HOLIDAY SUCCESS – IT’S YOUR CHOICE!

Success comes in many ways. One way to help ensure success with a task is to establish goals and write them down where they can be seen, evaluated and re-evaluated to make sure everyone is working on the same plan. This is especially true during any event or holiday season. It is important for all the staff to unite in strength and man-power to move as one stronger force. This strength comes from being focused. Even smaller operations will find more success when the goals are defined and focus is achieved.
Imagine that you are going on vacation. Very few of us would head out on a trip without making some kind of plans such as, where am I going? How am I going to get there? Am I driving, flying, taking the train, bus, or boat? What kind of clothes should I pack? What am I going to do once I arrive? How much money should I take? Do I need a passport? Am I staying in one location or traveling to multiple destinations? You get the idea. The most important question is where am I going and how am I going to get there. This is the same question you should be asking yourself when it comes to your business plan or holiday sales. By asking yourself about your business plan whether it is for a year or as focused as a holiday, you will begin the process to help ensure success.
Once you have the plan defined (where am I going), now it is time to set some goals for achieving the plan (how am I going to get there). Let’s make having a successful Valentine’s Day as your goal. Sounds like a pretty big goal, but the best way to eat an elephant is a bite at a time, so let’s figure out what will help make a successful goal happen for you. A few goal ideas might include; I want to have enough products on hand for my customers. I want to have a fresh supply of inventory all through the holiday. I want to increase my sales by 10% over last year. I want to reduce my payroll expenses. These are just a few ideas to get you started, but you get the idea. Now that you have them written down, it is time to figure out how you are going to make them happen. This is where you involve everyone on staff to gather all the creative ways of thinking and to help make everyone feel as though they were a part of the solution.
Taking your goal of having enough inventory is a goal, some solutions might be to start with analyzing your past history of sales to determine your best selling items and what price points were the most successful. Since you already have your prototypes designed, photographed, and posted to your web site, now figure how many of each design you want to produce and pre-book the product from your Florabundance Account Manager. This will ensure you will have an adequate supply of inventory for your customers needs. BTW, you will want to do this ASAP as the pre-booking date closes January 25th.
Another goal of having a steady supply of fresh product throughout the holiday season might be achieved simply by having multiple delivery dates for your Florabundance product to arrive. You will for sure want your longer to open flowers such as Lilies, Alstroemeria, Carnations & miniature Carnations to come in early so they will have sufficient time to hydrate, while shorter shelf life flowers such as Roses, Peonies, and Tulips to arrive closer to the production dates. Do your homework to know what type of post harvest care each of your products will need. This is a large investment and your customers will remember how well your flowers preformed, so you want to make sure they are treated well while in your care.
Increasing your overall sales income can be achieved in several ways. Stressing the importance of add-on sales is extremely important! This can mean offering candy, cards, balloons, plush or any other additional offerings you might have. This could also include secondary sales- something for the wife or husband another for a daughter or mother. Another way to increase sales is to offer slightly higher priced offerings or upgrade stylings instead of starting with the lowest priced bouquets you offer. Remember you are selling an emotion, so don’t skimp on the love!
Reducing payroll expenses can be tough, but here again, think creatively. Perhaps you could stagger your staff start and ending times to allow the shop to be open longer hours without costing you more payroll dollars. Have some staff focus on production designs while others are filling daily orders. Try to always have the following day’s orders completed the day before if at all possible so you are only focusing on the orders that are placed that day. Have lots of selections made up and in the cooler for walk in traffic. Limit the number of offerings so you can really focus on streamlined production. Sell what you have made versus each arrangement being a signature styling. Monitor your man-power so you know if you need to shift people to keep the operation running smoothly and not fall behind.
Now you have the ideas to help get you started. Take a few minutes to invest in the success of having a successful Valentine’s Day. Nothing feels as good as knowing you did everything you could to contribute to the success and being a part of a winning team! Make Florabundance a part of your winning team too.