On the eve of March 8, men are divided into two categories. One of them frantically thinks about what to give to her beloved, wife, daughter, sister, mother, and the other half is looking for ways to make money on this holiday. It’s a well-known fact that you can make a good profit over a couple of holidays, especially if you know what to do. How to make money on one holiday that covers the entire population of our country? We will suggest several business ideas for making money on a holiday such as March 8th.
Flowers
Whatever one may say, you can’t do without flowers. Regardless of what the gift is, a man is obliged to give a flower (at least one). This is female psychology and you can’t argue with it. So it turns out that the flower business on this day is considered not only the most popular, but also the most profitable. The income from such a business can be up to 300% of the funds spent. So where to start? First, you need to find a supplier. In any large city there is a fairly large number of wholesalers who are ready to bring goods to your home (depending on volume). What happens? We buy tulips for 15-20 rubles (with large wholesale) and sell them for 60-100 rubles. a piece? The profit is obvious.
Tip: organize several points of sale. And to save on sellers and rent, offer work to grandmothers and rent a place in the market. And it’s not expensive and you’ll help grandmothers earn a little extra money.
Gift Baskets
Another common type of gift. They are bought for work colleagues, friends, and even those whom they simply want to please. It’s easy to make such sets yourself; you just need to collect an assortment of products, gift wrapping and a little imagination. It is important to follow several rules: creativity in design, the theme must correspond to the items in the set. So, for example, shower gel will not be combined with a pack of beautiful tea, no matter how expensive they are.
What sets can be made from: it can be sweets and coffee, or tea, hygiene items, hygiene products (shower gel, body milk), dishes, or kitchen utensils, cosmetics, jewelry and... in general, everything without something our woman cannot do without.
You can sell these products via the Internet (through groups on social networks) or rent a small point in the local market, where, as a rule, there is high traffic.
Bouquets of toys
A relatively young business, the result of which quickly won the hearts of women of all ages. Bouquets can be made not only from toys, but also from sweets and even balloons. This option is especially beneficial for those who have a rich imagination and can make such bouquets themselves. The main thing here is to create harmony, for example, large hares and kittens will look very vulgar and ridiculous in a small bouquet. By the way, you can show a little creativity and make a bouquet from a combination of small toys and sweets.
Profit: The cost of one bouquet varies around 600-700 rubles. (minimum price for a good bouquet with 5-6 toys). The cost of small toys is not very expensive. In wholesale warehouses, or ordering via the Internet from China, the price of such a toy starts from 15-20 rubles. per piece, or even less. Of course, you will also need additional paraphernalia in the form of paper, artificial flowers, etc., but all this can be bought at very low prices, and the end result can be offered to the buyer at a decent price.
It is also possible to sell bouquets via the Internet, a rented place on the market, or negotiate with the seller, for example, fresh flowers, and sell bouquets through him. There is no need to be afraid of rejection. Fresh flowers are always beyond competition. Or you can combine business. We have already written above about fresh flowers, so you can add several such bouquets to them.
HAND MADE
Every year, interest in handicrafts increases and is valued much more than standard souvenirs from a store. If you have a small gift and have a lot of interesting ideas, then you can make a business out of handmade souvenirs. They are also liked by all women without exception. Small souvenirs are very popular among companies that every year congratulate their employees on the holiday, regardless of their activity.
Handmade refrigerator magnets.
The theme is known, all that remains is to buy various accessories, glue and sit in the evenings, collecting magnets. Magnets using spices (star anise), coffee beans, cinnamon sticks, etc. are especially interesting. Such a magnet will not only please the eye, but will also give a subtle aroma to the kitchen. The cost of the work is low, and you can sell it at a higher markup. Manual labor is highly valued. Don’t forget about another advantage of manual labor: each product is unique and eliminates repetitions.
Whatever your business idea, you must like it yourself and only then the profit will not be long in coming. Good luck!
Hi people! Have you asked me to tell you how to make millions? I am ripe for the transfer of experience. Understand what you need for a flower business and start taking action!
How the flower trading business developed
The hottest time in terms of trade in fresh flowers occurs at the beginning of spring. We prepared for this in advance: I borrowed 100 thousand rubles against the security of a car, and my partner invested about 200 thousand. To realize the idea of selling tulips in bulk by March 8, we had to attract investors in the form of friends and relatives.
