efforts, right? This past year we revisited the concept of incentives, first for our sales staff and then for our designers. For the sales staff, each week we give them certain items that we'd like to see them suggestive sell. It might be a dozen red roses (because maybe roses were a good price that week and are very plentiful) or even a box of chocolates. We mix up the incentives often to keep it fresh and fun and have weekly meetings to discuss our successes with each other. Our biggest success to date has been increasing our greeting card sales. We've increased the number of cards we've sold this year to 4 times as many for the same period last year! Wow, that's a lot right?

For the design staff we often have special rewards for using certain containers effectively. Three years ago we were so overloaded on seasonal containers from previous years that we started what was called the push cart. On this cart were seasonal containers from the previous years that really needed to get used and used quickly. Each container needed to be used in it's correct form (a vase when requested, for example) and at full retail value. For each container used the designer was paid a $1.00. Wow, the first fall and Christmas we effectively used over $3,000 of left over inventory and the designers were paid in excess of $300 for their efforts. Was it worth it? You betcha! Turning perfectly good product that might not otherwise be high on the designers list to design in allowed me to manage my purchasing budget better, not to mention really cleared out space! Their reward? Dollars in their pocket each week and money for new containers that I might not have otherwise been able to bring into the shop. Designers love new containers but now ours know you have to clean out the old before you are rewarded with the new. The end result for us, is that we have virtually no left over containers from holiday to holiday and season to season. Talk about turning your product.

Remember, your staff works hard for you and most likely their heart is in the right place. Having incentives is both fun and profitable for your business and you know what they say, you have to spend money to make money. If you haven't tried incentives, give them a thought. Questions about what we have done? Feel free to e-mail me at georgianne@mondayflowers.com and I'll be sure to e-mail you back quickly. Happy Selling!!

Who's the King? By Kevin Vinicombe

2010-07-14T17:13:00.000-04:00

It's an old business saying but so true - "Cash is King". As an accountant, my profession has all kinds of financial and accounting techniques that make adjustments to results of a company's operations. These adjustments can increase or decrease the profitability of a company "on paper". Don't misunderstand, the adjustments are necessary and most times required when preparing acceptable financial statements or tax returns. Nevertheless, when managing a business the true test of success is cash flow, measured monthly, quarterly and annually. At the end of the month, quarter and year do you have enough money to pay your bills? A company can appear to lose money because of non cash related transactions such as depreciation and amortization but still have positive cash flow and be viable and healthy.

I say "Cash is King" because it's the clearest and most definitive way of running a business but, the Retail Floral industry is unique when measuring and projecting cash flow. Holidays, deferred receivables/payables, wire service payments/receipts etc. make managing cash flow tricky. Because our industry experiences significant revenue fluctuations quarterly as well as monthly a successful shop needs to constantly control costs and overhead as well as maintain an adequate line of credit. The important part of managing your line of credit is to be certain that at the end of the year you've been able to payback whatever monies the company had drawn plus interest. This can be done if the company has positive cash flow. The only time a line of credit should increase from year to year is if it's used for a large purchase of equipment that you're paying over time

Positive or negative cash flow is a direct reflection of the profitability of the operation and most importantly the great "equalizer" of all accounting systems. - it is King! Any thoughts or questions, feel free to email me at kevin@mondayflowers.com. I'd love to hear from you!

Take A Picture and Post It!

2010-05-22T09:05:00.000-04:00

If your shop is anything like ours, it a very busy time right now, not to mention exciting. Wedding flowers every weekend, graduation, communion and anniversary parties galore! I love the month of May not only because is it good for business, it's usually good for company morale. I have found that when florists are busy, they are happy!!

We all work so hard and we love what we do, so why not document our wonderful business by taking some photos. I love taking pictures at the shop, especially when we are having fun. Take photos, post to your website, on flickr, on your Facebook Fan page, show the world what a great place you have. Show them the fantastic work you do. Let them know you are an independent business, family owned and operated. Make copies for your staff so they too. You'd be shocked at the response you'll get. I've had staff send them home to their parents. Why? Because it makes them proud. It's a way of showing their family what they do and they will always remember the good times they had working at your shop.

Shop to Shop

2010-05-15T08:54:00.001-04:00

A lot of talk is happening right now in our industry about wire services, order gathers and the general condition of the flower business. I have many opinions on where we were and where we are going but this blog really isn't about that. My main concern right now is being able to handle my customers outgoing flower orders.

