Episode 070: Being prepared for a major holiday, like Mother's Day, can make the difference between order or chaos. It always feels good to “check it off your list.”! Join Vonda and Lori as they share their holiday check list along with ideas to ensure you’re ready as possible for the weeks ahead.
The Business and Pleasure of Flowers
Flower Prep School
Flower Clique
Sales Prep School
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist
Episode 070: Being prepared for a major holiday, like Mother's Day, can make the difference between order or chaos. It always feels good to “check it off your list.”! Join Vonda and Lori as they share their holiday check list along with ideas to ensure you’re ready as possible for the weeks ahead.
The Business and Pleasure of Flowers
Flower Prep School
Flower Clique
Sales Prep School
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist
Be mindful of the traffic flow inside. What if you have several customers and what are the guidelines? Are you going to have to limit the number of people in your store? Welcome to the business and pleasure of flowers. We're your hosts. Fondel of fever and Lori Wilson. And we believe that business and Fen are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Wanda,
Speaker 2:Laurie, we are less than two weeks away from mother's day. Oh gosh. We are, we are a little kids on mother's day. I know they're not little kids, but my little adult children, I get to see one of them. My daughter, she's going to come home from Dallas and she has like a little two week reprieve before she starts her internship. It just happens to fall over mother's day. So yeah, I get one, one baby, 26 year old. So that's okay. Other than that, no, I haven't. And I've been kind of sad about it and feeling super sorry for myself. I've been looking at plane tickets because my thought was at first I was going to fly to Ohio and be with my boys and bring Bailey too. But then my reality set in, and my youngest who is in the fancy restaurant business was like, mom, that's my biggest money maker day. And just like, you know, and I was like, well, you're right. You're right. So that's not a good weekend to come because then he would feel bad. He would want to take off. And anyway, the hardest time is the first and second year when your kids aren't with you for mother's day, I know that it's just like, you know, you celebrate when you're together another time and you know, you get the calls and it was like first few or the hardest L'Oreal no, I know I've already been, trust me. I've been thinking through it and doing everything I can to feel as sorry for myself as possible. But the problem is no one else in the house cares. So last year, during my mother's day, I had two kids at home, two out of the three, and we went to the Lake of Lake close by. We rented a boat for the whole day. It was so much fun. And in my mind I kept thinking I was going to do it again. And my husband was like, do you want to rent a boat again? I'm like, no, you and me, that's not fun. Just you and me in a boat, but no, thank you. So, Oh, he's trying. He's trying. He was like, what? Like that. I just don't. I just don't see that being that exciting. Nothing against him, but no, no, no. Anyway, so it'll be fine. What are you doing? Mother's day? Oh, I don't know. I'm just the usual. You're going to be set out and enjoy some, hopefully
Speaker 3:We have our dogs. We do. Yes, exactly. So today I just wanted to do a quick checklist for mother's day because I know everybody's getting busy. Everybody's like, Oh little flowers are going to come in, but I just think it would be helpful, which is what we try to do. We try and, and helpful to just kind of plant some seeds. And in your mind you can go. Yep. I did that. Yes. Check, check, check. So it's going to be just quick and easy here.
Speaker 2:Get this one as short as we can. Cause I know people got it.
Speaker 3:Obviously you have your flowers ordered and foliage and that's coming in. You know, when it's coming in, uh, the specific delivery dates that they're coming, be sure that you have your DCD, which is to clean the buckets. Make sure your buckets are clean a hydrating solution, whether that's a hydro floor or a quick dip. And then of course your flower food, make sure you have all those supplies on hand. You want to also be sure your cooler is clean. This is a time to do a deep clean this week. Get it cleaned out, ready to go, organize, put extra shelving in. If you need to, whatever it needs to be to have a very organized cooler. Okay. Now we're going to go to the design supplies. If you're using flora foam check how much you have there and ready again, the vase preservative or flower food tools with your knives do not break out new knives this week because that means you need to have more bands.
Speaker 2:Oh, I didn't never think about that.
Speaker 3:Well, a lot of times shops will do that. They'll like, Oh, I'm going to get some new knives for my staff. And then that just causes some problems because we get really working fast and it can cause problems, especially with newer employees. Um, car debts are card holders with care cards, which we'll say add water daily or whatever so that the customer has a longer lasting flowers. And then of course cleaner for the design table within reach, take that DCD, put it on a spray bottle so that you're cleaning your table in your tools to make sure everything's lasting a long time.