We sold some of the goods in large quantities, and kept the rest of the flowers for resale.
Why tulips and not roses? There were 2 factors that were decisive:
- Rose is a year-round flower, more expensive and capricious. Tulips are associated with spring.
- The partner has greenhouses near Novosibirsk, where his mother grows up to 100 thousand tulips.
Where to look for suppliers of fresh flowers
Finding suppliers can take a long time. Among hundreds of outbids on the Internet, you need to find those who will lead directly to greenhouses. It was easier for us because our partner’s mother had a greenhouse, but the number of flowers growing there was not enough. To make your flower business as profitable as possible by March 8, you need a lot of tulips.
Try to negotiate an installment plan with the supplier. We did it like this:
- We entered into an agreement with investors, and they gave us money to buy flowers.
- We agreed with the greenhouse owners on a minimum price and so that it would not suddenly increase before the final payment.
- We made a 50% advance payment.
- The remaining balance was paid after shipment and sale of part of the goods.
We have been working with our suppliers for several years, and there have been no problems since the beginning of cooperation.
How is the product sold?
We purchase the first batch every year on February 12th. Valentine's Day is also exciting. Take this into account, those deciding how to make money on flowers on February 14th.
We advertise on Avito, Yula and similar free message boards on the Internet. Ours works well. People see not no-names, but an active online community, so they are loyal and willingly order flowers.
I’ll also share a notable fail. We created a website, and incoming orders for tulips were sent to spam. We learned about this on the eve of International Women's Day. How much money is lost... Advice: trust the professionals to set up and launch your website.
As a result, ⅔ of clients came from ad platforms, and the rest came from a group on VK.
They sold retail from cars. We parked our own cars in a walk-through area where it was convenient to park. Usually they chose intersections. From a permanent point in a residential area, the partner managed to sell up to 2,500 tulips.
What varieties of tulips are best to buy for sale?
To reduce the risk of burning, we take 4-5 varieties of flower. The majority of our clients sell tulips from cars; there is not enough variety there. Therefore, we take what is in stock from the supplier. Here is the answer to the question of which flowers sell best on March 8th.
Over 50% of the lot was a red tulip, the rest of the flowers were of a different color. An extra-class variety measures 40-70 cm in length, and the bud is from 3 to 6 centimeters. In order not to be left with one variety of tulips, during resale they tried to give 500 red flowers for every 1000.
Possible risks for sellers when selling flowers
No business is risk-free, and selling flowers is no exception. What we had to face:
- one client did not like the flowers he bought from us in the amount of 10 thousand pieces, and he returned them back. They gave the money, but didn’t end up with any money left, having resold it with a profit of 80 thousand rubles;
- The supplier did not have white tulips. The flowers did not have time to ripen, but there were many people willing to buy them. I had to get it in a neighboring town.
Our friends, who also sell flowers wholesale, did not manage to sell out about 5,000 tulips during the holidays. They managed to sell some of the leftovers to flower shops, and the rest dispersed after the holiday. People bought it as a gift for their bosses or simply wanting to please their loved ones.
Do I need a permit to trade from the city administration?
I will say right away that we did not apply for permission to sell flowers. To prevent the police from guessing, it is better not to mark cars with price tags. Our girls walked around with posters, and tulips stood in boxes on the roof. Only a test purchase can reveal such a scheme.
During the entire period of trading, we received a fine only once, and that was for parking in the wrong place. Why did this happen? If you fine for illegal trade, you need to confiscate the goods. Perishable flowers cannot be preserved, and they don’t want to deal with that. Although now they have taken entrepreneurs seriously. they can get to the bottom of it.
Additional channels for selling tulips
Until now, we have managed to get by with wholesale and direct sales. But considering flowers on March 8th as a business, it is better to try more channels. We did not have enough time to deliver tulips, but requests were received regularly. We'll decide something.
You can earn a hefty margin by calling companies where many women work - beauty salons, fitness clubs and the like.
They did not deliver to other cities. but clients came from there themselves and bought flowers from us.
