Now is the Time to Prepare for Mother's Day (Yes, Now!)

Episode 219: Join Vonda and her guest, friend, and co-worker Kami Martin in this episode dedicated to the art of preparing a flower shop for Mother's Day. From the inception of design ideas to the photo shoot, discover the intricate process of creating new products for this important holiday. Vonda and Kami share insights into the often-overlooked steps that can set your flower shop up for a successful and profitable holiday. Tune in for valuable tips and essential insights to make this Mother's Day a blooming success.

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:04

There's so many things. This is we're really truly taking them behind the you know scenes here.

SPEAKER_02 0:10

Um we're looking at Welcome to the Business and Pleasure of Flowers.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever and Lori Wilson, and we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

Good day, clickers. We're so glad you joined us today. Here I have a special guest because Lori is away, actually going home today from Glyffey. Her and Ellie had a long weekend at uh Great Lakes Floral Association. Before that, they were at NextGen SAF in San Diego. So they've been on a long trek. And so I am blessed to have Cammy Martin with me today. Hey, Cammy.

SPEAKER_03 0:59

Happy to be here. Yes, I'm also ready for Lori and Ellie to be off their whirlwind tour and back with us. But I know they've been busy and having a great time and meeting new people and old friends. It's been good. Been yeah. Excited to have them.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

It's a yes, I'm with you. It's exhausting, you know, to be on the road that long, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:21

Each weekend, like they're gonna need some time to recoup. I agree.

SPEAKER_02 1:26

Man, but we're ready for them to be back. So what we have spent the last week, week and a half, is really kind of powering in on Mother's Day. Gosh, there's so much to get accomplished. And I thought, you know what? It would be great to be able to share that with our collickers because maybe they're behind the eight ball. Maybe it's like, oh gosh, we don't think we needed to start Mother's Day for a while. And the truth of the matter is we started in January, yeah, you know, doing those preparations.

SPEAKER_03 1:58

Yeah, with photo shoot. And I mean, well, we'll just get into all of it. I love this idea. Give them like a behind the curtain peek at what we're working on, and then maybe it'll inspire them of what they could be working on. And then if they're already a Flower Click member, then they'll just rest assured of what's coming, right? Actually, like the end of this week.

SPEAKER_02 2:21

Yeah. End of this week. Yeah, it's really our goal to have the information to our members a minimum of seven weeks prior. We're shooting for eight, but that's coming up pretty quick here. So we'll see. How long have members been asking for this, though?

SPEAKER_03 2:35

I mean, honestly, it started like the week after Valentine's Day. People started asking. And I was expecting it. And then when I give them the answer of we'll have it to you by early March, they're usually happy with that.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

You always know it's coming, so that's why you start pushing Ellie and I in January to have the photo shoot so that when we get through Valentine's Day, you have a date that you can confidently tell them we'll have things ready for them.

SPEAKER_03 3:01

Yes. Yes. I think every time I get on here, but if I'm talking about the website at all, I'm always saying you should make your website match your in-store specials. So you tell the customer what to buy, you show your menu on your website. So we start there, you and I. I mean, of course, we start with the photo shoot, but we have to know the end goal of what we want to feature now so that we can tell the customer what to buy. And that's what we've been looking at. We've been looking at what to feature on the website, what are going to be our specials for Mother's Day? And then we can work backwards, right? But we start with end goal.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

We start with the end goal. We actually started with last year's look for Mother's Day. And then we're like, okay, what needs to be changed from what our members have in inquired about or suggested, and what we know is a little bit trendy because we want to make sure there's something a little bit different. And you're right, we have to have the end goal because if we don't have that end goal first before we start our photo shoot, then we could end up with not having anything that we really needed. Right. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 4:15

Exactly. So we look at that, we're projecting what's going to be on trend, looking at all of that. We come up with the end goal and then we work backwards. Okay, so then knowing all of this, then this is the tool that you need for inventory ordering. These are the containers you're gonna need, these are the flowers you're gonna need, right? So that's where we're headed.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

And that's why people are wanting it so soon. Is that I always go, my gosh, yes, it's only the middle of February. What do they want Mother's Day for already? I like that's it.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

Literally had an email this morning from a member that said, shh, my wholesalers are hounding me for my orders. So pre-orders and those kinds of things, just you know, to get it in, get it in. And so they can start projecting. It just it all rolls downhill, you know. It does.

