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Check Out My Work for the Society of American Florists (SAF) and the Floral Industry
The Society of American Florists (SAF) is the only national trade association that represents all segments of the U.S. floral industry. Our 15,000 members are the industry's top retailers, growers, wholesalers, importers, manufacturers, suppliers, educators, students and allied organizations. SAF is the face and voice of a strong, unified floral industry.
Powerful insight on customer purchasing trends, the shifting industry landscape and current legislation that may affect your operations and bottom line.
Proven tactics to increase your day-to-day efficiency and profitability.
Technologies, products and services that will help grow your business.
And since selling more flowers is what it's all about, SAF helps the entire floral supply chain do just that with an aggressive public relations program plus an informative consumer Web site - www.aboutflowers.com.
Whether using the SAF marketing materials provided to you throughout the year, the business building products and services made available to you at little or no cost, or the helpful hints and sage advice found in SAF publications and www.safnow.org, you'll save time and money, boost sales and enhance your professional image.
The following article is reprinted from the January 2009 Plugged In column of Society of American Florists' (SAF) Floral Management Magazine. SAF's Floral Management is distributed to more than 11,000 SAF members and is the floral industry's premier floral business practices publication.
Florists are visual people and very specific ones at that. Roses aren't just light pink, they're "bubble gum." Weddings aren't just naturally romantic, they're "'Midsummer's Night Dream' meets Mother Nature." That same level of visual specificity should also come through in your photos.
Digital photographs can be used as confirmations for senders and recipients, references for your designers, marketing images on your Web site and in printed marketing materials. But only use one that is a decent shot, not some white- washed, pixel-ated and blurred snap from a camera phone that doesn't do your usual high standards justice.
This month, sensing that maybe a few of you received cameras for Christmas or scored some year-end sales, we offer a primer on how to pro- duce professional-looking digital photo- graphs without breaking the bank.
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The following article is reprinted from the February 2009 Plugged In column of Society of American Florists' (SAF) Floral Management Magazine. SAF's Floral Management is distributed to more than 11,000 SAF members and is the floral industry's premier floral business practices publication.
Before the Internet spawned hundreds of "everyone is a critic" sites, when customers loved (or hated) your business, they may have told a friend (or seven) and, if you were lucky, given you feed- back directly. Now, they can voice their discontent or satisfaction to the masses using blogs, Web sites, social media networks and discussion boards where their opinions live for an Internet eternity. Speaking of an eternity - that's
how long it would take to manually track what's being written about you online. Thankfully, a few monitoring tools let you keep an eye out and help you address negative content.
Get Google Goggles
Your first stop is www.google.com/reader. Google Reader will be your reputation control panel, as many of the tools mentioned deliver information in a Real Simple Syndication (RSS) feed format to this site.
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The following article is reprinted from the March 2009 Plugged In column of Society of American Florists' (SAF) Floral Management Magazine. SAF's Floral Management is distributed to more than 11,000 SAF members and is the floral industry's premier floral business practices publication.
Automating your wedding and event business can spur revenue growth, expand your ability to take on more clients and increase customer satisfaction. This month, we review how several floral point-of-sale (POS) systems handle weddings.
Inventory Control
Florists using Teleflora's Dove POS can easily configure the system by add- ing an unlimited number of wedding products and organizing them using the "wedding product category." Once entered, the costs and offerings are clearly outlined for bridal consultants, who can then provide a draft order or proposal for brides without revealing price. Dove POS allows you to add and edit items into the draft order without re-keying the basic information already entered. Visit myteleflora.com or call (800) 456-4237.
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The following article is reprinted from the April 2009 Plugged In column of Society of American Florists' (SAF) Floral Management Magazine. SAF's Floral Management is distributed to more than 11,000 SAF members and is the floral industry's premier floral business practices publication.
Want to save trees and money at the same time? Use less paper. This month, we demystify the idea of a paperless office with practical strategies and solutions.
The Pros of Paperless
Going paperless will help you:
Save on paper costs, toner and ink. A ream of paper costs $6; toner for most laser printers goes for around $80 for each cartridge and ink for inkjets is at least $15 per cartridge.
Reduce clutter. Never buy another file cabinet. Start saving documents as electronic files on a hard drive - as Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF) files or Microsoft Office formats such as .doc, .xls, and .ppt. (Most accountants recommend saving records for seven years.)
Lose less stuff. Making your files digital makes them searchable. Need to know how much you charged the Hyatt for an outdoor event in August? Search by "Hyatt and August."
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