An Excellent Seminar for People Wanting a Homebased Florist Business

"There needs to be happiness within our daily labor before anything else, money and success will follow". Frank Lazzaro, Homebased Florist Lecturer, Entrepreneur, White House Christmas Decorator.

9/30/09

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Grow Where You Are Planted - the basic start up steps - the Frank Lazzaro Way!

It was by a large request of emails from people around the nation, mostly the unemployed, wanting to know the basics of a formula on starting a homebased florist business, that inspired me to create this unique seminar. It was the very path I traveled on thirty five years ago, when I too lost my job, my apartment, my car, that lead me to success unimaginable to me. Before I begin making my seminar presentation to you with all this information and creative ideas, I want you to be aware of TWO important factors that I would like to make very clear, and that the reader of this Blog should keep in mind throughout the seminar. ONE is that these facts are all my very own methods of starting up a homebased business. I assume no responsibility for any actions that may occur as an outcome through the information and recommendations that is given from my online business seminar. All these methods were proven successful to me, because I lived them, day in and day out for many years. I was very successful back in the day with starting my florist business this way. It is true that my White House recognition for Christmas floral decorating in the media did escalate my status to great heights on a national level, but it was my determination, desire to succeed, my passion for the floral industry and just plain old fashioned hard work that was the real "icing on the cake". The outcome may not turn out to be the same for you, or anyone else who reads this seminar, follows everyone of my techiques, and fails! I had a burning desire for success. I could not be employed and work for someone. I had to succeed and be my own boss, because I was terminated by every position I worked at, in my youth, within a very short period of time. The ship sunk and I had to swim my way in the ocean of self employment to survive. Nothing in this world, and read this carefully because it is so very true, nothing in this world would get you moving to do something faster than suffering from monetary depreciation, that alone, is enough to make the strongest of men cry themselves to sleep every night. TWO - is that you DO NOT quit your day job, at least not until you know for sure that this business you will create and build can support you and your family with a lifestyle that you are financially comfortable with.

From A Homebased Florist To A Three Store Chain - Lazzaro's Florist

Aside from my White House years, my little homebased business grew to a three store chain on Long Island, New York within ten years from starting my homebased enterprise. I had the main store in Floral Park, Queens, N.Y, the second branch store in Franklin Square, Nassau County, N.Y. and the third store in Mineola, Nassau County, N.Y. It was the 1980's and I was growing like no tomorrow. To fast, but I was young and filled with goals and powerful energy to go extra miles for success. You must also have this burning desire. Or at least meet me halfway down the road. Love this industry, love flowers, love to make people happy and enjoy your craft. There is an old saying, "What the heart wants, the heart gets!" While my family was gathering together every Thanksgiving Day for dinner, I was working my tale off in one of my three stores. I catered in a complete Thanksgiving Dinner with all the trimmings from The New Hyde Park Inn every year, so my employees and I didn't miss out on the holiday festivities. Only single employees stayed later on Thanksgiving day to work in my stores, while married employees with children at home were first to leave, and the pay was time and a half for everyone. I hung a large sign in each work area of my three stores, "Happy hens laid the best eggs!" I lived and worked by this creed and to always treat every employee with the highest respect. Nothing is worst than to work for a boss who really plays the part of Mr. Scrooge in true life. My loyal customers kept coming in all day traveling to Grandma's house for dinner on Thanksgiving Day. It was a great holiday for a florist in those days, I loved it so very much. Right after that holiday I had to fly to The White House to assist the Chief Floral Designer and his staff to decorate the Christmas Trees and create holiday table centerpieces in the first week of December for all the White House Christmas celebrations. I did this for twelve years right after Thanksgiving, rushing to the airport for the Eastern Airline Shuttle to Washington, D.C., being interviewed by a newspaper columnist about the White House decorating, and so on.

Begin A Great Journey

To begin this great journey into your own part time homebased business, I strongly suggest that you take a floral course at a nearby college or better yet, get both feet wet and work in a florist shop for about six months to two years. This is your college degree education! Your associate degree in the retail floristry business. The longer you stay working and learning in the florist shop or taking college courses, sure enough, you will be getting to learn all the "nick and crannies" of this beautiful creative business. I worked two years in a florist shop before I sailed my ship into the "deep sea of risk". Remember those ten words that the great Sir Winston Churchill said on October 29th, 1941 when he addressed a class at the Harrow School For Boys in Great Britain, "Never give up - never give up - never, never, never, never! Then he just turned around and walked back to his seat. Those ten words remained in the minds of all those young men for years to come. It was short, sweet and very, very powerful. Have a sign made just like the one below and hang it in your workspace, someplace where you will constantly see it all the time. I did it! Sometimes, the best business decision is the one you are forced into, and the incentive (as well as need) for income is often enough to push those previously "on the fence" to strike out on their own. There's nothing wrong with being in this position; it simply means there is greater urgency to do something that will start to generate income as quickly as possible.

Sir Winston Churchill

Sir Winston Churchill

Pick A Room In Your Castle For Your Business To Be Born!

You need space, small, big whatever you can create in your home for your shop to be born. I once knew someone who started this business in a very large closet. I selected my bedroom. I used to make fresh floral corsages on the bed and had the vases and other supplies under my bed. My family and I lived all together in a small apartment over my Dad's Real Estate Office. I moved back home with them after my hitch in the army so I went into my old bedroom and started building my business from there. Make sure that the room you select gets some sunlight and that you also have fresh air all around the room. Air condition is also a nice plus to have on those hot summer days when you are filling those small orders for your friends and co-workers in the middle of the night. I had a very large fan which was the thing in those days. Make sure that there is a door in the room so you can close it if the house gets to noisey with the kids and other family members. I had a little niece and nephew that stayed with us all the time and was the "shinning light in my home." When I felt tired, burnt out working so hard on a flower order with the business and just feeling lonely, I would play a game with my sister's kids and all my energy came back again. It is so true that laughter is the best medicine. How I long for those days again! You need peace and quiet when thinking of the task at hand, and you also need fun in your daily work. Use every available space in your room and find additional space by using corrigated heavy cardboard boxes and closet space. If you have a basement for storage, that is a plus right there. Try to use a spare room if possible and not the kitchen or living room. If you use the kitchen, all the work must be push aside for dinnertime and family gatherings. The living room, if you do not live alone, will be filled with people all the time. It's the center gathering in almost every home in the country. Use a room that you can call "my little shop" if possible. I was not that lucky! In my bedroom, I had to move everything over for bedtime, and move it back in the morning, but I had to do it this way, there was no other way. It was my very own "bedroom flower shop". I loved it so!

