Is it me or are ftd orders non existent
- Thread starter Excptnl
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My question is: At what point in a shop's growth does it warrant a POS? When the wire service was trying to talk me in to buying their system, they said it would cut out a half of a person for our shop. I replied, "Really, that software can deliver?" As many days, we only staff a person and a half because the business slows considerably in the afternoon.
I would like to get one, but I can't seem to justify the $15K cost. If I paid a bookkeeper to input everything, it would take her an hour a day, maybe...and that would be 260 hours a year, so maybe $3500 a year, so it would take me 5 years to pay it off? And I am sure there are some ongoing costs that would occur.
Am I missing something?
I would like to get one, but I can't seem to justify the $15K cost. If I paid a bookkeeper to input everything, it would take her an hour a day, maybe...and that would be 260 hours a year, so maybe $3500 a year, so it would take me 5 years to pay it off? And I am sure there are some ongoing costs that would occur.
Am I missing something?
BOSS
FlowerChat Administrator
I think I'm a 1.... 
Too may rejects I think they told me
But I'm the only electronic game in town too :tongue
Too may rejects I think they told me
But I'm the only electronic game in town too :tongue
marigold
Well-Known Member
Seriously, you could tell I was a catholic girl who wore a uniform?
We faced that same dilemma, borrowed 10 of the 14K needed.
Without it I truly feel we would have never been able to grow past the 200K point. And it took that ability to service customers better to enable the growth. We can find an order in 5 seconds now that we used to have to say "we'll look for it and call you back".
yes you are......I think after 2 weeks of having one...getting to familiarize yourself with it and what it can do.......you will kick yourself for waiting so long...
One of the great things about pos...is that is creates amazing professionalism to your business....wouldnt it be great to have one of your regulars call and you'd be able to tell them every little detail of each of his past orders? What he sent last time.....how much he spent, etc????
to me, in my opinion......taking orders with pen and paper is like ...still having dial up............or to manually turn the tv channel....or to still be using vhs tapes or cassette tapes....no microwaves, pay phones, beepers, etc...
again, jmho
dont even get us started about the holidays.......going through all that paper.....i dont miss it at all
Knife's Wife
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Why not look into Floristware, like $100.00 a month including training if you need it and support when you need it. A good computer will cost you about $1200.00 . If you decide you don't want it any more you just stop paying for the use of the program, your not locked into anything or needing thousands of dollars to pay it off.
Talk to Mark Anderson,The owner, he is on this forum and will be happy to answer any of your questions on his POS system.
At this point I am only using it for our charge customers as we have hundreds having been in business for four generations. I love it and can't wait to use it on every order. We will be implementing that soon.
Joan
Talk to Mark Anderson,The owner, he is on this forum and will be happy to answer any of your questions on his POS system.
At this point I am only using it for our charge customers as we have hundreds having been in business for four generations. I love it and can't wait to use it on every order. We will be implementing that soon.
Joan
coastieflowers
Active Member
I have had floristware for 6 months now. I don't know how I ever got along w/o it. It has freed me up from lots of billing issues and looking thru lots of paperwork when there is a problem. Its has made our shop seem more professional. Lots of people have commented on it. They can finally read the cards...
From the very beginning IMO. A good POS is essential.
Can anyone do, for example, the following calculations without POS? - Compare this month's sales to date to the same period of late year, in each category: CC sales, cash sales, wire-ins, etc.
POS is not just an order entry, ticket printing software. It's a database of sales transaction.
Without POS, it's like driving a car in the dark with no lights on.
Back to the original subject… I think it’s the general state of the dismal economy that’s affecting sales. I do not have a wire service but I do work for other shops… whoring around the neighborhood only because my business has slowed. FTD has dropped off quite a bit here in the San Fernando Valley, CA areas. Some days I don’t see any orders… enough to check connectivity across the modems… maybe even reboot for good luck. Spending on luxuries is gone.
In my area shops have been closing left and right (Darwinian ehh?). I think those of us who tough it out and hang in there long enough will find less competition and the orders will start rolling across the printers again. When the housing boom was in full swing, flower shops were sprouting like weeds around here. I think the density was almost 1 shop per 3 square miles.
