Garrett

As I sat enjoying a lovely Sunday sketching, planning and preparing for a great showing at the 2014 AIFD North Central Nature’s Creative Edge, it hit me how difficult it is to give a creation a name or a title. To try and fit all of your emotion and love for a design into only a few words is always so difficult. How do you try and express everything about a design to the world without using too many words or emotions? I find it interesting to see what others feel or find when they look at a design or its title, you never know how you will affect someone’s life or bring back certain memories or feelings.

What have some of your favorite design titles been so far? Floral.today and I would love to hear about how designers came to their final titles or what inspired their design names. We always welcome your photos along with their titles to see what is inspiring our followers and readers.

From all the shows, competitions and demonstrations that have been happening lately, here are a couple of our favorite titles and pieces designed by some of our favorite designers from all the world.

‘Kindinsky’s Canvas” by Bill Schaffer and Kristine Kratt of SCHAFFER DESIGNS.

Philadelphia Flower Show 2014

Photo Property of Steve Ladner.

Whether the title is very literal, emotional or thought provoking, you can find a great many details in a title and you never know how that title will touch, inspire or make others think just because of a few simple words describing a marvelous design. At the end of all those sketches, planning and preparing, I took twice as long to discover ‘Burst’. So after all the time trying to bottle all of the wonderful emotions and beauty that my design will be, ‘Burst’ came to fruition and I hope you will all have the chance to experience that design as it comes to life. What are some of your favorite designs and design titles right now and if they don’t have a name or title, what would you call the design?

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You can find all kinds of words throughout the industry for marketing, sales, and to individualize a company from order-gather’s and the like. What do or your company use to separate yourself from the rest? What words are you using to extend your reach on the internet and to your consumers? We found only a few of our favorites and also some statistics on how certain words are affecting you, your company, and the industry as a whole. There will be some personal opinions and thoughts as we go along also and we always welcome yours in the comments here or on social media.

Negative Word Associations

This week we will start with the negative as we here at floral.today always prefer to get that out of the way first.


- Email Marketing -

One of the best ways to get yourself and company out to the masses is the most underutilized of all marketing in the floral industry is email marketing. As this is free and easy to do it's a very easy way to get mass amounts of information but only if your smart with your words. The first thing that all your recipients will see along with all the ads from other stores, credit cards, or individuals is the Email Subject Line. Jay Baer's 15 Email Statistics That Are Shaping The Future at Convince&Convert tells us 69% of people will report an email spam by just the email subject line while 35% will open an email purely because of the subject line. 


- Social Media -

As a visual industry everybody sees what we are doing and if they aren't you are becoming irrelevant without even realizing it. With 75% of adults on the internet using social media this has become the new 'Face' of your business as most people 16-60 go to the internet to find services along with reviews, ratings, and pictures to see if they want to even go to a location physically. So the way you word your posts can seem winded, exhibit good or bad emotions, like or dislike for products, and even a like or dislike for employees and customers all through simple wording. We live in a digital world filled with people that like to make a mountain out of an ant hill so a simple phrase or post with the wrong wording can create a very quick exodus of consumers or industry colleagues. 



Interestingly enough, words to avoid are associated with these groups Sales, Charity, Slang/Trend Words the most according to MailChimp, one of the most recognized emailing and internet marketing websites.


Sales - Avoid using %off, help, sale, discounted, save, don't miss, and last chance. Every major retailer has stuffed this down consumers throats for so many years that society has an automatic negative effect to seeing it in an email versus a store front. Most consumers will not even look at the company and just delete these emails especially on phone or mobile devises. 


Charity - Avoid using Donate, Help, Assistance. Before you go crazy see reason. People that receive these emails associate these very quickly with spammers that steal money or mass donation sites that repeatedly ask for donations after you donate.


Slang/Trend Words - Avoid using LOL, Awesome, YOLO, Cray-Cray and all others. Firstly you've instantly started off your interaction with your consumer as very immature. Never sacrifice your social intellect to try and seem like your keeping up with the youth.


