Somewhere on this site I had seen a query about branding and it's importance.
All of us have gotten where we are by genius or ignorance and usually a combination of both. If the school of hard knocks doesn't kill you you will walk away with a great lesson
In addition to our design/build construction we had added a full service florist to our business three years ago. We thought the other local florists were not meeting the needs of our big city weekend visitors and homeowners.....our answer, a European style florist with a 250 sq. ft. cooler for personal selection of flowers by our customers, just like in the big city. Good concept and working well, since we opened one florist closed and the one across the street is challenged.......just our opinion
Our difficulty came in that after three years, we realized that we would only sell x hundreds of thousands of dollars of flowers and flower related gifts and really not be able to grow anymore......and then one of our mentors clicked on a light for us. We thought we were in the retail florist business, he pointed out to us that we were actually in two businesses, manufacturing (floral design) and distribution (retail sales of everything else).
He also pointed out to grow exponentially in the arranging (manufacturing) would be difficult. If it grew by 200,000 we would need a bigger cooler and more experienced designers (hard to find) to meet the demand. On the other hand, if the distribution grew by 200,000 we may need another staff member and our inventory would simply turn more quickly.
But to truly grow without any limitations locally and nationally we needed to brand ourselves and sell something online and flowers were not the answer...don't get me started on the wire services.....
We thought and looked for about a year...should we add a franchise or more gifts and then one day lighting hit me while driving...not actually, but my wife and friends would tell you I am a few slices short of a loaf.....and I thought, what would go along with flowers....gourmet food. No cooking, we are talking prepared stuff like smoked salmon, candy, grill sauces and the like. And then the name to develop a brand.......bloomingourmet(TM) and I came home, searched network solutions and the .com name was available, then a state search for a fictitous name and then federal search for a registered trademark...all available......
We originally added the florist on the advice of another florist in a different city for winter revenue.....florists rock from October through February and in our area throughout the summer due to our high number of vacation homes and visitors.
We also designed the logo to be simple. black and white and placed on everything we ship and sell. We added online shipping which will be available June 1st of this year.
We have been doing this locally at our florist for about a month and the response has been great and even sells more flowers. We have gone from a forgettable name of The Florist at The Gardenhaus to bloomingourmet(TM) and we are only limited by our passion and drive
Wayne Huzienga(not sure of the spelling) who developed blockbuster and I believe Dominos, said in a book that he only invests in and develops companies where the product is consumable and used all the time.....our thought was everyone loves to eat and in our surveys would prefer $50 worth of food to $50 worth of flowers. We also have developed a group of customers we call The Taste Buds(TM) to review our products and future food purchases.....one of our slogans is If our Taste Buds(TM) don't like it we won't sell it.....
This journey has been interesting and you certainly need to think out of the box for winter business ideas, how to keep your business current. We don't listen to 8 tracks anymore or have carburators or use corded phones....if those businesses didn't change their focus they closed their doors......your brand, your logo has to be simple. Most venture capitalists say that if you can't get yoru idea across with a crayon and one 8 1/2x11 sheet of paper...it is too complicated......Made those mistakes, have the t-shirt and have paid the stupid tax (Dave Ramsey gets credit for the stupid tax saying....XM radio ASK)
Once again this advice may be worth what you have paid for it...nothing
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