Hi Steve,
I dropped one full time designer and three part time students. All was done by attrition. So I did not “fire†anyone, I just did not hire anyone new. My daughter is my full time designer. We are a small shop, as you can see, but we reach our break-even number most days, are in the black for the year and have shown an increase in profits from one year to the next.
I have used the WS costs to advertise in other ways. I could not do that before. We have also increased our local customer base by 20%.
Our call-in (included walk-in) orders for December 2002 was 13% of all in-house work, for December 2004 it was 95%, and for December 2004 it was 99%.
The total numbers of call-in (and walk-in) orders was up for December 2003 from 2002 by 26%. For December 2004 from 2003, it was 55%. These call-in (and walk-in) orders are all 100% orders paid the same day!
The number of call-in orders from out of our service area increased:
17% in December 2002
29% in December 2003
51% in December 2004.
Our numbers of call-outs, surprisingly, remained a rather steady and small number.
I can see by the numbers that my share has grown. There are two other shops in my town. One has both WS and she probably got the bulk of the WS orders. From personal experience and knowledge, I know she is making $1(if she counts her stems) per WS order. She is running her shop as a hobby in any case. The other shop was sold and is now in trouble. They had two designers and a full time driver. Now, they have one newbie designer who delivers as well.
Therefore, my take on this is, that people are finding us, calling us directly with a credit card order and the number is increasing. I believe that it will continue to do so. I also believe that there are changes in the amount people will spend per season as the economy tightens. I believe that they will spend money in other areas that are more practical and floral orders will be less for all.
Judy
