Florist News

I think we have located a shop premises( fingers crossed) vacant in the next few months, will miss the peak time but looking for the future, it will also give us time to source things.
Need advice: Which is best, buy or rent cash registers
How do you get a chip and pin machine on a new business? what is the general cost we have looked at streamline but seems more for established business.
What proceedure is required for a licence to sell Champagne.
Do insurance companys have a complete package for retail
shops.
Lots of questions hope you can give me some answers

Hi Planter,
Sounds like really good news for you.
Tell us more about your new shop.
These are purely academic questions that may help others in the same situation as yourself.
What factors made you decide it was a good opportunity.
Is it or has it been trading as a florist.
Is it high street, secondary location.
Is there a lot of footfall, traffic
Are there many other shops nearby and if so what type of shops.
Is there free parking nearby for customers
Does it have a forecourt for display or are you unable to display goods outside
Does it have rear access for loading/unloading or do you have to find somewhere to park and carry stuff
Do you have free parking for your own vehicles
Will you be tied to a long lease and is there a 'break clause'
Is the rent reasonable for the area/shop size
Does it have sufficient work/makeup area
Does it have a cold room/chiller or room to install one if needed.
Is it in good repair or do you have to redecorate/refurbish.
How close is your nearest competition in terms of a florist shop or market
How close is the nearest supermarket selling flowers
Would you describe the shop as small,medium,large.
Are you taking over any stock, tools, materials etc or will you be starting from scratch.

That's probably enough questions for now but there are loads more.

Cash registers...definitely BUY. They are not that expensive.
Have you got a business account with a bank yet.
Check out;
http://www.british-shops.co.uk/
they have an arrangement with HSBC and offer very attractive rates for card processing. It more than compensates for the annual membership when you start processing a lot of cards.
You should be talking to your bank..like now..about things like card processing.
Champagne...talk to your local council. The laws were about to change when I enquired last year so was advised to wait. I don't know what the position is now but they will advise you.
Insurance..plenty on offer. We use Churchills for everything and have found them to be very good.

Hi Planter
Excellant pointers anyone out there hoping to open business will find both questions and answers useful.
Rach

Hi planter,

We joined the FSB it cost us £130 for the year but it will only be £100 nxt year. We got the streamline machine supplied for free, 3 months free and also get it for £15.00 per month after that instead of £20.00 because we are with the FSB. We also got a voucher for £100 to use on internet costs i.e. to use on web site, internet etc. Also if you have the FSB you can bank with them and its free banking for life not just the first 12 months like other banks offer you. Hope this helps and good luck with what you do.

Thanks for your replies
Hi fly2hi, blimey I had to print the question out to remember it really good
OK Looked at various options and decided we needed an area that was not too expensive to rent and has a good chance of sustaining a business. We have some available funds so we want to be able to run in a budget without borrowing and to have a bit of a buffer when we hit stormy water.
It is a victorian shop, which we have been told was a florist many years past,
it is trading as a beauty salon at present, they are buying property further along the road because they are combining accomodation.
It is on a main street in the village where we live, a busy road for vehicles not footfall, so that will have it's downside
There are all types of shops, small convenience stores, wedding outlet, pubs,
postoffice,butchers, news agents, charity shops, chip shop etc. Theres also a Mill conversion being completed into apartments, plus a new housing estate,the village hass very old mixed with new properties. Last of all the village cemetery
Theres free parking opposite, and side streets, also a pub next door but two
so hoping to befriend the Landlord for use of his carpark.
There is a small glass victorian canopy over the shop front wich is ideal for a small outside display.
It has a side entrance which the landlady says has always been closed, so would be looking to open that.
Van PUB
Three year lease with option to extend.
Rent is £85-00 a week, so daughters had better get their fingers out
My daughter says she will be OK need to re-install a downstairs sink which has been removed.
Could chill upstairs I suppose, but it has quite a steep stair case.Layout has got to be really thought out.
Some small changes and painting signs etc but nothing major and the owner seems very relaxed as long as we communicate first.
Small florist shops 2 miles away Asda 4miles
Shop size is smallish good area upstairs.
Start from scratch (scary)

Stelorac
Thanks for info definately going to look into that ,the web site states you can pay money into the account via the post office that would be great.

