Some Hot Tips For Summer Rose Selling!

There's a few pros and cons to selling roses in the summer. There are more pros in actuality. While there aren't any flowery holidays that I can think of in the summer, that only serves to drive the price of wholesale roses down.
If you're out selling roses in night clubs on the weekends, so what if there's no rosey holiday--those are only good for a few nights a year anyway and people go out on dates all year. In the summer if you sell anywhere near a beach, in fact it will be your busiest season.
Now one thing is it gets hot. I always keep my roses in the back inside a big cooler with ice packs in it and some up front in my basket with the AC blowing on it.
This cooler is a very handy, dandy thing to have if you're gonna be a rose seller, because if you don't have room in the bottom of your fridge and you're not ready to invest in a second fridge(but you can pick one up for 75 bucks at a thrift store or garage sale) a nice big ice chest type cooler is also a great place to store your roses in the house, you'll just have to remember to switch out the ice packs. Now I've got a really good tip for you on the cooler. Normally a nice large cooler can be over $100, right now they have a real long cooler for $80 that is just perfect and what you'll eventually want to get. But if you're a newbie and are just trying this out that could be a big investment for you. So what is cool right now about coolers is that at WalMart I have seen they now have some very large as big as the large ice chest cooler I mentioned styrofoam coolers for only $20 and another one that's shorter than this one but still pretty big for just $8!! This is even good news for you experienced sellers as we often need something extra. Anyway I had never seen any styrofoam ones on sale that were that large so...
As I said wholesale rose prices are down as well. If you looked around online for wholesale roses during the spring and god forbid around Valentine's Day you'll see the big difference.
I'm excited because I got to actually make a new page on my wholesale site where you can probably get the best deal online as this even includes the shipping : http://roseladywholesale.com/bulkoffers.html

Wooden Roses and other stuff I've been doing...

Well it's been a long time and no posting. I just have a really busy life. Can anyone relate?
My husband got interested in selling on Ebay, so I helped and got into it to. It pulled me off the affiliate marketing for awhile---but I figured I'd start concentrating on my own products you know.
Now I've found a way to combine the two a little bit. I'll get into that on a later post.(Famous last words, but I will.) Some of the really cheap ebooks I have on Ebay may give you an idea how I'm doing that. They really will only cost you a few cents.
Just wanted to catch up a little. Here's a link that will show you all the stuff we're selling on Ebay currently: store.auctiva.com/roselady4.
It's a good way to snag a deal on wooden roses. You can get some wooden roses on the Roselady Wholesale site as well of course. If you take a look you'll see how inexpensive they are wholesale so I'm really into selling them now. I do it on my rose route and car dealerships and as you can see Ebay. Remember that roselady beat me to it on Valentine's day with the wooden roses!!
Anyway I thought it was a good thing to add to my sales items--another item to have with me that doesn't ever die as a back-up for the real roses(just like I do with the lighted roses).
I like the large buds better, they're the size of real roses. The smaller ones are great for cute arrangements though. Those are the small ones in the above picture. I'll post some more and I often have some pictures of them on Ebay.

We have some MP3 Players on sale, that's my husband's baby. We are soon going to have some upgraded ones up there that talk and can get up to 32gb of memory because of the upgrades and it will be a steal deal.
Anyway that's a bit about what I've been doing and I'll try to catch up more soon.

Lighted Roses

Do any of you guys or girls sell lighted roses? I love them. They don't need de-thorning or any other preparation. You can keep them in your trunk and they don't die.
Some people who don't think it's cool to buy roses think it's cool to buy lighted roses. It also works the other way around--that's why it's good to have both.
I also like the way they flash and help draw attention to your basket of roses.
What I like the most is that it gives me some predictability when it comes to how many roses I need to purchase for the weekend. I always like to make sure I have enough. I'd rather make more money and have some left over than sell out but make less money because I didn't buy enough.
Well with the lighted roses, I can buy a lower amount of real ones and if I start selling them by the basket--I can start putting more lighted roses in the basket, putting them with teddy bears etc..
People start buying more of them and my real ones go further. I also can get a pretty good price for lighted roses, like around $8. A guy who used to sell roses for me would charge $10. and get it no problem.
I think rose guys are better at the asking price, at least in my experience.
At one point I needed more time and wanted cut down on the real rose preparation and I just started making sure I had plenty of light roses as in the picture and it worked out fine. I still had my real ones just a bit less and the light roses were selling well--so "no problem."
These flashy silk ones rotate in color changes and they sell really well. I have some on my site where you don't have to buy in large quantity.