Truth be told, this past Mother's Day holiday became a nightmare. I know for sure, that there were nice, hard working shops out there that really wanted us to fill their orders and we wanted them to fill ours. The problem? Order gathers and even FTD.com completely choked up our computer systems by sending us orders for product that we did not have, below our stated minimums with unrealistic timelines. Yikes, we had orders coming in quicker than we could see if we could even do them to the point that my FTD mercury machine ended up being suspended for a good part of the holiday (not to mention that my modem broke and FTD was not able to get me a new one until the Tuesday after the holiday). We found that with phone calls back and forth, we were able to get our out of town orders completed by reliable florists, and we found shops to take care of ours but come on, gang. Isn't that what our computer systems were supposed to do? When did it go from them being useful on a holiday to being completley worthless?? When did it become ok for them to slame us with literally 100's of orders and the penalize us if we are not able to fill them exactly as the recipe states. No shop could possibly carry every single flower and container that they want. When did we go from being floral designers, hand creating a product to being mass production machines that benefit large corporations?

Anyway, the point of this is that I am concerned that those of us truly local florists are all using a system that is supposed to allow us to send orders to each other but that system is being made useless. What are we going to do about it? Honestly, I have no idea. I have already talked to my Teleflora rep about how to block certain shop codes such as certain order gatherers but do I want to do that year round? Probably not. If anyone out there has an answer to this problem, I'd love to hear it.

Have Fun!

2010-04-29T14:27:00.001-04:00

hehehe, I laugh when I look at this picture because it's so typical of my two employees Sheryl and Melissa. Prompted by me to do something funny for the camera, they looked at each other and said "Let's skip" and off they went laughing and skipping.

Ok, so the point of the blog and what the heck does it have to do with owner or managing a flower shop? Well, we all know in this business that we work hard and most likely for fairly low pay. Why would anyone want to work at a flower shop? Well, maybe as small business owners we have flexibility to create fun work environments. We work daily with beautiful flowers, making people happy. Yes, we run businesses and we have to run them as such but who says that we can't have fun doing it, right? The whole point of this blog is to have fun. Let your employees have fun. Encourage them to be friends and to laugh together. Play music, dance, take funny pictures, dress up for Halloween or treat them for fast food after an event. I know my staff gets all silly when I take out the camera and are even more excited when I take a picture of them with their designs. Pay back your employees with a fun work environment and I guarantee you'll have more fun too. Life is too short not to have fun!!

Are You Corporate Friendly?

2010-04-16T18:22:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine that owns a flower shop in another state asked me how we get so many corporate orders. Of course, the topic had come up because of Professional Administratives Day (or Week as I like to refer to it) is next week. As I told her we already had quite a few orders and many of those were multiple arrangements going to the same business. Gosh, you have to love those, right?

Well for us, our corporate orders are a very large part of our client base and it's not easy task keeping them happy which got me to thinking about this blog. Are you a flower shop owner that would like to have more corporate orders? If so here are a few things I think you need to consider when going after that business.

Do you have convenient hours of operation? Many of the companies that order from our shop start calling us at 7 or 7:30 am. Wow, you wouldn't think they would but by 8 am for sure, our phones are ringing. Are you still operating with traditional retail hours? If so, you might be missing out on those early calls. Do you close at 5 pm? Again, you'd be shocked at how many calls we get at our shop after 5:30 pm. Some of our clients work long 12 hour days, just like we do. They often don't slow down long enough before 5 pm to contact us about their flower needs.
Are you willing to do early morning deliveries? For us, it's rare to not have an early delivery to a company. Because we do a good amount of balloon decor, often our corporate clients need their flowers and balloons by 7:30 am before the employees arrive for the day. I know most florists do whatever it takes to get a funeral or a wedding delivered on time, but what about those corporate deliveries and event sent ups?
Are you able to handle their billing needs. For example, we have quite a few accounts that need us to bill them in very specific ways and capture specific information when an order is placed with us. Some companies use cost center codes and have other ways of tracking and expensing our product. Do you have a point of sale that captures their orders? Do you invoice them quickly at the end of each month? Are you willing to wait for your money? Some of our best accounts can't turn out the check to us in the standard 30 days. It does not mean they won't pay but you may have to wait. What about companies that want to do direct deposits into your checking account? Do you know how to handle these clients? Does that make you feel uncomfortable? I can tell you for sure that my husband the accountant loves these clients. He looks each morning to see who deposited money into our account. Sweet - huh? No waiting for a check and running off to the bank. For sure, not every florist can handle those larger corporate invoicing needs but we do and so they order from us!
Are you able to handle all their needs? Sometimes they need things sent local, sometimes far away. Sometimes they need 100 gourmet baskets or 50 dish gardens. Sometimes they need 1,000 balloons for their picnic. Sometimes they need flowers for their lobby very early every Monday Morning. Can you do those things? If you can, corporate orders might be for you.

