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Do you know what your flower business is worth... and if it's as much as you'd like?

Indeed, it is an important question for every florist:

What will be the value of your cut flower retail business when it's time to cash in your life's work?

Will it be as high as you would like or what you expect?

And will it be enough so you can do what you want after retiring from the flower retailing industry?

Not surprising, the value of one's cut-flower retailing business is a bit of a mystery to most practising florists.

Valuation of a business activity is a complicated undertaking in the best of circumstances and the final value is always determined by what you can get for your business when you actually succeed in selling it.

And the buyer might not share the views of you or your accountant who did the valuation. The law of supply and demand is at its cruelest when the florist wants to cash in his or her life's work.

Now, valuation is one thing... but how could you INCREASE the value of your flower shop?

Methods of adding substantial value to your cut flower retailing business

Since I'm not an accounting professional, I won't go into the standard points of valuation of a business as such.

Issues like stock, turnover/revenue, profit margin, equity, and goodwill, are some of the main factors used in standard valuations but they're all somewhat theoretical values and won't guarantee that there will be prospective buyers for your business or that they believe in the income potential of your cut flower retailing enterprise.

As always, I prefer the more unconventional route... and for a good reason.

Unconventional or "as of yet not widely known or recognised" methods of competing are the ones that give the best advantage to those who dare to be the pioneers of their industry.

It's much like a gold rush in the olden days. Those who got there FIRST reaped most of the benefits and acquired wealth of substance... and those who rushed in after the fact got little or nothing.

To get ahead in competition you must think outside the box to some degree or else you have no unique competitive measures at your disposal.

If you always follow the methods of marketing and selling that the majority of your industry considers correct and functional, you cannot really gain much ground because EVERYONE IS USING THOSE SAME METHODS.

There's a paradox here. The agreement between so many florists is what makes those methods accepted and creates their value in the eyes of the industry... but it's also what renders them inefficient.

Everybody's using the same bag of tricks.

Thus, nobody gets an edge in competition.

So if YOU want to exception in your ability to compete then you must also be "exceptional" in your willingness to think outside the conventional "widely accepted" concepts of competing.

That's not to say that you would have to do something unethical or illegal, of course.

It merely means that you must do something ELSE — something that others are NOT doing widely — if you want to gain an edge in the local competition among florists in your area.

So, why do I go on about this? — Because every method of increasing the value of your business requires that you have a clear competitive edge.

You could add value by saving every penny and purchasing the commercial piece of real estate in which your flower shop is located... but that would require a competitive edge so you can amass enough extra income to invest in real estate.

You could add value by advertising so widely that your income goes up... but it would require money and could only be done (wisely) once you've already established your edge over the local competition.

And so we see that gaining an edge over the competition is a close cousin to increasing the value of your business.

All right. But before we can get into the "how" of it, we need to see what constitutes value to a potential buyer...

Defining "value" to the potential buyer of your florist's business

So you find a potential buyer for your flower shop and hope that he will make an offer at or close to your asking price... or at least make SOME kind of an offer.

Actually most prospective buyers never make any offer as they decide against acquiring the business.

What turns them off so suddenly?

And what makes some buyers offer the asking price?

It's the value of the business... but there's an important distinction here.

It's the value as seen by the buyer.

What HE sees is true to him... and it is often very different from your view on the subject.

So, what's value to a buyer?

It could be many things, of course, depending on the character and preferences of the person. It could be the decoration. It could be his opinion of the location.

It could even be the status of being a florist which drives him to place an offer for the business.

However, brushing aside these occasional quirks, there's one gigantic thing that most (logical) buyers are interested in above all:

"What's the degree of certainty with which this income at this (or better) profit will continue in the future?"

The buyer is making an INVESTMENT.

Thus, he looks at your books to see how much income the business makes and at what profit.

If those figures are to his liking (and in correlation with the asking price), he then goes to the most important step of all:

He tries to evaluate the CERTAINTY with which that income will continue in the coming years and whether the profit margin can be expected to remain at this level also.

It's much like depositing money on a savings account. You want to know how much money you will be making in the coming years.

Your books — your profit and loss account and the balance sheet — only tell the buyer what you've MADE in the past year(s).

Past tense, see?

Would you deposit your money on a long-term deal if the bank wouldn't guarantee you ANY interest at all, but instead just showed you what customers had earned LAST year?

The seller feels that past year's financial performance is proof of future income, but it proves nothing to the buyer.

What if it's YOUR PERSONALITY that caused much of the income?

What if these customers come because you're so attractive physically or have an exceptional ability to make customers feel comfortable and well served?

In the mind of a suspicious prospective buyer, there could be thousands of causes that make up this income that vanishes once you walk out the door.

And every buyer will be suspicious, make no mistake about that.

They're considering making possibly the biggest investment in their life and there's no surveyor who could give them guarantees of the sound structure of your business.

One of the weaknesses of any retail business in terms of proving sales involves the nature of retail outlets:

Customers are not registered by name so you have no way of reaching them directly, unless you have one of those customer-loyalty rewarding systems, of course.

