mary11 ... Hi! Good question ... I will assume that you have a source, and an area available for design and storage for your fresh flowers. Weddings and banquets are rewarding endeavors, to be sure. Transport is a factor too! As you know, it takes an assembly-line productivity to be profitable. Had a successful flower shop in Long Beach, CA. for 23 years. Now retired in OH. If it were me ... New to an area, and the local current trends I would make-up some arrangements and take one of them to each of the most local to your location up-scale restaurants and hotels. Don't approach just one. 5 or 6 minimum. Then you don't sweat rejection, plus you will have a follow-up plan to re-visit and re-visit, so might as well make the rounds with your 'surprises' in one trip. Perhaps an appointment to give a sample of your work to the Banquet Host/Hosstess would by an opportunity to ask if your style would be appropriate and possibly of interest to those hiring their banquet rooms. Could they recommend you? Would they? Could/would they offer your display book of your own work to their clients? Perhaps, probably, they will have a commission structure to present your display book, rather than just handing out your cards. Whatever the outcome, even if they are cold and almost rude, hit them with a 'thank you' arrangement, including your business card, for their office (or the cashier's/reservations desk) once a week for something like two months in a row. Deliver it personally with a big, big smile and say something like "just wanted to present this to you for your thoughtfulness when I came calling". Be on your way out ... fast. Do NOT re-hash your offer ... until and if asked. If your pitch, friendliness and product doesn't get any business by then move on. (A retail shark like me, may have them tied-up already, but sometimes, after repeated 'surprise' arrangements, they may very well give you a second look OR they may suddenly know someone else that knows someone that is looking for YOU. Trust me, it works!) My credentials: As a kid worked in restaurants, so I learned to work fast and knew the floral needs of the establishments going in. Wedding, reception, and home(s),two, decor for the Wrigley wedding on Catalina Island. Flowers and truck shipped over on barge. Three-day set-up. Four, five, sometimes six Weddings a week-end, in season, from our shop. Timely delivery was always a bear! Many, many large and smalll banquets locally. Many socialite and awards banquets at the Beverly-Hilton Hotel, even tho it was 30 miles and probably 32 other flower shops away. Competitor and Winner at the Las Floristas Headdress Ball. (Not a money-maker, but the publicity and new socialite business was great! Some socialite biz is painful - drop them.) If you have further questions email me ... Advertising and promotion (and fast production) was what I most enjoyed! Best to you in all you do! P.S. Don't ... Do not advertise in the yellow pages! Gave a popular industry seminar as to why. P.P.S Funeral flowers are the m-o-s-t profitable product to make ... if you have the interest/experience. The above approach works on them too!

An amazingly stuffed full priority mail bubble envelope arrived yesterday, so after dinner I sat down to dig in & giggled with delight as I pulled out so many fun things that Vina had creatively packed up & sent. She must know my mind or something because everything was perfect! _Butterfly card lavishly decorated in gold, 3 dimensions, & colorful along with friendly sentiments and a happy face! _2 recent Garden Gate magazines that make flower gardening looks so lovely & easy. I flipped through & will definitely use that tip to scarify seeds by putting them in a jar with sandpaper & shake, shake, shake! Perfect for those Sweet Peas. _an entire package of Godiva dark chocolates in an assortment of flavors. I won't tell how many I've eaten already. There's still some left. He, he. _Grow Ums Herb Garden that contained 8 coco pellets & labels along with 4 types of seeds (basil, cilantro, oregano, & parsley). Looks like fun to start them this way & I have lots of pots to make a nice display. There are 20 seeds in each packet, so there will have plenty for several pots and I can share with my daughter because she also loves the fresh herbs. _12 packets of seeds from her garden all labeled & sealed in tiny ziplocks. Not one stray seed! She sent me just what we'd love to try here. My hubby loves all the daisy type flowers like blanket flower or especially coneflowers that are big, bright or bicolored. The generous 12 she sent me were: 1. bee balm Marshall's Delight 2. Clematis Jackmani (I have several empty trellis here & just received two cedar ones from a friend who is moving in 3 weeks.) 3. Clematis Arctic Queen 4. Coreopsis Jethro Tull 5. Coneflower Ruby Giant 6. Coneflower Milkshake 7. Dianthus Siberian Blues 8. Nigella Love in a Mist all blue (I want to plant these along the row of raspberries provided they survived the storm as the trellis is down & there are tree tops & limbs on them.) 9. Gaillardia Fanfare 10. Rudbeckia Indian summer 11. Sweet Pea, everlasting (by the way someone told me these are great for improving the soil like other legumes, so plant away in new garden spaces to make way for vegetables or other perennials) 12. Yarrow Cerise Queen If all of this germinates & grows I'll have lots of plants to fill in the holes left by the storm! Thank YOU Vina for welcoming me in to the group & sending such a generous package that definitely brought me some winter cheer! Here's one of my favorite shasta daisy pics from a few years ago. Grandma gave this chicken on a stick to our daughter when she was young & she liked to surprise me with it by moving it around. She had said she tried to make the chicken look like it was standing on the daisy flower. Corrine