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Shoes. I think what's hard to understand a lot of times for a shop who's maybe never done this before is that you have to create the recipe before you actually make the design. And I think most of the time, designers like, oh, I'm just gonna make something pretty, and then we'll recipe it out and see how much it costs. Works great if you're not worried about certain price points. But we know that we have to shoot for certain price points for every single consumer, which gives us a wide range. And in order to do that, you have to make pretty much 80% of that recipe before Ellie and I start making the designs or do the photo shoot. So 80% do the design, do the photo, then after the photos are there, then I can look at those and correct the recipes, whatever we had to make in any little tweaks on those.

SPEAKER_03 5:58

It's funny because I'm I'm smiling as you're saying this, because I'm gonna be honest, we've done it wrong before, right? I mean, at this point now, you're an expert, but there have been years past where we finish a photo shoot and we're like, oh shoot, where's our $79 design? Where's our $79 design? Where's our $59 design? And you've become really hyper aware of that. You and Ellie have gotten that down to a science. And now we're like, okay, there's our $79, there's our $59, there's our, you know, and so it look so you are still meeting the needs of your customers.

SPEAKER_02 6:34

Because Cammy would say to me every time, ah, ah, ah, where's this?

SPEAKER_03 6:39

Oh, yeah. But we start to fill out our Mother's Day category or our homepage, and we're going, what about the $59 client? You know, and so uh we've gotten really good at it though, I will admit, because you're working backwards, you're looking at that from the beginning.

SPEAKER_02 6:55

Yeah, I and you're right. I didn't used to, but we we've made those corrections for sure. So then once we see the images, photo shoots done, look at the images, there's so much to do at that point. I mean, Ellie sends them away to be clipped, come back, she has to do some color correction because maybe something wasn't quite right. And it's really the key is to make those designs the most attractive and desirable for the consumer who's looking online.

SPEAKER_03 7:27

Yes. So the color correction, all of that, but then there's also times when we'll get it up on the website and it looks dwarfed, right? Or it looks huge. That happens where it's like a $59 cylinder, more compact design, and it looks huge next to the $200 one. So those corrections that were we go through, you know, even as having done how many photo shoots that you guys have done. Still sometimes we'll go, oops, got that one too big, or that one has a lot of willow coming out of it or foliage and it to fit in the little website square will look um smaller than it actually is. And so we have those adjustments. So these are all things to consider. I had a lady ask me the other day, she did send me her some of her own photos, and she said, Why does it look small? I said, Well, it's got these extras that are coming out, and I can cut those off and make it bigger, but if you want those to be included, it kind of makes your design look small. So that's something to consider too. And we it is be careful about.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

Yeah, and that's a really good point because I used to love to use curly willow in everything. Yeah, but now when you do curly willow, it really can't shoot out the top. You just have to have it very dwarfed in there. And then, of course, as a designer, you can extend that line when you're making the design, but the consumer doesn't understand that. Yeah. It looks teeny tiny.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Almost like knock their socks off when they actually get it, you know. That makes yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Yeah. Yeah. So but you made a point about the different sizes. And I, as you know, look at probably thousands of websites to take a look at what we want to make sure we're doing right and what not to do. And you go on websites and you're like, oh my God, this $60 arrangement looks like it should be 200 because it's so much larger and it looks like it's full of flowers. And you have to look at it through the eyes of a consumer, not through the eyes of a designer. Right. Which is really tough to do sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

Right. Also, as they're coming up with designs, since we're still thinking of that, a lot of our shops love that we keep them all around. You know, it's not just that one-sided, one-dimensional design. That's something to consider when you're coming up with that recipe and taking the photo.

SPEAKER_02 9:50

And remember not to put all the flowers to the front. If you're doing an all the way around design, people truly can't see those flowers all the way around. And with the exception of like roses. If you're doing 12 roses, the customer wants to see 12 roses. You can't show them six roses and sell there's 12 in a vase because they're not getting that, right? They're thinking something's not right. But there are most things that if you're doing an all-around design, be sure and have some flowers in the back that you're counting in your recipe and you're counting in your pricing that it makes sense to have it that way. So yeah, very good point.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

