Florist News

hi all...
i work from home and am a new business, the work i have at mo is in the form of weddings and funerals etc. but i have a problem with getting flowers for single bouquets as my supplier only sells wholesale and i dont have the need to have a continuous stock of flowers. hope i am making sense! i dont want to turn down bouquet work but need a cost effective way to get the flowers without too much waste....do you all have the same issue or is it just me? any suggestions welcome. thanx in advance!!!!!!!!!!

Hiya! I think you'll find that your local wholesaler is the smallest quantity you are going to get, other than supermarket, which I would not recommend!

It's a tough one for you working at home, but I guess it's swings and roundabouts; low overheads but less work. Less flowers needed, minimum quantities still too large.

__________________

Try Flower Experts - they are a flower club, prices slightly higher than wholesale but on certain stems they sell in lesser quantities e.g. wholesaler near me sells freesia in 50s but FE sell in 20s (I think) - had a look the other day. They are based in Scotland and courier out

__________________
www.treesfloraldesign.co.uk

thanx for replying so quickly...wouldnt buy from supermarket either jake, just not very professional ! will just continue to buy from wholesaler until i get going properly. had a loook at the web site tree thanx, and will consider them in the future.

When you say 'get going properly' what do you mean? Are you planning to open a shop? How exciting! Do tell!

__________________

hi jake...when i say "get going" i mean in terms of getting established properly and have more regular bouquet work or regular contract work so that i can buy to suit the orders i have. i am a very new business and currently have no plans to buy a shop although i do dream and will one day. by the way had a look at your pics....very nice well done!
kind regards
Angelcake.

Sounds like a good plan to me Angel, and thanks for the lovely comments, much appreciated!

__________________

It's going to be tough Angel but you will have to face the facts. You're not going to be able to buy retail quantities at wholesale prices. It just doesn't work like that in the real world. It's also the reason many businesses just don't get off the ground. You have to invest a lot of time and money for very little return (or even a loss) just to get established and hope that eventually you will be busy enough to start showing a profit. Effectively you will be buying for X and selling for X just to be able to put your name on it. When you're busy enough to be able to buy at wholesale quantities and wholesale prices, you may start to make money. Even then it's not alway plain sailing. I would always spend over a grand when i went to market but there where always times when some things where just too many for what i wanted and i knew i'd either throw them out or struggle to get rid of them. It's a case of 'win some, lose some' but you can only cope with that if you've got a consistent turnover. But don't let that put you off Angel, you can achieve anything if you really want it bad enough.

__________________

If you have to buy more than you need, have you thought of using surplus for advertising? Taking free arrangement into potential corporate clients???
Just a thought.
Good luck

Angel where abouts are you? Theres a place I know of that sells smaller quantities and the quality is wholesale (not price), it's Springtime Nursery in Crews Hill, Enfield, North London. When I done a small funeral I went there to get stuff for the spray offs, mine was personal for my aunt and not for business so the cost didn't worry me as no profit involved but the range of flowers and foliage is very good.

__________________