In general, corporate accounts are fantastic and I live and breath for them. Can they be demanding sometimes? Yes, but if you treat them right, they are loyal. Do you sometimes wait for your money? Yes but if it's a sound company, you'll get paid. All in all, they are worth the effort. They don't just fall in your lap. Wow their employees and you'll get more than the company business. You know, they get married and have personal lives too. Be in with their company and most likely you'll be the employees florist too!!

Tracking Your Toss

2010-04-12T12:00:00.000-04:00

Recently I was talking to another flower shop owner and I asked him if he tracked his toss. "Oh yes, I sure do" he replied. Being curious as I usually am (I know, it's such an annoying trait to those around me) I asked him how he did this. You see, the way we track toss at our shop is anything that gets thrown out gets recorded on a toss sheet tracker that we have created. Pretty much the drill is, if you can't use it and we paid for it, it gets recorded. So, of course, I was wondering if perhaps he had a better way to track his work loss then we did. When I pressed him further as to how he tracked it, he did not have an answer. Oh boy, that means he thinks he's tracking it but actually he wasn't. Not a good thing. Below is how we track it, what we do with the information and why it's important.

How do we track it?

Each designer has a toss bucket at their station. If the flower is not sellable (past it's prime, broken, whatever) it gets tossed in the bucket. By the way, we spot check the designers regularly. If they don't use the toss procedure, they are written up for it. The flip side is that we never get mad at the poor designer who ends up having to record lots of toss items as the coolers get cleaned out. Designers, by nature, want to use everything but if product is past it's prime, it should not be used and whoever is doing their job by reporting it, is not the person who is responsible for it going bad. It takes a whole design and management team to keep toss to minimum so DON'T shoot the messenger!!
Every now and then the designer takes their toss bucket and quickly adds the number of stems by variety on their toss sheet. These are forms that we have created that lists all the types of flowers in alphabetical order. It's easy to use and it's easy to read
The toss sheets make their way up to the office for recording into a spreadsheet by variety.

What do you do with the information?

The spreadsheet creates a listing of all the flowers that were tossed. It goes from the most tossed flower to the least tossed flower.
As the buyer, I use this information to tell me what adjustments to make to my buying. Are the designers tossing a lot of short stem roses? If so, perhaps I'm ordering too many, the wrong color or the quality is not good. The toss information allows me to know that there is a problem and then correct it.
Kevin takes this information and tracks it as a percentage of our purchases. In our industry you are always going to have work loss but you do want that loss to be as low as possible. Kevin actually posts not only the percentage of work loss but the total value of the work loss for our staff to see. As a rule, they know we want to keep it below 3% and thankfully, it's usually below 2%. Before tracking the toss this way, that was not always the case!

Why is the information important?

Tracking your toss helps you to buy better, rotate your product better (that could be a whole other blog), get your designers to be aware of the quality of their product and also reinforces the idea of flower rotation.
It also helps you keep your COGS in order. Tossing too much product and bad purchasing really affects your COGS. If you toss a certain flower too often, it's probably not a good product for your shop and you should stop or limit buying it.

We started tracking our toss last year and what a difference it's been to our company. For me, as the buyer, I realized that there were certain flowers that I was buying too many off and others that were so delicate and expensive, that we could never sell them quickly enough. It really helped me get my COGS back in line, leaving that money for being spent in a better way than just going into the garbage. As I'm fond of telling my staff, there can't be any new equipment or employee raises if we don't keep needless expenses down and throwing flowers in the garbage is pointless. In the long run, isn't it best to leaving the flower tossing to your brides??

To Do or Not To Do - That is the Question

2010-04-05T11:00:00.000-04:00

It's a Monday morning. I arrive to work early, about 7 am, like I usually do. I help with prepping flowers, getting the sales area organized, give some direction to the staff and then head up to the office to get my own work done and that gets me to thinking. Once I am able got get up to the office, I start by reviewing my To Do List. I look at what's been done, what needs to be done and add any items that I now know need to be done. I've tried putting my list on the computer but the truth is I love the act of writing it down on paper. It just makes it more real to me. And so, the inspiration for this blog!

