My name is Kayleigh and my mother, Misty, bought this florist in August. It is located in Nicholasville, Ky. The shop has been in Nicholasville for almost 40 years and we are the third owner. Neither one of us has any formal floral training. My mother took horticulture in school and has always been interested in flowers. She has a lot of informal experience making arrangments for friends, family, and neighbors. It was her dream to open a florist. Before this, she had been working in the civil engineering field for almost 20 years. She ahs no management experience, but I graduate in December with a degree in Marketing and Management from the University of Kentucky so I try to help her with the management duties. We have had strong sales since August, but we dont seem to be bringing in as much money as we should. We currently use Bloomlink, Teleflora, and FTD services. All of these were used by the previous owner and we just have not cancelled them. Recently we have been wondering about the profiability of these services and have recieved some advice on cancelling some or all of them. This is the main reason for joining this website. We also look forward to meeting other florists and sharing our experiences with you all. Any advice you can give us on this matter, or anything else, would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
Debbie and Misty's Florist
- Thread starter mistysflowers
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Wow, welcome to FlowerChat. You and your mother sure took on a challenge. You will find many answers here at FC. Who does your floral designing?
Thank you for being so forthcoming with your introductory message... it is much appreciated.
Do you have a website? Please share the address if you do.
Welcome to the community and I echo rewolf's question. Who does your designing? Also, once you become a full member you will be able to search all the threads about wire services, but my first advice is to dump two of three, at the very least. So many new people buy into the notion they need to belong to a bazillion wire services... believe my, you don't. Cutting out two of them will solve some of your money issues.
V
Do you have a website? Please share the address if you do.
Welcome to the community and I echo rewolf's question. Who does your designing? Also, once you become a full member you will be able to search all the threads about wire services, but my first advice is to dump two of three, at the very least. So many new people buy into the notion they need to belong to a bazillion wire services... believe my, you don't. Cutting out two of them will solve some of your money issues.
V
duanermb
New Member
Welcome to FC. I also joined for some of the same reasons, but found much much more!
mikec
New Member
Hi, and welcome. I did find your shop on Google, but no website?. You need to have a strong web presence in your area these days. There is alot of great info for you here. Don't be afraid to participate.
Mike
Mike
BOSS
FlowerChat Administrator
Welcome... and since you asked, (for advise that is)...
First question would be, did you all resign with them when the ownership changed?
Honestly you only need 1 (maybe) depending on how many order you have to send out each month, how many other florists are in town and how dependent you are on incoming orders for volume.
Welcome to the community, you'll get many varied answers here.
Welcome, I echo V's advice. Dump all of them except for one....you need only one to send orders (you don't need any if you use a credit card).
I also bought a shop without prior floral experience. Your management skills should come in handy. If you're mom has a knack, I'd encourage her to take some proper courses, you too if you have a creative streak, and not have to depend on hiring others on a daily basis to fulfill orders. Every dollar out on paying someone else=less money to you, the owners. Took me a while to have enough confidence - without formal training - to do this, even though I am naturally artistic.... Don't be intimidated by other "designers" who appear to know it all. You'll be looking at all aspects of the business from a very different, more thorough perspective.
The WS is a huge game and you have to know how to play to your benefit....lots of posts in several forums here. Ask if you need more info and don't worry about "looking" silly - and ignore any comments that are just plain derogatory. Use PM if you don't want to post pubicly.
Glad to have you here!
I also bought a shop without prior floral experience. Your management skills should come in handy. If you're mom has a knack, I'd encourage her to take some proper courses, you too if you have a creative streak, and not have to depend on hiring others on a daily basis to fulfill orders. Every dollar out on paying someone else=less money to you, the owners. Took me a while to have enough confidence - without formal training - to do this, even though I am naturally artistic.... Don't be intimidated by other "designers" who appear to know it all. You'll be looking at all aspects of the business from a very different, more thorough perspective.
The WS is a huge game and you have to know how to play to your benefit....lots of posts in several forums here. Ask if you need more info and don't worry about "looking" silly - and ignore any comments that are just plain derogatory. Use PM if you don't want to post pubicly.
Glad to have you here!
Flowerchatter03
Co-Owner and Floral Composer
Welcome! You ask a question and you will definitely get answers here! It might not be what you are looking for (in an answer) but rest assured, you'll get a response!
Looking forward to reading your posts!!
Pat/Flowerchatter03
Looking forward to reading your posts!!
Pat/Flowerchatter03
Rhonda
Well-Known Member
Welcome ! Wow do you have lot on your plate. I agree with some of the above statements...you need a web presence and do not use the WS to get it. When you become a member, you will find other options available to you. Read the wire service threads (with an open mind) and then check out florist 2.0 for web site options or read the threads about making your own website.
Enjoy, read lots, post often.
Enjoy, read lots, post often.
glad you came!
talked to you this morning. I am so glad you came here! you will find a lot of info on here from some very nice and honest people. good luck! missy
talked to you this morning. I am so glad you came here! you will find a lot of info on here from some very nice and honest people. good luck! missy
Thank you...We do our own floral design. The previous owner comes in to help if we feel like we get something that is over our head, but for the most part, my Mom is pretty talented in that area.
Hey Missy....We tried to find you on here but were not sure of your user name. Could you direct us to some of those posts you were speaking to us about? Thanks.
Victoria,
Thanks for the advice. We have actually heard that from several people and that is exactly the kind of advice that we need. My mom does most of our floral design. She is pretty naturally talented at it and has been doing it for many years for fun.
Thanks for the advice. We have actually heard that from several people and that is exactly the kind of advice that we need. My mom does most of our floral design. She is pretty naturally talented at it and has been doing it for many years for fun.
Thank you. Our website is huntersflowershop.com. The original name of the shop was Hunters Florist and we have not changed the name of the website. This is our website that is ran by Teleflora. If we decide to stop using them, we will develop out own site, but we just havent had the time. Thanks for the suggestions 
I do not think we resigned with them when ownership changed. We only have one other florist in town. We do get a lot of orders from FTD and Teleflora, but we dont seem to be making any profit on them. I think we could do okay without them. Which one would you suggest that we keep?
Thanks Dorothy. Thats great advice. We actually have been doing all of our own designing. We dont really have anyone at our shop that has any formal experience. If we run into something that is over our head, we can call in the previous owner for help and advice. She is friends with my mom so we are really lucky there. We should get some proper training and I am sure we will in the future when we have the time. Thanks for the help and well wishes.
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