Tuesday Q&A for Florists

Floral designers have a lot of questions when you’re running a small business, and for over a decade I’ve been happy to help answer as many as I can. That’s why I’m bringing back Tuesday Q&As on YouTube! View my channel and subscribe here so you don’t miss any of the livestreams.

So far this month I’ve answered questions on:

Minimum orders and what to do when a customer falls below it
Charging for mockups for events
How to get started in as a floral designer if you don’t have experience yet
How much florists get paid
When to consider an “exclusivity clause”

The reason I’m doing this live each week is because, frankly, there’s a lot of bad information out there for florists lately!

“Newbies” who are teaching a skill they obviously just learned last week.

“Floral educators” who haven’t booked a customer since before the pandemic, but claim to have the business strategies you need today.

“Panderers” who seem to go viral on social media for an ego stroke that claims florists are basically the hardest working people on the planet (sorry, EMTs, pediatric oncologists and construction workers–get in line!).

I’ve been a floral designer for over 30 years because I love what I do. So while I understand what we do can be difficult at times, I’m not here to try to grab your attention with a click bait social media post.

I’m just looking to provide some truth out here about how to run your business with honestly and nuance. Because there isn’t only 1 right way to run your business!

Watch the most recent episodes of my Tuesday Q&A below!

And don’t forget to tune in on Tuesday, June 16th for the next live Q&A for florists! I’d love to see you there.

FYI if you’d like to help support these livestreams, become a member of my Patreon Community! You can get access to additional behind-the-scenes tips and lessons, as well as small group coaching every month!

xo. -Alison Ellis

By Alison Ellis

2026 Floralpreneur Workshop

How do you find the best floral workshop for florists?

If you’re looking for a small scale workshop with business and design training, that uses zero floral foam at a charming Vermont inn and all of your meals are included, then The Floralpreneur® Workshop is for you! To learn when doors are open CLICK HERE! I’m excited to share a short recap of our 2026 event thanks to Isora Lithgow Creations who was with us for the 4th year in a row to help capture the day.

We kicked things off for the Floralpreneur® Workshop with Color Theory Conversations and Elements and Principles of Design, followed by wearables and cake flowers with Lori Bley from The Hidden Daisy Floral. Designs feature locally grown tulips from von Trapp Flowers and all the colors of the rainbow are represented in the floral palette. Blue delphinium, purple hyacinth, magenta dianthus, red tulips, orange protea, yellow spray roses, and green hellebore were all in the lineup, just to name a few!

Every Floralpreneur® Workshop is foam free, so chicken wire, floral frogs and pin cups from Floral Genius were key to our mechanics.

For our group design project on Day 2, we decorated the entrance to The Inn at The Round Barn Farm and created colorful cake displays with delicious cakes from The Goose Chase Cake Design. All of the flowers in this grand entrance were repurposed and moved indoors for our final dinner in the barn, highlighting the ability to adapt or flip if needed.

We started to add greenery to our basic mechanics indoors, and then moved them outside to complete our set-up. Because everything is foam free, they are lightweight and easy to move. This was a group effort to complete the designs and everyone played a part to help make it come together. From moving crates of tulips, to climbing ladders and flowering the entire entrance, we pulled this off in about 45 minutes! In fact, we were all set to get a group photo before lunchtime.

For our overhead mechanics, tulips with bulbs still on were hung from wooden skewers in a simple chickenwire frame. We also featured tulips on one of our cakes with warm, analogous colors of yellow, orange, red and pink for a “tequila sunrise” vibe with a meadow of blooms in rainbow pin cup flower frogs. For our simple white cake we added a rainbow of blooms (none of which were touching the cake thanks to sculpting wire!).

After our cake photoshoot, we got back into business mode to talk about how to price installations, elaborate cake displays, or anything you haven’t made before, by using the EveryStem app! Our students are running small businesses, so the practical aspects of selling, client communication, and building your brand reputation are all important aspects that we cover in detail. Additional business sessions included Website Tips, Social Media Without Overwhelm, and 3 Keys To Booking Great Clients.

I want to say a big thank you to our sponsors for the workshop! Each of our students got to take home a pin frog, a hairpin frog, and a floral pin cup! They were really grateful for the additions to their foam free mechanics toolbox. They also left with a sleeve of recyclable vases from Flower Box and got to try an easy, magnetic boutonniere trick using Quick Clips Floral.