Situational Suggestive Words - Avoid using suggestive words unless you know the audience you are servicing it to will all appreciate it. If a few people get offended that may be fine but loosing to many or loosing influential consumers can be bad for business.

Positive Word Association


- Email Marketing -

For those interested in trying email marketing there are many different service we suggest you check out. There are many different services that help you to get out to the masses without to much effort while still assembling a good looking product (email) for your consumer. Make sure to click on their links to go check them out. Our two suggestions to try out email marketing would be MailChimp and Mad MiMi Email Marketing as they are easy to use and you can start getting those well thought out words out there for a better presence and consumer awareness.


- Social Media Posts-

As the new 'Face' of your business, just like in life you have to watch what you say since with the simplest words you can elevate the image people have of you and your company. Though designers and business owners "don't have time" for social media they need to get on the train before others start taking their business. We suggest Hootsuite to help manage your social media for you. This always you to post an almost all your social media at one time and schedule it months ahead of time to reduce the time trying to do it every so many days. Try and be as short and sweet with your words when posting on social media to capture a persons attention as most people only read the first 2-4 lines of a post and then move on. To use your words to best affect post pictures and link, posts with a well worded explanation of what is in the link or post or why they should click on it can be kept really short with enough buzz words and it also lets your work speak for itself instead of trying to explain what's already there. If you need an example check out Blumz by JRDesigns, Floral and Event Professionals as they take the time to try and connect with their consumers through good short interaction and their loyal 4.3k followers are your proof.


Positive words to use when posting!


Sales - Descriptive Words, 1-2 Lines Minimum, Excitement Words, Proper Names and Terms. When you use words such as extravagance, delicious or other descriptive words create an emotional connection where they look into the post to find those descriptions to experience the post. The shorter the better as very few have an attention span now a days. Using emotional response again you can get them excited by using emotionally responsive words yourself just be careful of using to many capital letters. Those that matter will always appreciate when you use proper names and terms as it shows professionalism and how seriously you take your industry and craft. 


Charity - Fundraise. Of all the words used in trying to raise money for any type of charity, scholarship or really anything the most responsive word to get the most clicks is fundraise as it sounds exactly like what your doing, raising funds for something. Your should avoid writing a lot in a post as most people will ignore your post for being to long, create a link with all the particulars and have a brief post linking to your post.


Slang/Trend Words - Not to much to give you here. Wen you use proper english, you present yourself and your company on a professional level and show good social intellect. Avoid being that one immature designer and keep your industry and consumer image presentable with good posts and content.


Situational Suggestive Words - Our favorite word right now that is perfect for this situation is 'Florgasm', as this team has been able to keep their professionalism and design skill at such a level that the name of the company doesn't outshine them and become overly scandalous. It grasps your attention and makes you wonder but it doesn't step to over the line of being inappropriate. Make sure that using a word that can be scandalous or attention getting that you don't lose yourself and your company in a word that is bigger than you'll ever be. It takes a big personality and sometimes a few to be able to use such words as florgasmic and still maintain a level of professionalism while still having fun.

You should never underestimate the power the words you are sharing have so always be wary how it can affect your business and career. Sadly floral.today has found people that we won’t be able to work with until they work on their professional presentation to the industry because of how they use their social media in industry groups or personal pages about industry content. As we work on our grammar and word use we challenge you to always to and elevate yourself and how you use your words on the internet when it comes to your company, you or the industry because you never know who is watching you and how it will affect your future.

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Unlike yesterday’s post full of our opinions and thoughts about your personal floral health, today we have collected articles and thoughts about what florists may be missing when it comes to running their business. Please keep in mind we are not business experts or doctors here at Floral.today, we just have observations and know how to google solutions to some of the issues we see or drive us crazy. For the floral industry to stay strong for many more years to come we the floral designers, crafters and professionals need to stay on top of ourselves and good business. For today we will give you links for each category provided and only 1-3 comments of what our favorite or thought was very educational about said article. So Here We Go!