Start Building Your Interior Decor

Another important feature in your little one room homebased flower shop is to find a wall so that you can display all your floral stems, fresh flowers or polysilk flowers, together in one display presentation using vases and a few wooden boards for shelves. This way, they are all together, you will know what your small inventory looks like and keep accountable of every stem you own, plus it looks very professional if a friend or customer enters the room. (see image display below) You do not want to have that bedroom look when you have a client in the room with you. Cover the bed with a lovely floral print comforter, (I sell them in my online store). This looks so elegant in the room and adds to the beauty of a floral decor business. You can also place a wooden board underneath the comforter and use it to display your silk arrangements on top of the bed during business hours if you plan on having a few visitors over to purchase a bouquet. Remember, give friends and relatives a big discount, but try not to give away the farm. Charge something, you need the money. We only have $500. in the bank for this venture, we need everyone to chip in and help you make this business a big success. So, charge something! Don't give things away for free! You can't afford to do this right now.

Save Your Bucks and Use The Library

When I was a kid back in good old Jamaica, Queens, New York, the old Queenboro Public Library on Parsons Blvd, in downtown Jamaica was the "Grand Dame" of buildings in that day. it was a massive brick and stone building with stone statues and had about five floors of great wealth. I should know, I was a pageboy there back in the mid sixties while attending Richmond Hill High School. On the facade of this landmark beautiful building was engraved in the stone above the main entrance "These Hordes of Wealth, You Can Unlock At Will." Which means that the library is packed to the ceiling with knowledge in your florist profession, it is worth it's weight in goal, you must unlock it yourself, at your will, no one elses. You can take this great wealth and endure it in your mind and body and become someone very special or just leave it alone, it's up to you! Please get up from this computer as soon as possible and go to your neighborhood library. If you do not have a card, join it today. It will be worth its weight in gold. You will thank me someday! The library will help you with such important knowlege with your homebased business. Study how to make a simple business plan for your company and locate reference books on how to make a professional business plan or find a business college student to assist you with a free service and in return, give them a lovely bouquet of silk flowers. Use the barter system at the beginning of your business foundation as much as possible with other professional people in dealing with teachers, lawyers, accountants, etc. They have the most up to date information on business along with the library references. Computer courses at your local library also are just part of the many classes it has to offer. They have the best of CD's, tapes and information available and all of it is FREE! Remember, you have only five hundred dollars in the bank. I wouldn't trade a good library for the best business lecturer in the world to find information about my new florist business. Read books on the great Napolain Hill like "Think and Grow Rich" and "The Laws of Success". These books were my bible back in those days when I started my emporium out of my bedroom. Read them over and over again until the knowledge from this mastermind is recited in your sleep. Tapes and Cd's also of Hill's works are available for you at the library, so take advantage of this great speaker and many more like him.

Change Your Enviorment To Avoid Stagnation

Before going to sleep at night, turn one of these tapes on for a complete relaxation and an enjoyable education. Go online at the library and use their computers for an hour or two a day instead of the one you have home. Get out of the house and change your surroundings for you to be around. It's nice to go and visit different places to work in so that stagnation does not set into your homebased business living lifestyle. Get photographs of large floral designs from the picture division of the library and study the style in each. Aim for a speciality like early american floral designing specialist, or modern floral design specialist. Get yourself an area of excellence in your field of dreams with this business. Don't just be an all around flower person or bouquet maker, be different, be a bridal specialist, a funeral specialist or interior floral design specialist, a country style floral decorator, and the list goes on. Whatever road you travel down on, the library is there to assist you with your desire goals as a homebased florist. Use it, use it everyday, all the time, it's free, and if you pass these opportunities up on "free stuff," you may suffer financially with your business. The budget is very low, so bootstrap your small-fry company and get going to the library. Keep in mind this very old saying "If you build a better mousetrap, they will break the door down to come in".

Do All Your Paperwork First

Before your little baby homebased business starts to crawl, you need to continue with the next step in this blog seminar and do all your paperwork first. Get the paperwork out of the way so that you may now concertrate on the creativity end of the company for awhile. Notice I said "for a while" - because you are never done with the paperwork in any business, big or small. The mom and pop general store does it and so does Macy's. As long as you are in business, get use to paperwork over paperwork. I mean tax forms, sales tax, IRS tax forms, bookkeeping, writing checks, accounting of sales and profits and loss, inventory control sheets, etc, etc. etc. Oh, it's not as bad as it reads here, and one more important thing, registration of your business license with the County Clerk Office. Limit yourself to the paperwork. Downsize it. Do as little as possible with it, but you must do it and it must be done correctly and legally. Do not cut edges with paperwork if its going to bring up red flags and open a can of worms with the state sales tax department or the IRS. Don't cheat on this because it may come back to haunt you at a later time. Many homebased business people lied and cheat away on taxes they filed only to find themselves months or years later with an audit and sitting in an IRS office ready to stand in front of the firing squad. It's not worth it! Be honest and you will find rest for your head every night on that soft pillow in your bed. Hire a professional only when you really need one and you are waving the white flag for giving up yourself in self doing your tax forms and you need an accountant immediately. Call your local college first and see if you can locate an accountant major or a student in senior year ready to graduate with a degree in business accounting. They are out there and hungry for work and need a place to start in their field of expertise. You will also need a business plan, that is your bible and guilding angel in your venture. Hire a business student at a nearby college to assist you with this task if you can afford to do it for about three hours. A good general fee of fifty dollars for three hours is a very fare and affordable amount for a beginner college student. It will be worth the opportunity to be with a professional student who can really assist you with your start-up plan. Get books on this at the library so that you will get both feet wet before consulting about a business plan with your instructor. Try to know as much as possible before the professional business student arrives so that you are on his or her level of business knowledge, or at least they may think that you are.

Create Your Designs in a Comfortable Setting

Create Your Designs in a Comfortable Setting
be relaxed and enjoy your craft - it will someday be your life work! Frank creating a Christmas Table Arrangement in the Red Room of The White House. (What more of a comfortable setting is that?)

