Page 261 - One Thousand Ways to Make $1000

“service.” For one flower a day she charged 10 cents and for two a day, 15
cents. Those who wished this service contracted to pay her by the week or
month. Within a short time she had 1,000 customers.

Mrs. Chrysler’s work begins at four-thirty each morning, when she goes to
market, buys her flowers, and starts her helpers making the boutonnieres. By
eight o’clock, messenger boys have started to deliver the packages. Her
customers may have their order varied any way they choose—a rosebud on
Monday, a carnation on Tuesday, a gardenia on Wednesday, and so on
through the week. Customers may also contract to have flowers sent daily to
friends who are ill.

Another idea Mrs. Chrysler inaugurated was the anniversary service. You
turn over to her a list of the anniversaries in your family and flowers are
delivered automatically on those exact dates, the bill being sent to you once a
month, according to contract. In addition to these regular services, she
prepares special table decorations for parties and arranges for floral
decorations for weddings, teas, bridal showers, coming-out parties and other
social functions. She also makes up special floral designs, many of which are
sent to Paris salons and London parties. The use of the cellophane box by
florists today originated with Mrs. Chrysler.

Margaret Harper, of Cleveland, has somewhat the same idea but depended
upon her own garden for her flowers. For years she had been an enthusiastic
gardener, and the grounds about her old home bloomed with flowers of many
varieties from spring through the early autumn. This was the one subject in
which she was most interested and enthusiastic. Her beautiful arrangements
of cut flowers within her home brought as many compliments as her garden
did. Having the time, the flowers and the artistic ability to arrange them, all
she needed was a list of customers. She knew nothing about advertising, but a
friend who owned a letter shop prepared some clever little folders for her at
cost and she addressed the envelopes on her son’s portable typewriter. The
list was made up of names of friends and acquaintances she knew who were
in business; all the professional people she knew, such as her banker, lawyer,
dentist, the principal of her son’s school, some of the teachers of the school;
the owners of several hotel apartment buildings near her section of town; the