business matters


the price is right


Every business will have its own sales strategy, and company directors will have their reasons for pricing products the way they do. But getting the price right is the key to a successful business. Crunching numbers and balancing books may seem like daunting tasks, but they are essential if your aim is to turn a profit. REBECCA PADDICK looks at the simple changes you could make to boost your bottom line.


Creative and innovative florists who are passionate about their artistic designs could be forgiven for not treating the financial side


of the business as their primary focus. Making the numbers add up can be confusing, time consuming and quite frankly a bit of a bore. If you have been at your place of work for quite some time it can also be difficult breaking old habits. “For too many years, florists


have just carried on running their businesses the way they always have, and they are so involved in making new designs and looking at new products on the market that actually numbers just don’t come into it,” says Nikki Meader, owner of West Malling Flowers in Kent.


Nikki is a management


accountant, and opened the Kent store two years ago, where she provides the administration, marketing and accounting. She also acquired Sandhurst Flowers


in Berkshire four years ago, which her mother, a florist with more than 30 years’ experience, now runs.


“A lot of people think that


What you said “The public seem amazed when you say you have to charge for sundries and labour. Personally, I don’t see the difference between florists charging and any other industry. You wouldn’t take your car into a garage and have them only charge you for parts. To be profitable EVERYTHING needs to be charged for. We’re a business not a benevolent fund.”


F&wb Summer 2013 91


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