So, how do we prove that this income will continue... and how do we make this income as big as possible?

Acquiring a pool of continuous high-profit flower delivery orders from respectable individuals

Now, the headline is someone confusing because I've included everything a buyer would want into one sentence.

Let's take it apart.

Firstly, there's a need to create asecond leg for your flower sales, a target group that's not walk-in customers but well-to-do individuals and/or companies whom you invoice and whose names are registered with your company.

In other words, you need to find a way to obtain a new type of customer and a method to do so directly and efficiently so that the number of these specific customers increases from month to month AND year to year.

The service model sold to these customers must be contractual so that it guarantees you a good number of flower deliveries, each defined and signed for in advance for the whole year with the contract continuing automatically after that.

To be feasible, you need a very special creed of clients for this project.

They need to be affluent and they need to be somewhat education... which more or less ensures that these customers will be respectable.

Why is their respectability so important here?

Well, it creates credibility. If two companies are being sold, each with identical income and profits and everything else BUT the list of clients... then the one whose clients are better known as respectable will be chosen every time!

If you're buying a computer software engineering company and find they do a lot of work for several of the world's leading software manufacturers... you'll be extremely impressed.

All right. If you could achieve a pool of some 100-200 such respectable customers in the span of the next year or two... and can show their contracts to a potential buyer... you can see that this would make a huge difference.

Not only would it be likely to quadruple the turnover/income of your flower retailing business but it would be indisputable proof of practically guaranteed continuance of income in the coming years.

That all aside of how valuable it would be for the buyer to receive the SYSTEM and TOOLS with which you are continually acquiring these valuable repeat-purchasing customers so very successfully...

But to get there you need to think outside the box.

We have actually done quite a bit of research into this and developed a system that will allow the florist to acquire such a clientele and thus greatly increase the selling value of his or her cut-flower retailing business.

We've documented the whole system and all the ready-to-use tools in form of a manual we call the Florist's Flower Power Business Expansion Guide.

CLICK HERE to read the presentation of the Florist's Flower Power Guide and find out how you could increase the sale value of your florist business beyond anything you thought possible!

I promise it's something phenomenal... and outside the box of your competitors thinking so you'll be left alone to benefit from it.

Best wishes,

HDK Consultants Ltd 32 Manning Close Richmond Square East Grinstead RH19 2DR West Sussex United Kingdom (England) Tel. 01342-328 116 Int: +44-1342-328-116 CONTACT FORM

How to overcome the limitations of the location of your flower shop?

Should you settle for whatever customers you can get from the passing traffic... or should you NOT agree with such limitations? This article discusses how you could EXPAND your reach far beyond the "normal perimeters" of you location in your area.

CLICK to read about expanding your florist market beyond the limits of location of your flower shop!

Active flower sales versus the passive florist

Compare active flower sales and traditional florist shop to see your potential...

CLICK to see the Active Flower Sales model.

How to get more appreciation and acknowledgment for your artistry and skill as a florist?

Would you prefer if customers would order bouquets that allow you to display your true artistry as a florist? What if you could arrange bigger and more expensive flower arrangements as a rule... and be guaranteed to have customers truly appreciate your magic and art?

Click here to read how you can get more appreciation as a florist!

Increasing your florist's profit margin

What if you could double your profit margin... is it really as impossible as it seems?

Click to read a revealing article on florists' profit...

What if you could obtain customers who order ALL their flower deliveries at once for years to come?

Is there a way round the "one-sell-per-time" florist cycle of sales... or could it be possible to obtain orders of 10 or more annual deliveries in advance... and then just deliver for YEARS to that customer without EVER having to sell to him or her again?

CLICK HERE to read how you can presell hundreds of preordered flower deliveries for years ahead!

Predicting your flower sales far more accurately than currently...

Would you find it useful if you could predict how many and what kind of flowers you'll sell next week, next month... or even next YEAR? Would that help to avoid wastage and lower your risk?

CLICK HERE to read how you can increase the accuracy of your flower sales prediction!

Rich pickings — Businessmen as a target group for the florist

What if you could tap into the wealth of businesses & top business executives and get to be their consultant on all matters floral? What if you could obtain continuous orders for top-quality flower arrangements for years to come?

CLICK to explore the amazing potential of the business market for a florist!

10x the flower buyers' loyalty & repeat business

Could a florist increase loyalty and repeat buys TENFOLD?

CLICK to increase flower buyers' loyalty & repeat purchases!

Exchange links with successflorist.com for mutual benefit!

Increasing the value of your florist business

What will be the value of your cut flower retail business when it's time to cash in your life's work? Will it be enough?

Click here to read how you can increase the sale value of your florist business!

How to gain an edge over the local competition in the cut flower retail business?

Let's face it: The demand for cut flowers and bouquets is limited in any given local area. The market share that your local florist competitors secure for themselves is bound to cut into your sales. Read how you can gain the edge in the local competition by increasing the sale of flowers in your area...

CLICK HERE to gain a competitive edge over competing florists in your local area and increase your cut flower sales continually!