Catch you later,
Claire

Gearing up for Valentine's Day Nightclub Rose selling

Make sure you've got roses for Valentine's Day, it's going to be a good one as it falls on a Saturday so lots of people will be out that night celebrating. Not only that it will be a great Friday night as well, because by Saturday night, many guys will have already bought their girl their Valentine roses. Even so don't worry, most will still buy a rose or bouquet on Valentine's Day anyway, plus friends buy friends roses---it's your best rose selling day. But as I was saying on Friday you'll have a good chance that they will buy the big gift from you, so it would be good to have some bouquets. Either way, you'll do great. You may sell your whole basket a few times too. You experienced rose sellers know I'm not kidding.
I'm already getting more sales because V-day is coming. I'm planning on going out more on the weeknights now up until Valentine's Day. It's also a good time to try some of those car dealerships in the day, I talk about in my newsletter.
It does make me a bit stressed and nervous this time of year. I've had some rose seller friends say the same, mainly the ones that plan a lot of extra things, like me, around Valentine's Day for selling roses.
But when the night finally comes and all I've got to think about is selling roses for the night(even though it's still quite a panic getting from place to place fast enough), it's just like my favorite holiday. It's almost better than Christmas to me now. But it reminds me more of Halloween. I don't know why, I guess it's like trick or treating for money.
Anyway good luck and make sure you'll have roses to sell. See my post on this. I still have roses
on my site but you should reserve some if you want long stem red as I believe my Valentine's shipment will go fast, I've already got much of it pre-sold, but I do have the medium stem as well.

Happy Valentine's Day in advance,
Claire Mesa

Valentine's Day and Wholesale Rose Prices

I've had some comments on my blog and email asking questions about this and this is a good thing to discuss right now. See my earlier post as well on Valentine's Day.
I had mentioned that if you are a regular predictable customer of a wholesale florist you can usually get your prices locked in for Valentine's Day so you keep the prices you've had all year.
That does go for my wholesale florist business as well. Most wholesale florists require a set in stone standing order to keep the prices down all year. I personally just need it fairly predictable because I have to keep a standing order with the importer to get one for you.
Usually standing orders with the wholesaler are done by December to lock in those prices.
As of right now I can still sell long stem red roses, which is the most expensive thing you can get from a wholesaler, now through Valentine's Day at my regular prices which are on my website.
A new rose seller mentioned paying $1.40 per stem for long stem red roses. This is quite high but you can expect to pay that and more this time of year.
My long stem red, which is Night Fever, read the post on these, is $1.13 per stem for 75 and $1.06 for a box of 150 which includes a Free Shipping special, so that's the price delivered right to the door.
I also have a newbie special running, where you can just buy 25 roses, they will be already stripped, come with all the tubes, sleeves and baby's breath you need with that, plus an instruction book on rose selling and preparation, a sample prepared rose, with free shipping for
$34.99 and the same package with 50 roses for $59.99. The cost of the roses themselves(which are the long stem red roses) is less than .75 per rose if you subtract the cost of all that comes with it. So my roses are on sale with a special on free shipping at a time of year roses are sky high.
Roses do go into very high demand from florists and the public very soon, if you are experienced you know this is true. So regarding the question on my prices, they stand for right now. As of this week you can lock in prices and be sure to keep it for Valentine's Day but it really is on a first come first serve basis as I have only a certain size order I'm allowed to get from the importer at my normal price than my costs will go up quite high if I want more. If you let me know now than you've got it.

