May 8, 1%2. 



The Weekly Florists^ Review* 



841 



A Floral Scales 



If your present old clumps are stroug 

 and healthy and have made a nice 

 growth you should have plenty of stock 

 so that you can grow a lot on in the 

 field also to make good any occasional 

 failure in the frames in the fall. Of 

 course you will want to give them all 

 the air possible and they should have a 

 lath or similar shading all summer, and 

 this should be high enough to work un- 

 der and give free circulation of air. 



I may add that it is useless to attempt 

 to make any stock from the old hard 

 wooded portion of the clumps. 



E. E. Shuphklt. 



BUSINESS METHODS FOR BUSY 

 FLORISTS. 



III. 



In our previous articles we endeavored 

 to suggest and point out the way in 

 which daily, weekly and annual records 

 of the output of each house of a range 

 might 1)6 kept. In this article we shall 

 dwell more particularly on sales records 

 ami hope to offer a few pertinent and 

 hel])ful thoughts on the subject. 



Xo branch of a small business is so 

 apt to be overlooked as the sales record, 

 and none should be more carefully kept, 

 ilany business firms owe their failure 

 to succeed to loose and poorly kept sales 

 records. Two fundamental laws should 

 govern all sales : First, never sell any 

 but perishable goods at a loss, and those 

 only when compelled to; second, never 



make any sales without a complete rec- 

 ord of it. The matter of fixing prices 

 I will take up in detail in a later chap- 

 ter. 



Keep an accurate itemized record of 

 each sale you make whether for cash or 

 credit. Provide yourself with duplicate 

 sales slips, such as department stores 

 use. If there is more than one sales- 

 man on the premises let each one have 

 a number, and a block of sales slips, 

 which should be numbered consecutively. 

 When a sale is made it is itemized on 

 the sales slip, the duplicate copy given 

 to the customer, the original kept for 

 your own record. If the sale be charged 

 the duplicate will serve as a bill to the 

 customer. At the close of the day's 

 business ascertain if you have all the 

 consecutive numbers of your sales slips, 

 total the cash sales, and credit them 

 on your cash book in a lump sum. Post 

 direct from the charge slips to your 

 ledger and file your charge slips in a 

 convenient file for the month. 



For a small business, or one of consid- 

 erable magnitude, an ordinary indexed 

 box file can be used. Many good firms 

 still use day book and journal, but ad- 

 vanced methods of accounting abolish 

 intermediate records and post direct 

 from original transactions to the perma- 

 nent records, thus avoiding unnecessary 

 . work and errors in copying. Some con- 

 cerns copy all sales in a sales book and 

 post from that, some copy all bills and 

 use the copy for a sales book, while one 

 firm in the writer's acquaintance files 



the sales slip in a self-indexing, expan- 

 sive ledger file, using it as a ledger en- 

 try and making the original sales slip 

 the permanent ledger record. There are 

 objections to each of these systems. 

 What is adapted to one business may 

 not be to another, and vice versa. 



If your business is of sufficient mag- 

 nitude you have, or should have, a com- 

 petent bookkeeper. If you do not em- 

 ploy a competent bookkeeper your- own 

 knowledge of accounts may suggest the 

 best system for your individual require- 

 ments. If your knowledge of bookkeep- 

 ing is limited, it will pay you to em- 

 ploy a good accountant for a few even- 

 ings to start you right. No rule or set 

 of rules for accounting will apply to 

 each and every business. The most that 

 they can do will be to suggest a sys- 

 tem that will be adapted to your busi- 

 ness. 



Whatever methods of accounting you 

 may adopt, bear in mind that the suc- 

 cess of any line of business depends 

 upon strict attention to details. These 

 details, like the stones in the basement 

 wall of a modern sky-scraper building, 

 are the foundation for all successful 

 business ventures. 



If you have been negligent of details 

 in the past, as I know many of you 

 have been, right about face and start 

 right at once. Don't delay or put it oft' 

 to a "more convenient" time. If you 

 do that time will never come. 



Upon the permanent past records of 

 a business its future success is built. 

 If your sales a year ago were greater 

 than they are today ascertain wherein 

 the descrepancy lies. If a clerk is dis- 

 honest your chances of detecting it are 

 a hundred-fold better if you have been 

 systematic than if not. If you are a 

 grower and your output is just as large, 

 but receipts smaller, seek a better mar- 

 ket and endeavor to increase your re- 

 ceipts. If you are a retailer and re- 

 ceipts are "smaller while expenses are 

 larger, you can discover the leakage and 

 apply the remedy twice as quickly if 

 vour business is systematically conduct- 

 ed. 



In every business the receipts keep the 

 wheels iiinning. The careful, systematic 

 record of sales is one of the most, if not 

 the very most, important branch of any 

 business. System. 



ANOTHER FLORAL SCALES. 



In response to our rci^uest for photo- 

 graphs of designs Mr. Albert Eeiehs- 

 pfarr, Richmond, Ky., sends us the 

 photo from which the accompanying en- 

 graving is made ami which shows an- 

 other treatment of the "Scales of Jus- 

 tice" illustrated in our issue of May 1. 

 This design was ordered by the Eich- 

 mond Bar for the funeral of the late 

 Judge Scott, of Richmond. The flowers 

 used were roses, carnations, valley, smi- 

 lax and adiantums. 



KEEPING CARNATIONS. 



I c-an go Van Bergen one week better 

 on keeping carnations. Last Janu.iry I 

 placed a vase of fourteen Mrs. Bradt in 

 my parlor, changirg w'ater every morn- 

 ing and clipping off a bit of the stems 

 every other day, hnd it was after the 

 28th day before they showed a sign of 

 going to sleep. For two days after that 

 I had them on the table in my dining 

 room. Have had Crocker and Eose Queen 



