We’re doing a fundraiser at school for Valentine’s Day. We have 25 bouquets that we plan to sell for $20 each. Obviously we want to make a profit, but the bouquets set us back $15 each, and there’s no guarantee anyone will buy them.
Is there a good way to take advantage of the fact that people love to show off their affection for their significant other?
Some ideas:
[ol]
[li]Let the customer name the price on the condition that he or she leaves a price tag (the heftier, the better) on the vase. This does seem kind of unromantic and fake, however.[/li][li]Hold an auction. This lets people see that their admirers stretched the limits of their bank account. We don’t have time to set this kind of thing up, though, and auctioning just flowers seems like a lot of work.[/li][li]Raise the price as supplies dwindle, for instance to $30 after only 10 bouquets are left, $35 after only five are left. [/li][/ol]
Any better suggestions? Thanks.
Other things we have: unlimited lollipops & greeting cards, plus delivery (it’s a small campus).
Frankly, those sound like perfectly horrid ideas. Not selling the bouquets, mind you, but the three supplemental plans. The first is crass and tasteless, and people aren’t going to go for it. The second is an awful lot of work for no more profit than you’re likely to make. The third one…well, if you’re expecting trouble selling them at $20, I’m not real clear how you intend to move them at $30.
What sort of bouquets are we talking about here? Are they something you could disassemble and make into smaller bouquets supplemented with lollipops and cards? You could sell them at a somewhat lower price, which would probably fit well with student budgets.
Why didn’t you get orders well in advance (offering free delivery as a bonus)?
Once you have the money, then you buy the flowers.
Your current problem is similar the well-known business one of how much stock to hold.