I'm a big believer in To Do Lists. For me, they help me organize my thoughts and prioritizes my responsibilities. If you own a flower shop or any small business for that matter, you probably walk around feeling overwhelmed. Why? That's because as a small business owner it's easy to get sucked into the vortex of day to day operations and depending on the size of your business, you may or may not be able to break away to do all those things that need to get done, that can only get done by you!

Back to the do list. I love mine. I have it organized into three main categories. First is Marketing. I put that one on the top because advertising and marketing is a big part of my job and it needs to get done each day or the phones will not ring. Phones not ringing, very bad so I make that the most important thing on my To Do list each day.

For example, what is on my marketing to do list right now is to write a blog (Yay, I'm doing that now), create my Mother's day category for the website, look at a newspaper proposal sent to me to determine if I want to spend any of my ad dollars with them, work on creating my podcast and contact the person who was supposed to schedule with me to create my shop videos for Superpages but never called. A nice long list and all very worth while items that should be done soon. Next on my to do list is Weddings and Events. These are all the things I need to do for my brides and other events coming up. This includes reminders to type proposals, update proposals, order product for events, etc. Right now I owe proposals to Cristan, Kuang and Carolyn and I need to look into pink feathers for someone I am meeting with tomorrow. You get the idea but they are very important and all part of my responsibility. Next is Misc. This includes all the stuff I need to get done and that I'll forget to do without something to prompt me. Right now this category has on the list: Plan a grand reopening for our Yardley shop (we just relocated in February), plan employee meeting, put an ad on Craigs list for a new designer, redo the designer hard goods pricing books, review March's issue of Floral Management (I'm on the advisory committee) and down load floral pictures so that I can post them to my wedding website, Facebook, Twitter and Flickr accounts.

Wow, that's a lot to do! But this is where the to do list becomes my little life saver. Once it's in front of me, all organize by what type of task it is and broken into easy to digest pieces, it becomes more manageable. As I do each one, I can cross it off and get it off my list. As there are more crossed off items than ones to be done, I start all over with a new, neat to do list. It's perpetual and always changing, which is part of the fun of my job. If you don't currently organize yourself by using a to do list, I urge you to start one. To do or not to do - a To Do List - That is the question and I think the answer is yes.

Do any of you use to do list? Any tips you'd like to share? Feel free to comment!! Thanks for reading! Georgianne

What Do You Expect?

2010-03-22T16:09:00.000-04:00

What do you expect? It's a phrase we often hear but in business it's so important. Your customer expects to get what you promise them. Your employees expect you to pay them but what you expect from them? Have you made it clear what each employee must do for you in order to maintain their employment? If you are like me, I'll bet you have a hard time with that part of the management equation.

Last year Kevin and I hired a Consulting company to come in and analyze our business and remember, you don't do something like that unless you are hurting. Yes, the economy was making for challenging days at the shops but mostly we reached out to this consultant because we were having "employee" issues. We love our employees and they appear to love us but that does not mean that everything goes smoothly. We had employee procedures in place but we knew that they were not always following them. We had expectations but that they were not always being met. We had problems but we had no idea what to do about them, so hence the Consultant. The Consultant was blunt. I'm not going to lie, he actually made me cry. I can speak for myself when I say it's hard to have a complete stranger come into your life and point out your faults and that is what happened, but rightly so. Keep in mind, he met with most of my key employees and observed the operation. He dug in and really found out what was happening.

He told me that my employees liked me but they did respect me.
He told me that my employees knew that they would not be held accountable for performing their duties correctly nor in a timely fashion.
He told me that my staff were fully aware of the procedures that were in place. They not only agreed with having those procedures, they admitted that they had also helped to establish them.
He told me that I made clear to them what I needed and expected but that my follow through on making sure my expectations and needs were met were lacking.
He told me that I was mostly to blame for all of the above. I guess my degree in Management was not working for me. Ugh!!

Wow, talk about tough words to hear. Why did he blame me (and I will leave Kevin out of this because this is my blog, not his)? He said that although I had the procedures in place I allowed them to blame each other when something went wrong instead of being accountable themselves. Each admitted to following procedures only some of the time. He said they blushed and laughed it off, but the next minute were quick to blame their co-workers for not following procedures. It seemed when it was too much work for them, they chose the easy path, even if it made it harder on their coworkers. A vicious circle and apparently one the Consultant blamed me for. Why? Because I babied them. I made excuses for them when they cut corners, when they missed a deadline, I did not reinforce what was expected. I not only was not leading them, I was not managing them. We had an employee manual but I was not enforcing it. Hard to hear but he was correct and I needed to change.

