Funeral & Cementary work

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Gracey

Gracey

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Feb 26, 2008
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Camden
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Tn.
I need expert advice! I know FC is the place to find it. I am not an affiliat with any wire service. I am not formally trained in Floristry. I opened my little flower shop because our town needed one.Though bottom line of why anyone starts a business is to make money. My shop does ok it makes enough to pay the bills. But if I'm ever going to make a profit I need to know funeral/cemetry techniques ie. casket sprays,mounment tributes. I live in a small southern town. No matter, what it is anyone wants, they call in an order for a wreath. Or a wreath for the cemetery. I did my first casket spray this weekend & it was a freakin nightmare. I have John Henry books covering funeral but I can't find anything for cemetery ie monument saddle or vase. The John Henry is great for design but for pricing forget it. Small southern town here. Flower Chat community does seem friendly & all but I'm really gun shy. The neighboring towns have had our "twin city" biz for so long. Needless to say they would rather see me sink than swim. The freshcut flower wholesale places I have to use.One has been cleaning out thier coolers on me & charging top price but will deliver. The other only delivers when they have something in the area(which is almost every day) but I have to have a certian $$ amount. I am competing against Wally world & every wire service thats out there! O.K. I'm whinning alittle. I really enjoy what I'm doing. But I need a little help. o.k. maybe a lot of help. I would greatly appreciate anyone who has any good used referance material you would like to get rid of or sell. Or any & all advice & tips & techniques would greatly greatly be appreciated!
Thanks again
gracey
 
oh Gracey, have you got your work cut out for yourself. there is a thread around here about must have books.. start with the art of floral design (nora Hunter) and... take a class! because not only do you have to read you have to DO..practice, practice, practice (and not on your customers)
take your JH books and re-figure the pricing.. and make smaller(less expensive) versions of what they have
for example the wreaths: they offer many 21" size with lots of roses.. offer the same thing in an 18" size and then a different option using carnations or other flowers.
when did you open your shop?
 
Gracey, do you have the option of taking some courses so you can learn the techniques from the ground up?

You're in for a rough ride without some basic design knowledge. That would be my first and foremost recommendation.

V
 
Twiggy & Victoria
I am taking an online course in floristry. I have some hands on training (not enough) in a shop. another story another time. I already do the pricing thing you sugested twiggy thanks. I Opened my shop in july of 07. I had my best friend of 27 years try to commit identy theft & bankrupt me. Plus take all the credit for my shop & designs. Again small southern town. I have my must read list & as soon as I can get away from the shop I will go to the nearest bookstore(70 miles away) & see what they have. Public library not so great here. I did not plan on doing this all on my own ,truly my God has blessed me, with his help & some good advice from FC. I'm up for the scrap.
Thanks y'all
gracey
p.s. I never thought being in the flower shop biz. was so cut throat. but it is. At least so far thats been my expierence. I still love it & not giving up
 
Gracey... business is not for the faint hearted.

V
 
Gracey,

Don't wait until you have time (when you own a shop, you never have time!!) amazon.com!!! You can even go to the SAF website, or Florist's Review website and order some of the books.

Who offers an online design class? What are their credentails? It isn't one of those late night tv universities is it? I just don't want to see you get ripped off again!!!!!

Best of luck!!!!!
 
Gracey, Nora Hunter's book has a whole section on funeral work. It will show you all the techniques for basic spray/saddles and goes into more complex work as well.

Make up a few practice ones using this book and that should be a quick start. Another thing you can do is order one from a reputable florist near you and take it appart to study how it was made up.

All the best...
Julie
 
Gracey said:
I have my must read list & as soon as I can get away from the shop I will go to the nearest bookstore(70 miles away) & see what they have.
Click to expand...

Don't waste your time driving. Even the big chain bookstores don't carry a lot of the specialized florist books suggested. Use Amazon.com . Works for me every time...:)
 
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Gracey, Don't give up on the library. our library is limited also but they have a way of requesting books from all over the US. I have the nora hunter book sitting on my shelf now and it's from utah. this could save you some $$ while you decide which books you want to get now and which can wait.
 
Here you go girl, LISTEN UP!!!

JTV!!! J Schwanke has a web show called JTV! on ubloom. It's FREE and he will show you techniques in design that you CAN APPLY to your funeral work. You can pause it, watch it over and over again, It's a really really REALLY helpful tool especially for newbie designers. He'll tell you all the stuff you need, where to get it, and he'll go step by step. And sometimes he can even be a little bit funny!!!

Secondly, go take a class in OKC at Teleflora headquarters. If I were you I'd take at least 2, basic design and sympathy design. The classes start with brunch on Sunday and end Wednesday afternoon, they will even take you to the airport if you need!
They take you back and forth from school, feed you breakfast and lunch, and on Tuesday they even feed you a nice dinner. If you're not Teleflora, the cost for the class is $650.00 I think, If you are TF it's $550.00. It's not much time and not that much money for what you WILL get out of it!, (and quite frankly, need) and they will help you on pricing and all that jazz. But your airfare is not included. If you're able to do it, you really should.

Yes I have taken a class there and I will take another one this summer.

If you want books, try ebay THEN amazon.
 
