Florist News

If you're interested I'd be happy to send you some heads up figures on IF new membership procedures and costs. I can also let you have the breakdowns on the margins you receive etc ...... something they don't cover much in the new members course which you will have to take. No bashing I promise! Just some info you can digest while you're making your decision. I have some spreadsheets which are really easy to understand. I can email them to you to have a look at them if you PM me your address.

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Your Colchester Florist for Flowers in Colchester

Thats interesting Treen.

When they tried to get me to join last year they gave me a figures sheet, stating approximate orders, costs, etc and final profit.


Wonder if yours are similar to what they gave me

Nothing about real profit in that little book! It does explain how the breakdowns are worked out but I personally didn't find it easy to understand....... may be just me but once I'd laid it out in a simple way I could see every time what I was getting for each product and what I needed to do to keep control of my margins.

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Your Colchester Florist for Flowers in Colchester

Oh, well this sheet the rep gave me showed me what was supposed to be the final profit after all costs per year and it said roughly 11,000.


Then as i went through it with a fine tooth comb, i noticed that they had put down staff costs as approx 2600.00

Who in their right mind would work full time for 2600.00 a year.....so actually if you worked it out in real terms you would have to use your 11k to pay the staff.

Needless to say, I didnt join. When i emailed the rep back and said the staff costs were unrealistic, she didnt even reply!!

The bottom line is you can make figures look however you like ...... it depends on how you interpret them.

The bottom line for us florists on the ground level is the scenario's shown in these two "would you?" posts. Would you do the blue and yellow spray for £23? I haven't accounted for any subs in that or any initial set up/membership costs ...... I know from experience they are simply eaten up in the profit/cut you make on an average amount of outgoing orders so I didn't take that out in that example.

The other scenario........ multiple orders ....... does allow for £2 subs on each order...... hence the horrendous margin in that example! Make and deliver 20 x vase arrangements in one week for a single shiny £50 note in your pocket ..... my time is far more precious than that!

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Your Colchester Florist for Flowers in Colchester

hi jen my opinion for what it may or may not be worth you decide!!
is that you will always work harder for yourself than anyone could ever work for you in saying this when you have something to lose you do everything possible to keep it? so go for this shop send out some flyers even send a couple of free bouquets or vase arrangements to prominet businesses and you WILL make a success of it. you have a lot of experience in the industry so put it all together and give the area something good to gossip about, take a risk its got to be worth it.
steve x

thanks for that,I really want to do it but again this week our dutchman was moaning about how florists aren't buying half what they were. .. I keep thinking I have the enthusium,experience in floristry and passion for my trade to make it work, but then I go to work and am surrounded by the words "recession,credit crunch,redundaccies " and it puts doubt in your mind. I am in Essex and I don't know if we are hit harder than other places but all the wholesalers are moaning and stressing...
AAAGGGHHHH!
also most of the shops in my area are owner ran and only a handful have staff...but they are all pretty old fashioned and buy from the wholesalers that in my experience sell absolute crap...
In my opinion if you send out flowers that arent perfect and arent going to last then the majority of people do not complain...they just don't use you again...
and this is partly what I believe my current boss is doing...along with being shockingly rude to people ...we've nicknamed our place "fawlty flowers "!
I have much higher standards in my products and customer relations...which makes me wanna go for it again....
See why I'm going round in circles !! xx

I think someone may have said this already but you need to be pretty pig headed and stubborn to do this job! We can all sit around whining about this recession or we can change our businesses to accomodate it. Its been covered at length in this months FWB mag. They also featured a really successful shop in Chelmsford thats not in a prime spot but does really well because they do something a bit different to everyone else.

I keep thinking I have the enthusium,experience in floristry and passion for my trade to make it work, but then I go to work and am surrounded by the words "recession,credit crunch,redundaccies "
AAAGGGHHHH!
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I've been on a steep learning curve last couple of years, like you I've been in the business a reasonable length of time and thought long and hard for years about buying a shop of my own. None I looked at seemed quite right for a variety of reasons and one or two people questioned my commitment and said I was 'just making excuses cos my heart obviously wasn't in it'.
In 2006 however the 'right' shop came along, despite being in a town with 2, now 3, other florist shops. We're doing ok there, nothing startling but building on what we started with and a full wedding book.
Like buses a second shop, this time unopposed, in my home town came available last summer and, although it has been a headache and extremely time consuming...6/7 day weeks and at least 2 out of 3 evenings paperwork, ordering etc....I love it! I've got 8 part time staff, most inherited with the businesses, all good at their jobs, cheerful, and flexible.
If its the 'right' shop go for it...if its not keep looking, dont give up on the idea because with that enthusiam and passion you will know when you've found the shop for you.
And if you can make it work in a recession, as I was told by my bank manager 'things can only get better'!

Very well said alby, I totally agree. It's all very well moaning and whinging but you do have to do something about it. It's survival of the fittest, you have to adapt and differentiate yourself.

In a weird sort of way I think it's a good thing, we need something to shake up the industry and get rid of the dead wood.