Future plans based on sales results this year
We will look for more suppliers and attract additional investors. The purchased flowers ran out on the evening of March 7, and unprocessed requests were discovered in spam on the website at the same time. We could have earned 200-300 thousand more, but there was no time to search for new tulips.
Next year we are negotiating with suppliers from Moscow, the flowers there are of good quality and cheaper than everywhere else. I moved to the capital and am breaking into the local channels for buying and selling flowers. Then the tulips will travel in two directions - Yakutia and Novosibirsk.
One of my friends started with this mini. There is such a day in the year - March 8th. On this day, half the country buys flowers, alcohol and candy like crazy. And the other part of people thinks how to make money from this.
It is extremely difficult not to sell flowers on this day.
A few days before the holiday, you need to find flower shops on the Internet. Draw a rough map of the city. Determine where there are “empty” places. There will most likely be no empty places at all, you need to choose places where there are fewer flower shops, there will probably be queues there, and people really don’t like standing in queues... It’s also worth taking a closer look at places with high foot traffic: near large supermarkets, in the center city, near markets.
When the places are selected, you need to see them with your own eyes, try on where you can stand. In almost every city there are “illegal mini markets”, places where some people just regularly stand without any licenses or paying for a trading space. Most often these are grandmothers: they sell clothes, seeds, flowers, honey... Give preference to such places, people in this area have already developed the habit of “buying here”.
Determine how much money you are willing to spend on this business.
Select at least 10 flower shops, call them, and find out at what price they are willing to give you flowers if you immediately take a batch from them for the amount of money available to you. Here it’s worth being impudent and asking for even more money. Even if they refuse to discount more, they certainly won't change their mind about selling at the regular price. Remember, they are actually very interested in selling as much as possible.
Then you need to find a small table that will serve as your counter. On day X we go to the intended place. From lunch until sunset there will be practical sales training.
The average price of a bouquet of flowers at retail in Moscow is 500-1000 rubles. Let's say you manage to sell 10 bouquets with a markup of 100 rubles. Then your income per day will be 10,000 rubles. How much do you earn per day now?
You can share your plans with friends who are also interested in the topic of “own business.”
Together you can purchase more flowers, which means you can get a big discount from the supplier. The money earned can be used for other business projects.
The special beauty of this real business idea is that one person will definitely be happy on this day, it is a win-win. Either you will be contentedly counting your profits, or in the evening you will flood your other half with unsold goods!
At two o'clock in the morning, when March 8 had already arrived, but the country was still sleeping in anticipation of the holiday, a bell rang in our workshop.
Flower delivery? Please give us twenty bouquets at Ostankino by 10 am! Something interesting, no more than three thousand! - the not-so-peppy girl chattered automatically and named the program of a famous TV presenter.
But we no longer accept orders...
How? Even for him? Don't you want to make money?
“We don’t want to,” I answered. And it was the honest truth. At that moment I just wanted to sleep.
Of course, how do they know at Ostankino that for my company March 8th began a week ago! That work shifts have lasted 15 hours since then. That the owner of the company, who answered the phone, had not gone to bed for the last two nights. That we have already made a thousand baskets and bouquets. That they all pricked 111 fingers together, clearing 4,370 roses of thorns. That they put 350 orchid flowers in extension cords with water. What brought to life 7750 limp tulips that arrived from Holland in a lethargic state. That they stuck 500 fragile greenhouse lilies of the valley into a porous green oasis...
While I was the owner of a small online flower store and florist studio, on March 8 I never gave my wife Tatyana flowers. The business I created was a family business. My wife was its director and leading florist. The main gift she dreamed of after a week of exhausting days and nights was sleep and peace.
The week that feeds the year
March 8 is a project that provides probably 15% of the annual turnover of the Russian flower market. In Moscow, it starts in the first days of March, when corporate congratulations begin. And it originates during the autumn leaf fall. Wholesalers are the first to begin preparing: they coordinate future deliveries with flower producers abroad and in Russia. The best conditions - low prices and a favorable assortment - are received by those who make advance payments to suppliers or guarantee large volumes of purchases.