Later,
Claire

A Comment on Work Roses

If you are an experience rose seller or florist, you know what I'm talking about. For florists I think they have certain uses. For example I knew a florist that used them for funerals because they were going to go in the ground anyway.
If you don't know, they are just older roses that the wholesaler is selling and he is suppose to let you know that's what they are and sell them for a lower price.
When I first sold roses, the person who taught me suggested I buy these because they were cheap and at the place they were selling them they really appeared not so bad. After enough experience with them( I put them in my own vase at home to test them), I learned I really couldn't rely on how long they would last and some were obviously not good from the start. For a few cents more per rose I got much better roses that had a much more impressive lifespan. I've seen other wholesale places call roses in much worse condition than the above, work roses.
Some rose sellers don't mind selling these and I can tell that's what they are selling. I've seen some pretty bad ones. I don't know what they are thinking.
Actually I do know as I've heard this even from wholesalers before. Oh, the customers are drunk and they'll leave it in the bar and they will never see you again.
Never see me again, believe me some of these bars and nightclubs have some really regular customers.
I think that's crazy. Why would you want to rip off your customer? They aren't going to keep buying from you if the rose turns out to be crappy.
How do you stay ahead of competition and get repeat business? Obviously- have a great product. Customers do comment on roses that last and big beautiful roses. They also comment when someone has sold them a bad rose.
I had a friend who was a rose lady and she told me the above about selling old roses--they're drinking etc... I told her my thoughts on it as I've mentioned and she did have competition on her route, so she took my advice and she was very happy with the results.
The rose sellers I sell my wholesale roses to are very particular about their roses being fresh and high quality and I'd be the last person to try to give rose sellers a bad name. But there are different opinions about it so I thought is was something worth commenting on.

Happy sales,
Claire

Happy New Year! (And Heads Up on Valentine's Day)

So how was your New Years? I went rose selling of course. It's one of the nights you can be sure to have great sales. Right before and right after the clock strikes 12 there seems to be a rush on rose purchases which continues late into the night.
The next really big holiday is of course Valentine's Day. If you're not a rose seller yet and you've been thinking about doing it, this is the time to get started so by the time V-Day comes you've got it down. Also if the first time you purchase roses to sell is Valentine's week, you are in for paying some high prices from any wholesaler, as the prices from the farms go way up on all their purchases except for those which they have standing orders for. If you become a regular customer fairly soon you will be locked into a significantly better price than if you wait. At this point the prices have already gone up but nothing like it will be closer to Valentine's Day. It will go down for a bit after V-Day and then you should quickly lock in a better price before Mother's Day. But you don't want to miss getting to sell on Valentine's Day especially since this year it falls on a Saturday which will make it an even bigger date night. You won't to miss the week or two prior either.
In fact starting with Christmas time all the way through Father's Day, it is the best time of year to sell.

Happy Selling,
Claire

How to Strip

Hey, I thought this video was a trip if you haven't yet learned how to strip. Okay there's enough corny stripping jokes in the video.



By the way you can buy your roses pre-stripped from my website.

Great Weekend Selling Roses!

Just a little more on the working hard thing. I often find at times it feels that I may be working too hard for nothing and then all of the sudden you start getting back in a flood for what you're putting out.
Like for example on the newspaper route I'm doing with my son, we have been getting great tips for Christmas. I opened my mailbox one day and saw a load of cards in the mail and I was like "Whoa, what's this?" Then I realized, it's from our paper route. it was also very encouraging for my son, which is great.
I also had a great weekend rose selling, especially Friday night. I have a lot of Christmas plush in stock that I purchased earlier Christmases that I was determined to make good use of this Christmas. I attached them to my bouquets and made up some double rose sets as described earlier and even attached to singles. Those sold very well this weekend as well as the regular roses and lighted roses.

Have a Happy Holiday,
Claire

Competition in rose selling

I have had competition from time to time on my route. I have had some pretty good success and have had a lot of experience having to overcome this sort of thing so can give you some good tips from time to time on this subject.
Here are some general rules you should start with:

• First of all it's nice to get exclusive deals with nightclubs, they may ask you to pay them, but it's worth it.(But there are always those places that don't anyone coming in there to sell.)
  
• Also I always make sure I have the highest quality best looking roses being sold, this almost always outweighs poor quality roses being sold at a lower price.
• Get there first!
• Oh, and did I say--get there first!

I have recently been having trouble with a new competitor going into one of my best places I sell at. She had been getting there first. So two things I did this week differently. I got there first and I stayed there a very long time. Now I wouldn't do this at a little dinky bar inhabited only by three alcoholics. But in this case while I had some other places on my route, I would have ideally gotten to sooner--this one was the best seller, so staying there was warranted and I got just as many sales or more sales by staying there anyway. I eventually moved on to my other places but then came back there again.
I did see that she went on to some of my other places instead--but overall this payed off. You also can't get too upset by any of it and be persistent in your own efforts. It seldom makes much difference if there is a little competition as long as you have the best roses and if you are the one that has been selling in the area the longest, that also helps quite a bit.

Later,
Claire

When life gives you roses....