Put It In Writing

Wait, don't skip this next section of "Paperwork". Make sure, and I think I better capitalized this, "MAKE SURE" that if you are living in a rented dwelling, the landlord is aware of your homebased business. You must inform the landlord of this venture, no matter how small it is, because it's going to grow. Godzilla was once small too! It's going to grow and grow. My homebased business grew so fast that within two years I was in a retail store location away from my home. Sometimes we have hidden talent that we are not aware of and bingo, you are a rising star with your customers. One tells another and another and another and you become famous in this field overnight. So, inform the landlord, managing office, rental office, super, whatever and whoever owns the home, they must know. Make sure that it is permitted in the lease or just add a clause stating this in the lease, so that you will not be in violation of any laws being broken and possible eviction. You need to have these people on your side at all times, so, have a smile on your face when you are informing them, and do it first in person and then with a written document stating that a business is being operated in your home. Consult with your attorney before submitting any documentation or consulting your venture to the landlord. This needs professional legal intervention. That said, are the main subjects that we must know before the business is born.


Start Collecting Inventory

With all the paperwork behind us now, for a short while anyway, lets talk about inventory. Lets start with equipment, furniture and fixtures. We need some kind of table to work on, a few shelves and a very small refrigerator. The accumulation of all these assets doesn't come overnight. I found mine in fea markets, garage sales, furniture on the curb waiting for the sanitation truck to pick it up, donations, and very good bargain sales at outlets. My first refrigerator was a small one from a downstairs kitchen that wasn't being used. It took me years to collect all the right furnishings for my small homebased business. I wanted a country style decor look. I always enjoyed that kind of taste and used it plenty of times in my designs. It's a strong masculine look, never goes out of style and the price is cheap.

Buy Second Hand and Save Money

Buy second hand if you can. You will save a ton of money doing it this way. Don't be in a hurry, wait for the right piece to come along. build shelves on your wall and keep going to garage sales, closeouts, discount houses, and take a ride in your vehicle and drive around predominant neighborhoods to see what furnishings they are discarding this week. Also try the famous Craigslist and Ebay online bargain emporiums, the best in the world when it comes to that! You need to get the right collection day for furniture pick up if you are making the rounds in neighborhoods. I cannot tell you what elegant pieces of furniture I found just walking down a street in my own neighborhood. It's exciting to know on furniture pick up day all the antiques and wood objects come out of the attic and onto the curb ready for pick up. Try it, you'll have an interesting afternoon finding great stuff for your homebased shop. Also check the "Free Things" on Craigslist for real bargains in your own town.. All you have to do is pick it up at the person's home. You need to get a small refrigerator for storing a very small inventory of fresh flowers. Store a few vases of roses, because they need refrigeration. Check with your wholesaler about other flowers that can remain outside the cooler. (We will go into all this down the road in this seminar). In the images I have selected below are equipment that will be available for you to purchase and place in your homebased florist. View this collection and see if you can use something to add to your shop. For a one studio size homebased florist the refrigerator in the image is the perfect size. Remember, equipment that you purchase stays with you for a very long time. I carried all the equipment and fixtures that I purchased from my "homebased" days into my retail store front location. You can always sell it later on if you business outgrows it. Tables too can last forever. Buy sturdy solid wood tables if you can allow that in your budget. It's a good idea to get a small cooler with a glass front so that if you get a few customers into your homebased florist, they can view it from the glass. It also makes a lovely presentation in your business. I did it the wrong way by having a regular refrigerator with no glass front showcase image. It was terrible, I had to always open the door for my customers to view what I had inside. It looked very unprofessional and I had to change it over when the money started to roll in.

Simple Floral Designing

Your Delivery Vehicle

If you are delivering floral arrangements to hospitals or homes, use your own vehicle if you can at the beginning or rent or lease a station wagon. It's the best way to go. Contact your insurance agent about this and inform them that you are delivering floral arrangements in your vehicle, to make sure that you have the proper insurance coverage for delivering flowers. You must be insured for this kind of transporting. Do not let anyone drive your vehicle unless you contact your insurance agent and inform him of this. You may need a commerical registration with your vehicle when you open shop. I knew a florist that hired a teenager with a license to drive her car for a floral delivery and he got himself into an accident. The florist had nothing but problems with this for over a year because there was no coverage for this vehicle operating as a business vehicle. Read the fine print in your insurance policy and change it with your agent if you must do so. Your homebased business is your new baby and must be insured properly according to the laws of the state. Telephone and computer: you need both. Period! Case closed on this. Use your cell and get yourself online with a one-page website from Go-Daddy, Network Solutions or Verio. The cost is cheap and worth it. They are the three best hosting companies online at this writing. Register with some search engines and leave it alone, they will find you. You need to concertrate on your homebased business in person more than online. There are millions of florist online, so don't bother with a fancy expensive website and designer. Get your name up on a one page website and offer your services and then exit the computer. You will stand more of a chance getting customers if you hand out your business cards at the PTA than waiting for someone to give you an order online at your website. It's just professional business to have a webpage, and that's it.

Make a Checklist - The Refrigerator

1 - We have designated a room in our home to call "the shop" and we are starting to move in the fixtures and equipment for our little grand opening coming up. We have a small 36" refrigerator with a display window on the front to hold flowers such as roses and orchids and a place that will hold flowers for a customer to pick up their floral arrangement, bouquet or corsage.

2 - The Fixtures

We have found a solid wood table with shelves on the bottom to create our masterpieces on them and hope to sell them for a small profit. There are shelves on the walls for our supplies and shelves on the floor for our vases to be displayed on filled with silk and fresh blooms. We have an excellent model cash register and calculator. There is a computer in the room along with a business telephone. (The telephone should be designated for business purposes only). We have a small bulletin board for orders and special orders for weddings and orders of the day. We have a calender on the wall larger than an eye chart. We need to make sure the date is very clear when taking orders from the telephone. We need a small writing desk for customers that are visiting your home shop, and to be comfortable. These are all the basic start up fixtures that should be in your homebased business shop.

