Am I selective on who I deal with?  In many ways yes. Not to be mean but quite simply because logic says you do more for the people who support you - in our case the florist that pays for a subscription/attends our events or a client who advertises - rather than those who don’t.  Tough maybe but reality is that when budgets are tight and every penny has to work there isn’t the luxury of ‘giving’ stuff away for free like there used to be and everything has to make a return.

Which is why, whilst the size of the magazine may shrink or grow depending on ad revenue, Business Briefing never changes and has the meatier articles in it because florists have paid to get it and they're the readers we always help first.

If a company wants research, advice or industry stats, those that advertise will always get priority because they’re helping us to survive and our involvement in events are always dependent on the direct benefit simply because flinging personnel out or simply stumping up cash is just too expensive these days.

And chances are we will get even more ruthless over the coming months if things don’t pick up.  Because no one can afford to do things for nothing – like you we haven’t yet found a way of running the company on fresh air – and to be honest we get a little cheesed off doing things with little or no financial benefit and then receiving comments that things aren’t as good as they used to be.

And that’s why I’ve cancelled Bloom and am re-defining our Top2k florist list.  Because I reckon we and our clients will be far better off working with pro-active florists who do want to get out there and take advantage of the opportunities than spending a fortune doing things for florists who seemingly couldn’t give a toss or think it’s cool to just moan and groan about everything.

Are you on our top Top 2k list?  Well, if you can say Yes to any of the things on the list below, you’re already on.  If you can’t then I’m sorry, you may be awfully nice people with an awfully nice shop but if you’re not on our radar then you’re not on our list.  Because we reckon, given all but two are/were free, the following is a pretty good barometer of whether people are really involved in floristry and want their businesses to be successful or the type of florist who just sits there moaning, groaning and waiting for sales.

Subscribe to Business Briefing £50 – you can click here to do it!

Attended a Colombian/wholesaler based Evening FREE

Attended a Bloom event FREE

Applied for Good Florist Guide FREE – you can click here to do this one!

Took part in our Mothers Day survey FREE

Been featured in a best florist list (Independent or similar) FREE

Won a competition/been featured in consumer press £varied

The list never closes and I and my team always keep our eyes open to add new names so if you’re being proactive you’ll be added.  If you’re not then apologies but it’s a tough world and from now on we only want to work with the movers, shakers and go-getters in our industry, not florists who are just playing at it or think the world owes them a living.