Samantha Pascal, general manager at Penny’s By Plaza Flowers in Philadelphia, shares some of her favorite hacks to minimize stress during the holiday hustle and bustle.
Ready or not, the holiday season is upon us. With house décor installations, holiday parties, winter weddings and an influx of walk-in shoppers expected, your designers can use some extra support. In the latest issue of Floral Management, Samantha Pascal, general manager at Penny’s By Plaza Flowers in Philadelphia, shares some of her favorite hacks to minimize stress during the holiday hustle and bustle.
“In order to keep your designers productive and merry (especially while listening to those dreaded Christmas songs over and over again), it’s important to set up your design room for success,” Pascal says.
Here are a few of her tips:
- Organize containers and arrange them on shelves and any open space. “Remember, designers can’t use what they can’t see, so display as much of your inventory as possible,” Pascal says.
- Embrace bow boxes. ‘Tis the season for ribbon embellishments. “Determine how many bows you anticipate needing for your collection pieces, and keep them in leftover cardboard boxes,” Pascal says. Having these prepped can save valuable minutes per arrangement.
- Keep add-ons accessible. Hopefully your sales team pitches small items to upgrade customers’ gifts. Make these embellishments as simple (read: profitable) as possible by designating an area in the design room to store chocolates, plush animals and any other popular add-ons. “This gives designers quick and easy access to those products, saving them a trip into the store to take from store displays, which will then need to be restocked,” Pascal says. Take the same approach with balloons. “Inflate 20 to 100 of the most popular mylar balloons and let them float in the design room so they can be quickly pulled and attached to orders.”
For more advice, including how to organize your fresh product, read “Design Room Hacks to Survive the Holidays” in the November/December issue of Floral Management.
Katie Vincent is the senior contributing editor for the Society of American Florists.