3 - The Equipment - Delivery Transportation

You need transportation or know someone with transporation that is available to assist you with deliveries. No beating around the bush, without some kind of delivery system in place, you are not going to get far in the florist business. Without a small vehicle of some kind to start you off with, you are not going to have a full operational florist business. A station wagon is perfect and it is what I recommend at first and in the early stages of your business. That is what I started out with more than 30 years ago. Deliveries of floral arrangements including funerals and weddings were ninety per cent of my business. Make sure you have a good operational vehicle and make one of your goals to be owning a full body floral delivery van as the business grows. This is really the only top priority on the list, a delivery vehicle, everything else falls behind this. Do your homework and visit leasing agents online versus purchasing a new vehicle from a dealership, for the best deal in a van. Also, ask around to friends and business associates if anyone is selling a preowned station wagon or mini van to start your businesss off with. Put your name up in a small ad at the wholesaler's marketplace for fresh cut flowers, stating that you are in search of a vehicle for your business. Use online websites like Craigslist.com and Myspace to find the right vehicle. Ebay is one of the best and I recommend it also. You must check up on everyone before any financial transactions take place. DO NOT GIVE ANYONE CASH when dealing online or even in person. DO NOT BRING ANY CASH with you when you are inspecting the vehicle. Talk to your attorney for any dealings you think is a little shady. Check the BBB.org (Better Business Bureau ) before you even think of giving a dealership any money. I recommend very strongly that you purchased a preowned vehicle from a dealership before you purchase from a single person advertising it. You are backed by state laws dealing more with a dealership than a private owner. Make sure you have a road assistance company behind you when dealing with deliveries and with your drivers. Keep the insurance policy in tack and always up to date in payments so there is a very smooth coverage every month.

4 - The Supply Inventory

The supply inventory to start your homebased business with is very important. Everything in your "start up kit" concerning supplies should have top priority on your list. You need a good heavy pair of wire cutters, no questions asked. That is one of the most important workshop tools in a florist. You need rows of color ribbons that can be purchased wholesale online at the below advertising box of Dollarsdays. The homebased florist cannot do much without wrapping paper and tissue paper! You will need a good stapler to wrap the bouquets along with pens, business cards, delivery tags, and all occasion cards for your orders. Select vases to place your stems in at discount stores.
This way you will save a ton of money with shipping and freight charges. Keep the vases all white and the same color, it will make the flowers stand out in the background. Plastic type vases are the best and the cheapest, I purchased about ten of them at Walmarts a couple of years ago for a project I was working on. Twelve to sixteen inches tall are the best for all assorted fresh cut floral stems or artificial polysilk stems. Keep away from rose and corsage boxes until you start making money. Wrap roses in cystal clear paper and make it bouquet style. this presentation is so elegant if done in a professional fashion. Look at the video below for an example. Here is a little secret that you will find very useful when collecting your supplies for your beautiful little florist empire. Go slowly and take your time to get the right price. We are not open yet, we must collect supplies a little each day from everywhere. The fea market, discount outlets, garage sales, yard sales, online ebay stores and many more. It is going to take a few months to collect this basic inventory and everything you need for grand opening day when it comes. Stock up your shelves with florist supplies everyday. Look for cheap deals all around and whereever you travel. It will come to you when you least expected. Be prepared with a few dollars in your wallet for the deals to be purchased. Never buy full retail price, always wait until a sale is born, and then wait for the eleventh hour for the "fire sale" to come. Need a special item for a wedding? Go to Google's search for what you need, sooner or later, you will find it. (use the Google Search above this webpage blog).

How To Wrap A Rose Bouquet

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Be A Wedding Florist Specialist

Now that you have selected the space in your home for your shop, and you have the equipment you need to start your business off and running, you need inventory and merchandise to sell. first, decide what kind of a florist business do you want the world to know your company as. Are you going to be a wedding specialist, creating bouquets and centerpieces for one of the most happiest times in people's lives? Did you ever consider being a specialist in designing elegant funeral baskets and sprays to people in their hours of saddness? Do you enjoy making fancy fruit and candy and gourmet baskets for holidays and special occasions to all your friends and customers? Or maybe you would rather just be a general store type florist where you try your hand at everything and keep a balancing act with your craft. The point I am trying to make at is that if you build a better mousetrap than your competition, the world will beat a path to your doorstep. I was a wedding specialist in my three store chain, ten years after I cut the ribbon in my homebased florist. The company grew so fast, because I had a speciality, and gave it my full devotional love. I hired the best people to be by my side. I hire "Fifth Avenue" wedding floral designers that were award winning designers and the best in the industry in New York. It paid off. People came from all over New York to have their wedding done by Lazzaro's Florist of Floral Park. We were rolling with the best designers, delivery staff and more weddings than I could ever imagine. The secret, I went the extra mile! I gave every bride and groom who came to my florist for their wedding flowers a fine bottle of champaige, placed in a white giftbasket and wrapped with clear paper touched with a white bow, and given the night before the wedding as a special thank you gift. The night before the wedding was very special in my shop. We had "inspection nite" of the bouquets and table centerpieces from the bride or a designated person from her family. I did this so that there will never be a discrepancy on the wedding day after the flowers are delivered. A horrible experience any florist could have is getting a telephone call from the bride, crying an hour before her march down the aisle, that the florist delivered the wrong color and style floral bouquets to her. This is a worst horror than winning a million dollars in a state lottery and loosing the ticket.

Keep Your Eye On The Soup!

Here's a true story! I was at my friends wedding one Sunday afternoon dancing and drinking and having a great time when in the middle of the reception I was paged with an important emergency telephone call. I ran to the manager's office and it was my competition friend florist in the next town begging me to let him in my shop and use my fresh cut flowers and borrow my designer because he "forgot to do a wedding" and the bride was getting married in three hours. (He traced me down because my store was open also and my employee informed the florist of where I was). I saved the forgetful florist from a very serious lawsuit from the bride's family, had I not come to his rescue. The morral of this story is that you must be on top of your business constantly and not have ten other things cooking on the stove at the same time. He was a greenhouse florist too and that took all of his valuable time up. My mother said it to me time and time again, "Frankie, keep your eye on the soup - never let it overflow onto the stove!"