In November, the largest customers of floral products wake up - the country's leading corporations, which purchase goods through tenders. All more or less visible online stores and studios receive invitations to participate in them. And they throw these letters into the trash. A powerful oil company can easily order one and a half thousand bouquets worth 2.5-3 million rubles for its employees. But tender conditions are often such that it is better to shoot yourself right away. All flowers must be delivered strictly on the specified day. In order for this incredible amount of gifts to be ready at the right time, 25 florists, like automatons, must spin 30 bouquets for two days in a row. And not a penny of advance payment from the client with minimal income from the product!
Only market leaders or adventurers risk working under such conditions. In the lean years, when people didn’t save on gifts, the largest corporate orders and supply contracts to supermarkets were taken by companies that had cheap flowers and large warehouse space to accommodate several teams. In March days, up to a hundred florists could work here in shifts. Most are women. The rhythm of labor is wearing out. In the poorly heated room there were dozens of tables and almost no chairs. Payment at the end of the shift is based on the amount completed. When recruiting a crew, owners can promise 5,000 rubles a day, but paying only 2,000 rubles, taking into account actual output and fines, is a common thing.
But there were always those who wanted to push themselves: the wild intensity of work was compensated by low qualification requirements. Mass floral orders are simple bouquets of tulips and chrysanthemums costing several hundred rubles. Any former flower seller can do this. And there were quite a few of them; the March rush brought together women from different Russian cities, from Ukraine, from Belarus and Moldova in Moscow.
Some enterprising guys rented a hangar and put a team of hastily trained Uzbek women in it. And if their unsightly bouquets were inexpensive, the customer was completely satisfied. Fast and cheap is the main thing that most flower buyers need on March 8th.
In companies that make more expensive bouquets, the conditions are more comfortable, but it’s not all sugar. There are places where it is forbidden to sit while working. There's no point in relaxing! Fine for violators! Earnings? If we get lucky. A good freelance florist can easily earn 30,000 rubles during the week of March. But only if the company is fully supplied with orders and values its florists.
How to get everything done
Our small service “Happy Bouquet”, which constantly employed four people, from the very beginning chose a different business model - high-quality and expensive. We have established ourselves as an online boutique that fulfills special orders: delivery of large flower baskets, wedding bouquets, lilies of the valley - all year round, peonies - in December, and servicing corporate clients. The last March 8th we held happened in 2015. In a week, we then earned no less than what we could have received through a tender from the oil industry. Profitability was higher, the health losses of owners and employees were lower. But it took several years to learn how to work like this.
We looked for clients through an online store or through personal channels. In the first years, we took on all holiday orders in a row: private and corporate, small and large. The result is a dissipation of forces and dissatisfied people. The cases were both comical and almost tragic. After one, we decided not to make bouquets for brides before March 8, no matter how much they asked or persuaded us.
...That ill-fated bouquet was very simple: seven white roses surrounded by gypsophila. The groom promised to pick him up at the workshop after work. The hassle, it would seem, is minimal. But when people grind for several days in a row, their attention becomes dull. And the florist put six roses in the bouquet instead of seven! It turned out quite beautifully, no one, including the groom, noticed the mistake. But the bride noticed and became hysterical. Even number! Black sign! There will be no family happiness!
An hour later, the angry girl and her embarrassed betrothed were with us. We apologized and offered to add another rose to the bouquet. But the bride, cursing, exchanged the rejected bouquet for the money it was worth. Did the wedding take place? How does this couple cope with life's larger challenges? Don't know. But the lesson we learned turned out to be very convincing: if you want to do a good project, choose a target client and focus on him. Otherwise, even with all your efforts, business processes can go awry.
The scheme for the successful March project that we eventually came up with was as follows: from March 1 to March 7, we deliver floral gifts to offices, but do not fulfill orders from individuals at all. We deliver flowers to apartments only directly on holidays and only within Moscow. To cope with the sharply increasing volume of work, we hire five to six temporary florists and three to four couriers in our own cars. We accumulate ready-made bouquets and baskets in the refrigerator compartment and transport the largest orders (200-250 baskets and bouquets to one address) at night in refrigerators. We give a discount to large customers, but we take a 50% prepayment in order to obtain working capital for large purchases from wholesalers, without resorting to loans.
