Skip to main content

Help Wanted

The foundation of our Industry and our businesses should be obvious - the people! Machines don't design and deliver our products, people do. Recently my wife and I attended the Northeast Floral Conference allowing us the opportunity to meet so many wonderful and amazing people in the floral industry. The outstanding service that people provide truly separates the full service florist from the other Market Channels that sell flowers. That's easy to understand, the tough part is finding the right person for the position.

One of my previous careers, prior to joining the floral business full time, was Executive Recruiting. I spent 5 years recruiting and though each industry has it's own unique requirements and needs there are hiring commonalities that all share. Most business owners understand the importance of hiring people who are trustworthy, come to work on time, and have the ability to do the job. When you need to hire someone to "hit the ground running" there's no substitution for industry experience. Hiring experienced people accomplishes this but it does sometimes bring baggage. At our Company when we need experience we hire slowly and carefully with a thorough interview process. We've had some wonderful results. But over the past several years when we're not pressed for "immediate impact" we've begun purposefully hiring from outside the industry and getting very good results. The benefits from someone with a fresh point of view without any preconceived notions on how things have "always been done" is refreshing. It's amazing the amount of light someone without any prior experience can shine on your business. The real trick is to drop your guard for awhile and listen to what they have to say, you may be surprised. Another benefit from hiring outside the industry is that you can train the person in policy, procedure and techniques that serve your business best, without having to break any old habits.  IE: "but that's the way we did it in my old shop". This idea takes time and patience, also the interview process is very different then interviewing an industry veteran who understands requirements during peak holiday work etc. Nevertheless, hiring from outside can work very well and the long term payback far outweighs the upfront cost.

When you need to hire someone that can bring value immediately to the shop there's no doubt you should hire experience. There are some amazing, seasoned people in our industry so we should never discount them. But when the situation is right consider giving someone from outside the industry a chance to prove themselves, the long term rewards could be surprising. People will always be the foundation of our industry, just be certain you have the right foundation to build on.

Comments

  1. With over one hundred twenty species, certainly not bought, but collected, except a few, Gloriosa rothschildiana, is one of the
    rarest, since it was already planted in the
    garden when the house was bought.

    It seems that it was fashionable in Puercorico,USA, decades ago...Same thing
    happened with Pseuderantemun reticulatum.
    A rare beauty..

    Plant nurseries and retailers screw up the environment,flora and fauna. They do it
    thinking just in terms of money, with too
    many ridiculous trends, such as palms...

    And that is that..Good luck in your projects...

    ReplyDelete
  2. BitFiring 1xbet korea presents one of the generous welcome bonus programs around. Players get a deposit bonus and bonus spins not just for their first deposits but also for his or her subsequent 5. With greater than three,200 provided video games, this casino web site has rapidly established itself as one of the best casino web site for recreation selection. As talked about, Spinback is not on provide anywhere else, and this is simply one more reason|another excuse} Wildz has loved unprecedented success since launching in 2019. Today’s on-demand society justifiably needs entertainment at their fingertips - available on the click of a button.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flash Reports, a Peek Inside Your Financials by Georgianne

Oh my.... Is it possible I'm taking the time to not only write a business blog today but I'm writing a blog about a topic that has to do with numbers? Wow, that's almost unheard of here at Monday Morning Flowers where the accounting is usually left up to Kevin and not me. The last few weeks had Kevin and I traveling up to New England for the East Coast Floral Expo and then back down to Washington, DC for the Society of American Florist volunteer meetings and in both weekends, we spent lots of quality time with other florists. At the NEFE we were able to sit in on quite a few wonderful business seminars and we always take away so much from those events. So, to the topic of this blog. About 3 years ago, we had a business consultant come into the operation to helps us with the "issues" we were having. Let's face it, it was during the recession and the environment at the shop was very stressful. I expressed a desire to understand what was going on with the

Compete with Yourself

We have two sayings we're fond of at Monday Morning Flower & Balloon Co. "Keep your eye on your competition but don't become obsessed with them" and "compete with yourself".  The first saying is self explanatory but the second warrants further discussion. Competing with yourself can be pretty straight forward and help you develop a strong business model. Basically look at what you've done previously, both good and bad, and try to take corrective action if it's bad or repeat if it was good. This concept can be extended to most area's of your business including one of the toughest and most boring - Budgeting. There are lots of articles and books written about budgeting even some great spreadsheet templates available. Nevertheless, if you use the "compete with yourself" concept it's much easier. Of course you need to know what you should target as a percentage of sales for the main expenses, Payroll, COGS etc. Once you know where

Society of American Florists Convention

Society of American Florists Originally uploaded by Georgianne at Monday Morning Flowers It's been awhile since I've written a blog for Speaking Florally but it's not for lack of something to say! First off, I want to thank both Rick Canale and Mandy Majerik, AIFD for sharing the stage with me at the Orlando Conference last month. It was not only wonderful for me to pass on whatever tips I had about Social Networking for Florists but it was wonderful to learn from them as well. Ok, which brings me to the point of this blog. What a wonderful time at the Conference I had. Kevin and I met so many amazing people and how inspiring they were! People that I have read about for years in the pages of floral magazines became real people to me. If you are in the floral industry and you are not a member of SAF, then you must become a member right away. I'm not going to twist your arm I'm going to let you find out for yourself. Visit their website at http://www.safnow.org/