Be Cautious With Caterers

Another point I must bring to your attention if you are deciding to go the wedding route for your forte in the business. Many florist shops are having major problems with caterers in this day and age, brides requesting their own personal florist to do the table centerpieces at the reception. Caterers have their own florist called, "In House Florist" which means that the bride booking the reception must use their florist, and their florist only. The florist, most of the time, is a retail store somewhere near the caterer or there could be an office set up room with table floral samples inside the caterer for booking the floral centerpieces for the wedding reception. Not so fast! If a bride and her family demands to the Banquet Manager that they want only a special florist to make the centerpieces, most likely the caterer will give in to this request not to lose the sale of booking the wedding, but they must get it in writing. Sometimes, the caterer will charge the bride and groom a "buy out" fee for not using their own florist. This is a very unfair policy, and I would fight this in court if need be. Avoid if possible dealing with catering facilities and restauants for a percentage of your sales of whenever they sent you an order. Do not let them deal with monetary transactions with your florist business and take "your bridal order" from their office. Take all the bookings for the wedding flowers in your own enviorment, no one else. Try to established a good relationship with your nearby wedding catering businesses. Give them holiday wine baskets and chocolates and they (the wedding banquet managers) can become your best friends. Only thing is that you must draw a line when it comes to business and set your rules straight right from the start of your first introduction, otherwise, you may be heading for trouble down the road. Do not let anyone handle your floral orders outside your business, this is where your reputation is at stake. You know what you can do, you know your inventory and what you can afford to create for their needs, you handle the order alone or a designated employee of your business, but keep it under your roof and out of the hands of funeral directors, banquet managers and other related business people that deal with flowers in their enterprise.

How To Make A Bridal Bouquet

Maybe A Funeral Design Specialist

If weddings are not your cup of tea in creating a speciality in your shop, how about being a funeral designer specialist? In other words, people will come to your door in their time of sorrow for that very special funeral design that you are so very well known for. We did plenty of funeral designs at Lazzaro's Florist back in the day, that was also my speciality. It was mostly an Italian-Irish Christian neighborhood so these funeral creations would go over well. I use to place a white dove in all my funeral pieces as a symbol that the design was created with love from Lazzaro's Florist. People loved that added touch and use to tell me, "Frank, don't forget the white dove you always put on your pieces"! To get started, you need to get your feet good and wet with this task. Start with funeral floor baskets and work your way up to sprays and wreaths. Take a floral design course and major in funeral designs or go into your local florist and work free for about five days just to learn the skill. Inform the florist of this assignment that you are undertaking. (This is the same as paying for a college course, if there isn't one in your hometown). Read some good books at the library and work hard on coming up with a special design touch to call your very own. As sure as night follows day, if you have that special touch in creating these funeral displays, you will have the customers at your doorstep. In this business, the biggest advertisement you can have is "word of mouth". Nothing, I said nothing, beats a good recommendation from someone else praising your style to someone else. It travels like the speed of a bullet. So roll up your sleeves and get to work on some unique designs and sample images to show your customers when the hour of grief arrives for them. Photographs of your masterpieces are worth its weight in gold.

Use Honey When Dealing With The Funeral Directors

Recommend you deliver these pieces in a large station wagon or van to start your funeral business off and running. As a special tip taken from 30 years in the business, be nice and sweet to the owner of the funeral home, the director and undertaker. Remember Abe Lincoln and his famous words about "You can catch more bees with honey, than you can with gall". They can make a big difference in your success or failure with customers and recommendations in that funeral home and with their customers. You need their full co-operation with your business if you want to succeed as a funeral design specialist. The funeral director can be very accommandating or very uncooperative with your delivery personal, they call all the shots! Remember one important factor in reference to funeral flowers at the funeral home. Do not take the funeral arrangements back to your shop after the funeral and the undertaker discards them, if the family doesn't take it to the cementary. This is a practice that goes on many times a day with some florist, It is not a good one to have. The containers are a different story, they can be reuseable again, but not the fresh cut flowers. It's unprofessional and the flowers will be weak and of a poor grade if reused again. I once saw a news broadcast about a florist on Long Island that was turned in by his neighbors to a television reporter for bringing funeral sprays back into his shop after the funeral in the local chapel to reuse all the flowers and baskets again and lining them up outside his store because there was no room inside. It was reported on the famous "Shame on You" by Arnold Diaz many years ago. This is one way "Not to get yours business in the media

How To Make A Funeral Cross

A "General Store" Florist

A General Store Florist is a "Jack of all Trades" florist. One who does everything and fills any order that comes along. I was that kind of florist. Your customers will decide if you become a specialist in weddings or funeral designs. Your workmanship will be judged by your customers to bring you to the very top of this profession as a excellent floral designer. So do your very best in your creativity, and above all, never show a temper or loose control of a situation at hand. Be calm at all times, you are being observed by your customers and employees too. I had first a general store florist shop after I left the homebase to go into a brick and mortar storefront, this is what I did to surrive. I sold everything related to flowers and did every order that came in. I once did a funeral piece for a famous piano performer by designing a baby grand piano (down to a scale of what the real size is) of white carnations and mums. The keyboard was done in paper a brought from a piano music studio. The strings were done in metalic gold ribbon, and the top of the baby grand was lifted upward. The base foundation of the piano was cut styrofoam white boards. The complete piano was about thirty six inches high created in shades of white and ivy flowers. It was simple beautiful. My shop was small so we closed the store altogether and my staff of two and myself worked on this masterpiece until the project was completed six hours later. It was a beautiful elegant funeral design. I will never forget that day. You too will face these challenges as time goes on in your business. You never know what the next day will bring. There's sorrow in everything and even in this business. One beautiful Saturday in mid December I once did a wedding and the next day I was doing the groom's funeral. He died at the reception. You must be prepared at all times for whatever may come your way. On New Year's Eve in the mid 1980's I was leaving my home for a party and suddenly received a telephone call for a family that needed twelve funeral sprays of flowers immediately for a funeral the next day and coming in very early to select the arrangements. I canceled my party and prepared for their arrival. The business always had top priority in my life above everything else. This is the only way you will be blessed with great success, for sure. Drop everything, and give full attention to what is at hand, and go the extra mile. I had coffee and donuts on the store's counter, for the family, as I awaited for their arrival. My customers crowned me with success. I became the best florist in town for my weddings and funeral designs. On Thanksgiving Day in the early 1980's, we had to give numbers out because the line in my store was going out the door and around the shop. The moral of this lesson is to "Give the customers plenty of beautiful flowers, and give them their money's worth with excellent service, they'll come"!