As far as pen and paper orders… I use both depending on the situation. My paper order sheet is organized such that it follows the flow of FTD order entry on the POS system. I find this makes it easier for “old school” hands to get on the system… after all you paid thousands for the “POS” (and that’s not “point of sale”). Where I use pen and paper is when I’m sitting in the “design library” with my headset on… LOL.
On another note… I was laughing at a friend of mine who still uses dot matrix printers. I should have been laughing at myself. He uses an old FTD POS system with the full maintenance contract. Considering the cost of laser printer toner cartridges and drums which can be over $100 on average… ink ribbon cartridge spools makes sense. When the tractor feed or print head goes bad on the dot matrix printer… send it back to FTD. They give you a refurbished replacement.
Well that’s my 2 cents… waiting for Heather Tuckey to jump in here… Hi!
In my area shops have been closing left and right (Darwinian ehh?). I think those of us who tough it out and hang in there long enough will find less competition and the orders will start rolling across the printers again. When the housing boom was in full swing, flower shops were sprouting like weeds around here. I think the density was almost 1 shop per 3 square miles.
As far as pen and paper orders… I use both depending on the situation. My paper order sheet is organized such that it follows the flow of FTD order entry on the POS system. I find this makes it easier for “old school” hands to get on the system… after all you paid thousands for the “POS” (and that’s not “point of sale”). Where I use pen and paper is when I’m sitting in the “design library” with my headset on… LOL.
On another note… I was laughing at a friend of mine who still uses dot matrix printers. I should have been laughing at myself. He uses an old FTD POS system with the full maintenance contract. Considering the cost of laser printer toner cartridges and drums which can be over $100 on average… ink ribbon cartridge spools makes sense. When the tractor feed or print head goes bad on the dot matrix printer… send it back to FTD. They give you a refurbished replacement.
Well that’s my 2 cents… waiting for Heather Tuckey to jump in here… Hi!
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I wish we had more incoming orders - Twila asked me today if we wanted to take one that came on the merc to Albany (we deliver there but not usually for wire ins - too far)
This one was $125 and the answer is hell yes.
We're not saying no to any order we can make a buck on as long as it doesn't look skimmed.
We're not busy enough to say no to incremental sales that will help us pay the rent.
As a matter of fact - we're not busy enough - period.
This one was $125 and the answer is hell yes.
We're not saying no to any order we can make a buck on as long as it doesn't look skimmed.
We're not busy enough to say no to incremental sales that will help us pay the rent.
As a matter of fact - we're not busy enough - period.
I disagree on some of the posts saying you can't live without it or you are living in the dark. I can tell you exactly what my sales were last year, do year over year comparisons and can also pull each customer's order from my paper file. I can tell you what we did in fresh, plants, plush as well as gift in a given day, week, month, quarter or year. Is it as efficient, no, but I can do it all in about 3 minutes longer than a few key strokes. I faithfully use quickbooks and that gives me all of the management information I need. I LOVE technology, and would love to have a system, but I can tell you that I would need to bring in 5 additional orders at our going average each month to justify each additional $100 expense, and I would bet that I am only asked once a month to look something up from the past for a customer...or to run the reports I need for management info...
BUT, I also like the idea of being able to more proactively go after business, but using a system that tracks upcoming birthdays so that I can send out reminder cards or emails...track customer emails so that we can begin to establish an email marketing campaign. And, frankly, most of our staff's handwriting is to be desired, so that would be an added benefit.
I live in a community of 25,000 and is fighting growing layoffs. Is scares the bejeezes out of me to add one more expense when we are counting every penny each month. I just need to personally decide if this is a nice to have or a need to have.
BUT, I also like the idea of being able to more proactively go after business, but using a system that tracks upcoming birthdays so that I can send out reminder cards or emails...track customer emails so that we can begin to establish an email marketing campaign. And, frankly, most of our staff's handwriting is to be desired, so that would be an added benefit.
I live in a community of 25,000 and is fighting growing layoffs. Is scares the bejeezes out of me to add one more expense when we are counting every penny each month. I just need to personally decide if this is a nice to have or a need to have.
Aye! And there's the Rub! If you don't have the system you really can not be as proactive as you'd like to be. Memory declines with age....as happens with your elderly loyal customers. If you have ANY competition, the investment is well worth the $100 per month, IMO.
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