“A UNION OF CREATIVITY & BUSINESS” - We aim to educate and inform floral industry entrepreneurs on how to balance their creative gifts with business savvy for the 21st century. Our blog will be an industry resource for new business men and women as well as seasoned business owners. Once the business side of theses businesses are in order the creative side can flourish.
Anemone, perennial plants that grow from tubers or seeds, grow up to two feet tall and come in a variety of colors, including red, blue, purple and white. The bloom grows from a single stem that has a patch of parsley-like leaves. The flower itself consists of eight to ten rounded petals fanning out nearly parallel to each other. The stalks grow up to eight inches tall.
Planted in October, Anemone flowers in May and June. They grow best in partial or full sun.
In southern climates, the Anemone should be shielded from the sun in the warmest part of the day. Tuberous anemones should be planted two to three inches in the ground. Depending on the variation, Anemones can prefer either sandy or moist soil.
"Our business in life is not to get ahead of others, but to get ahead of ourselves, to break our own records, to outstrip our yesterday by our today."
-Stewart B. Johnson
John Seward Johnson II (born 1930) also known as J. Seward Johnson, Jr. and Seward Johnson is an Americanartist known for his trompe l'oeil painted bronze statues, and a grandson of Robert Wood Johnson I (co-founder of Johnson & Johnson), and of Colonel Thomas Melville Dill, of Bermuda. He is best known for his life-size bronze statues, which actually are castings of living people of all ages depicting them engaged in day-to-day activities. A large staff of technicians perform the fabrication.
"When I'm under the gun and I've got pressure on me, I don't panic. I look for the right solution, and then I go for it."
Magic Johnson
Magic Johnson Biography (Earvin Johnson Jr.) : Basketball Player Famous for : Being a professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers NBA team. Magic retired for the first time in 1991 after contracting the HIV virus, but came out of retirement twoce before finally retiring from basketball in 1996. Johnson is a successful businessman and founder of Magic Johnson Enterprises. Johnson details : Born - 14th of August, 1959 Lansing, Michigan, USA / Lives United States of America
Through the artistry of her floral arrangements, Karen Koven has been spreading beauty to clients in Bolingbrook and beyond for nearly 20 years.
Koven began training with area florists. After honing her skills for six years, her husband Ron encouraged to open her own shop to “offer her own flair on arrangements.”
In September 1993, Koven opened Karen’s Floral Expressions, now perched at 253 S. Weber Road, Bolingbrook. The business has been family-owned and operated ever since.
“I always had a kind of art background,” Koven said. “I just always had a desire for art. One day I got the idea to take a floral design class, and I loved it so much. My husband finally talked me into opening my own shop.”
Over the last 19 years, Koven has seen a lot of changes in both the floral industry and in the business community in Bolingbrook.
“The city has grown dramatically and the business center has shifted several times,” she said.
The shifting business district boundaries prompted Koven to move her shop five years ago to its present location on Weber Road. The new location is more centrally located and doubled her retail space, she said.
The rise of the Internet and the increase of third-party telephone companies, such as 1-800-Flowers and Teleflora.com, changed the scope of business — and not always for the better, Koven said.
Two years ago, Koven testified before a legislative committee in Springfield against the practice of out-of-state companies purchasing local telephone numbers to appear as if they were a local florist.
Koven explained that the practice — which is still in existence — has customers paying higher costs than if they ordered directly from a local florist. Once accepting the order, she said third-party companies place the order with Koven and other local florists.
“They were trying to make it look like they were us, but were charging customers a much higher price than they would have paid if they’d just gone to the brick-and-mortar florists,” Koven said. “They will charge you $75 for an order, then come to us to fill a $70 order.
“Finally, a group of us florists got together because we were so disgusted with it.”
Working with Florists for Change, Koven seeks change in the way local florists work with wire-ordering companies. The current system favors tele-florist companies and she said customers are not receiving the best value because of the pricing structures set up by those companies.
“We want to protect our customers and make sure they’re getting what they’re paying for,” she said. It’s also important for consumers to keep their money local, she said. “Me, personally, I pay taxes twice, with my home and my business, and we employ people in town who spend their money in town,” she reasoned. “It’s important to know where your money is going.”
