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fm THE ^^ 



WATCHING CREDITS 



AND COLLECTIONS 



// you do not loiou: Charles F. Botjle, you will want to read this article 

 ke has ivritten for The Review when you learn he is president of Thomas F. 

 Galvin, Inc., president of the New Enyland Retail Florists' Association and 

 chairman of the hoard of directors of the New England Florists' Alliance. 



N USUAL conditions dur- 

 inj^ and since the war have 

 brought the retail florist 

 face to face with the cold 

 facts concerning money, 

 its necessity, its use and 

 abuse, and the penalty for 

 disregarding any of these. 

 It is only within recent 

 years that the florist, no 

 matter in which branch of the trade 

 engaged, has had the regard for the 

 fundamentals of business that he should, 

 and has come to see what has been ac- 

 complished by other successful busi- 

 ness firms and to visualize their meth- 

 ods. It had been the custom to neglect 

 the idea of collecting money for value 

 received, so long as the other party 

 was a good fellow. The feeling was 

 .strong that some day he would pay, and 

 rather then suggest payment, the habit 

 was such that statements were seldom 

 rendered. 



The possibility of demanding pay- 

 ment was never heard of, and rare in- 

 deed were the occasions when drastic- 

 action was counte- 

 nanced. Among retail- 

 ers it was nothing un- 

 usual to find that fifty 

 per cent of the custom- 

 ers allowed their ac- 

 i'.ounts to run from one 

 to two years, thirty- 

 five per cent from two 

 to five years, and fully 

 fifteen per cent from 

 five to ten years. To 

 offset this, the growers 

 were compelled to wait 

 for their money, not 

 the same length of 

 time, but always sev- 

 eral months. The first 

 few months of each 

 year were devoted to 

 paying accounts due 

 from the previous vear. 



Handicap. 



Such methods were 

 unsound and doomed 

 to failure those who 

 followed them. They 

 were the underlving 

 cause of the reduced 

 prosperity of florists 

 and formed the major 

 . reason for their non- 

 progressiveness a n d 

 their lack of success. 

 The average business 

 man devoted a small 

 portion of his time to 

 his business, compared 



By CHARLES F. BOYLE. 



with the average florist, and was emi- 

 nently more successful. No other busi- 

 ness would permit privileges of credit 

 such as were allowed the retail florist's 

 custouK^r. It has always been the feeling 

 that to approach a customer for money 

 would end his patronage then and there. 

 Nowadaj's, this situation is reversed; 

 if a customer doesn't pay, he is refused 

 credit. 



The necessity and acknowledgment 

 of proper business methods have begun 

 to overcome this feeling. Growers quite 

 generally demand their money and get 

 it. The retailers, however, always being 

 the buffer between the producer and 

 the consumer, have many other angles 

 to consider. Stabilized credit is the 

 most necessary factor to one's business 

 today. This cannot be obtained with- 

 out proper regulations and ;i strict ad- 

 herence to them. The credit organiza- 

 tions have devolopeil wonderfully and 

 have created a new s]iirit among retail 

 stoi-es, including many florists'. The 



Charles F. Boyle. 



I)ercentage of had bills has been greatly 

 reduced within the last five years and 

 varies according to the volume of busi- 

 ness. It has been the custom with many 

 wealthy people who in past years were 

 the florists' best customers to pay their 

 hills whenever the spirit moved them, 

 not, however, oftener than once a year. 

 A good deal of this practice was due to 

 the feeling that the florists were mak- 

 ing such vast profits that they could 

 well afford to wait. To a certain extent 

 this was just the reason that florists 

 did charge the top prices to these par- 

 ticular customers, so that the arrange- 

 ment was mutual. 



Today, however, the apjiroach of 

 standardization in the retail florists' 

 trade is already sighted and will include 

 within a few short years the credit 

 system. We believe in being reasonable 

 under every circumstance. Extensions 

 of credit we do not object to if we un- 

 derstand the necessity and have a 

 knowledge of the circumstances sug- 

 gesting extensions. However, we believe 

 that all promises made in the course of 

 such extensions should 

 he accurately lived up 

 to, and obligations as 

 agreed fully canceled. 

 When a customer 

 does not put his ac- 

 count in balance at 

 least twice a year, 

 signs are bad, and 

 when a customer makes 

 partial payments for a 

 jieriod of two or three 

 years, never balancing 

 his account, signs are 

 worse, and sooner or 

 later we find ourselves 

 with a had debt on our 

 hands. For this reason 

 our annual audit 

 is carefully supervised 

 and every effort is 

 made to begin a new 

 year with a clean sheet. 

 That is, no account is 

 left standing over sixty 

 days. 



Collection Methods. 



Various methods arc 

 employed to keep the 

 accounts collected to 

 date. The best method 

 is to see that your 

 customer receives his 

 monthly statement on 

 ;i <'ertain day, and he 

 will rarely p:iss it over 

 without good reason. 

 The first moiitli a com- 