Hope this comes off

Now we're getting somewhere.
I used to think that being very close to a supermarket was not a bad thing as you had lots of people about. These days people tend to do their supermarket shop first and if they've bought frozen stuff, jump straight into the car and drive home with it. So being a bit removed from that and in a locale where people tend to do some shopping (a good butcher is a good sign) you stand a better chance. Your mix of shops looks good.

With reference to the canopy/outside displays, some councils won't let you put stuff outside on the footpath (in case someone injures themselves by tripping over a pot mum and suing the pants off them), so unless you have a dedicated forecourt area which is described in your lease, it's worth checking out.
It's also worth looking at the orientation of your shop front. Does it get the sun streaming into the window at all. If it does, you will have problems with anything in the window or outside during the summer. The canopy won't help at all, it will only keep the rain off.

Think about offering to do an arrangement in the pub on a weekly basis in exchange for a parking space in the pubs car park. Put your business cards next to it. You can get these done quite cheaply online at Vistaprint. They don't have to be best quality, you just want to be able to afford to give them away en masse. You can always have some better quality cards done for your regulars or to send out with orders.

I would think carefully about using upstairs for a chiller or any flower storage. As you say the staircase is steep this will not only be a pain in the ass but probably a health and safety issue as regards carrying boxes etc upstairs. Ok for dry stock, oasis etc that you don't have to access every ten minutes. Also think about security here, If you're going to be working the shop single handed at any time and you need to go upstairs, you need some sort of buzzer on the door or ideally webcam linked to upstairs. I have an infra red detector above the front door that tells me every time someone comes in or out. I just disabale it if i'm in the shop all the time as it can get quite annoying, but it's great if you're working out back.

Also opening up the side door can be an issue as this is the most likely route for no-gooders. Need to double bolt this and leave via front door.

If your cemetery is within walking distance..great. Remember to stock things like henly vases and the aluminium inserts that always get nicked.

Replacing the sink...think about the size and what you will be using it for. You need to clean buckets and things. You need to soak oasis (how about a 5' cross!)
If you have a water heater that can run cold with a flexible arm it can be useful for soaking frames.

I expect you've already thought about a lot of this stuff already so please don't take this as being condescending at all. I just like to ramble on sometimes.

Have you started work on a list of all the materials, tools, dry stock you may need, or are you going to cross bridges as you come to them? May be of interest to others to see just how many different items you end up needing at some stage and a rough idea of just how much it costs to equip a shop? I'm sure others will add items to your list if you've made a start.

Would you like some different ideas thrown at you for your 'grand opening' in order to achieve maximum impact?

Hi fly2hi, thanks for being interested in our project, every bit of help will be appreciated
We sat down last night and talked about various things and made some lists,
We don't want to get our hopes up until we have signed on the dotted line, but my daughter says if not this one Mum there will be another, so thats really encouraging for us.
We are going to Birmingham SFE on Sunday, looking forward to getting ideas and contacts.
We are going to list items, brainstorm as the youngsters call it, so we will post as things progress.

Hi Planter you will enjoy SFE Birmingham be sure to take camera and spare film/batteries you will get good ideas and a lot of contacts good books can be found on Society of Floristry and Liz & Claire Cowling are usually there as well as florist trade, teleflora, floragram, interflora you should be able to get small brochures from all but I know you can buy a teleflora design book which is good for ideas of designs also wonderful ideas and designs when the competition room opens usually around 2pm on the Sunday. Hope everything goes well for you I will watch with interest and fingers crossed you can sign up soon. Have a good day at Birmingham hope it gives you inspiration.
Rach