And I haven't told you this, but a lot of times when I'm showing a new client the recipes, they love that we do that and they'll say, Oh, I see that little sunflower peeking out the back. They'll they'll see it. Their designers, I will see it, you know, but they also like that they're going to send something out that is all around and their customers gonna like. So I hear that. Right. Oh, that's that's good. No, that's really good. I haven't given you. Just heard it last week.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Nice. Okay, so now I've got my images. They're look like they're gonna be great on the website, but now this is where we throw you in, right? Now you have to do a name and a number and description. Woo! That's really a hard part.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Well, it's become increasingly difficult because our library is so large. We have two libraries, you know, and it's like, have I named something cotton candy clouds yet? I don't know, you know. And then this year, this year, so we have a beautiful design. Let's say cotton candy clouds. I don't even know if that's what we ended up naming it, but we have something like that. And then we thought, you know, that's good for year-round, but let's give it a good Mother's Day name, too, because we know that names sell. And we were always trying to, we're listening to our to our florists, and we know what sells. So many things sell based on the name. So we named it two names.

SPEAKER_02 11:48

You have one that named My First Love, My Mom. And I'm like, oh my gosh, there you go. That's totally a bestseller. That's totally would be my son. Tyler would do that. He's like, Oh, of course, that's it. That's the one.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

Or we have one called Blooming with Gratitude, you know, and it might have uh something else the rest of the year, but but it's gonna be a big seller. We named them like that. We also, as we're describing them, you have to literally describe the arrangement. You do, you need to for several reasons, but we're also trying to add some keywords in there. There's a lot of things to consider when you're doing your own photo shoot, but uh having a description that describes the arrangement also can maybe grab if someone's searching Florist in City, you know, and then there that leads them to your site, right? Because of some of those keywords. We're done with that. Check it off the list, right? We've got the description, we've got the names, we've got them coded, we've got them sized correctly, looking at them on the website now, next to each other. Then you and I have to decide how we want to lay them out in the Mother's Day category. So we're looking at okay, there's so many things. This is we're really truly taking them behind the you know scenes here. In the curtains. Um we're looking at color balance. So where your eye goes on the page and it needs to look pretty. We're looking at giving plenty of options, like is there a $59? Is there a over $100? Is there a $99? You know, we're looking at price options, we're looking at styles.

SPEAKER_02 13:36

I think the styles, the colors, the prices, because we want to be able to accommodate all moms. I mean, like I I look at your daughters, and if they're looking on a website, we want something that the young audience would want. Now, maybe they're not the ones who are purchasing, but they're looking on there with their dad, right? And going, oh, mom's gonna like this. Now, Matt, he might like something else. But, you know, you look at those things, and my sons are gonna like something different than your family would. I would want something different for my mom. So then you're looking, okay, color balance, styles, age groups, you know, different parts of the United States, you know, all of those things kind of like play into okay, where are we gonna place these designs on the website without having too many? Because we know the paradox of choice, we don't want to paralyze them. We want them to go, oh my God, I love that one. That's what I want. Yep. And, you know, click and buy.

SPEAKER_03 14:35

So we're looking at it from the customer's perspective always. We are always doing that. But then we also have to take into account inventory, the designs that you actually can feasibly make and mass produce kind of thing. So that's another thing is we're like, okay, we've got maybe the standard version in one row, and then a couple rows down, we've got the super premium version of that same design, and then a couple of rows down the deluxe version. And from the customer's point of view, they don't necessarily see, oh, that's a smaller version of that same arrangement. They don't see that, though. But as the florist who has to pull from their inventory and they can't have everything under the sun at all times, it just makes total sense. And that's what we're doing too, is we're orchestrating. That's a good word. We're orchestrating. I like that. That just came right out. Orchestrating, like, okay, to make this consumer friendly, but also very florist friendly for them to be able to pull off Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Yeah, I love that. Yeah. Orchestrate. That's our new woes for today. Yeah. I like it. And the other thing we want to encourage you, if you're doing your own photo shoot, you're getting things ready for your website, don't only put things on there that you like. That's something that you can really get into a trap. It's like, well, but you know what? I don't like that. Or my customers won't buy that. Well, if you don't want to expand your customer base, keep it the way it is. But if you're looking to encourage new customers to come to your shop, try something different. It's just one space on your website. It doesn't hurt to have that on there for them to look at and go, wow, I've never seen that before. I think I'll try it. So that's my encouragement is don't cut yourself off of something that might be a bestseller that you don't know because you weren't willing to try something.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