Adrenaline overdose
In the described scheme, everything is logical and predictable. Except for one thing: you may not know until the very end what bouquets and in what quantity even the most respected, most benevolent client will order you to make and deliver. For everything to go well, he must make a decision in January. And in life it turns out - mid-February. While the bosses approve the idea of congratulations, while the managers clarify the lists of women... And the acceptance of wholesale orders ends two weeks before delivery. And without an order, you won’t be able to buy the right flowers at the right price. And if you suddenly need additional ones, you won’t be able to find good florists at the end of February: everyone is settled. You're walking on the edge!
Rest assured: no matter how carefully you plan your flower project, you will still be guaranteed an adrenaline overdose.
The Russian greenhouse plant will supply diseased roses - and there will be no others at the same price. You will have to buy Dutch and Kenyan ones, which are more expensive.
If the ruble exchange rate jumps in February, corporate contracts signed in January at the old rate will become unprofitable.
When the frost hits, you won’t be able to carry live gifts in a cold van. Therefore, you order a warm car in advance, which puts an additional burden on the budget.
Festival of Dancing Prices
It would seem that when demand for a product increases, the price should fall. But this only happens in stable markets if demand is constant. And when it’s short-term and hype, everything is exactly the opposite. Before March 8 and directly on the holiday, prices in different segments of the Russian market increase by no less than 15-20%. Traders and florists take into account all the risks and expenses they go to in order to flood a huge and cold country with flowers.
About 90% of flower products sold in Russia are imported. In one day in late February or early March, several times more cut flowers cross the border than usual. And prices are out of balance at every level, from the wholesale auction in Holland to the last retail kiosk.
Photo: © Alexey Malgavko / RIA Novosti
A huge volume of perishable goods must be delivered from abroad to Russian cities as quickly as possible. There are not enough seats on planes, there are not enough refrigerated vehicles, there are not enough hands and eyes at customs, at border and phytosanitary control points. Along the entire path of the flower, there is an increase in official and unofficial tariffs. Even renting a retail space at a wholesale and retail market like Rizhsky in Moscow from March 1 to March 8 becomes twice as expensive. How much does all this affect prices? Differently for different types of flowers delivered from different countries. No one counted for sure, but the entrepreneurs with whom I had to communicate claim that the cost of imports increases by 30-40% during the holidays.
Most of all, market participants themselves do not like such dances: flowers are not a product for which people and companies are willing to pay any price. Therefore, in order not to lose regular customers, wholesale companies even reduce their markup on holidays - from the usual 20-30% to 15-18%. In rubles, the wholesale price, of course, is still growing, but disproportionately to import costs. We did the same: we increased holiday prices for corporate customers to compensate for additional costs. Well, and if it worked, for a little more. And cheap bouquets, whose buyers are especially sensitive to price, were excluded from the assortment in the first days of March.
60,000 for three women. Who is bigger?
A special song is VIP orders, floral arrangements that are made for the wives and girlfriends of wealthy men, female managers and employees of high reception offices. The minister's secretary won't notice your congratulations if you just present her with a box of chocolates. But if you put sweets in an unusually decorated flower basket, that’s a different matter. And such a sign of respect is expensive: 10-15 thousand rubles for a floral arrangement of rare exotic flowers is far from the limit.
Photo: © Ekaterina Chesnokova / RIA Novosti
Is it profitable to work with VIP clients? Yes. But only if everything in the formula for relationships with them is in place: the order arrives in advance + there is high-quality living material + there are experienced craftsmen who know how to emphasize its beauty + the client himself does not fan out his fingers.
Once we received an order from one wealthy and loving Muscovite: to deliver three gifts to three addresses on March 8: two gorgeous bouquets to his mistresses, and a giant flower basket to his wife. The result was an order worth 60,000 rubles. But the client did not raise an eyebrow and deposited an advance payment from the card into our account. And I forgot about it in the park, and re-issued him an invoice for payment in cash. Everything that followed looked like a cheap comedy.
