Real Flower Business

Education and Business Training for Floral Designers.

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3 Top Tips for New Florists

Last week, I had the privilege of talking to a couple of florists in some 1:1 coaching calls and one new florist asked: What are your top 3 pieces of advice that you’d offer to a new florist?

There’s more than 1 way to answer this question, but I want to share with you what I shared with her! (And if you’ve been in business for a little while–or a long while!–these tips are for you, too!) Since we’re entering the 4th Quarter of the year, it’s the perfect time to share these 3 Tips with you, too! Listen below.

 

Top 3 Tips For Florists

1. Define what you want your business to provide.  How much income you’re looking to make in your business and what sort of lifestyle you’re trying to create?

(Note: Your sales goal will be higher than your income goal because all of your expenses come out of the total sales.)

 

2. Define all of the offers that you’re selling that will bring money into your business.

You can think of these like “buckets” or categories. For example, funerals, daily orders, walk-ins, weekly subscriptions, events.

Then, determine how much you need to sell in each category to meet the sales goal so that you can reach your income goal. (For example, $3,000 in funerals per month, $6,000 in daily orders and walk-ins, $2,000 in business accounts, $5,000 in weddings & events…)

 

3. Define who your customers are (and this may be a different customer for each of your buckets or categories) and get really obsessed with serving them well.

  • What do they need/want?
  • What would they love to buy from you?
  • What would they be excited to tell their friends about?

If you can answer these questions, you’re doing good work! And if you need to think about them a little bit, that’s good work, too!

 

FYI on Monday, Oct. 7th at 12pm ET I’m hosting an Opportunity Hour with Patreon members in the Marketing Mavens Tier as well as the new students in my Flower Math course!

This Opportunity Hour is a small group coaching session and any questions, struggles, or random things you want to bounce off of another florist are welcome!

I’ll send a Zoom invitation to Marketing Mavens along with the monthly blog posts for October.

Keep doing beautiful work and let me know if you have any questions or if I can be of help to you from here!

xo. -Alison Ellis

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2024 Pricing Chat for Florists

 

It’s the most wonderful time of the year–at least when it comes to pricing and profitability in your business! It’s almost fall which means it’s time for my Pricing Chat for Florists! Join me on Tuesday, September 17th, at 12pm ET/9am PT to walk through the 3 Most Important Numbers Florists Need To Know in your business.

It’s free and you can register now to get your Zoom invitation and I’ll send you a workbook before the chat as well.

Join the Pricing Chat

Pricing & profitability should not be a mystery in your business, which is why I’m hosting this live conversation on Sept. 17th.

I’ll also be kicking off my Flower Math Fall Sale, Sept. 17-19th, and you’ll be the first to know when the doors are open if you get on the list for the Pricing Chat!

I’m looking forward to seeing you there.

xo. -Alison Ellis

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Simple Social Media Tips for Florists

How can you be more consistent with blogging and social media so that you attract the best customers, but also follow a strategy that’s practical and simple?

I got this question from a member of my Patreon Community the other day, which was actually more like 8 or 9 questions, so I answered them live so I could really dig into details and answer in depth!

If you have questions after you watch, let me know!

Click to watch now:

In this livestream I answered questions on:

  • Content ideas for blogging and social media
  • Discipline ideas
  • Goals of how often to post
  • How do you measure its success
  • Post structure
  • How do I keep it simple
  • How do I post our values, beliefs and key brand points

 

If you need some help crafting your brand message and sharing your voice, you can get access to Monthly Blog & Social Media Prompts by becoming a Marketing Maven inside my Patreon Community here: www.patreon.com/realflowerbusiness

I know that as a business owner, it can be challenging to be consistent and authentic because there’s often a bit of a trade off between consistent and authentic.

Wash, rinse, repeat = consistent  

But it often takes a little bit of contemplation to find what you have to share with the world that’s actually authentic!

I hope the tips I shared today will inspire you to simplify your social media strategy and share your voice with more intention.

And if you’d like to check out this month’s Social Media Prompts on Patreon, I’d be honored to have you join me there!

xo. -Alison

 

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Booking Clients With Confidence

I’ve been in the midst of my wedding season here in Vermont, but I’ve received some very relatable questions from florists recently, and I want to start with the following from a member of my Patreon community who wrote: 

“I struggle with really making the customer feel super confident in booking our services ASAP. Would really like to streamline the process so that it happens faster and with less or no follow-up on my part.”