Business Practices That Go Unnoticed or Get Ignored Do To Stress Or Being "To Busy"

- Employee/Customer Relations
- Owner/Employee Relations
- Online Reviews and Comments
- Industry or Business Image
- Product Sales or Organization
- Business Issues
- Scheduling or Meetings

Employees and Customer Relations

How often have watched your employees sell your products and company to people on the phone or in-store? Even if they have been at your store for 15-30 years they should be representing your company to the very best of their ability and treat every customer as their next pay check. When your customers walk out your door, no matter who they spoke to at your business, the customer should not have a single reason to doubt your companies professionalism and quality and most of the shoppers experience will be placed on the shoulders of your employees.

Owner and Employee Relationships

Are you friends with all of your employees while at work or are you their boss? There is always the struggle of keeping your employees happy but still being a boss. Your employees must always understand that you not a charity and at the end of the day you are running a business and they were hired to do a job. It is also important to make sure that employees understand that you are not running a high school, so they can keep their grips and moans at home about work, each other or any other plethora of topics that have nothing to do with doing their job. This makes for a acid filled workplace that can only lead to a mess of issues at the end of the day. What can you do show you support your employees to better them and your company?

Online Reviews and Comments

Good, mediocre or bad reviews or comments, you should always try your very best to address them all. For the good or mediocre, a response to the personals review or comment can show you value you customers and their opinions. Especially with mediocre and bad reviews you should always be on top of responding in a timely manner. When other’s see that you tried to professionally and calmly rectify the issue or problem they see your professionalism and wether the person with the review was right or wrong in other’s eyes you will be given a chance do to your professionalism and your caring about your customers. You don’t have to give the whole shop to a person but a simple “Thank you, we appreciate your business and support”, or “We sincerely apologize for this mishap, please feel free to contact us so we can fix this issue you for you right away”. It’s all about serving that professional controlled face to people even when you are ready to throw things. According to PricewaterhouseCoopersLLC in 2012 83% of consumers checked reviews, comments, and social media before actually going into or contacting a brick and mortar store.

Business Image

We live in the world of judging a book by it’s cover, and that’s what can hurt many really good designers and businesses in the long run. If we were to log into any of our personal facebook pages right this second and click on almost any floral industry facebook group, we will find at least 3-4 people that seem to always be complaining about a lot of everything. We don’t have problem with venting as most of us have been there and can support but when it’s all that’s seen from a designer it would make us very weary of working with those designer, is there a reason that seems they always have customers complaining, why are they quick to criticizes but don’t show their own work, why do all of their comments have personal opinions and nothing to contribute to helping the person.

Do you post photo’s of event you’re designing for your own company or freelancing before the event is held? You can believe our freelance designer list can be shortened if one you have time to take pictures on my time and two if I see a photo before the event is done and struck. If you are doing it with your own business be wary that your clients may have some type of connection or way of seeing your post before their event is held. Hell hath no furry like a bride who’s wedding flowers are online before she even walks down the aisle or a marketing team who see’s all their party planning on twitter before the owner even see’s what the company has paid for. Just be careful what or how many times you say something and be very careful when you post pre-event photos no matter how beautiful they are.

Product Sales and/or Organization

How many times has been slow and you haven’t went to your straight to the cleaning supplies, you go to grab a vase and your out, your plant section area is all dead? When you get busy you don’t have the time to baby sit your employees so always have well trained staff that know what to do when they are done with their designs for the day or it’s slow. Even doing a walk through with a notepad right before walking out for the day, you can jot down things to be addressed the next day. The great thing about a well trained staff or manager is that they will instantly go to the next project that needs to be done without having to stop you to ask what to do next. It’s very hard to give up that kind of control but it’s very satisfying when you know they will wash the windows and display glass when it’s slow or how much water each plant needs so reduce over watering or under watering. Every shop has it’s own amount of extra time or none at all but there should always be ways of making sure that a business is kept clean organized and well stocked. The biggest part of it all is communication so that you know how your business is operating, when products need bought, or the quality is lacking and not to your standard. With good communication you should never have issues with product sales or organization because you should always know when your getting low on something not when you’ve run out after just selling something.

