about wire services

[12BucksFor2Dozon]

...
Flower shop issues are nothing compared to the greenhouse side of my business.
...

I can only imagine those horrors, Joe...a very close business associate of ours owns a nursery across the street our shop...been there for30 some years. 6 months ago, a spanking new Lowe's with a bagizilion sq ft garden dept opens 1/2 mile from him, selling plants at 1/2 his prices...ouch!

Such is the world we live in...nobody ever promised us a rose garden, right? <terrible pun intended> Perhaps your right, my left brain ( or is it right?), the one that is logical, is often overridden with my right brain, the emotional, artistic one, and made me post stuff that may be a bit overblown or non-businesslike. I accept that criticism, but hey that's me.

I would wish you good luck with the greenhouse issues, but both of us know that *luck* has little to do with running a successful operation (although I'll take it every time)...

 

[carol]

Mark (12bucks) PM'd me asking why I had not presented my credentials...
Thought most everyone knew them.. guess not.
I opened our shop from scratch 31 years ago..with no experience in flowers..just about retailing. so I learned many hard lessons.. had 3 shops at one time in the eighties.. learned that lesson too well..
Learned about employee theft first hand.. twice. although the second time around was a lot cheaper...learned about the need for up to date financials,, again the hard way.
Bought Advantage bookkeeping from FTd and liked it so much I became a sometime part time instructor.. I have done a lot of teaching on general ledger, financials and marketing. and I have been to more than 100 shops around the US & Canada...in fact the main reason I bought Advantage was because of it's strong financial and marketing modules.
Like everyone else in the eighties I had all the wire services and smartened up in the ninties to knowing I only needed one to send through. I kept FTD because it did the most for me..hense the 'cheerleader' title once in a while.
I spent a lot of money marketing and have built up a pretty decent outgoing business.. lots of time & effort on our different webpages but the best bang for the buck for me has been my fol site which is why I occasionally talk about it.. you may call it 'cookie cutter' but it works well for me.
So when I agree with Joe about financials and stuff it is because I learned this stuff the hard way.. and yes the first years were HORRIBLE , in fact there have been a few other horrible years mixed in..
My biggest gripe right now is that there is too much local competition and too much of it is from people that play at being a florist and can cherry pick what they do and do not have to do -to make money since they are supported by another way..I do have to make money..it is what pays my bills. I was not born rich, nor do I have a rich 'other person' to pay for me while I play at flowers.
If I had it over I would never start a flower shop from scratch.. it is way to long a curve to make money
So... Mark... is it ok that I offer advice now??

 

[12BucksFor2Dozon]

Carol, I've always valued your advice...if I remember right you were the one that suggested posting them, and I really think its a great idea.

Perhaps someone could start a "reference" thread, where each of us post our business histories...then newcomers could review that listing as they read each of our posts, allowing everyone to put everybody into context.

Just a thought...thxs Carol!

 

[MANORVILLE]

" Reference Monday's "

Carol, I've always valued your advice...if I remember right you were the one that suggested posting them, and I really think its a great idea.

Perhaps someone could start a "reference" thread, where each of us post our business histories...then newcomers could review that listing as they read each of our posts, allowing everyone to put everybody into context.

Just a thought...thxs Carol!

Sounds like a great idea to us !