Sending Smiles ~

It's always an honor to be included in an industry magazine and that's exactly what happened in the April/May issue of Floral Management magazine. Our shop was shown in all it's glory in a column called Shop Snapshot. I think it's looking rather amazing if I do say so myself!! Our Lead Designer Alanna even made the Employee Spotlight where she talks about her love for the industry, what it's like working at Monday Morning Flowers and where she sees the future of floral shops going. She's always saying she wants to be famous so I think is a pretty good start. Congratulations Alanna on some fabulous coverage!  Lastly there was some coverage of yours truly. Yikes - bad hair day for sure! In case you were wondering, the whole cover story is not about MMF, it features many other great florists such as Timpton & Hurst, Memorial Florists & Greenhouses and  Gallo & Son's Florist  And of course, we can't forget Kevin!   And here are a few sh...

Are your vendors motivated to help you and why you should care.... Let's start with the definition of Motivation. Simple Definition of  motivation :  the act or process of giving someone a reason for doing something : the act or process of motivating someone :  the condition of being eager to act or work : the condition of being motivated :  a force or influence that causes someone to do something Wondering what this has to do with a Florist & you? If you are planning a wedding or other social or business event, this may be the most important blog you will read. Yes, I'm that confident in the content of what I'm about to say so here we go... Let's back step a bit & talk about you? Do you hold a job? Do you report to a boss? Thinking about your work environment, what do you like about your job? Perhaps you love your coworkers. Maybe you love your boss (yes it's possible). How about the customers or clients you serve? I'm gues...

Owning and managing a flower shop is not always about being around gorgeous flowers. Take this photo for instance, my adorable and hard working business partner/husband Kevin was hard at work this weekend re-flooring our retail cooler. Keeping the store fresh, clean and organized is so important to any retail business but I admit that I'm more particular than most.  In addition to the new floor, the designers now have new counters in the production room, the carpets are getting cleaned and we'll be painting a few walls.  Floral related we have decided to now organize our coolers by color rather than by variety. We are hoping this will make it easier on customers who are drawn to certain colors.  The next time you in the area of our Princeton Forrestal Village location, we hope you'd stop in for a visit! www.sendingsmiles.com  

Back in 2009 I was asked to write a blog for Flower Shop Network called "Bloomin' Blog" and I really had fun writing it. Fast forward 4 years to 2013 and nothing has really changed so I thought it might be fun to re-post. Hope you enjoy!  Me ~ oh how I have changed in the last 4 years I've  noticed over the years that what I love most about my job is something that an average person usually hates. What is that, you wonder? It’s diversity, change, constant evolution and sometimes even chaos. The day in the life of a florist is anything but boring or mundane. I’ll bet if you asked someone what they thought it would be like to be a florist for the day, most would answer with cliche. The most common ones  I've  heard over the years is “It must be fun to play with flowers all day”. Play? Who said anything about playing. Last time I looked it was my job to be a florist, not my hobby. Another personal favorite is “It must be so calm and relaxing being surro...

Ah, that is the question. Those who know me, know that I would answer that question with a resounding yes. Why? I love being Social. I love getting to know people and having them get to know me and my company. I was born to be a Social Media person but mostly what I love about it, is the fact that without having to leave my business, I can get to know others and they can get to know me. Years ago business was done by folks go out into a local business, seeing the owner, their staff, learning about what they had to offer. Years later, there was the phone and then next came website - a bit impersonal but still a wonderful addition. Did you know that on our website, the most often read page after the Homepage is our About Us page? That's because folks want to know more about us - know who we are on a personal level so they can determine if they wish to business with us. As a small retailer we've had great success in gaining new customers through social media such as blog...

I'm inspired to write this blog because of an experience I had this week. A woman, from a company that I will not name, contacted me via email. She knew we did some on-line advertising (pay per click) with them. She offered free help for 4 weeks to look at my account, make suggestions and make any necessary changes. I was so excited that I wrote back right away and scheduled a phone meeting.  Knowing that it might turn into a "paid" service later, I was undaunted because I figured that if what she did helped me, I'd be happy to pay for future service. That is where this story goes wrong. Not more than 1 minute into the conversation, it became clear that this specialist was not looking to help me with my existing accoutn but wanted to make an additional sale.  My husband saw my face while I was on the phone so I wrote out on a big piece of paper:  "Selling Not Helping" Yikes, the lesson I learned.... well, there was no ...