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KEEPING TAB ON 



BUSINESS HEALTH 



Business practices of the successful are always interesting and are 

 worthy of careful consideration. Consequently the trade will he inter- 

 ested in how a Kentucky florist made his growing business grow, how he 

 keeps it growing, and how he knows at the end of every day that its growth 

 is healthy. 



3 





inrs^piiiiQ 



N the vocabulary of Addi- 

 son J. McNutt, of Knox- 

 ville, Tenn., the little four- 

 letter word "grow" plays 

 a leading role. If the sub- 

 ject of this sketch could 

 have had a choice in the 

 matter, he probably would 

 have adopted it as his mid- 

 dle name. He has succes- 

 sively and successfully grown vege- 

 tables, flowers and a business until now 

 he is proprietor of one of the largest 

 and finest flower shops in the south. His 

 standing in the trade may be judged 

 from the fact that he is president of the 

 Knoxville Florists' Society. 

 Mr. McNutt *s father was a 

 market gardener, so he came 

 naturally by his interest in 

 things that nature brings 

 forth from the soil. His one 

 ambition, ever since he gave 

 up hope of being a fireman 

 or an acrobat, has been to de- 

 velop in the field of endeavor 

 dignified by the activities of 

 Luther Burbank. Except for 

 a flier taken in the candy 

 business, he has been grow- 

 ing in the growing business 

 ever since he was old enough 

 to work. 



Credit to Mrs. McNutt. 



To Mrs. Addison J. McNutt 

 belongs the credit of inducing 

 her husband to specialize in 

 floriculture. She insisted up- 

 on, having a violet bed beside 

 tHe touse and, of course, it 

 wis up to Addison to weed 

 th^e garden and otherwise 

 kgep it in order during his 

 leiayje moments. 



It was not long before he 

 was growing the best violets 

 in the neighborhood; his nat- 

 ural ability to grow things 

 just had to assert itself. Mrs. 

 A. J. would give bunches of the flowers 

 to her friends and soon people were call- 

 ing at the house to buy them. This 

 gave McNutt his hunch. Why not grow 

 flowers to sell? The prices were good 

 and the market lively. 



He enlarged the flower bed and spent 

 more of his time with it. His violets 

 were becoming known all over town. 

 Orders were being placed in advance for 

 weekly delivery. Mr. McNutt now fully 

 realized the possibilities of his flower 

 bed. He jumped into the business with 

 both feet, and decided to see if he could 



By F. H. HOSSICK . 



not make the business grow, as well as 

 the violets. 



Business Grew Rapidly. 



His first real marketing experience 

 with his flowers was from a wagon out- 

 side the City Market building. The 

 next move was to rent a stall or booth 

 inside the market and, in addition to 

 growing violets, he built greenhouses so 

 as to produce other kinds of flowers and 

 now has a range of seven houses, shown 

 in the illustration on the next page. He 

 gave up growing vegetables altogether. 



The Crouch Co. Has a Most Inviting Salesroom. 



Mr. McNutt was quite content for a 

 while in keeping his stall at the City 

 market and growing plants and blooms 

 for other dealers in Knoxville. Mean- 

 while his business was thriving and 

 customers of the large retail florists 

 were coming to him direct for flowers 

 on special occasions. 



In February, 1916, he bought out the 

 largest retail florist in Knoxville — the 

 C. W. Crouch Co. The old firm name is 

 retained for business reasons, and C. W. 

 Crouch Co., A. J. McNutt, proprietor, is 

 on the store front and letterheads. He 



still maintains his stall at the City mar- 

 ket. 



A. J. McNutt was so thoroughly pos- 

 sessed by the desire to make things 

 grow, that he started right in on the new 

 business. The store was remodeled, 

 painted and decorated. New fixtures 

 and furniture were installed and, as 

 will be seen by the accompanying illus- 

 tration, the store was made most attrac- 

 tive. He decided right ofiE that he 

 could not afford to be tied up with petty 

 details of tlie office. There was only 

 certain information that he needed from 

 the books, but he wanted it in clear, con- 

 densed figures. 



With this arrangement he would know 

 at a glance the exact health 

 of his business every day 

 of the year. Then he would 

 liave time to throw his ener- 

 gies into building up the 

 business, furthering sales 

 ])romotion, and looking after 

 the greenhouse production. 



Machine Makes Records. 



His brother, G. E. McNutt, 

 has the duties of assistant 

 manager, and keeps all the 

 accounts of the store and 

 greenhouses, in addition to 

 managing the former. The 

 proprietor knows each day 

 what his cash sales amount 

 to, what his charge sales 

 amount to, what his expenses 

 are for the day and how they 

 are distributed. All the 

 ledger posting is done on a 

 machine in the early part of 

 the morning, when business is 

 quiet. 



The C. W. Crouch Co. 

 caters to the best and most 

 conservative class in Knox- 

 ville. About ninety per cent 

 of its $60,000 a year business 

 is in charge accounts. All 

 these records are handled 

 with a machine. 



When a sale is made the clerk makes 

 out a sales ticket in duplicate. At the 

 end of the day, the originals are totaled 

 on an adding machine, showing the 

 charge and cash sales for the day. The 

 duplicate of the sales ticket is filed 

 away in a metal box, made the same 

 size as the ticket, alphabetically by 

 name. 



At the end of the month these dupli- 

 cates are stapled to the back of the 

 statement sent to each customer, which 

 gives the customer a satisfactory check 



