selling flowers outside a cementry

bugbabe

Thanks everyone for all the advice , am just trying to look at ways to up my income , I work during week and just looking into doing something at weekends , I've sent a email to the council to ask advice I will keep you updated .

Savvy_Sue

OneYorkshireLass wrote: »

Street trading licences can be surprisingly expensive - e.g. Cornwall County Council = £780 p.a; Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council = £1120.
There may be application fees e.g. Brent Council = £72 and to amend a licence = £48.

It'd be best, if possible, to take out a 3 month licence to see how things go rather than committing to a whole year. Plus, I think you'd be better starting this type of business in summer - unless you like shivering in the cold waiting for customers.

Also, how will anyone know you're there? I assume most of your potential customers would pick up flowers before visiting the cemetery. Personally, I don't think it's a viable business (unless the cemetery is on a REALLY busy road), but good luck with it if you do decide to go ahead.

bugbabe wrote: »

Thanks everyone for all the advice , am just trying to look at ways to up my income , I work during week and just looking into doing something at weekends , I've sent a email to the council to ask advice I will keep you updated .

I think you had some good points in the post I've just quoted: my concern is that something like this would need to be there more often than not, so that people knew they could rely on it.

Also, I think there's more to selling flowers than just - well, selling flowers! Stock control, for example, I think there's a risk of buying loads of stock for the weekend and then finding that the weather's awful, and not so many people come. It's the kind of thing where I'd strongly recommend learning on the job before setting up your own business - Saturday job in the florists for example.

Because also, just because you're outside the cemetery doesn't mean you'd only be selling to the cemetery trade.

heathcote123

jexygirl wrote: »

Would you say the same about that handy flower shop often conveniently placed on the way into a hospital, or in the foyer - for surely they too are profiteering from someones pain, misery or even grief???

Yup, profiteering is the word - have you seen the prices in the hospital shops? Or the people trying to sell helium baloons for a tenner...

Amatheya81

Savvy Sue makes an excellant point. As do several other posters, you need to do some legwork and put together a business plan before you make any descisions. I would highly reccomend visiting your local Business Link for help with this.

If you go ahead you will also need to get used to comments about it being in bad taist and profiteering from other peoples grief because I lot of people will feel this way.I imagin you will get nasty comments relatively often because the customers you are targeting are probably already upset and having you so obviously targeting them will make some of them angry. That doesn't nessesarily mean your doing anything wrong but it's something that you will need to be ready for.

Savvy_Sue

Amatheya81 wrote: »

If you go ahead you will also need to get used to comments about it being in bad taist and profiteering from other peoples grief because I lot of people will feel this way.I imagin you will get nasty comments relatively often because the customers you are targeting are probably already upset and having you so obviously targeting them will make some of them angry. That doesn't nessesarily mean your doing anything wrong but it's something that you will need to be ready for.

You see, I don't necessarily see that there will be much of that. I won't say it won't upset or offend anyone, but I think I have seen such a flower seller near the cemetery by my in-law's house, and to me it's no more profiteering than parking an ice cream van where there are a lot of people who might want ice creams or a kebab van near the local night clubs!!! No point having those where there IS no passing trade!

If you're the kind of person who takes flowers to a grave, and if there isn't already a convenient place to buy them, then I think you'd welcome such a stall, as long as there was no harassment of those who might wish to visit a grave or attend a funeral without buying flowers.

But having said that, with flowers available at garages and so many supermarkets, as well as at florists, I'd really question how many people actually arrive without having managed to buy flowers already. Definitely research needed before going anywhere with this.

Also picking up on a point about people arriving for a funeral and wishing to buy flowers on the spot - I'd never dream of doing this without knowing what the family's wishes were. So many now are 'family flowers only' or 'no flowers by request' that I'd be mortified to turn up with flowers when not wanted. The friendly local flower seller would need to keep an ear out for who wanted what, IMO!

And also to add that there also seems to be a trend for 'not just flowers' on graves, especially of youngsters: toys and teddy bears, balloons etc. They're not always allowed, it can be restrictive, but again you need to know what's allowed, and what will sell.

aliasojo

Amatheya81 wrote: »

If you go ahead you will also need to get used to comments about it being in bad taist and profiteering from other peoples grief because I lot of people will feel this way.I imagin you will get nasty comments relatively often because the customers you are targeting are probably already upset and having you so obviously targeting them will make some of them angry.

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

You see, I don't necessarily see that there will be much of that.

I agree with SS.

I think the people who would be unhappy about this would be in the small minority.

Even then, because of the circumstances, I think it would be much more likely they would do the 'complain under their breath' type thing rather than out and out harangue the flower seller outside a cementery.

OP, I still think this is a very good idea but it is fraught with potential hurdles so do take on board the very good points raised.