Well, that was a year ago and have I made changes? I'd say that I have. It's funny how the employees that caused most of my issues have come and gone. It's funny how when made accountable for their actions and performance, some could not handle the stress. Do I feel bad about it? I guess in some ways but not in others. My motto for the last year has been "It's for the good of the customer" and truly it is. I don't want my staff to follow procedures just because it makes me happy. I want them to follow procedures so that we are able to provide the best customer service and product for our customers.

A financially healthy company makes for happy employees and happy customers. Without customers there would be no business. Without the business there would be no need for employees. No money for employees means no job for them. It sounds simple and you've heard it before but are your employees understanding it? Are they cooperating with your efforts to grow your business or are they in the way? Do they help you each day to make your company run smoothly or do they get in the way of it. You may like them but are they good for your company? Are they good for the other employees? I'm going to guess that you might have a problem employee or employees, as I did. What are you going to do about it? Are you going to take control, even if it means taking the blame?

If you want to move forward and finally get your business where it needs to be, you might have to change yourself first in order to get those around you change. Change is not always a bad thing and no one said that having employees is easy. Take it from me, I'm happier today than I was last year and I paid for the advise!!! For you, perhaps the advise is free??

Help Wanted

2010-03-09T19:18:00.000-05:00

The foundation of our Industry and our businesses should be obvious - the people! Machines don't design and deliver our products, people do. Recently my wife and I attended the Northeast Floral Conference allowing us the opportunity to meet so many wonderful and amazing people in the floral industry. The outstanding service that people provide truly separates the full service florist from the other Market Channels that sell flowers. That's easy to understand, the tough part is finding the right person for the position.

One of my previous careers, prior to joining the floral business full time, was Executive Recruiting. I spent 5 years recruiting and though each industry has it's own unique requirements and needs there are hiring commonalities that all share. Most business owners understand the importance of hiring people who are trustworthy, come to work on time, and have the ability to do the job. When you need to hire someone to "hit the ground running" there's no substitution for industry experience. Hiring experienced people accomplishes this but it does sometimes bring baggage. At our Company when we need experience we hire slowly and carefully with a thorough interview process. We've had some wonderful results. But over the past several years when we're not pressed for "immediate impact" we've begun purposefully hiring from outside the industry and getting very good results. The benefits from someone with a fresh point of view without any preconceived notions on how things have "always been done" is refreshing. It's amazing the amount of light someone without any prior experience can shine on your business. The real trick is to drop your guard for awhile and listen to what they have to say, you may be surprised. Another benefit from hiring outside the industry is that you can train the person in policy, procedure and techniques that serve your business best, without having to break any old habits. IE: "but that's the way we did it in my old shop". This idea takes time and patience, also the interview process is very different then interviewing an industry veteran who understands requirements during peak holiday work etc. Nevertheless, hiring from outside can work very well and the long term payback far outweighs the upfront cost.

When you need to hire someone that can bring value immediately to the shop there's no doubt you should hire experience. There are some amazing, seasoned people in our industry so we should never discount them. But when the situation is right consider giving someone from outside the industry a chance to prove themselves, the long term rewards could be surprising. People will always be the foundation of our industry, just be certain you have the right foundation to build on.

Make It About the Experience

2010-03-05T09:53:00.000-05:00

Everyone knows that making a purchase, no matter how big or small is partly about the experience. Yes, sometimes you shop because you have to but isn't it true that you shop where you have the best experience? Ok, I'm going to get on my Florist soap box and shout my usual mantra of floralisms. Hm, is that a word? It is unclear to me at the time but on with my rant....Flower Purchases are About the Floral Experience!!

As a Florist I understand that people may be coming into my shop for fresher flowers than they might find at the Supermarket. They may be coming to us for flowers for their wedding. They may be coming in to have flowers delivered to a friend but chances are, if they are coming into my flower shop to buy flowers they are here for the Floral Experience.

What, pray tell, is that? It's the wonderful experience that they should have of coming into a clean, organized, well stocked place of beauty. They are coming in for the selection, the freshness, the customer service and last but not least, the beautiful presentation of our product. They might be buying it for themselves or for a gift, either way, when they leave our shop, they should be carrying a thing of beauty. Yes, sometimes it's about convenience but sometimes it's about the experience and by golly, my staff and I are determined to play it up to the max!

If you are a florist, you should be doing the same. WOW them with the presentation, make your shop stand out from the Supermarket. Show them how florists are different. Make it about freshness, selection and presentation. As Florists, it's what we do best!!

Thank You, More Please!

