Florist Celebrate Christmas

Sorry I have not written on this Florist Blog in a while but my flower shops have been very busy with Thanksgiving Centerpieces and Christmas Flowers. Thanksgiving is the beginning of the busy season for florist so as many of you know this is the time spend more time working in the flower shop and less time on-line. However, Christmas is over and like all florist our flower shops are very slow between Christmas and New Years. Instead of Christmas bonuses we give our florist paid vacation during this time. This time off is very appreciated by the staff and gives the florist lots of rest before Valentines Day. I have so much to write: I (Mitch Stein) was in the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angles Business Journal and did a few other interviews. I will be posting the articles up this week as well as some information about http://www.findmylocalflorist.com Thank you and I hope all of your flower shops did well during this holiday season.

CNBC Florist Advertising on TV

In the previous blog I talked about our interview with CNBC and today the interview has been posted on YOUTUBE.com. You can see both interviews that aired that day in our flower shop by going to the links below. I am very proud of our florist staff and flower designers, the flower shop looked great and all the florist did a great job. For more information about www.spotrunner.com you can go to their website www.spotrunner.com

The interview shown on CNBC's Power Lunch can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9vjr8WXsZY

The interview shown on CNBC'S On the Money can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWNeyfrCpxM

Florist on CNBC

I have not written in a while and that is mostly due to the fact that I have been working on www.Spotrunner.com, However, on Monday I got a call from CNBC and was asked if I could do an interview regarding www.Spotrunner.com, . As many of you may remember from previous post spotrunner.com is the company the company I use to advertise my flower shops on TV in the local area. This company is growing fast and CNBC wanted to do an a piece on how the system worked and how cheap it was. The camera crew came to the flower shop and taped the crew working, helping customers, and my florist arranging flowers. They also filled our wholesale florist arriving and carrying in our new shipment of flowers. The interview was filled in our shop and I was very happy with the outcome. Being a florist and not newscaster I was very nervous but you couldn't tell when the piece aired. I will try to up load to complete interview when I get it so those that are interested can watch it. Until then I hope all the florist had a great Halloween I know that November is a slow sales month for many florist but Christmas is coming and Valentines Day is just around the corner.

Florist Sell Gift Baskets To Increase Profit.

I have talked about selling gift baskets in the flower store before and I want to stress how great this has been for my flower shops and other flower shops I have talked too. We get many of our Gift Baskets from a company called http://www.toddswholesale.com They offer great pre-made spa gift baskets that are perfect for any florist to carry in their flower shop. Each Gift Basket is pre-made and priced so that florist can mark them up 2.5 - 3 times and still sell out very quickly. I suggest that all florist check out this wholesale gift basket website and consider carrying these gift baskets in their flower shops.

Florist Directory Update

Still working on new florist directory, having trouble with web design company as it seems that only the owner truly understands the scope, but he is too busy so he keeps handing project off to people that don't understand exactly with we need the new florist directory to do. So this process is very upseting as a florist I don't have the ability to do the programming myself and I was promised that this flower web site would be done a week ago. But I know its important to have a florist directory so I keep my chin up and continue to work to get the http://www.findmylocalflorist.com website complete.

Happy Bosses Day to Florist

I would like to say Happy Bosses Day to all the Florist. I know that because Florist work with flowers and gifts all day people sometime forget to buy you anything. Bosses Day is not a huge holiday for the Florist but it could be if you promote it and carry special products. In our Flower Shops we carry a huge assortment of Spa Baskets which are very popular during Bosses Day. The Spa Baskets we carry are from http://www.ToddsWholesale.com These great spa baskets have a great price point and come put together. We mark these spa baskets up THREE times in the store and it seems we sell about five to ten everyday. We also carry Happy Bosses Day balloons in the store we never sell out of them but they are cheap and can be added to any product to make it a Bosses Day gift. Just some advise from one florist to another florist. Again, Happy Bosses Day!!!

Florist Directory Update

I have not posted anything on the florist blog in a while because I have been so busy working on the new Florist Directory http://www.findmylocalflorist.com While running my own business I have been spending all of my free time on this new project. Not to mention I have been asked to speak on the Rachel Ray show about sending care packages and other gifts to the military. However, I feel that this new florist directory is a step in the right direction. The florist directory is going to be broken up by state and city so each flower shop can list their shop and services for free. Some of the features we are working on for the new florist website are as follows:

1) Each Florist is going to have a full page where they can write as much about there shop as they want.
2) Florist are going to be able to post pictures of their floral staff, flower shop, and examples of flower arrangements.
3) Each page will include goggle map's and directions.
4) Each florist will have to have a physical shop in the city that they are located.
5) Florist can list there prices, hours of operations, and specials.

