Alexandria, VA– The countdown to Mother’s Day is on, and the Society of American Florists has compiled a step-by-step Survival Guide filled with resources to to help the floral industry prepare for a profitable and low-stress holiday.
Step 1: Decide on Product Offerings
- Prepping Your Website for Holiday Sales Webinar: Vonda LaFever, AIFD, PFCI, and Kami Martin of Flower Clique, a floral consulting firm, discuss the importance of creating a limited menu for Mother’s Day and how to present it to customers.
- Training Tips and Adaptable Designs Webinar: Derek Woodruff, AIFD, CF, PFCI, owner of Floral Underground in Traverse City, Michigan, demonstrates how to make eight arrangements in a mere 40 minutes, offering simple solutions to save time and money on the design bench. For example, start with your biggest designs, as you will inevitably wind up with broken pieces of foliage and flowers, those scraps can be collected throughout the day and used for filling out foam designs.
Step 2: Forecast Sales and Plan Staffing
- SAF NOW article: Paul Goodman, PFCI, founder of Floral Finance Business Services and author of The Profit-Minded Florist, gives instruction for forecasting sales and shows how that knowledge can help you determine staffing needs.
- Staffing Profitably for Valentine’s Day Webinar: Goodman also talked about staffing in a recent webinar where he provides step-by-step guidance how to determine how many extra workers you need to manage the holiday crunch.
Step 3: Fine-Tune Delivery
- Strategies to Accelerate Deliveries Webinar: Goodman shares how to find quality drivers, set delivery zones and charges, and track drivers’ productivity. He urges florists to implement delivery changes well in advance of the holiday to ensure everything works smoothly.
- Floral Management article How to Succeed in Holiday Business (Without Really Crying): Sandy Nielsen, president of Nielsen’s Florist in Darien, Connecticut, shared that she recruits heavily from the post office every Mother’s Day, as the holiday always falls on mail carriers’ day off. “They know the streets better than anyone, so you know they’ll be efficient,” she said.
Step 4: Communicate With and Train Staff
- Say This, Not That Webinar: The Flower Clique team shares tips on best communication practices like holding staff meetings to review schedules, product offerings, production procedures and delivery details.
Step 5: Update Your Website
- SAF NOW article: Web orders have become a major driver of sales for retail florists and yours might need a little spring cleaning. Use these five tips to make sure your site is ready for Mother’s Day sales.
Step 6: Plan Marketing
- Social Media Graphics and web banners: SAF has high-quality social media images and verbiage to get you started with social media marketing for Mother’s Day, as well as simple promotions you can personalize for your own business.
Step 7: Develop Strategies — and a Plan “B”
- Floral Management Article Floral Industry Leaders Share Key Takeaways From Mother’s Day: Read real stories of florists surviving past Mother’s Days and find ideas for your business– topics include being under staffed, streamlining production, working on a time crunch and more.
Step 8: Get Ready for the Press
- SAF Media Resources: Publicity in your local media has invaluable payoffs: it gets your name out in the community, boosts credibility, and (usually) costs nothing other than your time. Find pointers for getting journalists attention, generating positive media buzz, preparing for an interview, Mother’s Day themed press releases and learn how to capitalize on any coverage you receive.
About The Society of American Florists
The Society of American Florists is the association that connects and cultivates a thriving floral community through training, education, marketing resources and advocacy. Our vision: The power of flowers in every life. For more information, visit SAFnow.org.