Business Issues

Along the same lines as before, you owe it to yourself and staff to always be communicating. Leave drama at home unless it effects the work place than squash it like a bug and always keep communication open about how the company is doing to avoid rumors starting. Like we said up top, you do not run a high school so when people are on your time you should solve any drama that has to do with your company and all other drama should be left at the door when employees come in. If employees can work and talk (A rare true trait in designers) then tidy ho talk about that ice cream social last wednesday but if it interferes with the work process in any way turn the music up and get the job done.

When we say to keep communication open about the business we don’t mean everything. An example of what we consider sharing is tell all the employees at the same time that hours are being reduced because it’s one, slow so not as many people need to be there to accomplish the work and two, you honestly can’t afford it with it being slow. When your upfront and honest with your employees, customers and yourself about why you can and can’t do things you will receive respect from that situation. When employees understand why something is happening, it reduces everybody jumping to conclusions such as all of a sudden your shop is closing or you’re firing someone because you just didn’t like them personally. If your business can’t handle something than you need to be honest with yourself, you can’t just keep taking out more and more loans if you know you’ll never pay them back or buy those containers when you can’t afford to pay for this weeks pay checks. When it finally hits you, it will hit you hard and it will be nobody’s fault you didn’t listen or realize what was right in front of your face to begin with.

Meetings and Scheduling

When people get busy they get frazzled and forget things. No matter if that appointment is in 3 hours or 3 months way you should always have it document in at the very least 1 place. Many schedulers are inexpensive or free and will save your life as being late in our book is one of the most un-professional things you can do. So you aren’t missing those meetings or showing up late to those appointments we have collected our favorite schedulers and a couple articles of helpful time organizing tips for busy small business owners.

Final Bits and Bobs

Don’t be another statistic of a fail or stagnate business because you were to busy trying to run that business. As we enjoy history here at Floral.today it may sound cruel but just like great people and civilizations we find the rise and fall of a company to be interesting since it is a learning experience. We hope you are able to find just a little bit of one of these observations to be helpful toward the success of your business since the floral industry is only as great as it’s weakest designer.

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It is very well known that florists take very poor care of themselves. When you aren’t taking proper care of yourself, you’re just causing yourself more health issues, stress, and this may start to affect your company and designing. The other issue of not taking care of yourself is that it can effect those around you, making for weird environments at work and home. Floral.today dove into the internet to find statistics, advice and easy steps to help super busy people take better care of themselves, their company and their future.

How not taking a second to evaluate yourself or your business could be effecting you.

1. Personal

- Business 
- Nutritional and Physical Health
- Relationships, Business and Personal
- Mental
- Organization and Schedule Outside of Work


2. Business Practices That Go Unnoticed or Get Ignored

- Employee/Customer Relations
- Online Reviews and Comments
- Industry or Business Image
- Owner/Employee Relations
- Product Sales or Organization
- Store or Shop Issues
- Scheduling or Meetings

Even though you don't have the time, it may be worth your time to take a step back and find some answers instead of taking to the internet to complain, communicating with your employees to see if they are really happy with their jobs, taking a bag of carrots to work instead of those Pringles to snack on, or contacting that customer that left you a bad review.
We will be doing the personal suggestions today and the business statistics and helpful thoughts/opinions and suggestions on Friday! 

Here are some things to try doing, check out, or think about!

1. Leave business at work and home at home! 

- When you take your work home, you take away the time to spend with your family and for your body and mind to rest. When the body and mind do not rest, no matter how much sleep you get, you will start to become easily tired, emotionally touchy, burned out or unorganized. The other important part of your life is your family, and when you have no time for them, then they in turn will find they have no time for you. It's hard to love someone when you have to compete with a business or job for affection or you miss important life moments because you're just too busy. It's when you miss those first steps or look at your partner and find the spark gone in their eyes that you will understand what I'm saying.

