Here we are at the end of a year and ready to jump into a new one. There are so many things to think about as a business owner when end of the year approaches. My accountant keeps me up to date on the reality of how my business is actually doing and what we may need to tweak in the upcoming year. Many of you are in the same boat I am sure. I'd like to take a moment to list a few of the things that we need to reconsider or revamp as we start into our 8th year of business here at Fuller's Floral & Gift Shoppe.
1. Our website - www.fullersfloral.net is where people go to order from our shop online. We love our site, but have decided to concentrate on bringing our own pictures onto the site instead of using the stock photos that came with the site. This is very time consuming, so we will be adding them a few at a time. This should give our customers a more realistic view of our work and how we can customize our designs to fit their needs.
2. Our business hours - we have traditionally been off on Mondays, however we are always available to take calls and/or orders that need to go out. We use Monday to get the shop back in order after a crazy weekend where we are actually working, but do not have shop hours. Lately our Mondays have become so busy that we are considering being OPEN for shop hours. Although this sounds great as far as our bottom line goes...we all need some "down time" or we will get burnt out. For us, Mondays have always been a lifeboat in the sea of the life of the overworked florist. This is one that we will have to think through thoroughly and weigh both the pros and cons before coming to a definite decision.
3. Our donations - like all florists, we are the first place people go to when they need or want a donation of any sort. Whether it be centerpieces or a piece to raffle off or just a goodwill gesture, these "donations" are only FREE for those recipients. They still cost the flower shop the price of the flowers, the mechanics of the arrangement (ie. the oasis, the tapes, etc.) the picks that are used, the cardettes, the card and envelopes, the containers...these are ALL part of that donation. Now you may ask, then why do we do them?? Well there are several reasons - one is to spread goodwill throughout the community, to show support for charities or businesses that we support, and also to get a little PR for our shop, which hopefully will entice customers to order from us in the future. And much to the dismay of my accountant, we, at Fuller's Floral, are ALWAYS doing donation pieces! Many times we are asked for donations by people who are not even our customers or have never ever been in our shop. There is no win/win situation there. CUSTOMERS will get consideration FIRST! According to our accountant this practice has got to come to a HALT!!! Accountants are looking at the ROI (Return On Investment) and unless our donations can be paired with actual sales that were generated by those donations, we will no longer be able to do them.
4. Our FREE DELIVERY policy - Don't panic we will still be delivering to our Gap, PA customers FREE OF CHARGE! These people are our neighbors and friends and they are the ones we want to serve! However, we also used to deliver FREE to all the funeral homes in our area. That practice will end on December 31, 2015. Since the Funeral Homes no longer allow families to choose the florist they want to handle the floral tributes and also direct grieving families to insist on charitable donations instead of floral tributes, as well as ONLY call upon "certain" florists, we can no longer support them. Much work goes into floral tributes and the florist has to arrive early so that the funeral directors can place the arrangements and have them ready for viewing before the family begins to arrive. These timed delivery parameters usually fall outside of regular business hours and employees must be paid for coming in early and setting up. The delivery fee will help to offset these costs.
As you can see I have touched on only a FEW of the many items that come up at year end when you are in business...we will talk about a few others in my next blog.
