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Measure Designer Productivity To Determine Wages

In the latest issue of Floral Management, Dan McManus, founder of the marketing and consulting firm Team Floral, shares how to set designers’ wages by determining their productivity.

Your designers are likely your most skilled (and highly compensated) workers. You need to put their time to good use. In the latest issue of Floral Management, Dan McManus, founder of the marketing and consulting firm Team Floral, shares how to set designers’ wages by determining their productivity.

“A designer should produce 10 times his or her hourly wage,” says McManus, who recommends giving designers one uninterrupted hour to gauge if they’re earning their wages or if they need to pick up speed.

But even if a designer hits the mark during the test, circumstances in the shop may prevent it from happening in real life. For instance, do your designers regularly do double duty — answering phones and taking orders, loading arrangements into vans, or assisting walk-in customers?

The solution is to eliminate designers’ distractions. One way to do this is to block off two or three hours every morning for them to work while you and/or another employee handles customers and other front-of-the-shop tasks.

“A helpful comparison might be to consider how a medical practice keeps their doctors productive,” McManus says. “The doctors’ time is the most valuable, so a team is built around them to make the most use of their expertise. They have a receptionist, an intake person, and a nurse to help the patient before the doctor is involved. You can create a similar support structure in your shop to protect your designers’ time.”

For more tips, read “Set Design Wages By Determining Productivity” in the May/June issue of Floral Management.

Katie Vincent is a senior contributing editor for the Society of American Florists.  

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