I think of that saying "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. " I like it because you don't fight the problem, you create something good with it. I say when life gives you roses, make rose bouquets.
One thing rose sellers often worry about is having too many roses. I actually tend to worry about the opposite, sometimes to a fault. Occasionally I'll be doing very well and I'll start worrying I'll run out of roses, then the night starts slowing down. That's not good either, but I do try to plan to have plenty as when I first sold roses I ran into several occasions where I sold out which was great but if I had more roses on that occasion I could have made a lot more money.
Last weekend since I also have a wholesale business now I had more roses than I was likely going to sell. So besides my singles and bouquets I made little 2 rose bouquets. Then I went into my closet which is stuffed with all the smaller stuffed animals I bought(life gave me stuffed animals also). I attached them to my 2 rose bouquets and made them very prominent in my basket and sold those all night, more than I sold my singles. I sold it for $10.
I used items that would have gone to waste or would have sat around collecting space for a lot longer and moved them and it was great, it created an item that sparked new interest from the buyers and instead of selling singles mostly that night I sold those and my bigger bouquets.
This could also save a person from having to go out an extra night to get get them sold, which is often less profitable than doing something on a Friday that pulls in more buyers for a higher priced item.
The week before I made dozen roses bouquets and sold them at a great price for the buyer.
Anyway I've learned some other things in life you can make lemonade with. I mentioned I was going to be talking about this in an earlier blog. I think I will get around to posting that tomorrow.

See ya,
Claire

Bouquets, Teddy Bears....

Well if you're not already taking advantage of the extra profits you can make with one sale by selling bouquets, take a look at this. Let's say you sell one rose for $3, $4 or $5 and this customer is only going to buy one thing from you anyway, why not have some bouquets available on your basket in case he wants to impress his girl a little more.
I have a bouquet I sell with 4 roses in it, baby's breath and a little greenery for $15 to $20. What makes it more successful in getting sales is attaching a teddy bear or a stuffed puppy dog or some little cute animal to it. Of course you're making less profit per rose but who cares--you're earning more money on the sale. Obviously if you sold bouquets all night, rather than single roses, you'd come home with a lot more cash. You should have both available to the customers or you'll lose sales but if you look at it this way, it becomes clear.
I have talked to several people who sell roses who say they want to keep it simple and not go through the trouble. Definitely I agree with keeping things simple. But look you're out selling to earn money, you only have a couple of really good nights to sell--make the most of it. Are you a professional rose seller or what? Provide more for the customer and at the same time increase your business. I use bouquet sleeves as this is quicker than wrapping. You just set up your bouquet on the table the way you want it, slide it through the sleeve and tie it with a ribbon.
Some people truly are overwhelmed with the time it takes to prepare roses in general, they are working other jobs, caring for children etc..let alone adding in bouquet making. I'll provide some tips later that may help speed this up for you as that's exactly been my situation but my main point here was, cash in on the option of selling bouquets.
You're rose preparation could be cutting into the time you could be selling or other profitable endeavors in that case get a wholesaler who will prepare the roses for you.

Happy roseselling,
Claire

Tips for fellow nightclub rosesellers- A Real $5. Rose

One of the reasons I started this blog is that I couldn't find any particular resources or much information at all for or about this business and I thought it would nice if there was someplace rose sellers could for resources and sharing information and ideas. I will regularly be posting specific experiences, tips, tricks etc...on selling roses in nightclubs.(I have been selling roses for over ten years.) The rest of my posts however I think those in this business and others will also find helpful such as some everyday life tips and ways to expand your business or create new businesses especially online. We probably can't go out and sell roses all our lives, now can we?
Now I've had some very successful actions recently I would like to share. First of all I have discovered a beautiful large red rose called Night Fever.
This rose in itself is a real attention getter, the last few weekends since I've been selling this rose I've had people stopping me being very impressed with the size of this rose (it has a huge head) and being very interested in purchasing. Also I've had many comments on how beautifully it opened and how long it lasted(which it does) and wanting more. They were more than happy to pay five bucks for it, not your usual reaction, as you know. And I will plug my wholesale website
here as I can get this kind of rose for you.
Business was kind of dragging affected by the economy and such and I started selling this rose and it really picked up. Instead of me having to go up to people, they were coming to me.
Which also leads me to another point, if you're going to beat this economy situation, you're going to have to keep thinking on your feet of new ideas to spice up what you have to offer. They will still buy, you've just got to keep them interested. I will be including in my blogs any any new successful ideas I run into so keep posted and feel free to comment with any ideas or thoughts of your own.

Good Luck,
Claire