ALL OF THESE SERVICES ARE GOING TO BE PROVIDED FREE TO THE FLORIST.

We are hoping that many florist across the United States are going to take time to fill out a page and write about their flower shop...Each florist is also going to be able to post links to their flower shop websites for free!!!! I am very excited about the florist site and it should be up and running sometime next week. I know that this is only the first step in helping the local florist but I am excited that it is a very big first step.

Fortune Small Business Magazine does interview with Mitchell Stein on Florist Industry

On Monday October 9, 2006, Mitchell Stein meet with Small Business Fortune Magazine and www.Spotrunner.com, to discuss ways that small businesses can successfully compete against larger company's. The interview went for a couple of hours and a lot of great points were brought up. I will make sure to put a link to the article on-line once it available but I wanted to talk about some of the article today. Florist represent on of the largest small business groups in the United States with some 40,000 plus independent flower shops. It is amazing that there is very little support for such a large group. The issues that were discussed in the magazine were about ways the small flower shops can compete with larger company's. What was interesting to the gentleman doing the interview is how many florist belong to wire services that are competition. As an outsider it was very hard for him to understand why florist will belong to, support, and give business to an organization that is actually promoting business away from the local florist. His example was a well known old flower organization. When you walk into many flower shops in the United States you see their logo on books, posters, private internet sites, even on independent flower shops delivery vehicles. Yet this big "wire service" pays nothing in advertising (actually charges for the items that have their logo on them) and is daily competing against the local florist for business. He even pointed out how he went to this wire services corporate website and most of the items were "shipped" items, meaning that the local florist got 0% of the business. I tell you, it was hard to explain why we as florist belong to such an organization.

What I explained was that the existing wire services were the only option. That giving money to the Competition is a lot like small businesses shopping at Sams Club? All your doing is giving more money to Wal-Mart, who is putting your small business out of business. However, Sams Club or other warehouse stores are the only option as many manufactures do not sell to small shops or cost more to buy direct than it does to buy from Sams Club. I explained to him that the purpose of my blog and doing this interview was to get other florist to start thinking like he was, to have the local florist think of ways to compete against the big flower company's, and get them to ban together to create a better way of running the flower industry.

Florist Resource Blog gets Noticed!

Yesterday I got a call from someone with the PR Department from Spotrunner.com. Seems they saw the blog and that they were interested in helping me work with local florist. As you may have read in previous listings Spotrunner is a company which provides cheap TV Advertising on Local Cable Channels. As a florist I wanted to run TV ad's but found it difficult as many company's wanted $10,000 plus to make a commercial then a min. budget of $20,000 a month. However, Spotrunner only charges about $500.00 to modify one of their commercials and you pay for the "spots". In my area I was able to run some ad's for as little as $4.00 a spot. They have a package where you can have TV Commercials running in your local market within weeks for less than $2,000.00. This is an AMAZING way for florist to increase their local business. I ran these ad's in an area where our stores were not doing very well and we saw our foot traffic increase by 20% in the first four weeks! I truly appreciate Spotrunner's help, but I also was very excited to see that their PR department read our florist blog and took the time to call. It is very promising to see that people are reading this florist blog and willing to help. I will be talking to Spotrunner next week and write more on how Florist can start running local cable TV advertising ad's.

Florist Directory

Yesterday I wrote about a lot of ways big company trick the public into believing they are a local florist. One of the suggestions I made for the local florist is to look into advertising on one or more of the online florist directory's. Currently these Florist Directory's and Google Local are the best places to truly find local florist. Google even verifies the local address by mailing a verification post card with a code. This post card can not be forwarded and you must enter the passcode that arrives on the post card into your google account before they list your flower shop. Google is free but only provides the Flower Shop Name, Address, and Phone Number. The Paid Directories will display more information like pricing and hours of operation, but they don't give personal information about the shop (and they cost money).