2010-02-05T17:47:00.000-05:00

Have you ever noticed that when you say "Thank You", you seem to get more? Sometimes it's just a smile from a customer you just helped or perhaps it's waitress who is a bit more attentive to your order. You'll notice the more you say thank you, the more you receive. Appreciating what is given to you opens up the possibility to get more. Want more? Say thank you more often! Want more orders at your flower shop? Sure, we all do!

At our shop we've developed a pretty cool direct mail marketing campaign that works. If someone is a brand new customer and not found in our data base, right off the bat, they are assigned a customer number along with a record of their transaction. Once a week we run a report of the brand new customers. Each one gets a personal letter, signed by me as the owner, thanking them for being a new customer. Sent within a week of their order we include their customer number, information about our shop and a gift certificate good for $10 worth of product. When was the last time someone sent you a personal letter thanking you for being a customer? Did you think direct mail was dead? Think again, because we get a great response from these letters. Let's face it, our product is a bit of commodity and it's hard to stand out. Chances are people find you online, place their order but then forget your name. E-mail them later? Of course but the letter stands out. It sets you apart!

With us, the thank you does not end there. Each time someone reorders from our shop we send them a postcard. "Thank You"!! it says and gives them a $5.00 discount to use via the phone or online on their next floral purchase. These cute, affordable cards give us one of our best returns. Sent within a week of their purchase while the thank you from the grateful recipient is fresh in their mind. Flowers as a gift? It's easy and we are there to remind them of that fact.

Lastly, don't forget to instruct your sales staff to say thank you at the end of every transaction. I rememeber when we started a mystery shopping campaign with our staff. We were appauled at how few actually said thank you to the customer. Our staff are now trained to say "Thank you for ordering from us" or "Thank you so much for your order" and let me tell you, it's not easy to get them to say. It's funny how resistant we are to thank each other and it shouldn't be. We all want more. Why not make it "Thank You, More Please"!

P.S. This blog was inspired by a movie that Kevin and I saw at the Sundance Film Festival called Happythankyoumoreplease. When the audience asked Director Josh Radnor what inspired the name of the film (we had not yet seen it) he said that he was inspired by someone who told him once that with the simple words of thank you, a person could expect more abundance in their life. Simple: Say thank you and people give you more. Although I saw many movies that week, this one stuck with me. I hope you not only enjoy this blog but go see the movie!

Compete with Yourself

2009-11-28T08:13:00.000-05:00

We have two sayings we're fond of at Monday Morning Flower & Balloon Co. "Keep your eye on your competition but don't become obsessed with them" and "compete with yourself". The first saying is self explanatory but the second warrants further discussion. Competing with yourself can be pretty straight forward and help you develop a strong business model. Basically look at what you've done previously, both good and bad, and try to take corrective action if it's bad or repeat if it was good. This concept can be extended to most area's of your business including one of the toughest and most boring - Budgeting.

There are lots of articles and books written about budgeting even some great spreadsheet templates available. Nevertheless, if you use the "compete with yourself" concept it's much easier. Of course you need to know what you should target as a percentage of sales for the main expenses, Payroll, COGS etc. Once you know where you want to be you need to figure out where you are. Now that you know where you are you can decide how to make things better versus last years performance - your competing with yourself, pretty simple! Set realistic annual goals, but remember to compare your current performance to last years and adjust to make it better. Most Importantly be certain to look forward at least 60 days for corrections that you can control for Variable expenses and Revenues because the business landscape changes. Remember Budgeting should be a Dynamic process, constantly changing whats controllable in the near future. Budgets should not be static - it's not cast in concrete. Only fixed expenses (Rent, Property Taxes etc) are static and difficult to control.

For business owners who are new to formalized budgeting a great technique is called the "rolling 12 month" budget. To perform a rolling budget you need to forecast next years budget for the month that just ended, so you always have a rolling 12 month budget. For example when January ends for 20X1 use the actual numbers to forecast January 20X2, everything is fresh in your mind and it's the best time budget and forecast the future. This is a great way to get use to budgeting and learn to understand the ebbs and flows of your business. Remember compete with yourself and you'll always win -

Kevin Vinicombe

Business Partnerships and Bartering

2009-10-22T11:06:00.000-04:00

Let's face it, every thing costs money and to make money you have spend some. I recently read an article in Floral Management that really hit home with me. For anyone that may have read it, it's the one about the two guys from Bouquets who just won the Marketer of the Year award again. The part that really struck me was that they talked about the economy and how they had stepped up their advertising and marketing by spending more than they had in the past. We started doing the same thing about almost 2 years ago when the dreaded "R" word reared it's ugly head with a mention by Kevin at our 2008 "Employee Kick Off" meeting. How right he was and so happy am I that we also started spending more on our advertising. With that being said our sales have gone down but I agree with BJ Dyer who basically said he felt that sales would be even further off if he (and I) had not been proactive back then.

