Did you know May is National Pet Month in the United States? May is officially here! A month of Spring Flowers, Mother's Day and a month to cherish our four-legged furry friends! As florists, you may have been asked the question time and time again, what flowers or plants are safe around animals? Every pet owner knows their furry friend will chew on anything it can get into, and at some point it will gravitate towards plants and flowers. As beautiful as plants and flowers are, some can be particularly dangerous…

With beautiful imagination and bountiful skills, these designers create hypnotizing works of art. Today we'd like to pay homage to all the amazing floral artists on Instagram for bringing recognition to the floristry industry. It was difficult selecting just a few florists of Instagram to plug, but we encourage you to start following these influential floral designers. Meta Flora (@metafloranyc) …

Family-owned floral businesses rarely survive the transition from the first generation to the second. As a matter of fact, in this day and age, they are becoming more and more obsolete. Many studies have shown that there is a high impact on family-owned and run businesses on our economy. In the floral industry, there was a time when this was the norm: a local flower shop stayed in the family, resulting in a local staple, while the whole family was able to live comfortably from running the family-owned flower shop. There was…

The other busy season is almost upon florists again yet many may not even know it. We’re not talking about the Christmas through Mother’s Day rush that keeps us busy in the spring - this is autumn! Here are some tips on how to market your flower shop for fall! The season that sends many potential customers rushing to big box stores, hardware stores, and even greenhouses when they…

FFC gave the wire services a chance to engage with the audience, respond, and answer questions. Bloomnet Presentation - Gino Marotta, Director of National Sales - Their model - Shops that use more pay more, shops that use less, pay less. "Support legislation deceptive advertising. Have not had a fee increase in 3 years. " - Declined affiliate membership - because of ambiguity of membership. Legal council says when you're public, you can't…

Attendees interested in specific committees met to start talking and making decisions. Some were straightforward, others were less so. Floranext participated in the Technology committee discussion, but here is a summary of all of them. Legislative committee - discussed wire service fees and rebates. - Fee Split: Agreement on the need to achieve a 90/10 split between sender and receiving florist in order to dis-incentivize order gatherers. Feeling that…

The Florists for Change event is on in Atlanta, with over 100 florists from around the US and a few from canada. One of the primary targets was to discuss and organize committees. Floranext participated in discussions, with a focus on technology solutions for the industry. Here are the committees that were discussed: - Organization - discuss the organization of the group itself: voting, membership dues, etc. - Communications…

Florists for Change's Atlanta meeting will focus heavily on inviting vendors to present their solutions. Floranext will present our florist POS and florist website solution. Here is the invitation letter from the FFC team to vendors. We are in Atlanta and covering the Florists for Change event. Here was the agenda for the day! Dear Floral…

The Florist for Change afternoon breakout session was productive - the group separated into four groups to discuss some key topics, including the cause of inertia, where the industry will be in 5 years, and how a florist to florist technology network would work. What causes inertia? - Fear of the unknow - Fragmented industry - hard to organize for change - Old Dogs - too much trouble to change - Lack of Time - Lack of Leadership [caption id="attachment_948"…

The morning discussion focused on some key principles and positive solutions to help the floral industry: The Proposal Action 1: Strive to focus on the consumer - Build value convenience, lyoatly - Offer and promote an unconditional 100% satisfaciton guarantee - Legistlate DOGs (deceptive order gatherer) out Action 2: Create a "Buy local flowers" national campaign - "Got Milk", "Happy Cows California Cheese" Action 3: Consider non-profit, F2F direct order mechanism - Sell your products at your prices and dedlivery fee - You pay me a commission baed on my cost+ profit - Don't fill unprofitable incoming orders …