Despite the rise of Internet and telephone orders, Koven still prefers to offer personal service to all customers — seen or unseen. “It’s important to get those personal touches. We’ve been able to tailor arrangements for Cubs fans, avid gardeners and people with a variety of interests. We try to capture the customer in our arrangements,” Koven said.
The Internet also can impact customers’ expectations, she explained.
“People look at pictures on the Internet and expect to get exactly what the picture shows. Mother Nature doesn’t make her product look the same every time,” she said. “In many ways, the Internet has taken creativity away.”
Koven treats her business as a family affair, and in many ways it is.
Although Ron Koven doesn’t work with his wife, he spends a lot of time at the shop. Several years ago, he suffered a stroke and ended up going to work daily with his wife during his recovery.
Although he’s recovered now, he still spends much of his free time at the shop.
“I just like hanging around here,” he said.
Ron isn’t the only family member who spends time at the store. Their daughter works part time and she often brings her children with her. Koven set up a space in the rear of the shop just for them that has toys and paper for drawing. Employee Milena Malicbegovic laughed about some of the antics of the youngest Kovens. She said they sometimes run around the shop like “tornadoes.” “It’s a real family atmosphere here,” she said.
Owner of Karen's Floral Expressions, Karen Koven, makes a flower arrangement at her family owned business Wednesday April 18, 2012. Karen has had the family flower shop since 1993.
Golf Srithamrong, the lead designer and owner of Tantawan Bloom, is a New York City based weddings and events florist. Originally from Thailand, Golf creates high end floral design, inspired by best of Thai, European and American styles. His creations result in a dramatic blend of cutting edge with tradition, producing a new and exciting elegance.
Zig Ziglar Biography : Self Help Author and Religious speaker Famous for : Mixing religion with self help to create classic motivational books like "See you at the Top" Ziglar details :Born - November 6, 1926 United States Lives - USA
YouTube, Google's monster video publishing platform, is giving away up to $50 million to entice small-business owners to sign up for a video advertising service it announced today. Called Google AdWords for video, YouTube says the service will more or less replicate features from Google's AdWords for search -- such as pay-per-click and setting budgets with bids -- for video advertising. Businesses can receive a $75 credit when they sign up for AdWords for video, YouTube says.
"We want to democratize access to video advertising for small businesses that have smaller ad budgets, and to make it easier for advertisers to see the value, to see exactly how many people are engaging with their ad," says Baljeet Singh, YouTube's group product manager.
After setting up, users can create and manage video campaigns from the same platform as their search and display ads, YouTube says. From there, users can set a budget and only pay when someone chooses to watch their video ad.
YouTube will track who watches ads through TrueView, a service that allows viewers to click on a button and skip out of a video ad after five seconds. The advertiser is only charged if the viewer decides not to skip the ad. TrueView ads formats include in-stream ads, in-search ads and in-display ads.
The program launched in beta late last year with several small businesses participating. So far, YouTube has seen up to 45 percent of viewers choose to watch the TrueView-enabled ads all the way through -- despite having the option to skip out, Singh says.
AdWords for video can also enable advertisers to promote their video ads by keyword to appear in YouTube search results, or to show an ad against content their customers are most interested in, YouTube says. And in terms of tracking ROI, it can tell users how many viewers watched their entire video, visited their website, stayed on their channel to watch another video or subscribed to their channel after viewing their ad.
For first-timers, YouTube has created an Advertiser Playbook offering tips and advice on creating engaging video content and how to promote video with ads.
A chuppah (Hebrew: חוּפָּה, pl. חוּפּוֹת, chuppot, literally, "canopy" or "covering"), also huppah, chupah, or chuppa, is a canopy under which a Jewish bride and groom stand during their wedding ceremony. A chuppah symbolizes the home that the couple will build together. While a Jewish marriage is still considered valid in the absence of a chuppah, a chuppah is still considered a basic requirement for a Jewish wedding.
Traditionally, a chuppah consists of a cloth or sheet, sometimes a tallit, stretched or supported over four poles, or sometimes manually held up by attendants to the ceremony. But feel free to take a modern spin on this age-old tradition. Use flowers, silk, a hand-made quilt or even lucite to create your chuppah. In the end, it's what the chuppah symbolizes, not what it's made of that makes this tradition special!