Speaker 2:Fonda. I remember when I was going through flower prep school with you learning didn't you or Julie, when you were talking about like all these spray bottles, one of you had a tip about color coding, so you don't get confused.
Speaker 3:That's a really great idea. Yeah. So if your cleaner is a different color than your sealer, like if you're using a crown and glory or a finishing touch spray, that should be a different color than your cleaner. That's a great idea. Yeah. Then supplies check all your vases. Make sure you have enough supply to get through for your roses and your in-store specials. If you're doing ribbons and you're tying them on basis, can I'm done now? Don't wait until after the design is complete plant bows, make extra plant bows or get the plants all dressed and ready to go.
Speaker 2:I can make bows just so you know, I learned remember, yes. That's all I can tell. I know how much to give today because this is all you. So you guys taught me how to make posts. It's very good, Laurie. Thank you.
Speaker 3:Check on your enclosure cards and your envelopes for the people who have come into their store and I'm filling them out themselves, but also on your super tickets. What do you have there? Do you make sure that you have enough supply to get through the holidays? Green plants and blooming plants and dress them up, right? Laurie?
Speaker 2:Yes. With bows, with pre-made bows and butterflies. I think he didn't realize I did the butterflies. I know you're dead. So they're so cute.
Speaker 3:So then when you're getting ready for the flowers to go out the door, whether it's going out to the delivery driver or from the front room, be sure that you have enough tissue. If you need ribbons, cellophane bags for the front counter, and then those little packets of flower food that you can send out with wrapped flowers, make sure you have all of those things. Um, let's see. Then we're going to go to policies for delivery. What is the policy for your delivery? If the person's not home, are you leaving them on the step depending on your weather? I know we're doing contact free delivery in most places. So if you have to train new drivers or temporary drivers, are they texting first? Are they calling be sure that everybody clearly knows the policy because this is the time where it's like, Oh shoot, I forgot to tell somebody. Right, right. Make sure you have extra drivers. Do they need clipboards, pens, log sheets, delivery boxes, check your stock of all of those extra little things you're going to need.
Speaker 2:Right. What about make sure all of the vans are filled with gas. Yeah. And everyone has access to some sort of GPS. Well, whether it's on their phone or, you know, whatever. So they don't get lost and they
Speaker 3:Know where to get the credit card to fill up the car. How
Speaker 2:Does that work? I've always wondered that what if you're out of your delivery driver, when you're out driving the van and you need to get gas, is there a shop credit card that they keep
Speaker 3:Or sometimes there's the shop credit card or there's a certain gas station that you go to. We used to have a little local gas station. You would go and you'd sign the ticket and those days in the day, but usually there's a credit card. Um, and you know, you're getting low on gas and so you just go get that company credit card and get that taken care of. Well. And how about enhancements?
Speaker 2:Enhancements? Yes. Um, additions. Well, this goes back to sales training, right? Make sure all of your staff is aware, especially of any product that you purchased specifically for mother's day. You know, it's great to offer a balloon or a candy or chocolate or whatever, but what about the inventory you purchase specifically for the holiday? So make sure everyone is aware of that. Something I tell employees that are going through our, our sales prep school is when you walk in your store, look around every day and go, what, what do I want to highlight today? What do I want to share with the people that call on the phone? Because remember they don't know what you have. So I would go to the little section of your store. That's all about mother's day and pick a product, right. That's right. Product and focus on those. Maybe write it down on a little post-it note, put it next to your, uh, phone. So when you're talking to them, make sure you have those types of things to share with them. The worst they're going to do is say, no, thank you. I'm good. That's right.
Speaker 3:And you want to make sure your sales staff is trained and ready to go,
Speaker 2:Right? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because mother's day it's not as busy as Valentine's day or is it just about the same nowadays?
Speaker 3:It's actually a busier holiday. Volume-wise but since it's spread out for the whole week, it's like everything doesn't stay. It goes Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then some on Sunday. So it's more spread out. So it is a very busy holiday. It's not as stressful because it's not all coming up.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, and then, so that's really good information to share with your employees, especially if you have new employees to explain to them, this is kind of, what if you've never been through a mother's day, week? This is, this is kind of what, what we do
Speaker 3:Be sure that your store is ready. I mean, walk in your front door instead of just like coming to the back door, like you always do, because you're going to see things that your customer does. Wow. What about those cobwebs? Right? Oh my gosh. Maybe we need just a little bit of fresh paint here or we have to dress up our front door with a reef, you know, something that looks like they're welcoming you into that store. Right. And then be mindful of the traffic flow inside. What if you have several customers and what are the guidelines? Are you going to have to limit the number of people?
