Below is my reflective journal for my 2017 Field Period at Petal Garden, Inc!
January 3rd, 2017
Today I began my Field Period at Petal Garden, Inc. The company is a small business that sells rose petals. Upon entering I saw a barrage of many different beautiful colors of petals that they have in their inventory. I was given a desk next to a window and immediately got to work. I was given the task of creating an employee operations manual and I quickly began to brainstorm on how I could create a better one than the company already had. Eventually, my laptop battery died and I realized I forgot to bring my charger with me. My supervisor said that was alright and then I went and helped everyone else with whatever they were doing. My first impression of Petal Garden is very positive, I really enjoyed my time there today!
January 4th, 2017
Today my supervisor let me use my camera to take photos of products for their website. Eventually, they were quite pleased with my photographical ability and asked me to take photos of other products and list them on etsy.com. I listed 23 products on the website and at some point, in the near future we will see the activity that each item has seen from prospective buyers. Also, I learned that the flowers are bought from many different places, but mostly an auction site that has declining prices. Within 5 minutes my supervisor purchased around 4 boxes of yellow roses. So today was a very good day, and I look forward to tomorrow!
January 5th, 2017
Today I took many more product photos. I found out that many people were already trying to purchase the products I listed just a day before. My supervisor said he believes it is due to the photos I took for the listing. I began photographing and listing more products which took most of the day. I also did some excel work for my supervisor but it only took me 5 minutes. So for tomorrow I am assuming I will be taking pictures and listing more products.
January 6th, 2017
Today I learned how to use a new system for listing products. I listed 100 or so products on the new system which focuses on international marketing. And, I helped brainstorm new ways to market our products to brides and helped create unique color combinations of which I photographed and will continue with on Monday.
January 9th, 2017
Today I was given an excel project to analyze sales data and discover trends. I created this and then my supervisor asked me to create a graph to better visualize the trends. After completing this he told me it was quite practical because he was easily able to tell what products are doing better than others. Then, I worked on updating the product descriptions on our websites to more descriptive ones.
January 10th, 2017
Today I was given the job of creating accounts on “Salesforce” for wholesale. I spent a large majority of my day doing this as there were 13 pages of emails. After, I worked on more listings for etsy.com. Tomorrow morning I should be able to finish them!
January 11th, 2017
Today I started my day by finishing the photographing of even more products that we found in our stock room that my supervisor wants me to list on our website. I did this, as well as putting certain items on etsy.com! I learned that etsy is very useful for us, but amazon is not because of the fact that amazon allows large quantities to be put up at once, making it easier for China’s businesses to sell their products.
January 12th, 2017
Today I began by speaking with my supervisor about some issues I’ve noticed with certain employees that work at Petal Garden and we both spoke about our concerns and I brought up certain aspects of the Operations Manual that I created and demonstrated that certain employees were not adhering to our specific standards at our company and he told me that he is going to do something about it soon, and thanked me for bringing it up. I used my previous FP experience here as well as learned some of the small issues associated with running a small business.
January 13th, 2017
Today I worked with a fellow employee on finishing the updated descriptions of our products. Our silk petals come from a distributer in China, and I learned that over time, the petals change colors very minimally, but enough that the website requires an updated description to keep up with it. I also took photos of camouflage type petals and we put those on the website to market to people of all types of wedding tastes!
January 16th, 2017
Today, my supervisor showed me how the freeze dry process works. We have 5 or 6 machines that we place the petals into (the flowers have their petals taken off BY HAND) and then they are put into the machines. The petals spend roughly 2 weeks in the machines and when they are completed, look like fresh rose petals, but will stay that way and not wilt! I was even told that my supervisor has some in his basement that are 20 years old and look the same! I learned that we often advise brides to take them and set them on the counter when they take a shower so the humidity will be absorbed by the petals making them feel more fresh!
January 17th, 2017
Today, my supervisor and I talked a little bit about the pricing of our products as well as the margin. We sell silk petals for roughly $10 a bag, and I asked how much it costs them to make them. He told me that they cost $1.50 or so to make, yielding what one would think to be a huge margin. He then informed me that marketing and advertising costs often cut directly into these products. Many websites such as amazon and etsy take a certain percentage from one’s product sales, lowering the margin. He showed me how certain products on etsy are advertisements for our own products, but each time the listing is clicked, it costs our company $1 because of the cost to advertise the petals. It was very interesting!
January 18th, 2017
Today, I learned more about the freeze dryers. I saw that when the process is complete, the machine has ice that needs to be removed. The ice, smells like roses and reminded me of perfume. I asked m supervisor if they ever thought of doing anything with the ice/rose water that they normally dispose of, and they told me they thought about making perfume! Unfortunately, it costs way too much to create perfume from the water, but still it was nice to see that I had an idea that resonated with them, very successful business owners, who also shared that idea at one point. I really like the idea of being efficient and utilizing all resources available!
January 19th, 2017
Today my supervisor wanted me to tackle some more of his old projects that he has laying around. He had me take photos of picture frames from their old bouquet business and make a database of them to list them on websites. As well as this, I had to take photos of them. This database acts like an inventory system as well so we know how much we have of each item! It was pretty cool and took me the entire day. He said he is bringing me more to do tomorrow!
January 20th, 2017
Today my supervisor told me he could not find any more frames, but had a different job for me. Today I created online listings for various products like organza bags and freeze dried petals. I created listings that are able to transfer to many different websites including Pinterest so they can be purchased in different places, making it easier for them to market their products!
January 23rd, 2017
Today I worked on checking sales data to decide whether or now we should continue with our free samples, or our $1 samples. We decided that more people used the free samples and most ended up ordering more products afterwards. Then I worked on keeping a record of all the new inventory of roughly 30,000 petals that we received this morning!
January 24th, 2017
Today my supervisor gave me the task of cross checking our wholesale accounts with our automated email system to see if some customers were not receiving our automated emails. Almost a third of the 1092 customers (which had to be hand checked) were not on the email list. That took most of my day. I finished with taking pictures of romance packages to update the websites photos!
January 25th, 2017
Today I took more product photos and listed them on our new site. I also had a long discussion with my supervisor about general business do’s and don’ts. Then, I was given the opportunity on creating new photos for new products on our website and was able to use my imagination on what I want to do! They really enjoyed my pictures! I finished by learning how the petals are removed from the flowers and put into the machine!
January 26th, 2017
Today I petaled more flowers and helped add about 20,000 petals to our mix! Then I worked on more photography for the website and talked with my supervisor about possible beginning the move to our new computer system relatively soon. I’m hoping it works well for them.
January, 27th, 2017
Today was my last day at Petal Garden! I got right to work and focused on finishing the eCommerce platform we had been working on. Once that was finished, I then worked on getting petals off flowers. After a while, I was brought back into the office to do some finishing touches on the website and then it was time to leave! I said goodbye to everyone and thanked my supervisor for such a great experience! They offered me a job for this coming summer!