What the florist need is a Directory that is free. One where each florist can list their business, hours of operation, pricing on popular arrangements, directions to the location, maps, and much more. Google uses a directory similar to this called DMOZ. DMOZ is a listing of all the websites that Google thinks is important. Each website in DMOZ is MANUALLY (by a human) but in a category. This process takes a while but you know the information is accurate. Imagine if the florist had such a directory of flower shops. Each florist could have a custom page to promote their store and where the public could go and KNOW they were dealing with a local florist.

Since last night I have been thinking about this and have decided that such a directory is VERY important for my flower shops and other florists around the United States. So this is the first project I will work on to help the florist. I went ahead and bought the domain name http://www.findmylocalflorist.com from Godaddy.com and I am going to work on this florist directory. This florist blog is new so I have had few visitors (I think just my Dad and some employees) but if anyone has any ideas of what they would like to see included on the florist directory please feel free to let me know.

My Goals for the Find My Local Florist Directory:
1) To create a FREE Directory of Local Florist.
2) To have the florist Directory be overseen by Flower Shop Owners or others working in the florist industry.
3) To create a Florist Directory where Florist can showcase their business on a full web page. Including maps, pictures, contact information, and current projects.
4) To promote this Florist Directory to all of the major search engines so that each local florist is found within their natural search listings.
5) To take every step to assure that each flower shop listed in this florist directory is local, professional, and willing to promote a positive image for florist nationally.

It is too hard to Find My Local Florist

One of the biggest problems for the Local Florist is the fact that no one can find them. Big Companies place deceiving Flower ads in the yellow pages, radio, television and on-line. They show pictures of local flower shops with happy florist delivering to local people, or their ad copy says the name of the town and something clever like "Local Delivery Daily". All in an attempt to confuse the customers into thinking they are ordering their flowers for a local florist. Some savvy customers are hip to this trick and will look for a physical address, but many just assume they have found a local florist and place their flower order no questions asked.

One of the funniest story's I have about this subject: One time I was working in my Pomona Flower Store and a man called. He stated he needed to order funeral flowers for Todds Memorial Funeral Home (the local funeral home) and had been burned by a wire service. He wanted to know FOR SURE that I was a florist that was actually located in Pomona, CA. I stated to him that I was in Pomona, CA and that we delivered to Todd's daily. Again, he asked are you (the man 0n the phone) physically in Pomona, CA. To this I again answered yes, this went on for about five rounds before he was satisfied that I was a local florist and place the funeral flower order.

I tell this story not to make fun of a savvy customer, but to show the frustration that many flower customers have when trying to find a local florist. One that they know will take care of their flowers and make sure they are perfect for what ever occasion.

Below are some of the problems I have with each form of local advertising and the ways I have tried to fix the problem. I will use my Pomona, Ca Flower Shop as an example but I am sure that most florist have the same problem in their town or city.

Yellow Pages - Now many people do not like to advertise in the yellow pages I do not have strong feelings about it either way, but you need to make sure as a local florist you are at least listed in the White Pages and hopefully the somewhere in the yellow pages. You also should call your local information line (411) and pretend to be looking for a local florist in your area. If you are not the person they suggest you need to talk to your local phone carrier to find out what you can do to make sure your the flower shop they suggest.

In my town there is about 4 large flower shops and another 5 smaller flowers shops. When I look up FLORIST in the yellow pages I find FOUR (4) half page ads for large flower order gathers, non of which have an actual shop in Pomona. Three of the four are not florist at all just call centers processing orders, but each ad says something like, "We're your neighborhood florist", "serving all local cities (with a list of the local cities), "local and national flower delivery". All the ads are written to trick the customer into ordering from them, and when you go to all of these websites their best deals are SHIPPED flowers. So many of these orders never make it to the local florist. One way to help this is to place your own ad and DEMAND that the yellow pages place your ad first because you are a local florist, also make sure you state in your ad that you are a local florist. Lastly, many of these ads are ran by large order gathers or wire services...If you cant beat them join them. I have contact each of the advertisers in our local yellow pages under florist and seen to it that I am their florist of choice and one of the wire service agreed not to place an ad next year if I put their logo in my ad and send all of my wire outs through their service.

Radio and TV - Many local florist don't advertise on the radio or TV. Many florist don't think they can afford it but in reality this is one of the cheapest places to advertise. If they ran ads on the local radio and local TV then people would know they were local. The best way to advertise on local cable is through a website called www.Spotrunner.com
Spotrunner will produce your florist commercial for about $500.00 and you can run it for as little as $4.00 each time it runs. Prices vary per market but this is the cheapest way to advertise your flower shop on cable. Radio stations are even easier, if you call the sales manager for your local radio station, they will most likely be willing to trade your flowers for air time. They will also produce the commercial for you.