I got to hear it firsthand from our members in our shop talk about two weeks ago. The totes that we've started featuring. We've done a few shoots when we did Some for Christmas, Valentine's Day. They're very on trend. If you look at other sites or other florists and such, they're on trend, but it's it's different. It's not a glass base, it's not a cube. And so some of our florists have embraced them. Some of them have got it slowly and said, okay, I'll give it a go. And then I got to hear the feedback from many of them in our shop talk, and they were just saying they were flying out of the cooler, they were easy to design out of. Now there are still some that are hard nose, and that's okay. It's okay. Those that tried it, they're keeping on. They're like, What are you doing for Mother's Day? Are you still gonna feature some of those for Mother's Day? You know, and so it is good to just take yourself out of your comfort zone every now and again. The same is true for price point, right? You've always said it, it's the same type of thing. Don't sell out of your own pocket, right? You're gonna have someone that comes in and wants to spend $300, and it always kind of takes you back. You're like, oh, okay, take okay, you know, but you'll say for that price point, the same is true for the designs you're showing. It may not be your style, and then there's I'm not gonna say which design it is, but there's one on the Mother's Day that Vonda isn't a huge fan of. And I'm not gonna say which one it is, but I love it. I love it, and I'm always like rooting for the for this little guy. I'm like, I like it. Vonda, let's keep it in there.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

And she's like, oh I'm like, no, no, and she's like, yes, yes. It's always open. Cammy won. It is, it's on there. So just because you're practicing what you're preaching.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

It was your design. It's just you just sometimes you walk away and you're like, I love that one.

SPEAKER_02 18:29

But um, yeah, it was a bestseller last year, actually. So I did pull the numbers, and and so Cami is correct. It's like one of those. Ah, so anyway, but okay, so now we have everything finalized, everything's on the website. Then we bring Ellie in because she is the graphic designer, she's the artist with a different mindset, maybe, than we have, right? So she's the youthful one that comes in there. She is, she's the young one. She's the young one, and so she has suggestions for us as well. And at first, when that happened, we were a little taken back, weren't we, Cameron?

SPEAKER_03 19:05

Well, you and I were definitely in our zone. We've done it for 10 plus years together, where we come up with this mix and we've just been in this groove. She's right most of the time. And it just we are open to that feedback, just like we're saying florists need to do it.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Right, right. So once she comes in there and then gets that all finalized, then we turn it to the florists and send them the preview. Here are the containers you need, and we also do a spreadsheet that has each one of those designs with every flower that's in that design. So they can buy our pre-made bundles or you can do the spreadsheet.

SPEAKER_03 19:44

Or both. You kind of build them into the spreadsheet. This is what I always refer to as Vonda's labor of love. Um, because you can you don't love doing the spreadsheet, but our members love it. And Vonda, you do it at Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_02 20:04

Because those are the biggest holidays that are hardest to predict to kind of tally what flowers you need.

SPEAKER_03 20:09

And yes. And so this is the way I explain it to a new member coming on as they're looking at it. Let me just describe it. She puts the pictures of the arrangements that we're suggesting that they feature. You can kind of get a little thumbprint picture of it, and then they can project how many of that design they think they're going to sell. So if they put 10, then they plug that into a certain column. And then the output then shows okay, if you're gonna sell 10 of these and 15 of these and 10 of these and 20 of these, then these are the exact number of flowers at the bottom of the spreadsheet. It shows exactly how many of each flower they need to buy, what containers they need to buy, and how many. And then it also outputs if they buy our bundles or our bouquets, it simplifies that and says, then you need to order this many of the Cosmo bouquet, this many of the Cloud Nine bouquet, right? Correct. That is correct. When I show that to our members, they love it. I mean, they love it. And I don't know how long it takes you to create that spreadsheet, Vonda, but it is a huge doesn't matter because you know, like you said, they love it.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

And I usually get 10 emails, and which means there are more people who think it they're like, just so you know, I love this. And I'm like, okay, that drives me. Okay, I got it. I got it. Yeah, yeah, I'm in the middle of doing that right now. So just yeah, this little encouragement, Cammy, thank you. I will finish it this afternoon and get mixed one ready to go. So it'll be good. Very good. After you fill out your spreadsheet and you get all that ready to go, send it off to your wholesaler because then you have that pre-ordered, you're ready to roll. Now you can't just breathe easy. I mean, as shops, you know, now we have a little bump with St. Patrick's Day, Easter is somewhere. What of a bump. You have prom, Passover, Admin, Professionals Day, all that before Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_03 22:07

Yeah. All of it. There's so much. It just gets really busy.

