subject: Starting A Flower Shop - Here Are 3 Things You Should Know [print this page] Life, when starting a flower shop, is really busy. There are plenty of things to do. And one of the most important things is putting together a marketing plan. How are you going to grow your business? What are the steps you will take to do this - these are your strategies? And how are you going to measure the success of each of these steps?
Sounds difficult you say not so.
The first thing is to write down your ideas. Starting with a blank sheet of paper can be daunting! I know just jot down any ideas you have. How are you going to let your potential customers know you are open for business? How will you try and get your customers to come back and use you and your services again? How will you inspect what your competitors are doing? If you just note down your thoughts to these questions, you will have already started your marketing plan!
It's important to note down these things at the beginning when you are starting your flower shop because it gives you a benchmark to come back to later on when you are busy growing your business and handling the day to day activities of running your business. Sometimes we can get so bogged down with daily life that we forget exactly what we are going after and we need to stand back and see the bigger picture again.
Here are three things to address for when starting your flower shop and how you will address these should be added to your marketing plan.
You must have a website, even if you're a local business .. list what you need to put on your site to generate orders. Many people today shop and purchase directly over the internet, and to be competitive you need to have a strong presence. You need to answer all the usual questions asked of you, directly on your website. Questions that your 'over the counter' and 'telephone' customers ask of you. Note them down, together with the answers.
You need to know your competitors, and what they are doing. How are you going to do this? First of all you need to know where your customers will probably come from. Are you local, or do you have a larger community you wish to source customers from? Then, visit your competitors - flower shops who are searching for business from the same areas you are. Get to know how they service their customers. Do they have a website? What type of products do they promote? How many staff do they have? How courteous are their staff, and so on.
How are you going to get your customers to come back to you and repeat their purchases with you? Are you going to offer a discount for repeat business? Will you offer a discount with every 5th purchase, for example? Will you call your customers when anniversaries and birthdays come round? How will you gather their email addresses and/or phone numbers? How do you intend to build a relationship with each of your customers?
There are many more ways to market yourself when starting a flower shop, but the above should get your mind started to think along the right lines.
