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Stephanie Devine Runner-Up in Canadian Florist Inspired Design Bridal Bouquet Contest

Stephannie Devine is the newest designer at College Park Flowers. She has been working at the shop the last five years but until recently only in a part time capacity. Why was her time limited? Because when she started, she was still in high school.

Stephanie

Stephannie worked during the summer and through the year as part of a co-op placement. (For the non-Canadians among us, that’s a work program where you receive high school credit for dipping your toes into your chosen career. How cool is that?) But although her experience has been short, she was excited for the opportunity to show off her design skills in the Canadian Florist Inspired Design Bridal Bouquet Contest.

The Design Contest

Held at this year’s Canadian Florist Business Forum in Toronto, Canada, the design contest allowed contestants to bring a finished product without restricting the materials they could use. Stephannie was a bit hesitant to compete at first, but some heartfelt encouragement from shop owner Anne Cao and manager Carys Cao bolstered her confidence.

Because of the last minute decision to enter the contest, Stephannie didn’t have time to order anything special for the competition. She instead used flowers the shop had readily available. In her talented hands, it was more than enough. Stephannie designed and created her bouquet using orchids, eryngium and carnations. The resulting arrangement speaks for itself. Beautiful job, Stephannie.

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Looking Ahead

Please join us in congratulating Stephannie on her second place finish. FSN is excited for what the future holds for Stephannie and the floral industry as a whole. If this talented young designer is any indication, the next generation of florists are going to take the industry to new heights.

 

Suggest an Article: Florists Honoring the Arizona Hotshots

Florists are amazing people, and if any of us ever forget that fact, this story should serve as a powerful reminder. This week’s suggest an article comes from Rakini Chinery of Allan’s Flowers & Prescott Valley Florist!

In order to get to the heart-warming story of local florists banding together to do something selfless and beautiful, we first have to recount a terrible tragedy.

This past June, 19 members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots lost their lives while battling an Arizona wildfire. These brave individuals died serving and protecting their community, keeping it safe from harm.Hotshot Memorial Team

In an overwhelming response to this horrific event, the floral community in Arizona clamored to do their part to honor the noble sacrifice of these fallen heroes. Over 30 Arizona florists donated both their time and their talents to arranging and sculpting flowers provided by contributions from wholesalers for the Hotshot Memorial Service.

These tireless florists worked hard for three full days to do what they do best: provide artistic beauty and love in an effort to provide whatever comfort could be found for the inconsolable family and friends of those who were lost.

I hope you will join me in sending a heartfelt “Thank You” to the Arizona florists who did all they could for those who died so tragically on that fateful June day. It is that giving spirit which does the floral community proud. Good job, folks!

If you have an idea for Suggest an Article, leave it in the comments below.

FSN Annual Meeting and Award Ceremony

Flower Shop Network just celebrated its annual meeting and awards ceremony! We received a few hours of team-building training, and standouts from our sales staff also received awards for personal achievements. Join me as I show you the faces behind the voices you’ve grown to know and love.

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Congratulations to our Salesperson of the Year, Amy Hall, and FSN Rookie of the Year, Irving Casiano!

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Representing Wedding and Party Network we want to congratulate Kelly Roberts (left) sporting not one but two awards and Christy Rawls (right) as the WPN Rookie of the Year.

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Congratulations to FG Market’s Rookie of the Year, Craig Johnson, while Patti Jones cleaned up with the other two honors. [Read more…]

FSN Christmas Celebration!

Today we enjoyed a wonderful lunch together for our annual Flower Shop Network Christmas Party. The food was great, the company was better and the homemade desserts were to die for! To keep things interesting, we also held an Ugly Sweater Contest. I’ve never seen so many people wearing working lights! Take a moment to peruse through this photo tour of the FSN festivities and Happy Holidays!

Ugly Sweater Contest

To help everyone get into the Christmas spirit, we also held an Ugly Sweater Contest. And let me tell you, folks, our people didn’t disappoint. These are some UGLY sweaters.

Giving Gifts

Did you think that was all? Not quite yet. Brock and Loranne decided to hand out some Christmas gifts and everybody got a little something.

And yet the giving wasn’t done yet …

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Here’s a load of food that the employees of Flower Shop Network donated to the food drive for local schools!

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Happy Holidays from Flower Shop Network!!

Green Box Floral Visits FSN

Luke and Nathan Harwell, the owners of Greenbox Floral, paid a visit to Flower Shop Network headquarters this week. While they were here, we took the opportunity to learn about their upcoming product release.

Lauren, Brock, and the Brothers

From left to right: Loranne, Brock, Luke and Nathan.

Experience Before Technology

Luke Harwell chose to follow his father in the floral industry in 2002, attending the Benz School of Floral Design at Texas A&M and becoming a Texas Master Florist. He assumed the role of President of Baack’s Florists and Greenhouses in January of 2008. There is no doubt that he understands the floral industry and the challenges that retail florists face.

Greenbox floral believes in the local florist. They believe each local flower shop is unique and their success should be driven by their own creativity and quality. And they believe one of the key elements needed to grow an inarguably shrinking industry is an opportunity for each shop’s artists to showcase their impressive talents to the customer.

The Value of the Cooler

The Greenbox solution begins with your unique designs.

Luke and Nathan believe the cooler is prime marketing real-estate. It showcases your work, giving the customer who walks in your door the opportunity to see current examples of your unique designs. It also allows for immediate upselling.

