COGS Controls
We have teamed up with the Society of American Florist's Career Connection to create a course that will change the way you see and operate your flower business...
Get ready to start Forecasting Your Future!
What we will be doing together....
As you’ve heard us say before “Time is Money”, so let's jump right in!
This COGS Control Course has 6 Modules. Each Module will contain anywhere from five to seven "components". Some will be a video component or PDF, and some will be screen share videos where we walk you through Excel spreadsheets and step-by-step. Every 7 days a new Module will be released to you so that you don't get too ahead of yourself. Some Modules will be more involved than others, but again they are all equally important and in an order to help take control of your Cost of Goods Sold.
Our main focus will be on flower ordering, which was the largest percentage of our total COGS, we will however touch on hardgoods, container, plants, etc... Our shop had no wire-order sales and also very little gifts, but with some plant sales - basically most of what we sold was fresh flowers!
We'll start out with Module 1: Deciding Your Mark-Up. Here you'll decide on your standard markup for flowers, hardgoods and plants. You’ll have simple spreadsheets for each category and we’ll go over how we successfully set prices for the year.
In Module 2, Labor Charges and Cost Outs, we'll teach you our simple tips and tricks to make this a “easy” part of your designers day and allow you to control costs everyday.
Moving onto Module 3, we’ll discuss Your Product and how to narrow your arrangement offerings in order to streamline ordering and achieve your profit goals.
Now in Module 4, another layer of controls is set in place by Ordering to Forecast. We’ll start connecting the dots from our Sales Forecasting course and give you our simple Worksheet to order flowers alongwith an easy weekly/monthly spreadsheet to enter your invoices and re-confirm your profit margin in real time.
In Module 5, we’ll review Flower Care and Flower Power. We'll take a look at how flowers are cared for throughout the industry, from seedling to cold chain delivery and learn that what we do at the florist level has a direct impact on our profit margins. Flower Power will highlight how we can give back our slightly worn flowers and make a splash in our local community.
In our last Module 6, Pulling It All Together, attention will be given to sharing what you've learned with your team for proper pricing and how we handled Wedding and Holiday COGS. A final checklist for all COGS control steps will set you up for success and flower shop profits
In each Module, you'll be creating something for your business, something manageable and worthwhile. Mostly we're putting tangible systems in place and each Module will be a step that will help you right away.
The important thing is to just focus on the current step, that's all. And then in a few weeks you'll have traveled light years. You'll learn the fingertip controls that helped us control our business, develop our staff and helped us break our micromanaging habits, ....well, mostly.
By the end of the Forecasting Your Future Program, you'll be in a great position to make sound spending decisions and be able to manage your Cost of Goods, Wages and Overhead Expenses in REAL TIME! And that will drive profit.
You'll have the structure needed for growth, staff development and owner flexibility. It took us about four years to refine these systems for florists, so remember to take it one step at a time and one Module at a time.
Let's get started.