Florist News

Thought I'd throw my two-penneth in too!

My tutor was an assessor and my colleague did level 2 NVQ. She said it was hard going and the bosses didn't like paying for pieces that had to be made and assessed but would never be bought.

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yes jake i agree with that also, and, for eg massing would have to be done correctly and to criteria and we all know that in a shop this would not be profitable (i am sure things have to be done three times as well??). As a shop owner i would not welcome someone telling me what flowers had to be used etc it could get very expensive.

why would it not be profitable if you made them correctly? Surely if you have costed your designs out properly there should be no problem.

I had a trainee that done her training through (Lantra?) or something like that, anyway I didnt find that I incurred that much extra expense, I think i would have lost more if she was going to college and taking the flowers out of the shop. It was fairly flexible about when you made the pieces, and found that when I had an order for a piece that she also needed to be assessed on then she done it and took pics then i checked it and made comments, the assesor didnt have to be there, they came round occasionally to check she was progressing okay. The only piece that was a bit of a pain was the victorian posy, which you wouldnt sell and cant really do much with afterwards. thumbs down to victorian posies

as i have mentioned nuemerous times getting a bit bored of it. business first florist second. i riboon edge up to the edge and then fil. my sprays are lovely but i am realistic. shops can take up to 20 thousand pound to run a year and while it would be very lovely to do everything the college way it simply is not viable and when you want money in the pot these are the things that matter. There is no point in being sanctamonious about designs as the customers are perfectly happy and if you can provide them something with three to four rows of doubles instead of four to five then in my opin you are thinking commercially!!
Thats what costing things RIGHT is all about

Apple
You can ask for a llist of all items that need to be made. Then go through them and say which arent able to be made in your shop. i.e the Victorian posy. This is the most common one, or silk items. Then the college/training provider can arrange for them to be made there instead. Obviously as much as possible is to be made in the workplace but sometimes this isnt feasible.
I dont recall my shops being unprofitable making things correctly. We had a reputation for quality.

as do i kathryn i was merely pointing out that when i was at college we had to use tons of doubles which i would not use in the shop. I dont particularly like the inference that if you do not do it the college way with that many flowers then you are somehow offering a lower quality of service. I i costed them out at this rate then i am afraid i would have no business.