Victoria
I just posted a photo album in my profile. If you would please take a look when you have time.(or anyone else reading this) Let me know if you think I have any talent at all that I can build on. I value your opinion. I would much rather create than pay attention to the biz part. But I lay no claims to being a "master designer" more of an artist & my favorite medium are crayolas. Please let me know what you think? I really want the design advice. thanks so much
gracey
 
Amy
Thanks so much for the concern. The online school is Penn. Foster. They are acredited. But as you know you do not need a degree to be a florist. I do however need a certificate if I want a bank to give me a business loan. It was what I could afford. And yes probably another mistake. but that subject is probably more for another form. Thanks for the comment though first time I smiled today. Its just that the caskest spray is such an important peice & with no formal training & my suppliers are....well no need to go into that again. I just thought maybe I could get some great advice from y'all & I'm feeling better about it. Absolutely FC is the best decision I've made
thanks gracey
 
Lizzie Ann
Thanks for the heads up. I'll try again. But I thought they wanted me to pay dues before they would give me any info. And again small southern town. believe it or not I think the closest I can get to that might be 200 miles away. but I will certainly google it again Thanks
gracey
 
Shannonlovesflowers
great name & JTV ROCKS! love it! But I didn't see much on funeral or cemetery work? I also would like to do the telafloral thing but things are tight right now(because of trusting supposedly BF of 27 yrs) & me, myself & I (with alot of help from my husband) are DIY. Things are getting better. I just panic, small town, all it takes is one bad design my rep in town can sink me. I do watch alot of JTV & am really thankful I can get it free now. thanks
gracey
 
I'm with Shannon.
The Teleflora Education center is the best for basic and advanced training.
Their instructors are fabulous and Marie Ackerman is the best.

I haven't taken a class there for a few years, but, I assume she is still running the ed center.

It may seem costly, but, what you come away with is priceless.

I have taken 4 classes there. All great - Hitomi Gilliam, Els Hazenburg,
Carol Caggiano, and Marie for commentating. I would take them all again.

I wanted to take Burt Ford's funeral class this year.
I think he is fantastic!!

Go and learn lots.
 
good design is good design. You can APPLY the techniques of other designs you see J do to funeral work.

I'm glad to see Cheerie agrees with me on Classes at Teleflora headquarters. Even if you have to drive to get there, do it. You'll see it's well worth the money.

I saw your pics, I see you do a lot with plastic leather leaf and faux flowers. I don't want to sound like a snob, but why are you using those things? The reason I say that is I saw you post something about competing with wal mart. You MUST have better products than wal mart. If you're going to sell faux it should be great faux.

If I were you I'd go to the nearest big city and go take a tour of some really nice shops, and see how they do their displays. try to duplicate it with your own spin.
IF THAT"S THE TYPE OF SHOP YOU WANT TO BE. now there are some flower shops that put out GREAT work but don't have much of a show room, it's very minimalistic, do that if that's the type of shop you want to be.

But the whole point of this thread was you wanted advise on design, and I hope you seriously consider going to TF in OKC. You will learn so much in such a short amount of time.

Did you also know a lot of Wholesale houses will put on design shows? SERIOUSLY, that is how I learned to really design, I've been in this business for 25 years, and took my first class last year at TF in OKC only because I won a scholarship. Design shows are also a great tool for learning.

hope it all works out for you girl.
 
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shannonlovesflowers said:
The reason I say that is I saw you post something about competing with wal mart. You MUST have better products than wal mart. If you're going to sell faux it should be great faux.
Click to expand...

Shannon makes a good point here. If your competition is WalMart you need to either separate yourself in price or product. Pretty hard to compete with WalMart in price. So that leaves you with product - you need to sell quality product. Don't carry the same product or the same "look" as WalMart, your customer will just go to WalMart for the better price. You need to create a unique look that suits your taste and sell that to your public - something that the public cannot get at WalMart. If your customers are truely WalMart customers as you say, than you should also consider your price points very carefully.
 
Shannonlovesflowers & rewolf
Thanks so much for your advice. I agree JTV is great & I watch it all the time. I'm thankful I found it before prom season. Or I would have been wiring & taping everything.
The plastic leather leaf & faux flowers are cemetery work, not for funerals. The easel spray was what the customer wanted sent. I suggested fresh. She wanted that.
I also sold a "deluxe" white basket filled with "silk", gerber daisy, pink, yellow & lavender, horns, noise makers, H.B. picks, colorful ribbon. To an elderly gentleman. Who insisted on it for his close friends funeral. Against my advice. He did however allow me to take out anything that wasn't flower or ribbon & put in a bag for him to take with him? go figure some people?
I suppose I should have posted a different question. What do you use for cemetery work? Monument saddles? Tribute vases?
In this area people like faux flower saddles they last the longest. I also scotch gaurd. So they don't fade so fast. Grounds keepers prefer monument saddles so they can mow. Some places restrict what you can plant or place on a grave site. What would or do you use? That would be a topic of design we could have?
The pictures I posted are from July '07 when I first opened. True my shop is small & not adorn with Telafloral or FTD signs, but my freshcut is what sells. I don't want to sound like a snob or anything but I am trying not to be part of a wire service. I'm just saying.
Thanks for taking a look at my photos. I rented the building the first week of July '07 I opened the last week of July '07
Thanks again for the great advice & encouragement!
gracey
 
Hi Gracey. I feel a bit like a computer idiot at the moment. I'm trying to find your album and am having no success. Someone please point me in the right direction! ;)

Thanks.

V
 
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