EDITORS’ NOTE Paul Goodman, MBA, AAF, PFCI, and Derrick Myers, CPA, CFP, PFCI, love a good financial management challenge, however big or small. Send your questions to fmeditor@safnow.org, and we’ll challenge the experts to tackle them in an upcoming article.


Gift Yourself Holiday Labor Savings


Forecast your staffing needs and productivity


standards to avoid overstuffing your staffing schedule


this holiday season. BY PAUL GOODMAN, MBA, AAF, PFCI


T


he winter holiday season is an exciting time. New faces are in the store buying poinsettias, scented candles, décor and wreaths or seasonal arrange- ments, making it one of the busiest — and hopefully profitable — times of the year for many florists. They need all the people power they can get to


stock shelves, make arrangements and provide great customer service. (Treat first- time shoppers right and you may see them again during the year!) On the other hand, if you are overstaffed, you’ll see your profits swallowed by payroll. Staffing wisely involves two primary components: staffing levels and organiza-


tional structure.


Staffing Levels How many workers do you really need? The correct answer, from a financial and operational perspective, is that you need as few employees as necessary to give the kind of quality service you promise your customers. How do you determine that? By looking at your holiday sales levels.


Step 1. Determine Your Daily Holiday Sales Levels Holiday sales can be double your non-holiday sales, but you don’t want to blindly make a sales forecast. You need to conduct a sales analysis to plan properly. This year there are four weeks and two days between Thanksgiving and Christmas. First, look at sales for the Saturday and Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2022. Adjust your sales estimate for the same days this year up or down based on your


42 FLORAL MANAGEMENT | November/December 2023 | WWW.SAFNOW.ORG


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