Mabch 17. 1921. 



The Florists' Review 



25 



THE RETAIL STORE 



A PAGE OF HINTS AND HELPS 

 FOR THE RETAIL FLORIST 



VERSES AND FLOWERS. 



Since both are conveyors of sentiment, 

 many florists believe that poetry is an 

 appropriate accompaniment of flowers. 

 Some members of the trade use others' 

 verses, while some compose their own. 

 Examples have appeared in these col- 

 umns before and have been employed 

 by readers for their own uses. 



Quite appropriate stanzas, one for 

 Easter and the other for Mothers' day, 

 have been contributed by a florist of 

 Ann Arbor, Mich., whose firm name is 

 Flanders for Flowers. For Easter the 

 following is offered: 



It seems to me those flowered stalks 



That point their l)eauty to the skies 

 Tell l)etter than by pen or talks 



The spirit that in Easter lies. 

 Though flowers speak with voice unheard, 



Each leaf, each petal that appears, 

 Conveys more clearly than by word 



The "thoughts that lie too deep for tears." 



A verse for Mothers' day is suggested 

 by this firm, as follows: 



Flowers of remembmnce, 



Blossoms tinted deep. 

 Bright hued for the living, 



White for one asleep. 

 Sun-kissed or star-kissed, 



A spirit hovers near. 

 O'er the bright a prayer is breathed. 



On the white there fulls a tear. 



TRY IT IN YOUR WINDOW. 



Last fall, when the prize-winners were 

 decided upon by the local garden club, 

 one wide-awake florist obtained a com- 

 plete set of photographs of the winning 

 plants, vegetables and flowers. 



This spring, when getting up his gar- 

 den seed window display, he included 

 this set of photographs, with a central 

 display card reading: 



"This is what we did in 1920. 



"What shall we accomplish in 1921?" 



DRAW BUSINESS BY BULBS. 



Noting the request in a recent issue 

 of The Review in regard to submitting 

 new ideas for publication, let me state 

 that I have an idea which I find is prac- 

 tical and profitable. 



The plan is to have a salesman go 

 from house to house with a supply of 

 bulbs, starting in November and con- 

 tinuing until April. The canvass is 

 made perhaps five or six times during 

 that period, first with narcissus bulbs, 

 and later with hyacinths, tuberoses, gla- 

 dioli, dahlias, Easter lilies, irises and 

 amaryllis. The prices, of course, are 

 low, as nearly as possible the same as 

 those of department store sales. 



The sale is made on the merits of the 

 bulbs, together with the wants of the 

 lady of the house. Before leaving the 

 house, the salesman leaves a card with 

 the following reading matter: 



"Help to support the starving chil- 

 dren of Europe by planting more Euro- 

 pean flower bulbs. This will also help 

 to keep sugar near a reasonable price, 

 by furnishing a good resource for the 

 bees to produce honey, as one sweet 

 product is in direct competition with the 

 other. Planting flower bulbs is an in- 



vestment added to your home, as well 

 as a beautifying necessity. We are bulb 

 specialty dealers in American, European, 

 Japanese and Chinese bulbs. Send in 

 your orders by mail." 



The advertising that is derived from 

 such a salesman I believe pays well. 



No doubt, some florists think that this 

 method hurts the sale of plants which 

 are grown outside, but I do not believe 

 this is true to any extent, and besides, 

 think of the business that you are tak- 

 ing away from the department store 

 which has special sales on bulbs. 



Frank Scott. 



WHAT IS GOOD-WILL WORTH? 



A Valuable Asset. 



When a retail florist lists his assets 

 in estimating the value of his business 

 or in offeri^ it for sale, his three most 

 important items are his lease, or store 



Here Are Ideas 



that have 

 Helped Others. 



Help Yourself. 



Have You 

 One 



to Contribute? 



if he owns it, stock in trade and good- 

 will. The first two are tangible and 

 definitely valued forms of property. 

 Anyone can .judge their worth pretty 

 accurately. But "good-will" — what is 

 that and what is it worth! 



Every time a florist concludes a sale 

 of flowers to a customer he does so with 

 an invitation, expressed or implied, to 

 come again. Most frequently the reply 

 to that invitation depends solely for its 

 answer on the pleasure, or displeasure, 

 of the customer. If the florist has per- 

 formed the service required of him and 

 has supplied the needed stock in such 

 satisfactory manner that the customer 

 is impelled to return to that store for 

 his next purchase, the florist has earned 

 the customer's good-will. If the florist 

 is able to satisfy many customers so 

 that they return to him when they wish 

 to buy flowers, the good-will which he 



has earned may be said to have corre- 

 spondingly increased. 



Good-will is that asset which makes 

 a business a "going concern." Good- 

 will is responsible for the business 

 which keeps it going. By years of work 

 a florist builds up a patronage that is 

 valuable because it supplies a steady 

 volume of orders without the sales ef- 

 fort otherwise needed. The work of 

 that florist during those years is repre- 

 sented as definitely in his business as 

 are the savings of those years in his 

 bankbook. The former, like the latter, 

 is a gradual accrual. Both are property. 

 Good-will is valued by accountants as 

 a species of property and has a con- 

 spicuous place on the books of many 

 large businesses. 



The florist has problems all his own 

 when he begins to figure good-will in 

 his business assets. One trade is not 

 like another and growing is different 

 from retailing. There is assistance, 

 however, in the accountant's method of 

 calculating good-will. 



Intangible as it is, good-will has a 

 definite market value. The basis used 

 by most accountants for determining 

 this value is an estimate of the profits 

 for a given period, such profits to be 

 only those which can properly be 

 ascribed to good-will. In other words, 

 it is estimated excess of earning power 

 over and above that which represents 

 a fair return of interest on invested 

 capital. 



In setting up this value, the following 

 method is generally adopted: First, ths 

 average annual earnings of the business 

 during some past period are calculated 

 — the longer the period taken the fairer 

 will be the result. Next, the average 

 capital invested in the business during 

 the same period is ascertained, and in- 

 terest at a fair rate is allowed as a 

 charge against earnings. 



Basis of Capitalizing Oood-WUl. 



Some period must then be determined 

 upon for a number of years to serve as 

 a basis for capitalizing the excess earn- 

 ings. The test is the length of time re- 

 quired to create new good-will. The 

 period varies according to the nature of 

 the business — in manufacturing or mer- 

 cantile lines it is generally put at from 

 three to five years. Excess of estimated 

 earnings over compound interest charges 

 for the period determined on are set up 

 as the capitalized value of good-will. 



A specific example will illustrate. 

 Suppose final excess of earnings over 

 costs for a period of five years amount 

 to $850,000, resulting in an average net 

 yearly profit of $170,000. The average 

 capital invested was, let us say, $100,- 

 000, upon which the annual fixed in- 

 terest charge of six per cent is $6,000. 

 The interest on borrowed capital is dis- 

 regarded in these calculations for the 

 sake of simplicity. 



Say the period settled on for build- 

 ing up good-will is five years; then the 

 value would be capitalized at $820,000, 



