Real Flower Business

Education and Business Training for Floral Designers.

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What does 1 year in business look like?

Hey, floralpreneurs!

Growing a business is a journey. It’s not a sprint, not a straight line, and there’s no guarantee that anybody wants what you’re selling. I started my floral design business 15 years ago…before Facebook or social media pressures/rewards existed. When I started Floral Artistry I made my own business cards on my desktop computer and didn’t even have a website. It was a simpler time in many ways, but reaching a wider audience and making an impression is so much more possible now than it was “back then.”

The past year has been so intensely busy and absolutely rewarding. Did I set out to start a second business? Not exactly. I know a lot more about selling flowers than I know about selling courses… I love the business side of our business. And while I’ve never worked as hard as I have the past 14 months, I am so grateful for the connections I’ve made with florists across the globe.

In September 2015 I had the idea to create a pricing course for florists to teach everything I know about pricing and profitability. I spent the next 6 weeks working nearly around the clock to bring the course to life. Flower Math is a pricing “tell all” course that brings you behind the scenes of 3 real weddings with real profits and floral recipes to show floralpreneurs that IT IS POSSIBLE TO HAVE A PROFITABLE FLORAL DESIGN BUSINESS. You can provide value to your clients and turn a profit at the same time! I didn’t have any intentions to create other courses….Flower Math was “my only idea”…and it felt like a big risk to put it out there. It’s a serious look behind the curtain of my biz.

After I released Flower Math, a floral designer friend of mine (who also took my course), suggested that I make e-mail templates…and I do love client interactions and customer management!…so in Feb. I released 2 new courses: 12 E-mail Templates for Florists and How To Write Proposals That Sell. Then, in the fall, I released my Wedding Workflow which shares my 16 Steps to Client Management to show you how I’ve learned to step-up my customer service game over the past 15 years as a small business owner.

I appreciate every single person who took a leap of faith to purchase one of my courses. The thing that thrills me most is how many florists have returned to buy more than 1 course. That’s the highest compliment. There’s nothing more rewarding than earning trust. It’s crucial to building a brand.

My NEWEST COURSE will be LIVE Jan. 9-Feb. 6, The Art Of Good Business is a 5 week course on honing the voice of your brand, finding ideal customers (aka customers that love you!) and choreographing a customer service experience that will wow your ideal clients. My 2017 wedding season booked up more quickly than ever before thanks to the hard work and practice of building my brand. I’m going to walk through this course with you to show you exactly how you can do this hard work, too. Click here to see the course schedule.
BONUS: The first 10 people who register for The Art Of Good Business will also get a FREE one on one strategy session (value $249).

I’m in a unique position to work through this course with you because I’ve done the work to build my business and I’m also in the process of building a new business which means I’m experiencing new learning curves and lessons just about every week.

As I always say, Every year is a learning year!

Check out my course offerings HERE for details on all of my courses, including 2 FREE COURSES, Flower Boss and 4 Pricing Mistakes Florists Make.
I want floralpreneurs to thrive!
Take advantage of free training on my blog and YouTube!
I’ve created lots of free educational videos for florists over the years.

Click below to watch The Worst Business Advice I Ever Took…I also share the BEST business advice I ever got! Check it out.

Read more about Alison here.

#floralpreneur #floralindustry #realflowerbusiness #theartofgoodbusiness

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Are you eager to book weddings? First, consider this….

In a seasonal business like weddings and events it can be a true test of confidence when one season comes to a close and you’re eager to book next year’s calendar.

This year I’m finding couples are booking much earlier for the upcoming wedding season and in fact, my calendar is nearly full. I may only take on 2 more weddings for next year. It’s nice when people plan ahead!

Whether your calendar is booking quickly or you don’t normally start booking until November or December, there’s an understandable eagerness to book ’em, and book ’em now!

BEFORE booking, it’s important that you’re on the same page with a potential customer…because this relationship has to endure several months of planning.

Doubt and uncertainty can lead to unnecessary hassles as a creative business owner and you don’t want to be in a position where you have to constantly reassure a client that you’re up for the job.

Don’t sign a contract with a customer you don’t trust, and don’t sign a contract with a customer who doesn’t trust you.