The Holiday Florist

Holidays are a life saving time of the year for florist especially now in these hard times of unemployment and bankrupted companies with so many dark clouds of recession over the nation. It is a time for us florist that waited for this "extra nice" financial injection, that we need so very much. After the long dog days of summer are gone, I always looked forward to the new beautiful fall season that was approaching my business. I knew that with mother nature's changing seasons, the holidays were not too far away. Be prepared for the holiday rush, no matter how small your homebased florist is. Once the word is out that you own a florist, the customers will come calling on you, so be prepared. This is the order that I feel are the best five major holidays for a florist to prosper in. The first is Mother's Day, secord is Valentine's Day, third is Christmas, fourth is Easter and fifth is Thanksgiving Day. Be well prepared for them and you should do just fine. Keep a diary of each holiday for yourself to read the following year along with a list of the "I should have never done it this way" mishaps. You would need to record in your florist diary the very important factors for that day. The weather, the temperature, ( On Valentine's Day 1981 Long Island was hit with a surprised major snowstorm of over 20 inches and I had 4000 red roses to sell in my cooler), An approximate count of people that came in on that day, the best selling flowers, arrangements and what did not sell and do not ever buy this item again. List the amount of helpers you had on hand for the holiday and the payroll figure so you get an idea of what to pay out the following year. Keep a copy of all wholesalers receipts for that day in the journal and items that were purchased on that day if any. Write statements that will improve the production of this holiday in your shop for next year's holiday. Write also what task did each employee worked on that day and was the holiday a success or failure. Do not advertise in any major newspaper about your holiday centerpieces. Everyone knows it's a holiday and if in need of flowers, they will come into your shop. I always opened all my stores in September. The weather is cooler, fall is a beautiful time of the year, people start to buy again after the dog days of summer have just pasted away, and it's the birth of a new season annoucing that the holidays are soon coming again. I leave this lesson with just three words for you about flower holidays, BE WELL PREPARED!

Mother's Day Flowers

I always said in this flower business that everyone has a mother, living or deceased, and they all need flowers for that day. The cementary roadside florists do millions of dollars of business on Mother's Day for their customer's love ones that are deceased. The physical brick flower shops and online retail stores also do millions of dollars on the best florist day of the year, so jump on the bandwagon yourself! Be prepared! I cannot make this more clearer. Have lovely vases to create your rose arrangments in and place a sample of a couple of holiday arrangements right on the counter for the world to see. Make your pink colored bows by hand a couple of months before the big day. Fill your containers with oasis for arrangements well in advanced of the holiday. Order your flowers early and as your need them. Keep a nice supply on hand and keep calling the wholesaler when you need more. Order only what you think you need for the task of the day at hand. Mother's Day is also a coursage holiday, so have some on display using cymbinium orchids and elegant bows. Try a few chocolate and gift baskets and you are going to have good sales with them. I always say, everything with flowers sells on Mother's Day. It was always the best holiday in my stores. I made the most money from that holiday than the rest of the holidays all together. Have lots of helpers on that weekend once you are established, you are going to need them. I was a member of FTD in those days and the wire services were also very big in demand. We were one of the first shops to go computerized with the FTD console computer back in the early 1980's, and it was a preowned type machine that will shoot out orders from other florist around the country. I was FTD, Teleflora, Florafax and Redbook. I will tell you about wire services in the next lesson after I have completed the lessons on each of the five major floral holidays.

Floral Designing

Valentine's Day Flowers

Valentine's Day was the second largest sales holiday in my stores, providing the weather was in our favor. Nothing can beat the nightmare I had on Valentine's Eve 1981, when I just owned one single shop. New York was hit by a North Easterner, and what a blizzard it was. Over twenty inches of snow fell the night before Valentine's Day on Long Island. The wholesalers delivered my flower order earlier that week so we can clean all the roses, 4000 of them, a nightmare from hell. I slept in my shop that night and worked around the clock with a sign of hope that everything will be ok, it wasn't a good day at all. To make matters worst, I booked a wedding on Valentine's Day in the area, and come hell or high water, the bride was going to received her flowers for her wedding that day. My driver and I walked to the Bride's home less than a half a mile away from my shop and she received all her wedding flowers. The wedding was nearly a disaster also, but the sun saved the day for the bride and groom as time went on into the evening. With a homebased business, do not buy more fresh flowers than you can handle. Keep a low profile with this holiday with your buying habits or you can be hurt very badly in your pocket, until you know your customer needs on Valentine's Day. It's a red, white and pink roses holiday and many males want roses for their sweetheart on Valentine's Day, but be careful, a snowstorm can kill your budget immediately. Keep boxes of chocolates in your small home shop and wrap them with red valentine's paper. I always brought square or rectangular boxes of fine chocolates, never a heart shape chocolate. What I didn't sell on Valentine's Day, I took the elegant wrapping paper off and re-wrapped them with pastel floral paper and sold them for the next holiday, Easter. If they didn't sell for Easter, I re-wrapped them for Secretary's Day and then Mother's Day. Again I write this over and over again, have plenty of help from relatives and friends around to do things like clean roses, water the dish gardens etc. Remember that Valentine's Day is a "one shot" day florist holiday. It can be a real paradise of a day or a nightmare for you. I had a sign in above my desk counter, "Save 10% and send your Valentine flowers on February 13th" - that was working well, but most customers wanted it delivered on February 14th. Keep other types of flowers around and make the bouquets in advance the night before the big day. Always keep plenty of supplies on hand, wrapping paper, boxes and delivery personal for last minute deliveries. This is a day that you will not know what is going to be expected. The preparation is over a month long, all for this one single day. Make the best of the situation at hand and do not fear anything. I use to just toss my worries to Heaven and let the angels take it from there. I didn't have time to worry about what could happen on that day, I was too busy running my business, and it needed all the attention and time from me. Substitute roses in bouquets and arrangements with regular assorted floral centerpieces using pom poms, carnations, baby's breath, golden rod, september weed and other types of flowers that are grown all year round. Use a novelty teddy bear holding a red silk heart in white, tan or in the brown family and about 8" - 10" high and place in the center of the design for a great focal point. This Valentine's Day arrangement was a big seller and it will steal your customer's hearts away, It will sell off the walls. I also created a Valentine's basket with flowers and chocolates and assorted nuts and fruits. A little bit of everthing all in one lovely design. Try it. If you have any questions contact me. Open early and close a decent hour on Valentine's Day. Now, I have here written in this paragraph good news and bad news for you to read about Valentine's Day. The good news is that, after a few good years with your homebased business, and you have a loyal customer following, and you are slowly progressing with your business, you will make enough sales income on Valentine's Day alone to pay all your bills for one month. The bad news is that many undesirable people also know that you have plenty of cash on hand, and would like to take some of your money to pay their bills. I always stayed open until 8PM on Valentine's Day evening, and also had a security guard walking around the store and at the front door when I had the store. There are people out there that know Valentine's Day is a florist money maker holiday, so they will also try to jump on your bandwagon to see how your money feels. Be one step ahead of everybody and be alert all the time. There is an old italian saying, "Keep your eye on the soup," don't let it over flow or you will ruin your soup. I also had a dummy video camera on the store's ceiling aiming at the cash register, very noticeable to all the customers, and looking just like the real department store video security cameras of that day, less the expensive cost of purchasing the real McCoy. Do you remember the dark gray box hanging on the ceiling with the two lens sticking out at Macy's? I also hung a sign on my entrance door, "this store under video surveillance". So the deal is, get security for your business and have peace of mind. Why Valentine's Day for the biggest robbery of florist in the nation? It's a one day "money maker" selling of a product in demand for that day, and that day only, February 14th. Easter, Mother's Day and Thanksgiving are all spread out about a week, and Christmas flower buying starts right after Thanksgiving, but everybody wants to buy flowers on February 14th only! AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS!