I have a successful cleaning business, and here is my advice. * I charge by the house, not by the hour. This might be hard for someone starting out, as you don't have a feel for how long the job will take, so you could start by the hour (a new client's home will take you longer for the first several times you go---make sure they know not to expect everything to get done in 3 hours the first few times you clean). How long it takes will depend upon the size of the house, how dirty it is, how many kids and pets there are, if they're smokers, etc. Most homes take me either 3 hours (if I clean weekly), or 4 hours (every other week jobs). I have one large home that I go to twice a week. * How much you charge depends on the market you're in. Do a little research and find out how much services and individual cleaners are charging. Remember that you will be paying taxes (inc. social security) and you should carry some disability insurance, so factor that into your fee as well. In my market (Upper Midwest) cleaners charge between $20 and $35 an hour. Expect payment on the day of the cleaning. * My basic service includes dusting all surfaces (including frames and blinds); cleaning kitchen counters, cupboard fronts, outside of all appliances, inside of microwave; scrubbing tub, toilet and sink & cleaning mirrors; vacuuming all floors, rugs and stairs; vacuum and wash kitchen and bathroom floors; empty wastebaskets and take out trash; washing other floors if that is agreed upon in initial estimate. * I do only the tasks listed above as part of my regular cleaning. I do extras for people when they go on vacation (windows, inside of fridge, cleaning cupboards, etc). It's good to be clear with clients whether it's okay with you to switch some task on a day of usual cleaning for an extra. I'll do this occasionally for weekly clients, but not for every other week folks. * Advertise at grocery stores and coffee shops in the neighborhoods where you'd like to work. Let as many people as possible know that you're starting a new business. People are ALWAYS looking for a good, reliable house cleaner. * I ask that clients not be home when I clean. When I'm there it becomes my place of business, not their home. Most people have a hard time getting that even "grabbing a quick sandwich" while I'm cleaning the kitchen really does get in my way. If you have great references most people are comfortable with you alone in their home, but might want to be around the first few times. * I don't provide supplies other than my little canister vac and my own rubber gloves. I do pick up the supplies of my choice for the clients (unless they have specific requests) and leave them at their house (they pay me back). Try to clean as "green" as you can to avoid a lot of nasty fumes and toxic cleaners. Most people wouldn't mind if you got your own supplies as long as you weren't using products they didn't approve of (harsh chemicals, for example.) * A few last words of advice: Be Reliable. If you are scheduled on Monday from 9-12, BE THERE. Never, ever fail to show up without a good reason and a phone call or email. Always do the job you'd want a cleaner to do for you. Don't cut corners. If you can't work because of an upcoming event or vacation, give plenty of notice. Ask them to let you know immediately if there is something you are missing, or doing wrong in their eyes. Communicate with your client and you'll become an invisible, yet valued part of their family. * The other side of that coin is to be fair to yourself. Don't feel guilty for setting limits. If a client asks for extras, charge them for the service. My policy is to charge for cancellations, although if someone's sick or there is another serious reason, I don't do so often. My clients are happy to do this as I am reliable and a hard worker (and have had many of the the same clients for 17 years!) Go to cleaning websites like this one and thecleanteam.com for tips and ideas about cleaning (the latter sells a great book called "Speed Cleaning" that has been an enormous help to me. * GOOD LUCK!

The paperwork will vary by state. It also will depend on who is funding you (yourself, bank providing a small-business loan, etc. Your best bet, I think, would be to go to Google or Yahoo! or some other search engine and type in "Mississippi small business" (without the quotation marks) and start following some links. I'm sure the state has some rules you have to follow about registering the name of the business, how you set up as a sole proprietor/partnership/corporation, etc. Then you can talk with your banker if you need funds and find out what their requirements are.