Not everyone wants to go cheap!
Like many of my readers I can be found shouting and screaming at the computer when a particularly nasty … or stupidly cheap ... design pops into my social media feeds.
It’s mostly on Facebook … Instagram is a totally different beastie and gives me the heebie jeebies in a totally different way!! … but oh boy does it make my blood boil!
But after I’ve ranted and despaired slightly, I pull myself together and remember that for every ghastly and stupidly priced design I see there are a zillion wonderful ones where experienced florists have not only made it properly but are charging a fair price for what’s in the design and, far more importantly, selling it.
It’s always worst at this time of the year. Christmas brings out all the Tom, Dick and Harrys … or rather Thomasina’s, Cressida’s and Harriet’s who think they can ride on the back of the wreath frenzy and it’s enough to send a sane florist mad … especially if you have to pay the quarter rent at the end of the Crazy Christmas season.
But please hold your nerve. Please try to ignore and focus on what you do and what you need to charge.
Because whilst I know it's hard (for some reason one’s eyes just can’t scroll past the latest abomination!) truth is that not every consumer is led by price alone.
Yes, the papers and full of doom and gloom over gas prices and the like, yes there are people who need to watch the pennies, but as my fabulous friend Claire Mitchell says; “For those how say How Much??!!! there is ALWAYS a person who thinks ‘is that all??!!”
Focus on those customers, ignore the cheap merchants and protect your business and your sanity.
Caroline Marshall-Foster
Editor