How To Make A Christmas Centerpiece

Christmas Flowers

Christmas is a beautiful time for florist. I love that blessed holiday very much. I worked very hard during this period of time when I had my homebased business and tripple hard work when I had the three shops in addition traveling to The White House for my Christmas decorating along with meetings with the Chief Florist. With all these stressful task on my plate, I long to find my happiness again in my single homebased business. No matter how heavy the load was on my back to carry, I always found time for the one thing that gave me complete peace of mind and great tranquail in my body from the stress, and that was Sunday Mass. There is nothing that meant to me more in the world than attending Mass in my parish church, how I long for this addicting visit to "God's House" so very much everyday. Even from this day, while I am typing this seminar, I haven't found any greater joy that will ever dominate my Holy Mass. The point I am making is that you need an outlet for your holiday stress. After one Easter holiday back in the eighties, I was so burnt out with the long weekend of floral centerpiece production and two weddings for that day, that I needed my little haven in the sun. I let the crew sail the ship and I went overboard to Montauk Point, my little paradise away from the business. You need to let go once in awhile, rebuild your body and go somewhere to recharge it. The best advise I have for a homebased florist during the Christmas season is "PLAN EARLY". Order poinsettia plants early in the month and sell what you have and then re-order more. Do not fill up the room with your holiday plants if you have no orders for them. Buy as your go along selling them. Poinsettia plants are not in demand after the holiday, so sell what you have and try other things in the plant family. I love working with dish garden planters. Make your own or buy them already made at the wholesaler and you can do so much with these beauties. Decorate the dish garden with Christmas trim, santa pick, add artificial candy canes and clusters of mini giftwrapping boxes, silver and gold balls, bells, and the list goes on. After the holiday, what you don't sell, take the trim off and keep watering the planters and use them for the next holiday, Valentine's Day, and so on. I had dish gardens that I used over and over again with each season and decorated them with the holiday trim for that month. Add bows and trimmings to your dish garden to make it look like a work of art, and you will see your sales bloom with this great product. During the holidays or after Christmas, if in need of a sympathy piece, place the dish garden in a elegant wicker basket with a liner, ad a lavender trim bow, maybe a white dove or praying Madonna small statue in the center of the planter, and you have a very elegant table sympathy piece to place in the funeral home during the wake. Make candle centerpieces and fruit baskets for your Christmas display so your customers can view them and select the one they want to order. Christmas is a centerpiece holiday and poinsettia holiday so keep a nice inventory in your homebased business and try to monitor what your wholesalers have. Call them everyday and monitor their inventory so you know what is on hand should an office or commercial account contact you at the last minute for gift giving ideas. You'll be surprise how many calls I received on Christmas Eve for last minute Christmas gifts. If your homebased business is located in a commerical zone of your town, you can have a santa promotion to draw parents in with their kids to visit Santa in person at your homebased business shop. I had a Santa Claus in my shoppe every year and it was always a big hit with the neighborhood children and families all over town. If you have the space, time, extra money on the side for promotional advertising and want to have fun, go rent a real life looking santa costume from a rental store and give your driver an extra bonus for playing santa for three hours. You will see lines going outside the door, it happened in my shop every year. I loved it, and we all had a ball drinking hot cider and eating gingerbread cookies. The customers complemented me on this great idea in a florist shoppe. Have this event for your Christmas Open House and you will be a big hit in the neighborhood, it made me a rising star with families all over Long Island. Open House is highly recommended if you have the space in your home, in a commercial zone and have a few bucks put away for special events like this. I had two open houses, one for Christmas and one for Spring, right before Easter, during Holy Week, (Palm Sunday weekend). The secret of a successful Christmas open house is advertising and plenty of beautiful designs around to show your customers and take orders. Make these designs for samples so your customers can view them in person while drinking eggnog and munching on holiday treats. Keep the shop open for sales and keep extra help around, you will need them. Remember, to have fun doing this also, laugh with your employees keep the carols of beautiful holiday music in a nice soft tone in your homebased business. It is truly the most wonderful time of the year, and also a great money making time of the year. Season Greetings to you and yours.

Easter Flowers

What can I say about my favorite second holiday next to Christmas. There is a very peaceful feeling I get when opening my shoppe on a beautiful Easter Sunday morning. How I long for this lovely holiday to arrive each year. The spring flowers are all blooming, the birds are singing and mother nature looks her best! It's Easter, and you are a part of all this. Fill the homebased shop with colorful blooms for spring and leave them all around your small homebased business. Make bouquets and have an Easter Basket special for customers to order for this holiday. Keep some fruit baskets, chocolate baskets and assorted nuts and gourmet baskets on hand along with potted Easter Lillies. these are all great sellers for this holiday. Trim all the plants with spring color pastal bows and Easter picks. Dress your window up with some of those large plush Easter Bunnies surrounded by blooming plants and flowers. Send out invits to your Spring Open House and have plenty of cookies on the counter for the kid, they'll love you for this!

"You Gotta Own The Bricks!"