I want to also give a personal thanks to everyone at The Round Barn for taking such good care of us! And to my co-teacher, Lori, and my friend, Blair of Sweet Blossoms, for joining me (again!) for this special workshop. It’s such a pleasure to get to spend this time together doing what we do best!

Stay tuned for 2027 workshop dates and agenda! You can sign up to get on the notification list to learn when doors are open HERE!

By Alison Ellis

Florists Need Different Things

Your business needs something different than other floral design businesses.

You may need a course to learn to price, or you may benefit most from an in-person training like the Floralpreneur® Workshop, and you might need more personal support that only a coaching call can provide.

No matter where you are on your path, there is a class, a workshop or a coach to help walk you through your next steps.

Maybe it’s a class with me, like Flower Math or Website Bootcamp, and maybe you have another mentor that you trust to share helpful, honest insights!

The most important thing is that you choose to learn from people who have a business similar to the type of business you want to have or some other set of skills that you aspire towards!

Why learn tips and techniques you’ll never practically use? (Are you flowering an entire castle in real life? If not, maybe pick another class.)

If you want to learn finer details and foam free techniques, learn from people who use them and test them on weddings and events. How do you repurpose the designs to make it even more profitable and impactful for the customers at the same time?

Part of the job of a designer/business owner is to keep your creative energy flowing by experimenting and trying new things! Try new techniques in a group learning setting, or look for a YouTube video to try on your own, but make time to keep learning and expanding your skills. And don’t forget to just play sometimes! Make something impractical or temporary, just because you can! (We played with tulips on the bulb from von Trapp Flowers at our workshop!)

Even though so many floral designers work mostly alone, you don’t have to grow your business all alone! Collaboration is part of growing your business. That’s why every month I meet with floral designers in my Patreon membership and if you want to join us, Click Here to become a Flourishing Floralpreneur® for $29.

There isn’t “one right way” to run your business, so make sure to set your own course and run your business, your way! Followers, fans and likes can’t be the goal–keep doing beautiful work and stay profitable!

If you need any help along the way, reach out to get in touch.

xo. -Alison Ellis

Special thanks to The Goose Chase Cake Design for collaborating on our cake display and Isora Lithgow Creations for the photos from our workshop!

By Alison Ellis

Business Owner or Influencer

There’s a difference between showing up on social media as a small business owner vs. behaving like an influencer.

It may sound obvious, but if you’re trying to keep up with the daily demands of social media, it can be difficult to spend the proper time focused on tasks that really bring money and customers into your business.

The fact is, if you’re investing time and energy on posts, reels, or anything it takes to appease the algorithm, understanding the intention of your engagement is critical to both your time management and your overall marketing strategy.

Posting and vying for attention every day is simply not a plan.

I’m a small business owner, and being a “social media influencer” has never been on my resume.

Although I’ve been using social media as a marketing tool for many years, I try to be diligent about not allowing it to run my life and set my agenda.

Today, I’m sharing a few thoughts on why it’s better to show up as a business owner than to attempt to outsmart an algorithm. Click to watch and make sure to check out the full Playlist on YouTube below.

Want to grab the next video in this playlist? I have a few tips on the difference between branding and marketing in your business. You can watch now!

What do your customers say about your brand after they work with you?

How do you share the voice of your brand in a way that represents your business, but doesn’t burn you out?

If you have questions for me, get in touch or book a call to chat!

xo. -Alison Ellis

See Playlist on YouTube Here!

By Alison Ellis

Flower Pricing with Alison Ellis and Jenny Marks

Pricing is one of the biggest struggles that floral designers face on a daily basis and Jenny Marks of the Six Figure Flower Farming Podcast knows how important it is to stay focused on your numbers if you want to stay profitable!

She invited me to sit down for an interview on her podcast to talk about some common pricing mistakes that florists and flower farmers often make and we really got into some of the important reasons why profitability needs to be more of a focus for florists.

You can listen to Episode 95 now: All Things Pricing with Flower Math Expert Alison Ellis.

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

From overstuffing bouquets to undercharging for labor, we covered a lot of ground in our conversation. Because a few bad habits, including a mindset of “feeling guilty” for charging a proper markup, create some common hurdles that florists need to overcome to maintain a profitable small business.

After you listen the episode, feel free to reach out if you have any questions for me. You can learn all about my Flower Math course HERE.

And if you’d like to talk one-on-one in a strategy call, you can learn more about coaching sessions HERE.