SPEAKER_02 22:11

It does. And then, of course, then we have cheat sheets or sales sheets that Lori comes up with and she talks about it all the time. How you have to train your staff to know how to sell what you have in the store and not just be taking orders and selling other things, right? And then you have to order more and it's just a terrible cycle if that happens.

SPEAKER_03 22:32

Yeah. So we like to create these. You called it a cheat sheet. I think we call it a sales sheet, sales script. We have several different things we've called it, but over the years, that and the designer's resource guide. So oh that's better. Now this is this is wait, we have about two weeks until those are done. So that just shows where we are. We've said what we've been doing, right? Now you're working on the inventory spreadsheet that's coming soon for our members to be able to order because that's what's first. They've got to get their order in. But then there's all those tools, like you said, and and sales sheet to have by the phone. So the salespeople are actually selling what's in their cooler, what's on their website. It's that ecosystem that all works together and just verbiage so that they're not saying, How much would you like to spend on your mom today? We don't want to say that, right? Instead, it's like, how can I put my best foot forward just like we've been talking about the website? I want to do the same thing over the phone. So we come up with these sales sheets and pictures for them to use and the D designer's resource guide so that those recipes are readily at their fingertips in the design room. We make it where they can print them and put them in a binder or the plastic sheets or however they want to do that. Some of our shops use those tools as menus to hand to their customers too. So if you've got people in the store, not the resource guide so much with the recipes, but the sales sheet, they will hand those to customers and use those as like, here, here's some of our specials and and show those.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

So and we've also had some shops take those to King's and have them blown up as posters and on their wall, right? Yeah, they do.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

They take them and run with them. Yeah. I love it. It's all things to be thinking about now because it's gonna get busy.

SPEAKER_02 24:25

So it's gonna get busy. So let's just put this down in a recap. If you haven't worked on Mother's Day yet, this is the time. You've got a couple weeks before you're gonna get really busy with Easter and the rest of the holidays. So this is the time if you haven't already started. So think about the Mother's Day designs. Take a look at the containers that you have in the store, or if you want to use basic glass, whatever. Look at your containers, think about specific flowers that you want to use or sell well in your area. Now then you're gonna come up with design recipes. You're gonna either hire a photographer or make sure that you take really good, clear pictures. And then after you take them, you gotta tweak that recipe and price them out. And price is really important. Take a look at the prices that you're gonna be paying for flowers on Mother's Day, not today's prices, but Mother's Day, those little elevated prices. And then you're gonna clip the images because it's really important. Cammy, we've you have this all the time. You need to have clear images, right? On the website. Yep. You want to take it from here? This is where you take over usually.

SPEAKER_03 25:37

Honestly, Vonda, it's a lot. You're all I keep thinking, I keep smiling at you because all I keep thinking is, or you could just call us and join Flower Click if you're not our candy gets salesy because I'm like, that's a lot. It's taking a full team to do all of this. And we have done it all. So, and we still have if you want to join, if you're not already a member. And then if you are a member and you're listening, which I know we have a lot of members who listen, just know it's being taken care of for you, and you'll have it by the end of this week, if not already, in your inbox.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

So one thing that I didn't cover, and it is on this list here, because you remind me of this every time, is when you upload things to the platform that you have to assign add-ons to the product.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's one of the things. And we have to remember that we add it to our calendar. Yeah, for a lot of platforms, if you upload a new image, you have to then go in and say, okay, make sure to have chocolates and balloons and plush and all that associated with it. That is another thing that especially at the holidays and like Mother's Day, I'm sure shops will bring in special things. Like they'll bring in special little cakes that they're gonna sell or special little chocolates, special candles, anything like that. You need to make sure you have all that worked out and added to your website.

SPEAKER_02 27:07

Now you have the add-ons, and like you mentioned at the very beginning, make sure you have the flowers on your website that you're selling in the store because that is your menu. And then just run with it. Get your staff ready, and you're gonna set yourself up for a very successful Mother's Day. And we're gonna cover this again, but I think this is the time you got a two to three-week period that everyone, clickers, let's get ready. Make it a great Mother's Day.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

100%.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

Love it. It's good advice. Thanks for joining me, Cammy. It's been great to have you here with me today and share all your expertise with our clickers.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

Yeah, I loved it. Take them a little bit behind the curtain and even shared some of the mistakes we've made before, right? That's good. Exactly. Exactly. They can learn from our mistakes. Learn from our mistakes. Yep. Perfect. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

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.

SPEAKER_01 28:15

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