If you own your home, hold on to it if you are starting a homebased florist business. "You Gotta Own The Bricks!", my father used to say to me all the time. Renting an apartment or living in someone else's home ownership may not be the best for you in a homebased florist business. You need the freedom of having deliveries of flowers and UPS without a Landlord over you and watching everything coming in and out of the house. Once they see your business booming, they will raise your rent! It happens most of the time, so write down one of your goals that home ownership and homebased florist all under the same roof. It happened to me with my landlord, who had an office over my store, plus we shared the electric bill which made matters worst, because he started to computerized his complete business with office machines. You'll thank me for this lesson someday.

Thanksgiving Flowers

Thanksgiving Day is no longer the "great big holiday bust" as it was back in the old days. People would rather purchase cakes and pies over a floral arrangement. Even though it isn't like the old days, Thanksgiving Day is still listed as a major flower holiday to many florist nationwide. Be prepared for this holiday and have plenty of fall flowers on hand. Flowers in shades of bronze, browns, whites, yellows with dried foliage leaves. Use a nice assortment of different fall flowers and especially in the mum families and make sure that they are cut and put into water as soon as they arrive in your shop. Place a small ad in the local pennysaver if you wish, that always helped me with morning sales in my business and have a shop special. The specials work well during these very difficult times of cutting back on special items that people can do without. Open early and closed in the later part of the afternoon. People travel all day on Thanksgiving Day. First to grandma's house and them to the In Laws, and then to friend's home, etc. etc. Make fruit baskets and candy baskets for extra sales that can come your way unexpectedly. Decorate your 8" mum plants with basket liners or foil and a large autumn bow. Keep them moist and watered while in your homebased shop and add Thanksgiving picks and small holiday trim to make the plants a beautiful presentation. Keep a few good people on hand to help you until you close for the day. Try to make deliveries the day before Thanksgiving, so hire extra people on hand to deliver flowers. Remember what you do not sell for Thanksgiving, don't worry, use them in everyday fall arrangements or a funeral spray if an order comes in for one. Mums last a long time and you should be able to use them all up within a week if you have ordered modestly. Get some shut-eye because you need to get ready for the big holiday approaching very quickly.

How To Create A Thanksgiving Centerpiece

Be Very Careful When You Hire Someone

So, your business is growing and you need help! Well, so what! Hold out if you can. Don't hire unless you really, really, really need a helper with your homebased business. Once you hire, it's very hard to discharge someone if it doesn't work out. I have been washed with all kinds of water, dirty, clean, muddy! I once hired someone that had a very bad temper, but I didn't catch on until later down the road about three months into his employment with my business. One small constructed remark to aid him in a funeral design that he was assisting me with caused him out of the clear blue to throw the complete funeral spray with flowers again the wall of my store. I had to discharge him immediately. During the night, he came back with his friends and totally recked my new Ford Van that I just purchased from the dealership a month before. It was a nightmare that remained with me for months. The police was no help at all in Queens, New York. They were too busy trying to solve other important crimes. You don't stand a chance if you have a store in Queens, New York and someone recks your business vehicle. There is just not enough cops for this low priority. How I wish, when this happened, that my homebased business was back with me. Stay small, you will have more peace of mind. Before I end this lesson, I will tell you another quick "one" that happened to an FTD florist in the mid 1980's in Texas. (I forgot the city). I read this story in our FTD trade magazine. On Mother's Day morning a driver was loading up a large florist delivery truck with hundreds of deliveries for Mother's Day recepients. Hours pasted and his boss started to get calls from his customers saying "where are the flowers I ordered to be delivered?" Later that afternoon it was reported to the florist that his driver, along with a few buddies, were seen by witnesses selling the orders on a downtown street corner and stealing the money from his employer's hard labor, yes, they were all arrested.

Would You Enjoy Being A Wedding Florist?

In this lesson, I will tell you the fundamentals of this skill and using your creative talent in making wedding bouquets and consulting brides about their wedding flowers. Weddings use to be very seasonal back in the day with most of them in my shop being booked in the Summer and Indian Summer of the year. Now-a-days, weddings, due to the recession, are being booked all year round and also during the week. I am seeing plenty of Thursday weddings these days because many people in this country are facing serious financial problems, lost of employment and just living pay check to pay check every week and reception halls give the place away at "Bargain Basement prices" on a weekday.

Make Weddings Your Area of Excellence

Once you established yourself as a professional wedding designer and if you are very good in your craft, you will have great joy and financial gain in this field. First thing I did many years ago is to check out the bridal magazines in the library and study the bouquets used with the fashions of the day. Bridal magazines have elegant gowns with very little floral content in its bouquets that the models are holding. Most brides are holding a one stem white rose or a small nosegay type design. Fine and dandy, but this is not the average bride that holds the bridal bouquet down the aisle. Most brides want an elegant bouquet using the flowers of the season. Remember the magazine wants to sell the gown, not the bouquet. Learn this craft of bridal designing and get some great books at the library in reference to different styles. Below is a video of a basic bridal bouquet that you can learn to design within a short period of time. Try it out! Go to the supermarket and pick up some fresh cut flowers and make a bouquet and then try it again in a different style. This is how I learned to be one of the best on Long Island many years ago.

Ten Basic Steps for Starting a Homebased Business At Any Age

1- You must have the deep desire to succeed and to have your own homebased business. 2 - Know what your passion is, and then go after it with all your heart! 3- Sell a product tht you'll enjoy being around most of the time and have full knowledge of the product that you are selling. If you are going to sell flowers, you better be a florist and know how to create floral arrangements. 4- Have a major credit card on hand for emergency backup and start up capital with a credit line of $1000.00 or a higher amount for a little financial cushion. 5- Start very small, "tiny small" and grow where you are planted. Buy wholesale supplies and "odds and ends" at the dollar stores and build your business before purchasing products from your wholesaler. 6- Have a positive mental attitude and persevere towards your goal everyday. Write it down on paper what you want to achieve - imagine success of this business on a daily basis. 7- Do not fear making decisions. Write it down on paper. Seek professional advice from junior accountants with reasonable fees and online free advise attorneys when necessary. Above all, keep your eye on the soup at all times. Never let the soup on the stove overflow out of the pot. 8- Watch every penny you spend - your business is completely shut down and closed up when you run out of funds to keep it going. 9- Be proud of whatever kind of business you own, even if it's just a lemonade stand. Smallness is soundness in today's business world. Walmart was once the size of a telephone booth before becoming the world's largest store. 10- Above all, ask for divine intercession from Heaven to intercede and guide you to the path that will bring you abundance and great financial prosperity with peace of mind and great joy!