Click to watch: The Importance of Contracts in your Flower Business.

https://youtu.be/jEWH94o5btY

 

THE TAKEAWAY
Before signing a contract you must have a meeting of the minds.

It doesn’t matter if a client agrees to work with you if they question your every move.

You can’t invest too much time trying to convince people that you’re “worth it”.

The goal is to find clients who choose you for YOU.

If you need a proper contract for your clients, I share my weddings & events contract here in my course Contracts For Florists.

This downloadable pdf includes:

    • 14 Terms & Conditions of my contract,
    • 10 Additional clauses or phrases you may consider adding,
    • Things I will NOT agree to,
    • 1 parting thought, “Not everyone can be your customer!”,
    • Plus a Bonus E-mail Template: Can You Modify Your Contract?

A good contract should protect you/your business and define the working relationship with the client.

Always consult your attorney before implementing a legally binding contract or modifying your existing terms for a customer. (We’re florists, not lawyers.)

Thanks as always for reading and watching.

Keep
doing
beautiful
work.

With love from me to you,
Alison

Find a full list of my courses offerings EXCLUSIVELY for florists HERE.

real flower business, florist contract, contracts for florists

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Are You Giving Away Your Best Stuff?

If you’re a floral designer in the midst of your busy wedding season there’s a good chance that 3 things are true:

1. You’ve been creating a lot of beautiful work.

2. You’ve been sharing photos of your beautiful work on Instagram and Facebook.

3. Your own website and blog has been getting no love or attention.

Am I right? (of course I am.)

I will admit that after years and years of steady blogging and website TLC I let it slip.

I became a mom (so I became understandably busy!),

my calendar was booking consistently early (so I wasn’t as motivated to create new content!),

I had years and years worth of blog posts (I could just rest on my laurels!),

and now, between my 18th wedding season and my weekly updates for Floralpreneurs on my e-mail list (and now a Facebook group where thousands of florists from around the world can connect!), well, I have plenty of good reasons why blogging has not been at the top of my list…

 

BUT I truly had an ah-ha moment as I was writing my Wedding Workflow course, (which includes my 16 steps to client management), when I realized I WASN’T FOLLOWING THE FINAL STEP!

 

I was missing out on the follow-up conversation with my customers because I wasn’t diligent about blogging.

THE FIRST STEP WAS ADMITTING I HAD A PROBLEM.

The ah-ha moment was when I realized that I’ve been creating all this free content for Instagram (which is awesome and fun!), but I’m missing out on creating this current content for my own website!  What was I thinking? 

There’s an instant gratification factor that only Instagram can give a floral designer these days.

On the other hand we think: “No one reads my blog.”

That’s the #1 reason we become disenchanted with blogging and go for the quick fix of Instagram or Facebook….the “likes” can be seen, heard and felt ’round the world. It’s instantly gratifying to share.

BUT on my blog the comments are few and far between, so I don’t feel the love as readily.

On the surface the “likes” seem relevant, but in truth, what’s relevant is a good, strong brand with integrity…

and the only thing I “own” online is my website, which is where my blog lives, and I love my blog, and I love the SEO I’ve earned through all the hard work of writing and labeling my images.

So the only logical conclusion is that I have to get back to blogging and adding photos of my most recent work to my website.

Conclusion: If I don’t love my website, no one else will either.

 

If you’re ready to take your website even further, take the leap to try my Website Bootcamp!

realflowerbusiness.com Website Bootcamp

 

Warning: Deliberate learning and practice will be required to improve your website. You will be forced to allow yourself to possibly make a mistake or misstep. The sooner you can accept that “it” (your business, your decisions, your efforts) sometimes cannot be perfect, the sooner you can create the room to bloom and grow….because nothing’s ever perfect. Progress over perfection.

Start before you’re ready. And if you’re not sure if a course is right for you, drop me a line any time. I’m happy to answer any questions you may have before, during or after taking a course. You can contact me at floralartvt@gmail.com

As always…

Keep doing beautiful work. 

With love from me to you,

Alison

Still need a kick in the pants? Check out my video below: The Most important Thing You Can Do For Your Business Today!

Thanks so much for reading and watching!

  • You can check out a full list of my course offerings HERE!

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Building a brand: A look at my most recent attempt at Branding My Biz.