Internet - This is the worst!!! When you type in Pomona Florist a local florist does not show up until the THIRD PAGE! None of the sponsored listings are local florist and all of the search results are of florist directories or large companies that have special web pages for each us city that make the customer think they are ordering from a Pomona florist. One reason the local florist are not ranked, is because all of the Pomona flower shops (and most florist in the United State) that have a web site (besides mine) are from one of the two wire services (FTD or Teleflora). Florist pay a monthly fee for a generic websites that will NEVER show up online, because then are not full of original content. When the florist buy these generic websites FTD and Teleflora have complete control and charge for every modification. They don't let the florist sell anything but their items and they make it so your website will not be ranked because if people get to your site without going through them they wont get any money from the order. These websites are just another example of how these companies are just one sided. No support, no real help, just a bill at the end of the Month. Sooo basically, they want you to pay for a website then pay to process the orders, to sell their products..and the funny part is thousand of florist fall for this TRICK. Making these companies millions of Dollars a day!!!

The most "helpful" sites that are listed under Pomona Florist (or your town just check) are the "Floral Directory's". These directory's are usually independent companies that have will list the address and information about a local flower shop for a fee. These fees are not cheap, many charge about $300.00 to be listed and the do not provide much information. They also do not provide "links" to your website, which are very important if you intend on ever having your website ranked (I will explain this process later in the blog). These paid Directory's are a great way to drive business to your local flower shop but there are lot of them so you need to make sure you only advertise in ones that are going to truly drive business.

Things to look for before advertising on at Florist Directory:
1) Is the Directory getting traffic? You can check how many people are visiting a site everyday by going to http://www.Alexa.com This website is owned by Amazon.com but it will show you how many people have visited the site of the next two years. It was also show you the owner, how long they will be in business, and much more helpful information.
2) Check to see if the directory is ranked in your city? If you search for Pomona Florist or you flower shops in your city and they don't come up then don't advertise.
3) Lastly, always ask if they can lower there price (you would be surprised how many people will say yes).

Really, what needs to happen is the search engines and the local florist need to come up with a plan to stop this. When someone goes online to find a local florist the search results should come back with local florist. Google has started a website called Google Local http://maps.google.com/ so again if you search for Pomona Florist you will get Local results for Florist near Pomona, CA in that search it shows the name, address, and phone number of local flower shops. All florist should check this and make sure they are listed. If you are not listed or want to be listed first then you need to visit Google's Local Business Center at https://www.google.com/local/add/login?hl=en_US This is a FREE service to all Florist and I STRONGLY SUGGEST that all local florist sign up, your flower shop will be listed for FREE and and florist can do it, it is not difficult.

Well enough for today have to get back to running my flower shop.

Florist Advise: Do not buy Codified Items for Valentines Day.

So I have changed the name of my blog and after sleeping on the idea I like because the Florist Resource. I think that I might even set up a company under the same name. That way should any great ideas come up we can implement them quickly. I got a call today from one of the Flower Wire Services asking me to buy Valentines Day Vases. I laughed at them and told them that we would NEVER buy Valentines Day codified products ever again and my first piece of advise to other florist is that they don't either.

Valentines Day is the one day a year that even the smallest florist is guaranteed to make money. The big order gathers are all out cutting prices and over promising, taking in more Valentines Day Orders than then can handle and then blaming the florist for not getting all of the orders out. If you ever read reviews about online florist you will see that most of the complaints are from Valentines Day and Mothers Day the two BIG flower holidays for florist.

What local florist have to do is take back the control of this holiday. The only way they can do this is to not deliver order gather orders on this day. Last year was the LAST year I will take wire in's for Valentines Day. By taking their orders we did not have the staff to help our local customers, it cause confusion, and we did not make any money on their orders. Then three months after Valentines Day (a week before Mothers Day). They called up too tell us what a bad job we did???? Again no help, no suggestions on how to handle that many orders, just complaints and more fees!!!