Speaker 2:Well in your store, those things you have to. So, and the other thing I think about as I was saying earlier, you know, go look at your mother's day. Merchandise, have some bundles kind of already created, you know, if you have a lot of plants setting around in the front room, put some other things around with them. So if I'm walking in and I need to grab something for my mom and I see a cute little trio over here, I can just grab it. It's already done for me. And don't be afraid to already put it in a cute little like cellophane with the ribbon. You know, I have a couple of them to show, Hey, this is a grab and go if you want it. Okay.
Speaker 3:I love that. And think about how people are really mindful of health these days. Maybe you want to do a little healthy basket, right? Something that you don't always keep in the store. But that be a great add on for somebody else when they're coming in. So I love that idea, Lori, what are they going to see when they walk in catches their eye two or three things together and just one and done it's right.
Speaker 2:Is three none. Well, and just like in Valentine's day, don't be afraid to reach out to a local business and say, Hey, do you want to partner with them? Do you want to give me some gift cards? And then I'll give you some stuff and we can throw that in there. You know what, mom, isn't going to want a beautiful plant with a gift card for a pedicure or aromatic candle. Like that's perfect right there. Love it.
Speaker 3:I think that's an excellent idea. The big deal, I think, for any holiday, but especially mother's day is communication with your staff. Like you just said, they know the expectations. They know it's going to be busy all week. We might have to work another extra hour on, you know, Wednesday night, Thursday night, Friday night, Friday night, we might be a few extra hours. It's gonna be a long day, set them up for success because you want to know right away. If somebody can't go because their son has a basketball game and they are not going to miss a basketball game. Well then you know that you can work around that. So everybody needs to know
Speaker 2:What to expect. Right? Right. Just like me wanting to go visit my son. He's like, I can't take off work on mother's day.
Speaker 3:Like that's not accurate. You've already been told that's not an option. So, you know, sniffly, if that's yours,
Speaker 2:Your plan set that expectation way before the week of mother's day starts. And speaking
Speaker 3:Of employees, you have to take care of your employees.
Speaker 2:You do have to take care of your employees. You need to make sure they know you appreciate them. Right. Again, set it up by having a, maybe a quick little team meeting going, Hey guys, mother's day is coming up. I know some of you have been through a dozen of them. Some of you haven't been, this is kind of what it's going to look like. It's all hands on deck, but here's how it's different than, than Valentine's day. It's going to be fun. Here's my expectations. Here's what I need from you. What do you need from me? You know, and, and be open, you know, so that if they're like, well, I do that Tuesday night as my daughter's ballet recital. I don't okay. Let's work. Let's work on that. Let's figure it out together, but just be upfront.
Speaker 3:Right. And also as an owner or manager plan meals for that week, it's going to be hard for people to take a half hour, an hour out to go to lunch. So bring lunch in. And it's so much easier to do that now to plan that, then that day you're going, Oh my gosh, what are we going to have? Oh, what, what, what, what should we order? So really think about that. Or even talk to your, your team and say, okay, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, I'm bringing in lunch. You guys tell me where you want lunch from and let's just make it organized. Make it fun. Exactly.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, and like I said, some of our shops that do that, it's funny because a lot of their employees are like, Oh, we want you to
Speaker 3:Make that
Speaker 2:Crackpot, dah, dah, dah. Then she's like, Oh, well I was thinking of catering, but okay. It's it's they get really excited, you know,
Speaker 3:Did, that's interesting that just kind of triggered. We would have one day that everybody brought something, it wasn't towards the end of the week. It was like the like on Wednesday or Thursday, everybody brought a Crock-Pot of something. Or if somebody didn't cook, they just bought the book.
Speaker 2:Everybody needs some buns, bring the rolls, do something. So again, it makes them feel like they're a part of a team. Right. And who doesn't love to be fed. I know I do. So it's a great thing.
Speaker 3:Flower shops are known to have a lot of food.
Speaker 2:You have said this many times, you do got to make sure you have that balance. You don't want to just order pizza and chips and chocolate.