On a holiday morning, flower delivery to lovers went like clockwork. Everyone was happy! By lunchtime we collected the remaining tulips in our refrigerator - about 400 of them! - and made a huge multi-colored composition. By three o'clock in the afternoon, taxi driver Ararat, who had been assigned to carry out a responsible task, took the order to the restaurant, where the client decided to mark the occasion and congratulate his wife. But the customer did not show up at the appointed time. He arrived only three hours later, completely drunk. And when Ararat showed him a check for 60,000, he exploded: “He decided to scam me?!” I paid for everything!" If the man were sober, one call to our workshop, and the problem would be solved in a minute. But it was easier to teach the hare to read than to find out when and how he made the payment. After a sleepless night, I also felt like I was drunk.
Ararat had to be saved: after waiting for three hours, he was taken hostage by the enraged customer and his perplexed friends. What was to be done? I gave the command to leave the basket and finish the disassembly. We didn't earn anything from this basket. And the taxi driver and florists had to pay in full for their work.
The unpredictability of VIP clients, who cannot be refused, is the main reason for sleepless nights in March. Just when your florist team has completed the daily quota, the phone rings at 9:00 p.m. A corporate customer reports that tomorrow's morning delivery volume will increase by several expensive baskets. And leading florists, having taken a hefty dose of coffee, have to stay overnight.
It happens that a gift is ready, but delivery is in jeopardy. Or you might not be able to make it in time by car through Moscow traffic jams. Or the address is one where you need to apply for a special pass. How do you like, say, a late evening trip to the White House on Krasnopresnenskaya Embankment on March 7? It was necessary to have time to congratulate the assistant of a major government official before she left work. I grabbed a basket with the important lady’s favorite lilies of the valley and rushed to the subway. I managed to do everything in about half an hour. And then... for an hour I wandered through the floors and basements of the empty White House. I couldn’t find the way to the entrance through which I entered, and there was no one to tell me.
What “flowers” grew during the crisis?
The small market for flower gifts is sensitive to events in the big economy. Some industry is rising up the mountain - florists begin to transport bouquets to the relevant industry companies. In 2009, our first major client was a well-known mobile phone retail chain that was undergoing rebranding. We made her bouquets of tulips in the colors of the new brand. And with their help, she announced her new image to her female partners. Then IT companies developing systems for large organizations became the leaders in orders, and the gifts we made went to the reception areas of state corporations and ministries. In 2013-2014, the best buyer was an arms manufacturing company.
And then the crisis came, import prices rose by 30-40%, and the demand for everything floral fell sharply. How long? No one can say for sure: the market is not transparent. But if we estimate the officially declared volume in pieces, it turns out that in 2016, 22% less cut flowers were imported to Russia than two years before. And only in 2017 there was a new growth: +6%. Familiar importers involved in exotics testify: the most noticeable drop in sales occurred in the middle and medium-low segments of premium floristry. People who could previously afford exquisite bouquets began to deny themselves such pleasure. The structure of their demand has changed in favor of services and goods that cannot be refused: medicine, education, useful gadgets.
The most noticeable reduction is in spending on flowers, which are purchased for their own employees. HR services are increasingly replacing them with something more useful - certificates for cosmetics or candies. And those who follow tradition often order tulips or hyacinths without packaging: they then peel them themselves and put them in plastic bags. A floral compliment in Moscow florist companies costs from 350 rubles (five tulips in cellophane) to 800 rubles (three gerberas with mimosa in a flowerpot). It's impossible to do it cheaper. Few people buy more expensive ones for internal corporate congratulations.
VIP orders - super bouquets - have not decreased: you can’t give a certificate to the deputy chairman of the bank. But VIP congratulations alone, even very expensive ones, don’t make a difference. For a florist company to be successful, it must be able to earn money consistently, and not just on major holidays. To do this, it is not enough to collect beautiful bouquets and burn at work. It is important to create a balanced business model focused on “your” type of clients and provide it with all the necessary resources. But no matter what model of flower business you take, for all participants in the “March 8” project it is a holiday with a lack of sleep before our eyes. An emergency is an emergency.
Families often work in the flower business. After the crisis began, Tatyana and I decided not to take any further risks and sold our online boutique to another married couple. Business is over. But now I again give my wife flowers on Women’s Day. The mystery of the holiday has returned again.
The main news and the best longreads of “The Secret” are in our Telegram channel. Subscribe!
Cover photo: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images