I been here since 2004 and we have argued over the same things all these years and yet we have never done a darn thing to try and take back this industry. There were far more of us Florist here in the US and Canada back then and we continue to lose more every single day. Together we have clout indiviually we can't make a ripple in a mud puddle . The florist industry is at the cross roads not just for the florist but I think for the wire services and the wholesalers too. Unless we reinvent this business and develope a brand that we can promote and rally behind then our future is indeed bleek. It is clear that some here are caught in a bad finacial position but I suspect that as their finacial position improves they will rejoin. I have played a lot of sports over the years and I have been involved in managment in some large companies and two phrases stand out in my mind as we look forward.
No Guts No Glory! and You either part of the solution or your part of the problem!
You know? I just thought of something, and I'm surprised it took this long to sink in. Allow me, please, to share a personal observation.
I have always said that I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. Every time something bad has happened to me, I've eventually been able to look back and see that if that thing hadn't happened, the good thing that followed wouldn't have happened. God works that way, closing and opening doors.
So there's a reason I was laid off last January after 29 years in the financial services industry (reducing our family income by 2/3). There's a reason that, 10 months prior to that layoff, my husband and I had started our little floral studio (as a part-time venture). There's a reason that, last October, someone else in this industry referred me to FlowerChat (thank you Steve from Garden Delights in Brentwood, TN). I believe there's a reason I found out about FlowerChat just prior to this new venture because, Lord knows, I could use an industry-changer.
What is faith? It's not being able to see around the upcoming bend, but moving forward anyway. If we knew what the future held, then going forward would be a sure thing, it wouldn't be faith. So I'm willing to move forward on faith -- particularly knowing that I'm not just a passenger on someone else's bus, going along for the ride. I'm going to have a stake in this bus, and its success or failure will partly be impacted by my commitment.
By the way, I was thinking about all of the posts I've read in the past few days, and wondered if FlowerChat was still an appropriate name for this group. We used to just chat. Now we're committing ourselves to something bigger. Maybe it should be called Flower Commitment.
(Just kidding)