 - On the other side of the coin, unless it is urgent or important, when you are at work be at work. You should be updating photos on Facebook or websites or pushing a sale on those gerberas you have extras of, not checking out beach wear. You should be focused on getting the wedding finished instead of discussing so-in-so aunt's cousin's sister that got a new cat and it hates snow. There is always a little time to appreciate everybody's life, but you are there to make money, and unless you are one of the few designers that can work and talk at the same time, put that energy into your work. If you have to remember to do something at home, set yourself an alarm on your phone or write yourself a note and stick it to your steering wheel. This will reduce having to spend time worrying about getting that milk after work, and more time getting your proposals all done and sent out.


2. What are putting in your mouth?

I'm not saying you have to be on a diet or become a vegetarian, but you are only as good as your body. As a designer that has dealt with life threatening illnesses and now dealing with long term things such as arthritis, I completely understand how important it is to take care of your body. Not only can you try and avoid illness, your energy levels, blood pressure levels and overall mood can be affected. Heart issues, Diabetes, and muscle/bone deterioration are some of the worst issues florists are dealing with today and since you're all adults I'm going to be offering easy food ideas that are hopefully quick, can be prepared ahead of time, or are good replacements for an easy start. I will never be able to replace those Christmas cookie plates that cute little old ladies bring in or the shop pot luck every so often, but simple changes can make a great impact.


 -Breakfast-
~ Plain Donut with Mixed nuts. A plain donut has around 280 calories compared to your basic bakery muffin's 510 calories. This is based off a Dunkin Donuts' plain donut and a basic bakery muffin. The nuts provide you with a great source of protein and you can throw in a milk or juice along with this.
~ Breakfast Sandwich! Throw toast or english muffins into the toaster while you're getting your coffee and when they are toasted throw some deli meat or an egg(if you have time) and a slice of good cheese and you're good to go. This takes a lot less time than it seems as everything is already cut up and this can be wrapped into a paper towel and easily travel.
~ To-Go Parfait. Fill a tupperware container (I use the 2 cup/473 ml Rubbermaid container) with the yogurt of your choice, throw in some granola or trail mix, some nuts for protein and some fruit to help give you energy till lunch. You can put the yogurt into the container the night before so that when you are running out the door, all you have to do is throw whatever sounds good into the container, pop on the lid and you're out the door!

-Lunch-
As most designers skip lunch, I have one good snack and one good lunch suggestion.
~ Healthierish Sandwich! Try and use a whole wheat or multi-grain bread (look for whole wheat flour, avoid wheat flour and enriched bleached flour) for a higher amount of nutrients. If you don't like bread, use a pita or a tortilla. Add hummus instead of bbq, ketchup or mustard, as it is high in fiber and protein, so it will keep you feeling fuller longer and it is a great low calorie substitute. Throw your favorite veggies on it, mine are usually spinach, peppers, onions, and sometimes shredded carrots. All can be cleaned and prepped beforehand saving time. Wrap that baby in some wax paper or a tupperware container, grab a couple pieces of fruit and get to work.
~ Grazing Replacements and Ideas! Pre-cut vegetables are so easy and can be prepared way before hand so there is no time wasted and only excuses made to not eat them over chips or popcorn. The easiest are peppers, baby carrots, grape or cherry tomatoes and celery. Nuts are also a great snack as there are many different kinds and they are one of the best snacks for you if you get lightly salted or unsalted. Natural trail mix or granola have such a wide variety to choose from, you get sweet, nutty and granola flavors all for the price one. 