I’m going to break this question down because this is exactly why I spent some time talking about improving your Wedding Workflow (aka your customer’s journey) in July with my Patreon members to encourage florists to revisit every single step your customers take so you can make the process as smooth as possible! 

Because an opportunity to start building trust & confidence begins at your first point of contact–and that’s where we started with Step 1 in my Wedding Workflow!

Remember, every interaction with your business needs to be designed specifically with your unique, ideal customer in mind!

 

So let me be MORE clear on what you can do to start to troubleshoot that first point of contact to help your customers feel confident in booking ASAP…

In order to move clients through the booking process more quickly, your customers have to understand the steps and feel confident that you are the BEST choice for them.

If the first point of contact happens via your website or social media:

  • What is the first phrase they will read on your site?
  • How easy is it to find your wedding inquiry or contact form?
  • How many clicks does it take to get to the contact page?

 

Once they get to your contact page or inquiry form:

  • What questions do you ask that are designed to invite a conversation with your ideal customers?
  • Are the questions written in the voice of your brand? (Do they sound like your/your company or are they cookie cutter questions?)
  • Do customers get excited about potentially working with you when they’re here?

 

What can you add or take away from that first interaction to make it better?

  • Should you add another pre-qualifying question or two to elicit more information?
  • What do you promise to the customer? (How do they know what to expect?)
  • Is there anything you’re saying that’s out of date/ out of touch/ no longer applies to your next-level client?

 

And briefly, to the second part of the original question regarding follow-up, while it sounds awesome to book great clients with little-to-no follow-up, the truth is that when it comes to closing a sale, some follow-up is as important to the sales process as that very first step where the client first discovers you!

 

If you have questions on how to fill in any missing steps in your customer choreography, you can get all the steps in my Wedding Workflow when you become a Marketing Maven on Patreon, or you can also just grab the Wedding Workflow as a stand alone course in my shop here.

And if you have any interest in working with me on improving your customer journey by working together one-on-one in a coaching call, get in touch and we can set up a time to talk.

Have a great day and keep doing beautiful work!

Very best,

Alison Ellis

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Why I Love Writing Proposals

I love writing proposals and the reason is simple: it’s the first step to actually booking a client and getting paid.

Now, there’s a balance between giving away too much detail and investing too much time before a customer has committed to working with you. This is why florists often procrastinate the proposal process!

And that’s why when it comes to writing a wedding proposal, my goal is to spend no more than 1-2 hours preparing a quote. I want to be an easy “yes”, but I don’t want to labor over this quote for a week!

Just FYI, here are a few things I don’t do when writing a proposal:

  • List every single flower that will be in every single arrangement
  • Include dozens of flower images from stock files
  • Wait a week to start the proposal
  • Promise specifics
  • Make my clients commit to the exact number of centerpieces or final color palette–they just have to meet my minimum purchase

If you want to see how I simplify my process…

There are TWO ways you can get a closer look at the exact steps I follow in my Wedding Workflow to keep myself accountable after a customer inquires:

#1. You can download a pdf of my Wedding Workflow, which is available in my online shop here! It includes the 16 Steps To Client Management that I follow in my business, plus a deeper breakdown of 5 Steps to Book Clients More Quickly! This is newly updated, and if you already have my workflow or my Wedding Templates Bundle, you should find this updated version on your course dashboard!

#2. You can walk through the step by step process with me AND get the pdf of my Wedding Workflow by becoming a member of my Patreon Community at the $29 level! You’ll find some proposal shortcut tips in there right now PLUS a ton of lessons and short trainings on how to book great clients consistently.

 

Based on my experience as a business owner for 22 years so far, I’ve learned to focus on 3 Keys to Booking Great Clients Consistently and they include:

  1. Brand Reputation–What You’re Known For/What People Say About You
  2. Pre-Qualifying–Gathering Information & Setting Expectations
  3. Customer Experience–The Steps You Follow To Establish Trust

All 3 Keys play a role in your brand position and if you want to attract better customers, the easiest thing to do is create a better customer experience!

The steps my customers follow are inside my Wedding Workflow now if you want to grab it here!

Keep doing beautiful work! And keep booking great clients.

-Alison Ellis

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