Business owners can’t avoid the demands of the day….bookkeeping, employees, product sourcing, insurance, taxes….the list is long. And on top of all the things we “must” do, social media, branding and ideal clients are top of mind for most creative entrepreneurs.

Real flower business is what I care about.

I’m less concerned with appearing busy and more focused on creating business for myself.

Today’s video shares my most recent attempt at branding for my biz. If you’re looking for “more than a business card” you will want to see this branding tip.

I am by no means a branding expert. In fact, my lack of expertise in branding may be precisely why I’m well suited to share today’s video with you….because branding is complicated, but it could be simpler than you think.

I appreciate you taking a few minutes to watch.

 

YOUR BRAND IS HOW THE WORLD SEES YOU.
What are you doing to up-your-game around your brand or branding? Do you ask yourself, “Why do I keep getting clients with unrealistic expectations?”

It may be something you’re doing or saying on your website copy…or through your e-mail correspondence…or via your social media shares…or it may just be that you have too many inquiries to keep up with. If you’re attracting too many potential customers and you need to narrow your field.

Thanks as always for reading,watching and now, joining me on Facebook.

Keep
doing
beautiful
work.

With love from me to you,
Alison

Find a full list of course offerings HERE!

 

Above is a pic I snapped on my phone before delivering the bride’s bouquet on Saturday. It was worth arriving 30 minutes early to be able to take the time to find a few different spots!

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Stem Counts vs. Floral Recipes

Hello Floralpreneur.

Did you see my “new rule” on not giving stem counts to customers?

I followed that up about 2 weeks later with a video on how overfilling by a single stem in each design can add up to thousands of dollars over the course of a year, thus making the point that it’s important for designers to “count every stem”.

IS THIS A CONTRADICTION?

I received a few questions about how these two ideas can exist at once so I want to be crystal clear about the difference (and similarities) between not counting stems for customers, but still counting stems for your recipes.

Click HERE to watch “Stem counts vs floral recipes.”

I kept this one short for ya. Thanks for taking about 4 minutes to watch.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

If you missed my video on Why you don’t have to give a stem count click here,

and you can find How a single rose can derail your flower business here.

THE TAKEAWAY

Set some minimums (on bouquets, centerpieces, arbors, delivery, etc.) and work out your flower math to ensure that your quote is accurate, but don’t feel the pressure to reveal your recipes to clients who aren’t even booked yet.

Your comments and feedback inspired this post!

Thanks so much for reading and watching. I really appreciate hearing from you.

And thanks to everyone who’s joined me over in the NEW FACEBOOK GROUP!

Real Flower Business is the name of the group and it’s a good crew of floral pros.

Request to join the group here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/RealFlowersBusiness 

(If you include your business name or some clear marker that you are, in fact, a florist that will speed up your approval! I do have a waiting list of people I still need to vet….and that takes time so the easier it is for me to see that you’re a floral designer the sooner you’ll be approved!)

I’ve been livestreaming every week and you can catch the replays any time on Facebook. There must be close to 5 hours worth of free videos in the group so far including topics like proper markups and some of my best tips on building a brand that lasts. 

ON A PERSONAL BIZ NOTE…

So far it’s been a wonderful wedding season with each and every customer falling into my “ideal customer” category.

There’s not a name on my calendar that makes me cringe or recoil or ask “WHY?, oh why did I take this?”….And that’s certainly contributing to a feeling of success.

I hope you are off and running with a busy and successful season!…and lots of ideal customers of your own.

This year I’ve been relying more on others to assist in running my biz (and my life…thanks to an awesome part-time nanny. This is the first time I’ve had reliable childcare in 4 years!).

I brought in 3 designers for my “big, big” wedding in June and I’ve had more “hands on deck” on a weekly basis than I have for the past 15 years. It’s been worth every penny!

If you need profit clarity for your business this year, check out FLOWER MATH here!

It’s now on sale…save $100 off retail!

As always…

Keep

doing

beautiful

work.

With love from me to you,

Alison

P.S. If you’d like to submit a question for a future video or live broadcast shoot me an e-mail anytime at info@floralartvt.com.

P.P.S. If you’re a floral designer who’s digging my content and/or my courses, please share the Real Flower Business love via e-mail, Facebook, Instagram, sky writing, what-have-you with a florist you know and love. (I truly appreciate your support in cultivating other floral pros.)

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