Florist News

Yes flowerfairy I do agree I also make fasinators/headdresses started of doing one for a friend and now do two or three a week last week I had 7 for one wedding mostly feathers wire and beads very cheap to make and good mark up there is not a feather duster in town I have them in every colour and they cost 99p a lot of feathers but back to mothers day our local paper has offered us a free write up they are sorting the wording etc it is a competition and we donate a bouquet for the winner so it is worth approaching them maybe you can get a freebe

Well,I'm not an ignorant dane,I think, but this I don't know When is your Mothers day?
In Denmark its the second sunday of may.Usually at the same time as the confirmations is performed.Then we are busy But that's of course a good thing.I'm not moaning (Too much )

hello nepanthes, the u.k mothers day is 18th march this year not long now!!

Hello All,

This is a really interesting subject, we hate it when our brides chose to go elsewhere, anyone who works from home is a complete amateur and deserves to fail and, as for the staff, we chain them to a tap in the corner, beat them regularly and then they go and betray us by setting up their own businesses....how dare they???!!!!!

I love this site, it's wonderful to be able to have a rant!!! Here goes.

Wedding deposits.

Anyone who is stupid enough to charge a customer £20 deposit deserves to lose the business. When a client comes to you they need to know that you are a comitted professional. £20 doesn't cut it!! When a bride books a venue, caterer, photographer etc, they have to pay sizeable deposits, so why not to us.....we charge 50%!!!! We have a consultation, at which we tell the client about the deposit. We do the quote and when the client is happy we take the money; it shows that we are comitted to them and they to us. They'll think twice about going elsewhere once they've parted with hundreds of pounds!!!

Working from Home.

We wouldn't have our business if we hadn't started working from home. We started in a garage until we could afford a studio. We made the most of what we had until we could take the next step. We used our mobiles, arranged consultations in smart venues and made our website our shop window. We were all beginners once with the belief that we deserved a chance....don't knock it

Staff

A large part of my training involved work experience, I loved and hated it. I got the experience I needed, but I was treated like a servant. On the 13th of February 1991 I was relogated to a garage full of flowers with a tap in one corner and told to get conditioning!!! I worked my socks off as well as the skin on my hands where my scissors rubbed!

However.......I have had to work with trainees who never had a hope in hells chance of EVER being florists, including one who refused to sweep the floor because she was doing NVQ level 3 and that wasn't what she was learning to do!!!! Taking on anyone is never easy, but you can lessen the pain by taking precautions. Make them work a trial day, get them to do test pieces and treat them with respect, not like a doormat. The old addage "you pay peanuts, you get monkeys" may not be fashionable but it does ring true.

I'll even lick the floor clean HEHE and be chained to the sink all day, I'll do anything to have the experience.

Still trying

Lovely website by the way

Belinda

Thank you Sharon.

Thats exactly what I would have wanted to say, but I'm not very good at putting what I need to in words. Jobs are few and far between, I'm certainly finding that out at the moment after trying for several months to get work experience.

I have 3 children and no desire to have a shop in the near future as I couldn't take on so much, however I wouldn't want to rule out starting up from home at some point, only because it would fit in to family life, as you still have school holidays to think about even when they are all at school, but I realise there is alot I need to learn as yet.

Belinda

hi ian i did look into working from home as congleton is such a small town i was just lucky that i got a job with someone wanting to retire but its the smallest flowershop you've ever seen but i make it work it is as it sounds a shed we have 5 florists in town i don't know how we surive between us all but they are all still there

I dont think we will ever get over this problem. There is always going to be someone who will do it cheaper whether its a student who have just completed an evening course or joe bloggs down the street. At the end of the day they will get what they pay for and if they are not happy they will come to us next time and hopefully stay.

well we dont usually knock others who are just starting up but.....

yes we also used to work from home and we do understand other people doing the same, but what do you do when someone starts up from home in your area and cold calls your clients who have already booked weddings by you and say.. " i can offer you a better deal"
this has happened to us!!!!

in a way if the client wants to go someone who has less experience and who wont give the quality service that they will get by us then it is their problem.. but it hurts just the same!

I am just starting on the ladder to be a professional florist and am not sure where it will take me, but unfortunately like some others can't afford to chuck in my part time job to start form scratch and may well start off at home to begin with. God I'm almost afraid to admit that!!! But it doesn't mean that I want to undercut anyone else or do a crappy job. I wanted to learn properly and get a recognised qualification but up until now the recommended college only took part time students already in the business or full time that could afford to start from scratch neither of which applied to me. I am at the moment trying to come to some arrangement with the course head and am keeping everything crossed that I get on. So spare a thought for those who were too stupid to recognise what they really wanted to do at 18yrs and who are now trying to get there at a more shall we say mature age!