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Episode 120: Francoise Weeks                                

Botanical Brouhaha Expert Discussion Panel: No. 90

Clare Day Flowers for Botanical Brouhaha Expert Panel 90

Clare Day Flowers

Question:

What computer software applications do the BB Expert Panel members use for their businesses?

Botanical Brouhaha Expert Panel 90 Answers:

I use spreadsheets (Numbers) for ordering, scheduling and accounting. I use Pinterest as a visual communication tool with my clients, and Pages for my contracts and proposals. I use Workflowy for simple project management and to create task lists for my team.

Clare Day (Clare Day Flowers)


I am a big fan about Apple computers and software since many years so I mainly use these Apple products for my business. The reason is, this software was created with a sense of aesthetics, everything you produce with it looks good. In particular I use the following:

  • Pages” for quotes, project presentation, contracts and flyers
  • “Numbers” (spreadsheet software) for pricing, to-do lists, accounting… I prefer to create spreadsheets by myself which I understand and can modify at will when needed rather than using standard “ready to use” software, it gives me more freedom
  • Keynote” for quick sketches and presentation (when I teach)
  • Photos” to store, sort, and edit all my pictures

Other resources that I have found very helpful in my entrepreneurial life are:

Laetitia Mayor (Floresie)


I use QuickBooks to keep track of all my expenses, deposits, payments, etc.. For contracts and proposals I simply use a Word document. I use Excel to keep track of candle/vase inventory.

Beth Zemetis (Blush Floral Design)


I use Quickbooks, and Adobe sign for my contracts. My soon-to-be software will be Ularas.

Susan McLeary (Passionflower)


I don’t use any software, really. Google Sheets has been helpful for planning and keeping track of budgets, to-do lists, etc.

Emily Avenson (Fleuropean)


Our computer systems are pretty simple. We use Word and Excel for drawing up contracts and proposals. We use Quickbooks Online for bookkeeping. We use MailChimp for our newsletter. That’s about it. I will say the number of Excel spreadsheets involved in running this business is a little scary!

Jennie Love (Love ‘n Fresh Flowers)


Our studio uses lots of software, far more then I ever intended to be using as a florist. We use Quickbooks for all of our accounting purposes as it is cloud based and everyone in the company including the accountant can access the financials of the company. Until recently even our invoices were written in Quickbooks but a few months ago we have made the big and exciting jump to Ularas and I am totally thrilled about this. Flower buying will also go through Ularas. While we are still learning all of the important functionalities of this software we are convinced this was a wise move for our company. I was ahead of my time for quite a while creating invoices directly in Quickbooks but it was time to advance again. I dragged my feet about this because I was very set in my ways but I truly realize that one’s company must be able to advance, adapt and change to stay relevant. Sarah Hinton of Ularas offers incredible support for her users and I am thrilled to finally be on board. Ularas also offers mood boards and the ability to save and store images for the clients. For the time being we are still using Evernote to store imagery and to keep really visual files for each client. My reason for this is the drag and drop option in Evernote and the size of the file is more suited to how I like to work. I make huge visual folders for my clients and my staff. Evernote is super easy and for the time being I am learning enough new tricks. Speaking of new tricks we also started Basecamp3. Basecamp works for larger companies or for companies with staff in other locations. In Basecamp we set up projects and we can store documents and notes in each project. Each project also has a “to do list” and those tasks can be assigned to different staff members. This keeps all of those important contracts and correspondences in one place for everyone to reach. SO SO SO thankful for Basecamp.

Dropbox is the major place we store our images. This works because the photographers send over huge files and they can easily be downloaded into Dropbox. I have a Dropbox app on my phone and I can easily pull down images for social media purposes. Having our images in Dropbox has made using social media so much easier.

We use Constant Contact for our emailing list and for workshops.

Holly Chapple (Holly Chapple Flowers)


I am old school. I love a pen and paper and avoid technology when I can. I still use a desk diary where I write appointments etc. All our accounting is done by a bookkeeper so I don’t get involved in that. I am supposed to be creating client invoices and store them in a cloud at the moment but I have dug my heels in and I am still using Word for this! I create wedding flower proposals on Word and email them to clients. I wish I could get a little more tech savvy but it just doesn’t suit my brain or personality! That being said I couldn’t live without my iPhone which I run all our social media accounts on.

Nick Priestly (Mood Flowers)


The third edition of Flirty Fleurs magazine was recently released and we have an article in there about the 5 floral softwares: Details, StemCounter, Ularas, Lobiloo and Honeybook. It’s a solid comparison article written for us by Ali Dahlson of Mayesh. For more information, click here.

Alicia Schwede (Bella Fiori/Flirty Fleurs)


For more from the Botanical Brouhaha Expert Panel, click here!

  1. Ryan says:

    Thanks for the shout out on Stemcounter Alicia!! A lot of great tools mentioned on here. We’re about to release an integration with quickbooks to make florists’ lives even easier!

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