Can we all agree that last year was anything but normal? Although the wedding and event side of our industry took a HUGE hit, by all appearances, the retail side of the floral industry fared rather well. In an effort to help more event florists gain traction in this booming retail marketplace, we've collaborated with our industry friend and flower expert Parie Donaldson to share how you can use Details to improve your ordering for these incredible time-honored holidays!
Hello and happy 2021 fellow flower friends!
If we haven't met before, I'm Parie and I can I say that I love Details! I've been an active user for over four years now, and it's helped to transform and refine my workflow (with over 32 years in the floral industry, I come with many processes!)
This blog is an overview of the steps I use when creating successful holiday designs and orders. Obviously, everyone has different ways in which they approach planning for floral holidays, but I've found that these steps in Details have helped me maximize my success!
Additionally, we have hosted a FREE MASTERCLASS on January 14th where I went over my steps so you can have a more successful holiday using Details. Watch it below!
We all know that preparing for Valentine’s Day is definitely something designers should be working towards, and the earlier the better. Am I right? Even those who didn’t necessarily do retail work before COVID-19 are now venturing into this sector to help grow their bottom line and create more loyal customers. Your design/planning process really has to be thoughtful and strategic, or the holiday could easily turn into one big mess. Details has helped me to refine my process even more with some tools that I cannot live without now. Here are some of my favorite tips for a well-planned, well-orchestrated Valentine's Day!
My first step is to approximate what my holiday sales will be. This number is directly related to historical information for the specific holiday you are planning for (i.e. what day of the week does it fall on, how many years have you been in business, are you still growing, or leveling off?) How ever you decide what that number will be, write it down on a piece of paper in front of you as you go forward in this process.
Second, is to define how many styles of arrangements (i.e.price points) are you going to sell this year? I personally recommend no more than 10 designs, as most people will buy what you tell them to, and don’t forget...YOU are the expert, lead them and they will follow and how you are looking to present them and what you like!
The next step is to create a new event in Details called "Valentine’s 2021", and YOU are the client.
On the worksheet you will need a line item for each floral arrangement/recipe. I personally like to give each arrangement a distinct name, that helps to identify and makes it fun too! I created one project called "Holidays 2021," as I will use the same recipes for each holiday, but change up my containers to make them a little different.
The next step is to work with your quantities for each item, this will then give you a subtotal of all sales. Most of you have some history to work with here, and can better define which recipes do the best and how many you anticipate selling in each price point.
Make sure you have a “Service” item titled Delivery. This will be where you will add in the total number of items you are proposing, and will then add to total sales for each delivery. Make sure to include how many delivery fees will be generated as income on the worksheet.
Now you are ready to add in recipe photos (IF you have them from a previous year) or maybe you create new recipes specific to this year's holiday. Be sure that these images coordinate with the photos you are sharing on your website and social media channels. Pull those photos into the design board as recipes.
If you are starting from scratch and do not have any photos to use, nor recipes, you will need to work the recipes for each line item first. Basically you will work backward by entering your price point, then adding flowers to get to that price point.
I love having Accent Decor inside Details too! Planning for the future, or integrating from my current inventory has been a life saver. I can even purchase new items/inventory for all my containers for each holiday straight to Accent Decor through Details. Brilliant, right?!
Crucial STEP! Now, this step is so important in ensuring that you have a profitable holiday so pay attention! Make sure the “ITEMS USED” feature in the Design Board accurately reflects full bunch counts! We love to see every stem accounted for, so we love to see GREEN here. If yours are marked in RED, it means you are too far over or under full bunches to be profitable. You can adjust stem counts and make adjustments to your recipes accordingly. AND USE THAT COSTS PAGE for your orders! I promise once you start really using this page to it’s full capability, you will never regret having a good solid plan.
Once you have all the items that you plan to use for this holiday, I highly suggest creating a NEW COLLECTION for your Holiday Collections. These folders will become especially handy next year when it’s time to create some new recipes.
The real magic happens AFTER this holiday, when you know you now have the recipes saved in Details and can use them going forward for your next holiday! You can simply load your newly created Valentine's Template and adjust for next year based on this years sales! So really, you could already have the holiday planned and ready to go for next year before you finish this holiday! I'm thinking that is sweet success!
-Parie
Hi, I'm Parie Donaldson. I started in this lovely, crazy industry in 1987 in Seattle, Washington. There, I was co-owner of a thriving flower shop and later worked for three years in the wholesale flower industry. I definitely cut my teeth there in Seattle, but Texas eventually called me back to the wide open plains. In 1992 I opened my business in Amarillo and here we are still, 30 years later.
I am a proud member and ambassador of Chapple Designers. I've been teaching floral design and business management to creatives for too many years to count. I love to share my knowledge and experience in this amazing industry and always look forward to meeting wonderful designers along the way in my teaching and consulting journey.
Parie is a skilled designer and is available for Virtual Design services. Reach out to us if you are interested in having her help you with creating your proposals, calculating recipes, or for guidance.