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Improving Work Flo
A B.C. floral duo aims to help florists manage their shops |
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Written by Amanda Ryder
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If you’re on the hunt for a new floral software program that will help you better interact with your wholesaler, monitor your inventory, manage your pricing and establish an online presence, two fellow florists have the answer for you.
Rene and Lee Wright are the owners of Flowers Galore with two locations - one in Kimberley, B.C. and another in Cranbook, B.C. While they’re relative newcomers to the industry – they bought the shop just less than four years ago – their previous work experience outside the world of flowers has proven an asset to the shop. They’re hoping Flo Software, a new program they’ve developed and use in their own shop, will change the way other florists run their shops day in and day out.
It’s clear just from looking at the Wrights’ background that they know how to use technology to better a business. Prior to purchasing Flowers Galore, both Rene and Lee worked for a company in the U.S. where they specialized in retail publishing software and looked specifically at developing workflow software designed to streamline operations and make tasks and jobs more efficient. Through these positions, they had the opportunity to work for companies like the L.A. Times and Dow Jones, and big retailers like Albertsons and Safeway. Eventually the couple formed their own company and independently developed software to serve this industry, a job they did for many years. When it came time to start a family, Rene and Lee made the move back to Canada, and after scouting out local businesses for sale in Rene’s hometown of Kimberley, they made the bold decision to become flower shop owners. “It was an affordable business for sale, the risk was low and it gave us an opportunity to get back into the whole family thing,” says Rene.
Shortly after they took the reins, it became obvious to the Wrights that their flower shop had some serious workflow issues they needed to address. They looked at the existing software available to florists but opted to go another route. “We decided, ‘Hey this is crazy. We know how to do this stuff, let’s write our own software,’” says Rene. And from there, Flo Software was born and has been in operation at Flowers Galore for almost two years. “We love it – we’re so happy with it,” says Rene.
The couple is now hoping to share the success of Flo Software with florists across Canada. Relying on their previous job experience, combined with the knowledge they’ve gained from working daily in their own flower shop, the duo’s goal is to develop cost-effective and practical solutions for the floral industry. In order to help others achieve this, they’ve established their own company called FSG Flo Software Group and offer three software components: Flo Floral, Flo Wholesale and My Flo Works. The company’s motto is “Designed with the florists future in mind.”
They’ve developed their software program to be the total package for florists. “Just from running our own business, we know that there are so many factors to it and there are so many people that want to provide you with a service. I think this is something that should come in one package,” says Lee. “You shouldn’t have to buy an accounting package, buy a web storefront, have an order management system and a wedding quote system. None of these things tie together and they cost a fortune. Our idea is that it doesn’t cost us any more to put these things in the program. We’re not going to disqualify users from using any of the functions, we’re just going to set one affordable price and here’s what you get.” Rene adds that they want to “empower the florist with the tools to do these things themselves.”
Based on this concept, Flo Floral, the retail florist component of the software, offers a wide range of services to subscribers. It’s a wizard-based system, which means it’s an easy-to-use program that guides the user through the system via logical steps – a decision in one screen affects the content in the next screen. The system includes a website, true inventory control, event management, recipe management, and standing order and quotation management. Flo Floral also allows users to print orders, schedule daily tasks, set up florist-to-florist transactions, manage expenses, create reports and reduce bookkeeping.
One of Flo Floral’s biggest strengths is its true inventory control. It helps the florist track what flowers they currently have, what price is profitable for the shop’s desired margin and the number of stems they have on order. This in turn links up with the Flo Floral online storefront, allowing retailers to present customers with product availability based on actual inventory and making real-time management of pricing possible.
Flo Floral is also a place where florists can create and store design recipes. “In our software, the whole concept of the recipe is very important,” says Rene. “A recipe is not just a picture, a description and a price. Recipe, in the context of Flo Floral, has product information associated to it as well.” The recipe will outline each flower that goes into the arrangement, which specific variety or stem length to use and the hard goods associated with the design.
Florists will have the ability to share recipes with one another using the second component to the Wright’s floral software, MyFloWorks.com. “Florists all over the country and all over the world have made wonderful recipes themselves,” says Rene. “What they don’t have is the empowerment to post these recipes online and make them available to other florists. So this is the whole concept of MyFloWorks.com – it allows the florist an avenue to post recipes in an online format and other florists can download them.” MyFloWorks.com will also allow users to create a menu or recipe book where they can print the recipes in colour and set their own prices based on what their product inventory is that week.
Recipes are also important to the third and final component of Flo Software – Flo Wholesale. This is the last piece of the puzzle that helps create a closed loop of communication between the retailer and the wholesaler. Suppliers can use their own Flo program to manage their product base and post weekly price lists for florists who subscribe to Flo Floral. The wholesaler can also use recipes to promote a particular product and share design ideas with the florist. “They can create recipes and send those off to florists and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got a hot new item this weekend and here’s the recipe for it,’” says Rene. “If I’m a subscriber of Flo Floral and the wholesaler is a member of Flo Wholesale, all I have to do is click that recipe based on what I think I could sell that week. Flo Floral is smart enough that if I decide I’m going to order 10 and the recipe consists of five carnations, it would figure out that I need 50 stems of carnations.”
Florists can subscribe to Flo Floral on a monthly basis, free of contracts, which means retailers can drop the program if they feel it doesn’t fit with their business. There are no additional fees for any aspect of the program – florists who subscribe receive everything the software has to offer. The program is Internet-based and all the equipment a retailer requires is a computer that can run a browser efficiently. “This software needs to be affordable to allow the florist to be profitable long term,” says Rene. “Our strategy is that we’re looking at low costs and high volume. We want this to be a floral community where people really share ideas,” adds Lee.
The couple believes the biggest strength of Flo Software is that it was created by florists, for florists. The Wrights know the struggles that retailers face because they’ve been in the same position. Creating this software system helped them overcome these challenges and they simply want to share the solution with others.
The Wrights are planning a soft launch of the Flo Software program in October and are currently accepting beta members who want to try out the system and give feedback on how it works. Those interested can visit www.flosoftware.com for more information.
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