Derek Woodruff, AIFD, CF, PFCI, owner of Floral Underground, demonstrated how to build arrangements with limited resources, and how to make adjustments and substitutions when certain flower varieties or materials aren’t available.
Seeking the best business tips, design ideas and new products and services for a profitable Valentine’s Day, Texas florists stepped away from their shops Saturday for the Society of American Florists’ 1-Day Profit Blast.
The event in San Marcos, Texas, sponsored by the Bill Doran Company, featured three education sessions geared toward a successful Valentine’s Day and included time with the industry’s top suppliers of fresh flowers, hardgoods and services.
“I’ve been to several of these and each time I come, they get better and better,” said Patricia Houck of Houck’s House of Blooms, Sugarland, Texas. “I was blown away with the vendors that are here, the speakers, everyone did an awesome job, especially right now with the times that we are dealing with.”
Houck and others took pages of notes during the three sessions, and left the event brimming with ideas to implement at their businesses.
“I have four pages of notes,” said Sarah Reiner, of Person’s Flower Shop in Gonzales, Texas. “How am I going to implement all of this? It’s great!”
Reiner was especially was inspired by the presentation by Derrick Myers, CPA, PFCI, of Crockett Myers & Associates, who discussed how to create incentive programs that help motivate and retain employees, and said she was excited to implement the program.
Veronica Berger of Ahr’s Flower Shop in La Coste, Texas, learned how to be more resourceful and save money, from Derek Woodruff’s design program. Woodruff, AIFD, CF, PFCI, owner of Floral Underground, demonstrated on stage how to build creative arrangements with limited resources, and how to make adjustments and substitutions when certain flower varieties or materials aren’t available.
“Substituting flowers — I do it without even thinking, without even blinking. But I have a hard time how to do it,” Berger said. So to hear say that, helps me help them to do it.”
Flower Clique’s Vonda LaFever, AIFD, PFCI, and Lori Wilson, PFCI, taught attendees how to effectively communicate, collaborate, and celebrate with both employees and customers.
“If you want customers treated with the most respect, it starts at the top, with the owner,” Wilson said during her presentation. “Treat employees with respect, and they’ll treat customers with respect.”
That message resonated with Tonya Taylor, a designer at Flowerland in San Marcos who attended with the business owner and another employee.
“I am so blown away by you two ladies and what you just said,” Taylor told LaFever and Wilson after the event. “I can’t begin to thank you enough. We have notes and we are going to apply this. Your knowledge is impeccable and we are going to apply that. It was good — so good.”
The San Marcos event is one of four 1-Day Profit Blasts SAF is holding this year. On July 23, SAF will hold a Profit Blast in Boston. More dates and locations will be announced soon.
See more pictures from the event here.
Amanda Jedlinsky is the managing editor of SAF NOW.
