Real Flower Business

Education and Business Training for Floral Designers.

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What I Bring To Every Wedding

What tools should a floral designer have on hand for a wedding day set-up?

For my entire career as a wedding florist, I’ve been working to streamline my day-of delivery and set-up process. I don’t want to lug around anything I don’t need, but I was brought up with the saying, “better to have and not need than to need and not have.” So I’ve definitely been guilty of bringing things that I don’t really need! (And I almost always have an umbrella.)

One thing that hasn’t changed much over the last 24 wedding seasons is my bag, which I lovingly refer to as my “bag of tricks” (because let’s face it, we are making some magic on the wedding day after all!).

While you won’t see me pull a rabbit outta there, I do have a few key tricks to share with you if you’d like to see what’s in my bag. Take a few moments to watch now!

After you watch, I’d love to hear from you, so feel free to share a comment on this video to let me know what you bring to your wedding set up and installations as well.

And if you’d like to come deeper behind the scenes of my business and join me for monthly Q&A calls to ask me anything, you’ll find a ton of my best tips and trainings as a member of my Patreon Community.

In fact, last month on Patreon, I recorded my wedding design workflow for 2 events and broke that down into 4 videos that are a little over an hour in total. Everyone who joins at the Flourishing Floralpreneur® membership level has access to all 4 parts.

Membership on Patreon ranges from totally free to $29 per month and there is no commitment! So if your business needs a boost, you can hop into my vault of trainings specifically for floral designers, take any tips that you need and edit or cancel your membership anytime.

As always, if you have a question, don’t hesitate to ask. We can even book a one-on-one call if you’d like to talk about your specific business goals or struggles. You can learn more about booking a 1:1 call with me HERE.

Keep doing beautiful work!

xo. -Alison Ellis

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Show Up For Your Business

How do you show up for your business?

When things are going well, it can be easy to show up with enthusiasm and focus because you know what you need to work on today to get your orders out the door!

When business is slower, or when sales are lower than you projected and uncertainty looms heavy, it’s important to keep showing up for your business.

I say this to you from the bottom of my heart because I know it can be hard to run your business when you’re feeling down and you don’t have enough money coming in.

This can be doubly true for established floral designers, since there’s no rule that your business will always grow or maintain itself year after year. There are in fact, down years in any business sometimes.

And that’s just one of the reasons why running a business isn’t easy (and no one every promised that it would be).

So when you contemplate your next moves, just know that the most important step is to continue to show up!

Showing up will look a little bit different for everybody.

In my floral design business in Vermont, it means I’m bending some boundaries and taking on work I find interesting–even if the orders are a bit smaller.

I just booked a great new client for a wedding in about 6 weeks–that’s not the usual timeline for me, but flowers are a huge priority for the customer and I’m excited for the gig!

I also took a graduation party order this week that’s much smaller than a usual wedding, of course, but then I got a few special prom orders from friends and a former bride from 18 years ago whose son is now in need of a corsage! And that’s a sweet set of sales I hadn’t planned on.

Then today, I got another order for tomorrow and since I’m getting flowers anyway, it’s an easy yes!

The reason I share this is because small sales stack up and so does the good energy you put out there when you keep tending to your work.

So what can you do to show up from here?

When sales are down, how do you keep your energy up? What steps can you take to keep yourself moving forward instead of feeling stuck?

And when business is booming and you’re barely keeping up with the work, how do you stay focused on what matters most so you’re working smarter, not harder?

There’s a lot of self-talk and self-management in business ownership. And yes, you can do this!

If there’s anything specific you’re working on or struggling with in your business, feel free to reach out to get in touch. We can book a call to talk about a good strategy for you! (And if you prefer to work alone, I’ll list a few more options on where to start to show up for your business as additional resources below!)

Just remember that giving up isn’t going to get you closer to your goals, so you might as well show up for your business instead.

xo. -Alison Ellis

Additional Resources:

Update your business plan: Get my Business Plan Jumpstart

Read: Actions to Take When Things Seem Uncertain

Join my Patreon Community for monthly inspiration

Get my Website Bootcamp to improve your first impression with clients

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Tariffs Are Bad For Business

Well, it’s been a tricky start to the month with the American Trade War Tariffs announcement. Hold onto your bootstraps because there’s no denying that tariffs are taxes on American consumers and they’re especially bad for small businesses. 

Understandably, for the last 6 weeks or so, florists have been asking, What should we do about the new tariffs? What are you telling your customers about future price increases?

In fact, it was the first question in my Q&A for Flower Math students, too. So here’s a short behind the scenes look at the answer!

It’s a tough position to be in and at this point, I am NOT making a “big tariff announcement post” from my floral business. This is a brand messaging decision and there are several factors to consider. So first, ask: What do you really need your customers to know right now?

Because if we’re being honest, we don’t fully understand how our businesses will be impacted yet, so we may have to see how much prices increase on the wholesale end in the upcoming weeks to make an informed decision on how much to raise prices.

  • What if you raise by 10% this week, and then realize it should be closer to 20%? Will you make another announcement of a larger increase or keep it to 10%?

If you’re a floral designer who already charges on the upper end of the floral markups, you may need to consider whether it’s even an option in your market to raise prices, before announcing any new company tariff policies. This is one reason why these new tariffs are especially harmful to small businesses like ours.

If you’re pricing appropriately to reach your profit goals, there’s still a ceiling on what the market will bear (meaning, there’s a maximum amount that your customers are willing to pay).

  • If you happen to work with more affluent clients, they’ll likely feel less effected by the increased prices. Everyone else in the middle or lower income demographic will feel the impacts more acutely.

For any existing orders such as weddings and events, should your clients expect the original price will go up? If so, by how much exactly?

