770 



HOETICULTURE 



December 11, 1915 



FLORISTS AS ADVERTISERS AND BOOKKEEPERS 



(By A. F. Koehle, Sherman, Texas.) 



We are all more or less loose in 

 bandling our advertising and book- 

 keeping but we should not be. What 

 is the use of growing a splendid lot of 

 stock unless one has a means in view 

 fit letting the trade, be it wholesale or 

 'retail, know what he has? What is 

 the "nse of selling if one hasn't a s.vs- 

 tera of book-keeping to keep proper 

 record of the sales, not onl.v to know 

 where you stand financially, but for 

 ■future reference to know what quan- 

 tity to grow the coming year; thereby 

 'eliminating that awful pest of both re- 

 tailer and wholesaler — gluts — and 

 then Bnd you have to run to some de- 

 ipaTtment store to unload it? A pre- 

 ventire for these gluts, which also 

 'means a preventive of antagonism 

 among brother florists, can be sifted 

 down and controlled by the two means 

 in this subject: 



1st. Advertise judiciously and in- 

 sistently. There are poor ways of 

 advertising as well as good ones, and 

 best results can not be obtained with- 

 ■out careful study. Select a medium 

 ■which ■you know reaches the most de- 

 isirable customers, make your ad. brief 

 and to the point and above all make 

 ■:your opening display interesting and 

 attractive. Put yourself in the pub- 

 lic's place. How many ads. do you 

 read that are not started with some 

 catchy phrase? Unless one is looking 

 for that certain line of stock there 

 •are very few people who pick up a 

 paper to find out who is selling flowers 

 the cheapest or what the most season- 

 able flower is. It is up to us to catch 

 ■their eye and make them see "who is 

 who" in the flower and plant line. 

 Last Valentine's Day I decided to use 

 a slide in all the picture shows in 

 •town. One can obtain these slides at 

 the office of our daily paper. Being 

 well acquainted with the advertising 

 manager of this paper, he asked me 

 why 1 didn't use his paper for an ad. 

 I told him 1 thought the shows would 

 reach more people. His only reply 

 was "Then why do the picture shows 

 in this town use one whole sheet of 

 my paper to advertise their shows, if 

 your theory works out? I told him 

 those visiting the shows mighty near 

 had to read the ads. when thrown on 

 the screen, while they would never 

 look at them in a paper. He replied 

 that if my ad. was overlooked it was 

 my fault and not the paper's, and 1 

 guess he -was about right. However, 

 we have found the following: Pic- 

 ture show good, leading papers better 

 and direct advertising best. The last 

 named we have worked down to a very 

 tine point. We have tried some of the 

 various folders that are now on the 

 market but find our own letters pay 



best and we attribute the enormous 

 growth of our business to this means. 



In sending out circular communica- 

 tions for any special day, we prepare 

 these letters — one to be addressed to 

 the married men, one to the single 

 men and one to the ladies who enter- 

 tain. Each letter is carefully filled in 

 with typewriter, signed with pen and 

 mailed under two cent postage. Of 

 course we endeavor at all times to 

 make these letters attractive and brief. 

 For our mailing list locally-, we use the 

 City Directory, carefully marked by 

 someone who is well acquainted in 

 the city. In fact, we have as many as 

 three different clerks check over this 

 list, all of whom are well acquainted 

 in the city, so as to get a very com- 

 plete list of those persons most likely 

 to purchase flowers. We also use 

 these same letters for our out-of-town 

 customers, using lists of names furn- 

 ished us by our local agents in the 

 different towns. 



Now as to our out-of-town advertis- 

 ing. All ads. of this kind should of 

 course be keyed, and all inquiries re- 

 ceived carefully recorded and followed 

 up. For keeping record of the number 

 of inquiries and of sales through our 

 different advertising mediums, we 

 use a monthly card for each paper. 