So this is my advise to Florist. Do not buy Codified Items for Valentines Day....You don't need the business, do not accept Wire In orders for less money than you would in the store, ALWAYS HANDLE YOUR LOCAL FLORIST CUSTOMERS FIRST! Remember the wire service needs you more than you need them? They can take as many orders as they want, but if they cant find flower shops to deliver them, they wont be in business very much longer. Also, remember if you can take care of that local (male) customer during Valentines Day they will be more likely to visit your shop for Mothers Day. Also, if you can build a relationship these men will most likely come back year after year.

*Another Hint - Many of the women receiving flowers on Valentines Day are also getting engaged? Always, include a coupon or some leave behind so they will consider you as their wedding florist.

New Blog for Florist

I started this blog only a couple of days ago under Find A Florist and realized that was not a very good name for what I am trying to achieve. So yes after only two days I have retired my old Find-a-Florist Blog and started this new Florist Resource Blog. I think this new name Florist Resource follows more of what I am trying to achieve. A place where florist can give advise and help save the local florist business.

Florist Ready for Action

OK, so I re-read my first post and it comes off as I am an angry florist. Well Im not (that angry) and dont want this blog to become a place where florist only complain. So I am going to try to set an example and keep my options about the floral industry up beat. I am only going to talk about how florist can fix their flower shops. I am so excited to see and hear what other florist suggest. I still believe that the floral industry can be saved and I am willing to do everything in my power to save the local florsit.

Local Florist is Fed Up!!!

About five years I stated an internet business http://www.funcarepackages.com I stated that website out of my home and did a pretty good business. But as the business grew I knew I need to move it out of my house. So I went in search of an existing business that would support my existing care package business. I found that many of the local florist (flower shops) were for sale and that I could by my local florist for a very reasonable price. When I first bought my first flower shop I found it exciting. All of the wire services seemed very helpful, the competition across the street even came over and offered some advise on where to get supplies. I had become a florist and was very happy with the experience.We bought all of the codified items, attended all of the florist seminars, and religiously followed all of the suggested marketing. I did notice that the codified items were expensive and the fees to belong to the wire services were also very steep. But the reps. Kept saying if you buy it the orders will come and every time the rep came into my flower shop (to sell me more things for my flower shop) telling me that I had to have it, I bought it. Through it all the orders (and profit) never came. Meanwhile, my web site was doing great so good that I started another site http://www.devynns.com and started to expand the products I offered including cookies, cakes, brownies, gift baskets, and much more.We infact had become order gathers? An order gather is a business that typically does not own a flower shop, is not a florist, or is not even very familiar with the flower business. Typically these order gathers are web designers, or people with a marketing degree that spend a lot of money going out and promoting a brand or name. They typically make money in volume, selling hundreds or thousands of orders a week and wire these orders out to local florist. To an outsider more orders means more business for the local florist. But this is not the case, actually many of the orders actually cost the local florist more money to deliver than they make. (Example: if you buy $29.95 roses from a order gather and them pay for delivery you spend about $40.00 for that order but how much does the Florist that actually delivers the flowers get about $21.00) that's right HALF!!! Here is why:

If you spend $29.95 for Roses then $9.95 for "Delivery" with an order gather.
The order gather keeps the "delivery" fee (for their time).
The order gather also keeps 20% of the order in this case about $6.00 so they made a profit of $16.00
The Wire Service keeps about 10% of the order in this case they made a profit of $3.00
The florist delivery the flowers gets $21.00 but how much of that is profit?
The Roses cost about $8.00 Wholesale, the Filler and Greens cost about $2.00, a $10.00 an hour employee to put the order together cost about $2.50, and the delivery driver cost about $7.00, so it cost the florist $19.50 to do this order so the local florist makes a profit of $1.50!
Recap
Order Gather Profit - $16.00
Wire Service Profit - $3.00
Local Florist Profit - $1.50
*Now I know why so many local florist are going out of business!!!

As you can see it pays to sell the order, it does not pay to do the order. So I ask my self why not close my florist business and just keep my websites? The answer? Because if something is not done to save the local florist then their will be none left!!! Then my websites will not be worth anything. Also local florist are one of the LAST truly small business, many florist work long hard hours to achieve the American dream and it is time that someone stands up and helps (truly helps) the 25,000 local flower shops that are still in business.

So now that you know why I am fed up, I am here to say I am committed to helping florist take back the industry, take back the profits, and protect small business. With this blog I hope that other florist will join me in an online discussion. I hope that all florist will post their ideas, and suggestions. Feel free to link to this website and also let me know what you think....Thanks, Mitch