A customer sees that perfect item in your cooler and knows she wants to make a purchase. And because she’s already seen it, she doesn’t have to wonder if the finished product will live up to her expectations.

Or perhaps she sees multiple examples of talent and creativity expressed in your unique designs. She is impressed, and now when she has need of a talented florist, she knows to come to you.

Making Online In-Person

They place cameras in your store which broadcast an ultra-low frame rate live stream. Using Greenbox’s proprietary software, the live stream is uploaded directly to your website. The result is a live feed, allowing customers who come to your site an opportunity to click on the designs in your live stream and purchase the exact item in real time, already made and ready to go.

With the proprietary software Greenbox has developed, you are able to price each item so customers can mouse over the arrangement and see a price pop up directly on their screen. Each individual arrangement is clickable so that customers can go straight to a purchasing screen for any floral arrangement they want.

Because online shopping is becoming more and more popular, many of your customers will never have a chance to see the inside of your shop. But due to the live, interactive display designed by Greenbox, the value of your cooler is translated to an online medium. The customer can see your creative designs, can be impressed with your individual work and can see exactly what she is purchasing when she purchases it. Brilliant!

We greatly enjoyed having Luke and Nathan stop by our offices this week. They not only gave us an opportunity to learn more about their product, they showed us the passion for the floral industry that fueled them to develop it. Click here if you would like more information on Greenbox Floral, or if you’d like to see the Greenbox Floral solution in action, visit Baack’s Florists and Greenhouses here.

The FSN Turkey Shoot: Having Fun and Meeting Goals

The sales team here at Flower Shop Network, just like the sales people employed by your business, has sales goals. And also like you, we try to find new and interesting ways to motivate our sales team to not only meet but exceed those goals. Our last contest was so successful, we thought we’d share this fun, seasonal idea with all of you. It’s the FSN turkey shoot!

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This is our turkey shoot board. Think of it as a large dart board with images of animals acting as the bullseyes.

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Here is a list of the potential prizes to be won. Those look awesome! [Read more…]

Enjoying a Thanksgiving Potluck with FSN

Flower Shop Network is going to be closed on Thanksgiving Day, so the FSN family chose to get together this Thursday for food and fellowship.

We decided to go potluck style this year, and let me tell you, some of these folks can cook! Most of the food in these shots is homemade and it was all delicious. Enjoy the images, but let me tell you, the reality was fantastic!

Potluck food

Tables full of food. We had traditional favorites like candied yams and more ethnic fare with homemade hot tamales! Yum!

Care for a Roll

Is this the bread aisle at some local market? No! It’s just a few of the many tasty options we sorted through to fill our bellies.

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Shelley looks thrilled with her selections! Well, it wouldn’t be hard. Everything was excellent.

[Read more…]

Happy Halloween From FSN!

At Flower Shop Network, we never let a day of fun and entertainment pass us by! This Halloween is no different, and we had quite a few people participate in our annual costume contest. From pop culture to historically hilarious, high brow to powerfully pun-y, we pulled out all the stops! Scroll on down to see the hordes of insanity invading the FSN halls!

Flower Shop Network Logo

No, that’s not a man with pipe-cleaners growing out of his face. It’s an extremely hairy FSN logo! Excellent costume, Kier!

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Cookies and candy. Does it get any deader, I mean better, than this?

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Hulk Hogan AND Wolverine? Wow, not sure one post can handle so much machismo. THAT’S JUST CRAZY, BROTHER! [Read more…]

FSN Member wins Second Annual Buckwald Scholarship!

We would like to congratulate Lavender Hill Florals of Jeffersonville, IN for winning the second annual Buckwald scholarship! Way to go, ladies!

About the Buckwald ScholarshipLavender Hill Floral

The Gary Buckwald Scholarship for Excellence in Floral Sales and Service consists of $10,000 worth of training, coaching and mentoring over the course of a year for a florist and her staff. This scholarship, the result of a collaboration between the Society of American Florists and Floral Strategies, has an application process open to any retailer who has been in business for at least 18 months. Tim Huckabee, president of Floral Strategies, says that they attempt to discover a retailer who “genuinely wants and needs the training, and is willing to put what they learn into practice.”

It is a recent award, but its lack of age is no knock on its incredible value. The tremendous benefit of having the opportunity to receive top-notch personal training from Tim Huckabee cannot be overstated. Tim will be making several trips out to Lavender Hill Florist over the next year to work with the staff on their sales and customer service skills.

Congratulations Lavender Hill Florals

This is both a great honor and great opportunity for FSN member, Lavender Hill Florals. We are excited for them and know that Tim will lead them down a path toward even greater success!


A Giving Boss’s Day with FSN

Boss’s Day was a roaring success at the FSN offices, and for more than just our bosses!

The sales department decided to do something a little different this year to honor Brock and Loranne, the owners of Flower Shop Network. Because our owners are such generous people, the sales department chose to do something that embraced their spirit, something that went beyond the walls of our offices and reached out into the community.

Backpack Food Drive

Our local Backpack Food Program collects non-perishable food from the community and businesses in the area and delivers it to local schools, fills backpacks with the collected food and distributes it to children of needy families. This year, as a Boss’s Day tribute, every member of the sales department brought food from home to make a sizable contribution in the name of our owners and sales managers. Way to go, guys!

The contribution

Here is a photo of the contribution in total. Looks like a lot of meals gathered up there. [Read more…]