>> Hi, I'm Tracy Callahan from Bethesda Florist.
You know if you're a florist every job changes every day.
Here's what happens.
You come in, the orders, who knows how many we're going to have each day.
Who knows what the customer wants.
You have to be prepared for it.
We might have orders going to Minnesota or around the block.
Birthdays, anniversaries, funerals, people in the hospital,
different occasions, different designs needed.
Then we have the delivery aspect of them.
How we getting there?
Where are they going?
Getting the drivers in.
Getting new orders prepared.
I kind of look at it more like a manufacturer because we bring a roll of product in,
create a finished product and return it to the public.
This is not just about delivering a product and making a profit on it,
but you actually earn a business where you please people and impact their lives.
If you have a wedding and it's done just beautifully you've created a masterpiece for one
of the most important days of someone's lives.
If you have a 90th birthday party, you're not going to repeat that again.
So if you did everything just right, the flowers added the aura to make the birthday.
January is the slowest month of the year.
And you jump right into Valentine's Day which happens to be the busiest two
or three day segment of the entire year.
There are some long hours.
During some of the holiday times you're going to get in before 7:00.
You're not going to leave until after 10:00.
We won't fool you on that.
But [inaudible] some neat hours.
In the summertime when everybody else is [inaudible] slugging it out,
lots of times you can take off in the afternoon.
Maybe get a round of golf in.
Go spend some time with your family.
Those are, so the rewards for the hard hours you work, the rewards are always there.
Flowers come from all over the world.
You have to have some good contacts that you can count on.
Guys in Holland, guys in Bogota, South America, guys in Chile, California Cut Flower Exchange.
We get some carnations from Israel, orchids from Singapore.
So you want these contacts, you need all them coming in.
But you also rely basically on a local wholesaler
who can supply you with a constant product.
But you, at the liberty of what he has.
Most designers have a little bit of a flair for what they're doing.
But you would be stunned by the amount of people in this business
who actually never, ever thought about doing this.
Got into floral design, they had a good color scheme to begin with
and then they learn the balance aspect of the arrangement.
They learn how to produce the arrangement.
And create it in a fashion that's going to be acceptable for the public.
So while a lot of people have an art background or a good design background,
a lot of people come in the arrangement,
come in to design really novices and pick it up pretty quickly.
You know, it's funny.
My favorite flower changes just about every month.
It's really unusual.
I don't think I, I fall in love with one that much because of the beauty of all of them.
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