 When an inquiry is received, the name 

 is recorded on a 3x5 card, marked 

 at the top with the numbers from 1 to 

 31 and a clip placed on the number 

 corresponding to the date on which 

 the inquiry should be followed up. 

 When a sale is made it is duly re- 

 corded on this card, and the card then 

 placed in "Sold File" for future refer- 

 ence and for future advertising. Re- 

 peat orders are where our profits 

 come. The first order frequently is 

 not of sufl3cient importance to reim- 

 burse us for what it cost to secure, but 

 a satisfied customer is the very best 

 advertisement, and we endeavor at all 

 times to please, for we know- if we 

 "sell satisfaction our goods will sell 

 themselves." Advertising is worth 

 little if we don't back it up with Al 

 quality, the best of service and the 

 most pleasing courtesy. One might 

 think it takes considerable capital and 

 time to carry on this line of direct ad- 

 vertising but such is not the case. If 

 you are not fortunate enough to have 

 the use of a typewriter or any of the 

 machines now on the market for this 

 purpose, all you need is pen, ink, 

 raper, envelopes and stamps. There 

 is a druggist in our city, and by the 

 way one of the leading ones, who fol- 

 lows this method of advertising by the 

 following means. Between the days, 

 he has in mind to use his letters, all 

 his spare time (and we all have much 

 of it) he writes his letters ■with pen 



(bear in mind he has a typewriter and 



multigraph too) but prefers a person- 

 ally penned letter signed by himself, 



and he advises me it brings big re- 

 turns. Another very important item 



to bear in mind is to select some 

 slogan suggestive of your business or 

 special line if you have one, and use 

 it always. You will find it will not 

 be long until it is a by-word with all 

 your customers as well as new cus- 

 tomers. We use one in our local ad- 

 vertising, and we contract with the 

 leading paper here tor a number of 

 local ads. to run the whole year 

 through and scattered it over various 

 parts of the paper. All we used in 

 these locals was our slogan — "When 

 you think of Flowers think of us" and 

 unless you have tried it you have no 

 idea how much attention it attracts. 

 It will pay any one to try it. In con- 

 clusion on this part of my subject I 

 would say Advertise, and advertise 

 lots, but do it judiciously and care- 

 fully. 



2nd. Book-keeping — so much can 

 be said about this and so many of us 

 florists need to be hammered and 

 pounded so hard on this point, I 

 scarcely know where to begin. It em- 

 braces so much of our line that most 

 of us think it does not require any 

 book-keeping, in which we are very 

 badly mistaken. Most of us can tell 

 any time about how much we owe or 

 how much is due to come in, but how 

 many can go to their books and tell 

 which line of stock paid best for the 

 past year? I don't mean guess at it, 

 l)ut in actual figures. While our floral 

 department is not kept separate on our 

 books, it is kept in such a way that at 

 any time we can see just where this 

 department stands. For the general 

 book-keeping of the Company we keep 

 an account for everything — for in- 

 stance all improvements are charged 

 to a separate account, likewise the fol- 

 lowing items — interest, implements, 

 live stock, growing, purchase, and so 

 on. Every individual thing has an ac- 

 count of its own on our books: then 

 when a sale of these various things 

 is made, it is credited to that account, 

 so that any time we wish we can see 

 just how that department stands, how 

 much we have in it and what we are 

 getting from it. Of course most flor- 

 ists do not need so large a system as 

 ours, but we would suggest something 

 like this for even the smallest general 

 sales account, cut flowers, advertising, 

 purchasing, flower store account, green- 

 house account, improvement, plant 

 purchases, delivery account, live stock 

 or auto account, supplies, etc. What- 

 ever item is a factor in the conduct 

 of the business ought to be on your 

 books, that you may refer to it at any 



BOOM YOUR BUSINESS 



hy advertising your goods In ihe 



Horticujikujire 



Publicity among the kind of readers reached 

 by this paper is THE SORT OF PUBLI- 

 CITY THAT PAYS. 