  • How will customer receive a 20% increase on their floral budget? Can they afford to pay $600 more when they originally budgeted $3,000?
  • Could you revisit your pricing formulas and revise your floral recipes to include fewer stems or less expensive flowers to honor your original pricing?
  • Can clients have the option to pay a little bit more to keep the original design “as is” OR can you modify the recipe to swap out certain flowers or make designs a little smaller so you’re attempting to meet in the middle?
  • Are there any other business expenses you can cut so that you can make up for the import taxes you’re paying on COGS as well as in your everyday life?

As a floral designer with weddings booked myself, I know that it’s hard to feel uncertain about what to say to your customers and most of us want to feel like we’re “on top of things”, but a thoughtful policy rollout is preferable to a prompt announcement in my opinion here.

Also, I’m not an economist, accountant or a lawyer, but it seems like it’s possible these tariffs could be found illegal or unconstitutional based on the fact that Congress is supposed to set tariff policies. (Several lawsuits are currently underway.)

In lieu of a tariff announcement, if you’re looking for some inspiration on what to say to stay engaged with your social media followers, I post 5 Blog & Social Media Prompts specifically for floral designers in my Patreon community every month. If you’re interested, you can get this month’s prompts and check out several prior months of post ideas when you join as a Marketing Maven for $29 Here.

The intention of creating these prompts for my Marketing Mavens is to make it easier for you to communicate with your customers to make a connection–beyond just following social media trends and talking about tariffs!

And if you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Keep doing beautiful work. And keep your chin up as things remain unpredictable.

xo. -Alison Ellis

Additional Resources:

Flower Math: The Florist’s Guide To Pricing & Profitability

 

Wedding Bootcamp! April 27-29. Last Chance To Sign Up!

 

Business Plan Check-In

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Business Plan for Florists

As we are about to close out the 1st quarter of the year, it’s a good time to take a look at what’s happening in your business so far and look ahead to what’s coming up! So I want to invite you to join me for a quick business plan check-in. Set aside 1 hour and watch now!

Whether you updated your business plan in the last 3 months or you’ve never really had a “plan” at all, this is for you–because you cannot improve what you do not measure. Let’s check in and regroup together.

You can download this short Floralpreneur® Self Assessment here!

And if you need some additional business resources specifically for floral designers, check out the following:

 

 

 

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4 Words for Difficult Customers

How do you deal with difficult customers?

A florist asked the other day, “How do you “break up” with a customer?” In other words, what should you say when you can tell that a client isn’t going to be a good fit?

In this case, the customer did not sign a contract or send a deposit yet, so it’s really more like parting ways than breaking up.

And while it’s not always easy to do, telling a client that you won’t be working with them doesn’t have to be complicated.

The fact is there are 4 little words you can use to handle a difficult customer: “I’m no longer available.”

That’s it!

  • No need to say you’ve booked another event if that’s untrue!
  • Don’t over explain your reason for deciding  they’re “not a good fit”.
  • And you certainly shouldn’t pretend that you “appreciate their interest in working with you” if you’re about to give them the boot!

“I’m/we’re no longer available” is all you need, followed by a referral to another florist if possible.

You don’t want to say the wrong thing and insult a customer while trying to let them down easy.

But do you know what might be worse? Sticking with a customer who isn’t a good fit because you simply didn’t know how to bow out gracefully!

The reason I share this is because difficult customer conversations need to happen from time to time, but it shouldn’t be a mystery to you or your employees on how to deal with them swiftly and professionally.

And I’ve been making these tough conversations easier for the past decade with Email Templates for Florists.

Get my Emails HERE!

These templates save you time! And florists often tell me they use my e-mail templates the same day they buy them! Copy, paste, rinse, repeat! (You can see a list of the topics included in the templates below!).

You can also upgrade to add all of my Wedding Templates so you have everything you need at your fingertips to take the lead on client communication.

 

Get templates HERE

 

Here’s what you get in 10 Difficult Conversations:

How to…

  1. Tell someone you can no longer “hold their date”.
  2. Present a proposal that’s over budget.
  3. Ask someone why they did NOT book with you.
  4. Tell someone you’re not a good fit for their event.
  5. Reply to a complaint.
  6. Bill for damaged or missing rental items after an event.
  7. Explain you won’t order flowers until full payment is received.
  8. Tell someone that their most recent changes/additions will result in a price increase.
  9. Tell someone you will not update their proposal (again) or meet (again) without a deposit.
  10. Respond when a wedding is cancelled.

*Plus a bonus template: How to Ask For A Testimonial.

And here’s what’s included in 12 Frequent Conversations:

How to…

  1. Say, Hello in an introduction e-mail.
  2. Present a minimum.
  3. Present a proposal, contract and invoice.
  4. Tell someone you’re unavailable for their date.
  5. Tell someone you will not lower your price.
  6. Follow up if you don’t hear back from a prospect.
  7. Tell someone you cannot hold their date without deposit.
  8. Confirm receipt of contract & deposit.
  9. Confirm receipt of contract, but missing deposit.
  10. Confirm receipt of deposit, but missing contract.
  11. Request final changes and final payment.
  12. Confirm receipt of final payment before event.

*Plus I’ve added a bonus with 5 e-mail etiquette tips.

You can check out the EXACT way I address the most common and sometimes difficult customer conversations and take advantage of templates that are proven to work.

Just $58 HERE

On the other hand, you can ask ChatGPT (powered by Artificial Intelligence) to help you out with your customer service & communication, but I wouldn’t suggest it! Difficult conversations deserve a human touch. (And based on my real life experience, AI always says a little bit too much and that opens the door to customer pushback! And nobody’s looking for that.)

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