So, the point of this blog, is more than ever it's important to get your name out there, any way you can which brings me to the concept of Business Partnering and Barter. Every business has "business" friends and florists are no exception. There are services we need and services that we provide. Why not create partnerships with people who need what you have and can provide what you need? Barter is a great way for both parties to accomplish what they need to. For example, we provide flowers and balloons for our local double A Baseball Team and they provide us with a huge banner behind First Base all season. That's great exposure that might otherwise be too expensive for us. Bartering for advertising space is wonderful and most businesses that sell ads have some needs that require flowers. We currently barter ad space with at least 10 businesses and non profit organizations. It's a win for us and a win for them.

That takes me to Business Partnerships. This is what I consider your "friends" in business. These are the photographers that you see at your weddings. If you genuinely like their work, why not refer them and let them refer you. I currently have a huge network of businesses that compliment mine that I refer and they refer me. We even link to each other on our websites. Sometimes I provide them with flowers and they provide me with their product. An example might be a photographer that needs a floral display for their business trade show booth. I give them an arrangement and they print me some pictures from a wedding we worked on together. The key with this is to build a network of business people you like and trust. And remember, this works both ways. If they refer someone to you, their neck is on the line, just as your is when you refer a client to them.

Anyway, the point of this blog is that you need to get your name out there, anyway you can. Sometimes it's going to cost you and sometimes not. Now more than ever it's time to step up your advertising and marketing plan and when money is tight, consider barter and partnering. As Martha Stewart says "It's a Good Thing!!".

The Toughest Part of the Floral (Accounting) Business

2009-10-20T07:26:00.001-04:00

When we first started our company the administrative and accounting demands were pretty straight forward and easy. Heck, I have a background in accounting and finance and worked for company's large and small - how complicated could it be? Then came the Wire services and their monthly statements, wow was I wrong. Wire service accounting has to be the most bizarre area of floral accounting, everything else is pretty basic. It took a long time for me to get my arms around it, since we have multiple locations and 3 major services we represent it has a significant impact on our financial reporting.

If you want to get serious about accounting for wire services, or direct you accountant to get serious, there are two people in our industry that have this area down cold; Paul Goodman and Kevin Murray. These guys can cross every T and dot every I with the best of them and I've "picked up" some great ideas from both over the years. Search them out and pass their information to your accountant and they'll know where to put the numbers.

With that said, the point of my little blog is to remind you (if haven't fallen asleep yet) to be certain to do more with your monthly wire statements then just pass the information to your accountant. Don't just write a check, or cash the check, and dump the transaction into some "catch all" account in your checkbook or QuickBooks statement. Wire service statements provide you with an incredible amount of information to analyze and to help determine how truly profitable your company is. There are different accounting methods (cash versus accrual etc.) but, no matter what type of system you have for your shop you must analyze the expenses that flow through the statements. To name a few; computer expenses, membership dues, purchases (major area of concern for understating Cost of Goods Sold), advertising, answering services, clearing house fees ( by the way, I consider this as a commission), credit card processing plus other expenses that have to be "uncovered" in the statement. How much do spend monthly, quarterly and annually on membership fees with your wire service(s), do you know, do you have the information readily available? Sometimes these items are referred to as "fees" but the bottom line is that they are expenses because they reduce the bottom line.

I'm not saying these expenses are not necessary, important or beneficial to your shop. Expense is not a dirty word, it's still true that it takes money to make money. Most of the time these items are valuable and help bring business in, but you won't know how valuable unless you look at and understand them. It goes beyond "Accounting" for the numbers and knowing where to put them in your financial statements. Serious business people analyze and understand the numbers. If a shop owner doesn't take into account the dollars spent with a wire service, just like any other advertising method, they'll understate their true annual advertising costs and affect future budgeting and planning. (Budgeting that's another great topic for a blog - maybe next time, too tired right now.) Please remember the expenses on the wire statements are real, affect your cash, and are most likely valuable and necessary to operate a profitable flower shop - but you'll never know unless you capture and analyze the information. Happy Accounting!

Kevin J. Vinicombe

5 Steps to Raise Your Sales Quickly - Step 1

2009-10-18T11:10:00.001-04:00

The economy is bad. This we know. Flowers are not a necessity. This we know. Flowers are an easy and afordable gift. This we know. Why not play to our strengths and forget about what we can't control? I believe that the concepts below really do play to what our strengths are as florists. We deliver hand crafted, customized gifts fast.