Speaker 3:Like you got it. Something healthy. You do otherwise, you know, like, Oh my gosh, I can't. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then headaches start fatigue starts all of those things. So, um, you know, make sure that there's always water available. And I even suggested if you get bottled water, if you don't have a water thing and you get bottled, I would get the smaller size ones because what happens? We grabbed those bigger ones you're walking around. And then you go to talk to somebody, you put it down, you forget which ones is which, and it's becomes very wasteful.
Speaker 3:Well, that's why right where the water is. You have to have a marker permanent marker. And then you put your name on it. Laurie.
Speaker 2:No, that's, that's, that's very, that's me. Isn't it, Laurie? Yes. That's very, very true. And then you have to expect the unexpected,
Speaker 3:Like I said, you don't want those new knives, but it usually happens that somebody cuts their little finger.
Speaker 2:That would be me. You know, that I've done it it's me. I would be that person. So make sure you have your bandages and headaches. That would be me too
Speaker 3:Tylenol. And unfortunately the emergency phone number, you know?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Not only the emergency for like an ambulance, but for the fire department. Whoo. You gotta have all of this, but I think the biggest thing out of all of this, when you go to communicate all of this with your staff, be excited, you know, set the tone for what that week's going to be. It can be fun. Like you said, it's not as fast paced and crazy as Valentine's day is like Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, or, you know, leading up to it. It is a whole week. Um, one more thing that I would touch on is make sure, I mean, we know there's a lot of, uh, shortages, right? Going on with whatever plants you're getting. It's, it's a lot of it. You're, you're just at the mercy of whatever you get, but it's so important for your employees when they're on the phone. Or if they're talking to a customer that walked in, if they're looking for something specific and you don't have it, tell them it's so important that they start that with. But here's what we do have changed that conversation from a negative to a positive focus on what you do have and how you can still help them
Speaker 3:So important, Laurie, because otherwise they're going to be discouraged and they're going to walk away, walk away everything you do with confidence. Right,
Speaker 2:Right. And share with them what you do have the majority of those people, I'm going to say 95% of them are going to go, Oh, okay. That'll work. That 5% that are really looking for only that specific thing. That's okay. They probably weren't going to be a repeat customer anyway.
Speaker 3:Right. Totally agree. Oh, well I think those are great things to focus on for the holiday. It's a checklist. Check them off and move on and be ready for all those flowers and foliage to arrive in your door in a few days.
Speaker 2:Yup. You guys got this, you've done it before. I have confidence in you.
Speaker 3:You're going to do great. Yes. For sure. Well, Laurie, what is giving you inspiration or inspiring you today?
Speaker 2:Okay. Well, what's inspiring me today is that I'm going to be doing a walk. Um, when this goes out, I will have just done it the Sunday prior, but it is a walk of kindness. It is for my friend, Mindy, who is she does her seven days of kindness. Um, it's a non-profit thing that they do every year because her dad and son were murdered seven years ago, I think anyway. So they've turned to the week of that tragedy into every day. Something to be kind yesterday's word was discovered. And so they did a bunch of things. So anyway, I've been conditioning for the walk because I want to be able to walk the mile. You can walk as long as you want. They, they want you to walk at least 1.3 miles because REIT who was her little boy was 13. So as long as you walked at one point, so anyway, I've been inspired to do that. So I've been walking every day and I'm doing great and I'm feeling good. And I'm excited. I'm excited to actually achieve a small little goal that maybe six months ago, I never dreamed I would ever be able to do again. So, right, right. Tired by that. What about you Vonda?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm inspired by something a little strange, but maybe you'll think it's not because it has to do with the turtle. No, I love turtles. So I know the turtle podcast, but I was outside and just walking around and my dog little bellows started barking like crazy. And I'm like, what? In the world? And I go over and she's barking
Speaker 2:At a turtle. So why that inspires me is sometimes we just overlook things. And so the inspiration is, keep your eyes open for the little things and the puppy who had never seen a turtle before. And this little head kept popping in and out and out. She couldn't figure it out, but you just have to look at the little steps and continue to be inspired by those. I love it. I can see little Bella, her low rear end up in the air and her now and going, what the heck is this saying? So that's, it's, it's very inspirational. So, all right, you guys, you got this have a great week and we'll talk to you soon. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa, we look forward to seeing you next week. So please come back and join us and discover how
Speaker 1:In one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.[inaudible].