Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, birthdays . . . with so many occasions appropriate for flowers, a florist shop is an enticing business to start. If you have a love for everything green and a desire to forge your own path, starting a floral business is ideal for you. Perfect your floral-arranging and customer service skills with a traditional florist shop; brighten others’ days with an office plant-care service; or encourage creativity with a pick-your-own-flowers establishment. This guide gives you advice on everything you need to start out right, including: • Selecting the right type of floral business • Finding flower wholesalers and growers • Anticipating demand and stocking the most popular flowers • Caring for your flowers • Stocking profitable sidelines, like greeting cards and balloons • And more! With the essential information inside, you’ll be turning greenery into greenbacks in no time.

This fabulous book explains how to become a floral designer or start a flower shop. It describes commonly used flowers and plants, covers principals of floral design, and gives step-by-step instructions for creating flower arrangements. It offers advice on getting a job as a floral designer and covers how to start a flower shop, including: choosing a location, creating displays, setting prices, finding suppliers, working with wire services, hiring employees, and getting customers. Includes CD-ROM.

THE FLOWER CHEF is a modern, comprehensive guide to floral design that caters to all readers--from beginners who have never worked with flowers before and are looking for a new creative outlet, to decorators, party planners and photographers looking to liven up their spaces. Even professionals will find ways to update their techniques! This book teaches you everything you need to know about flower arranging including tips on how to buy and care for flowers, how to cut and prepare them, and how to use floral foam, vases, and various other decorative elements in your arrangements. Filled with beautiful photographs and easy-to-follow instructions on how to create over 80 different arrangements, this is the go-to guide to floral design that every flower lover will want to add to their collection.

Are you a fashionista? Do you love working with people? Do you dream of owning and running your own business? Take a chance and start a clothing business—all you need to get up and running is your dream and this guide. Whether you’re interested in selling today’s hottest fashions or you’d rather start a specialty boutique, such as a children’s store, bridal shop, vintage store, consignment shop or something of your own invention, this book helps you make it big. It gives you the inside scoop on starting a clothing store, including: • How to spot trends and take advantage of them before your competitors do • Valuable money-saving tips for the startup process • Whether to purchase a franchise or existing business or start your dream store from scratch • How to find, hire and train the best employees • How to skyrocket your earnings by branding your clothes with your own private label • The pros and cons of having an on-staff personal shopper • And more! If you know how to dress for success, let Entrepreneur help you turn your fashion sense into a clothing empire.

Turn Small Change Into Big Profits! Looking for an opportunity to make big profits while setting your own schedule? A vending business could be your ticket to the top. Americans feed vending machines more than $46 billion a year for sodas, candy, coffee and other snacks. That’s a nice chunk of change you could be pocketing. Starting is easy. You can begin part time out of your home. As your customer base increases, you can hire extra help, invest in more machines and expand your service area. There’s no limit to how large your business can grow. Get the inside scoop on how to start up in this lucrative, flexible business. Expert advice covers: How to select the hottest new products for vending machines The best ways to finance your new business The secrets to scouting out territories and establishing routes Where to find supplies at a discount The latest statistics, trends and forecasts from industry experts Critical tips to avoid getting scammed New technology and the use of social media Checklists, work sheets and expert tips guide you through every phase of the startup process. With low startup costs and no experience required, a vending business is a perfect choice for your new venture.

Leading entrepreneurs into the multi-billion dollar consulting industry, the experts at Entrepreneur show you how to capitalize on your talents to help others achieve their business goals. Coached by experts, learn to define your market, find and keep clients, obtain licenses, set rates, monitor cash flow, hire staff, prepare contracts, agreements, and reports, and more. Includes new interviews with successful consultants, updated answers to frequently asked questions, and a completely refreshed list of the top 20 consulting businesses.