Ok, so the flat out skinny is that some of these things will cost you some money and some are free but these are my bare bone, quick fixes that I believe pay back in immediate sales as soon as you impliment them. Here's the first step in my five step process.

#1 - Your Website!!

This one is a freebee if you already have a website. If you have a website hosted by any of the wire services, go ahead and make those sites as custom as you can but at a bare minimum, you must change your website homepage at least every week if not more often. I believe that the web hosters do a great job but with a tiny, itty bitty bit of work (and I mean the smallest bit you can imagine - once you learn how), you can make your homepage stand out among the crowds.

First off, you decide what to put on your homepage. What types of arrangements do your customers like? What is a nice mix of price points to show what you offer. This way when someone goes to your shops website, it does not look like the hundreds of other sites hosted by the same webmaster. I like to change mine every couple of days but sometimes I don't have the time. Either way, its no big deal but if you get into the habit of noticing trends or what you have lots of in the shop, it's a great way to not only make your site look fresh but also help you sell what you want to sell, not your webmaster. I usually walk around the shop and see what I have plenty of, then I go in search of arrangements that nicely showcase that product. For example, I had lots of white hybrid lilies and alstroemeria so I highlighted arrangements that showcased these flowers. It helped me move the flowers right on thru the shop, which is what the website is supposed to do!

Second, change the wording. Say something that makes you stand out. For example, on my website, I often mention that we are open and delivering 7 days a week. No one elses site, hosted by Teleflora, says that. I sometimes change the color or the font size so that each time someone visits the site, they see something fresh and different.

If you are not sure about how to make changes on your site feel free to contact me at georgianne@mondayflowers.com or contact your webmaster directly. Remember, your webmaster does not make money unless your site gets you orders. The more orders you have, the more they make. It's not as hard as you may think to make them on your own or get them to help you. Stand out, make your site shine! Step 2 in a few days so check back!

2009-09-26T11:02:00.000-04:00

You can't read a business publication without them telling you how important it is to join in on the "Social Networking" craze. I mut admit, that both Facebook and Myspace are still a bit of mystery to me! And Twitter, now that one is really challenging but I keep plugging away!

What Im' really enjoying about these sites is hooking up with other florists from around the world. It's fun to look at the pictures of their creations, especially wedding designs. In this business it's important to constantly be learning new things not to mention being up on the latest trends! Sometimes after a hard day I may post something that only another florist can relate to. It's so reassuring to have them respond, especially when they post kind words about our work.

For those of you out there, doing the whole "Social Networking" thing, look me up on the following sites. I'd love to be your Cyber Floral Friend!

http://www.myspace.com/mondaymorningflowers
http://www.twitter.com/mondayflowers
http://www.facebook.com/MondayMorningFlowerandBalloonco
http://mondayflowers.myplaxo.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mondaymorningflowers

When is Enough Enough?

2009-09-26T10:26:00.000-04:00

If you are reading this blog, which happens to be my first, you may already know that together with my wife Georgianne, I own Monday Morning Flower and Balloon Co. Over the years she and I have done a fairly good job at "dividing" up the company responsibilities and staying out of each others way. She's the President and manages the creative side along with the marketing but because of my background in Accounting and Finance I get to handle what is commonly called "back office" functions such as technology and most other non-creative areas. I get to play General Manager.

Now, I've been told that because of previous jobs and things I've learned along the way working in manufacturing and finance, our company has some very thorough financial reporting and benchmarking systems for a flower shop our size! This brings me to the question, when is enough enough? A few months ago we were having a discussion on the company's performance and Georgianne pointed out that she thought I was spending more and more time in the office analyzing our results. After thinking about this for a few moments I quickly agreed. I had become the victim of one of the things I dislike most about Accounting and Finance - Analysis Paralysis. I realized that I was spending way too much time studying the same numbers that weren't even changing. We have great reporting systems - we already know what's happening financially and operationally on a daily basis. Nevertheless, during a time of Economic downturn I was getting caught up in the numbers and managing the company less. Needless to say, this stopped pretty quickly and back into the operation and sales areas I went. What difference this made for me and the business.

My point is that when things get tough for your business, the best place to be is working the floor with your employees and listening to the customer - better yet, serving the customer. Someone told me a long time ago, without exceptional service there would be no customers, without customers there would be no sales, and without sales there will be nothing to account for!! Bottom line - service the customer and the numbers eventually will take care of them selves.