-Dinner-
-Dinner is the least important of meals, but the one meal that most people focus on, so here are some recipes to do. These may not be easy but as a person that finds cooking therapeutic at the end of the day, you might enjoy it also.-

~ Cajun Shrimp and Rice ~
~ Thai Noodle-Steak Salad ~
~ Gnocchi with Summer Vegetables ~
~ Rosemary and Ranch Chicken Kabobs ~
~ Lemon Cheesecake with Baked Plums and Blackberries ~
~ Tangerine Ginger Sake Sangria ~



3. Relationships

Even when you're tired and maybe you had a bad customer, always be careful how you express your work day to those outside your workplace so people don't think that it is the only thing you ever have to talk about. Too much complaining to or in front of some people will usually result in those people not wanting to work with you or find ways of avoiding you. Though it's good to let off steam every once in a while try and monitor how much your doing it on social media or repeatedly to people around you to avoid losing friends, customers, or future jobs.For every time you unload on someone try to listen to someone or a couple people twice as long so that it shows you are aware of others and not just yourself. Always remember the boy that cried wolf too many times and that should help you in the end. My final thought for relationships is how do you treat other designers or industry colleges when not needing something from them? It's always good to try and get to know those people you call your friends but only see them 3-5 times a year. You never know where you'll find an amazing real friend instead of just trying to find user friendly friends you just get rid of when you get what you want. Interestingly enough, the one person that was the most user friendly I've ever met, that cared very little for people unless they are a benefit to that person in some way, taught me that it's important to invest in friendships for a strong relationship in the future and I hold that very dear when it comes to making friends and keeping them.
 
4. Deep Breath and Count to 10!

No matter how strong of a person you think you are if you don't take a second to breathe and relax your mind you'll find yourself dealing with anxiety, depression, confusion, and any other major issues that can ruin your every moment. 9 different major kinds of depression affect 6.8% of american adults and 6 different kinds anxiety affect 18% american adults making anxiety the top mental illness in the US according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Sadly there are many large names in our floral industry that have suffered greatly from debilitating depression and anxiety, but some have been able to find their way back to running powerful business and rebuilding strong careers through meditation, medication, time management, simple added lifestyle practices and additions of routines to their days. 

You can always find help in our industry when ever you feel that everything is just falling apart or you are coming to a point of not being able to handle things. We here at floral.today are always here to help point you in the right direction and so are so many of the great people throughout our industry all you need to do is take the hardest step and contact us. If you ever get to such a severe point you can always call National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) 24/7 or you can visit any emergency room and they will help you with anxiety attacks or any questions or problems.


Easy Tricks for Mentally Relaxing

- Step back, close your eyes, count to 20-30 and do deep breaths -
- Carry A Notebook, You can always write down what you need to do in a day, what is stressing you out, or thoughts you don't want to forget but don't have the time to remember them at that moment. This creates a referents for later in the day or for the next day so you don't have to keep 5000 things in your brain. -
- Meditate, as one of the oldest ways of helping with depression, anxiety, and high blood pressure this is one of the best ways of relaxing your find and your body. This can be done at the end of the day or to start the day. From yoga to Tai Chi there is no wrong way to meditate. Check out this LINK to get yourself a confidence boost and to get started! -
- Create a routine where you have more structure and a formal schedule to follow so you will have more control of your time and have a better feel of what will happen during the day. -



5. Scheduling

Whether it's a physical planner/scheduler, computer calendar or program, phone calendar or phone alarm clock. Taking 5 seconds to jot down when and where you need to be is a great way to reduce a ton of stress and save great amounts of time. The great thing about computer or phone programs such as google calendar is that you will be notified with messages or warnings so you won't be late and don't have to worry about remembering the meeting or event all day long. When you can reduce the amount of things going on in your head you can focus on whats going on around you and devote more of yourself to it and make it perfect and reduce the stress of remembering who, what when, where and why until you have to. 

Though this was a bit of a rant and many of you will disagree with the points I have made, I remind you that it’s an opinion and observation that has been stated throughout the article. There’s so much more to taking care of yourself and bettering yourself. If anything, think about how you are affecting family, colleagues, customers, and people around you, as well as how they perceive you. I could care less that you wear nice clothes, have a nice car, or have a bunch of things because at the end of the day if you can’t take of yourself or others around you, then what are you really stressing out and being so busy for? Remember, we don’t live forever so make the best of the very short time you have, and try and enjoy your life while you still have time.