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Business 56 August | 2021 CAVEAT: is example assumes that designers will do nothing but produce arrangements—no waiting on customers, no answering phones, no processing flowers, etc.—and in many flower shops, we know that's not realistic. So, if you don't have designers who exclusively produce arrangements, you must factor in the time such employees might spend on other tasks, to correctly determine your staffing needs. Doing so, however, will increase your design labor percentage unless you track actual design time separately from time spent doing all other tasks in which a designer might engage. To alter our example, let's assume that a designer spends 5 hours per day producing arrangements and 2.5 hours per day doing other tasks. With this scenario, you would need two designers—each designing 5 hours per day—to generate your average projected arrangement sales volume of $2,000 per day. Acknowledging that, in our example, sales of $2,000 per day is an average and that daily sales volume will likely increase as it gets closer to Dec. 24, you can use the example baseline of each designer needing to produce $1,520 per day/$203 per hour to determine your design-labor needs for specific days. Again, you need to calculate these figures for your specific shop, and you need to estimate sales volume for every day leading up to Dec. 24, using your daily sales histories from previous years as a starting point. NOTE: Some florists prefer to calculate their design labor needs by week rather than by day ; you can still use this method to do that. Overtime Too many florists immediately turn to overtime to make it through the hectic holiday rush. However, hourly wages that are increased by 50 percent, plus the hidden costs caused by the decreased productivity of tired overtime workers, can lead to disappointing profits when the holiday is over. To avoid (or at least minimize) overtime hours, build a group of part-time workers throughout the year who agree to increase their hours during the busy holiday times. Most, if not all, of the hours they add will be at their regular wages because they aren't already working 40-hour weeks. Also look for additional part-timers who can work in your store, if needed, again at regular non-overtime rates. During the holidays, there are always people who want to earn extra cash by working part-time jobs. What if your daily sales analyses indicate you are overstaffed? If this is the case, you may need to let some employees go or reduce some or all employees' hours. While this might be a difficult decision to make, you can't allow overstaffing to push profits down. And who knows? Some employees might prefer to work fewer hours during the holiday season! Organizational and Management Structures Having the right employees in the right positions is critical. e following suggestions can help ensure your organizational structure is on target for a productive holiday season. If your employees all seem to have too much to do, don't automatically assume that you are understaffed. Instead, determine if poor organization could be rendering your workers less efficient than they should be and could be. Be suspicious if you see that your designed labor costs are above the 10-percent-of sales-ceiling for the holiday season. Look for "bad apples." You may have the right number of employees, but if one or two are not pulling their own weight, that can create a burden on the other employees, causing poor morale and even hostility—which is exactly what you don't need during holiday periods. An effective owner or manager should be able to supervise a minimum of 10 employees in a single location. Typically, salaries/wages for managers are higher than those of other employees, so avoid hiring a manager until you're certain the need is really there. Designer Troy Villager, T. Villager Designs Photographer Rebecca Renee Photography

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