The Wonder and Beauty of a Flower Shop

***This is the eighth article in a series of 100 articles all about floral design and running a flower shop. Enjoy!

Have you ever walked into a flower shop and saw all the visual beauties and the fragrant odors? Maybe the sound of water from a background fountain is nearby.A flower shop can be an awesome place to spend your workday. Imagine the smell of a flower shop; the air thick with a mix of blooms, buds, and blossoms; it is unique, fresh, green aroma is unlike any other botanical scent! Everyone loves the smell of a flower shop. Although, do not get me wrong. It is not always serene beauty and nature sounds. The backroom can be a place or hectic and deadlines. Yet, this is what we want. This means business is “blooming”!

There is nothing more beautiful than seeing all the designs and accents in a floral shop. Dried flowers and all the subtle colors of purples, ivory, yellows, oranges, and reds are readily seen. The feelings that all the visual sights evoke can be calming. The fragrances all around; fresh fragrant flowers cinnamon, lavender, eucalyptus, and rose, are palpable. Stacks of baskets and green plants, gives us the feel of a country garden. You can find fluffy soft animals to cheer the sick. Then immediately we could turn and view desert cacti. Often there will be bath scents, including lotions and potions and soaps. As gift baskets, are a big part of a floral business, often there will be coffees, teas, cake and cookie mixes, and gourmet chocolates all around. Likewise, an entire selection of candles may be a gathering to the overall aroma.

Herbs are popular these days. Try picking up some oregano and basil for some homemade pasta. Leaves from a peppermint plant will spice up a hot cup of tea quite nicely. Take home a whole basket of herb plants for your kitchen. Pinch here and there for your cooking. Chives, sage, rosemary, and once again, basil, and oregano all would make perfect plants for a kitchen window sill. 

What a vision and magnificence all these details bring to mind! Ever feel down and blue! Go visit your local florist. Take time to enjoy all the wonders before you. Buy a whole bouquet of flowers or just a single flower. Treat yourself! Take home a fragrant candle or a bit of the desert. Maybe even a stuffed animal with which to snuggle. Try some herb plants. Once again, just treat yourself. Maybe even take a friend. Get to know your local florist. They are a wealth of creativity. You deserve it. 

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The Flower Shop: Charm, Grace, Beauty & Tenderness in a Commercial Context 

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The Artful Ribbon: Beauties in Bloom

 

The Flower Shop Birthday Club – Running Your Own Shop Advertising Tip

By Debra Cary

 ***This is the seventh article in a series of 100 articles on floral designing and how to run a flower shop.

Join our Birthday Club! The club is open to all ages. All you have to do is stop in the shop and fill out a birthday club application. This is how it usually begins. This gets a prospective customer in your shop maybe for the first time. When it is their birthday and they must come in to pick up the free gift; that gets them in the store for the second time. This is a great opportunity to promote other store offers or just get them to explore your shop while you are getting their flowers ready. 

A birthday club in a flower shop is an advertising technique that need not cost a lot of advertising dollars; although, this probably will work better in small town rather than a large city. I suppose in large city giving away a free flower vase for every birthday person that signed up could get out of hand number wise. In a large city you would want to have a drawing for a daily winner of the birthday flowers. A florist will always have three carnations, greens, filler flowers and a ribbon to spare; or maybe a vase of daisies. This is an opportunity to show some shop creativity. 

Have people come in and sign up for the birthday club. Buy a spot on your local radio station. Call it “The Birthday Club”, sponsored by your shop. Once a day, or once a week, submit to the radio station the names of the birthday recipients. On your radio spot, preferably at the same time every day, the DJ will announce the lucky birthday people or person. The lucky person will then have to come to your shop, usually they bring friends with them (great for advertisement), and pick up their flowers. 

The flower birthday club is a very social and up close personal to build your business. You may feel you would like to do this type of promotion with balloons or a balloon bouquet. Your radio spot will always be a chance for you to promote a seasonal holiday as well. People will tune in to your radio spot to see if they won or hear their name or their friends name on air. It’s a great community thing!!