Real Flower Business

Education and Business Training for Floral Designers.

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Fall Business Plan And Setting A Minimum

Happy Monday, Floralpreneur® and Shana Tova! As we transition to autumn–and a new year–I want to let you know that I’ll be live twice this week to talk about Business Plan Strategies and How To Set Minimums!

In order to succeed in your business, you have to start moving on the path that gets you closer to your goals now!

That’s why I’ll be live 2x this week to share some strategies and simple tips I use to stay on track in my own floral design business: 

#1. First, I’ll be live on Tuesday at 11am Eastern/ 8am Pacific with my Patreon members for a Fall Business Plan Check-In to help you keep your business on track and set future goals! 

 #2. Then, on Thursday, I’ll be live on Instagram 👉 @realflowerbusiness HERE at 12pm Eastern/ 9am Pacific to talk about Setting Minimums and I’ll share some tips on how to communicate your minimum to customers!

  • If you’ve never set a minimum or you’re thinking of raising your current minimum, this chat is for you!
  • Make sure you’re following me so you can get notified when I go live!

 

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A post shared by Alison Ellis (@realflowerbusiness)

 

If you have any questions about joining either of these live sessions, get in touch!

Mark your calendar for Tuesday at 11am EDT on Patreon and Thursday at noon EDT on Instagram, and I’ll plan to see you 2x this week!

Keep doing beautiful work and I’ll see you soon!

 

With love from me to you,

Alison Ellis

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August Sale

August Sale Is On Now!

If you’re in charge of sales and marketing in your floral business, you can get my BEST tips for attracting great customers and talking about your brand with confidence inside 2 of my MOST popular courses on sale now! (Sale Ends August 31st!) Here’s what you get:

Website Bootcamp

You can book better clients and pre-qualify new inquiries with a few strategic tweaks to your website!  This easy, informative 3-Day Bootcamp shows you the most important (and easiest) changes you can make to your website ASAP to help you attract more clients who are excited to work with you!

  • Make A Better First Impression
  • Get Found More Easily
  • A Year of Social Media Prompts
  • Marketing & Branding Tips

$99 Now $79

Sign Up & Save!

Marketing Minicourse

Instead of chasing an algorithm, your business needs an intentional marketing strategy. Get the 3-Day Bootcamp PLUS bite-sized video lessons on marketing and branding to attract better clients AND an entire year’s worth of weekly social media prompts so you never have to wonder what to post!

  • Website Bootcamp
  • A Year of Social Media Prompts
  • Marketing & Branding Tips
  • Plus Bonuses!

$398 Now $198

Upgrade & Save $200

“I ABSOLUTELY LOVE YOUR WEBSITE!”

Do your customers tell you they love your website?

I hear this ALL THE TIME from my clients–in fact, it’s one of the reasons my customers pick me!–so if you’re NOT getting compliments about how much your customers LOVE your website, it’s time to fix that!

You can take your Website from “borderline boring” to “YES, this is the best florist for me!” with a few simple tweaks!

And you can get MORE easy-to-implement website and branding strategies inside my Website Bootcamp and Marketing Minicourse–both ON SALE NOW til August 31st!

 

The truth is posting on Instagram isn’t a marketing strategy–an awesome website and intentional marketing strategy are some of your most important sales tools to help you find more customers who are excited to work with you!

Whether you’re an established designer or just starting a new business, your website has to represent your brand in its best light so you can make a good impression and close sales more easily.

And I know most florists don’t start their floral business because they love marketing and website design! (Florists love flowers, not tech!)

That’s why I create easy-to-follow courses to help you add intention to your marketing strategy so that the right clients find you without spending thousands of dollars on a social media manager!

SATISFACTION GUARANTEE:

I don’t just “sell courses”, I stand by them.

If you do the work and don’t LOVE these courses, let me know and I’ll refund your purchase.

 

Save 20% Off Website Bootcamp Here

Save $200 Off Marketing Minicourse

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11 Tips To Update Your About Page

Do you know that your About Us Page is one of the MOST viewed pages on your website?

An interesting About Page works like a magnet to attract great clients to your business. But if your website is “borderline boring”, you could actually be repelling clients.

I know it’s not always easy to talk about yourself with confidence, but your About Page MUST tell a compelling story that establishes trust and makes it clear that you are the BEST choice!

So if you want to reach better customers, I put together a 1-hour training for my Patreon Members with 11 Tips To Improve Your About Page and for a limited time, you can get it for free!

Get About Page Tips

This replay is available for FREE thru August 31st, so get it today!

Grab the free training if you want to:

  • Learn How To Make Your About Page More Interesting in 1-hour or less
  • Get 3 Quick and Easy Tips you can implement TODAY
  • Start Attracting Better Clients

This is the easiest way to make a better first impression!

All you have to do is watch the 50-minute replay and download the Worksheet to follow along.

Get About Page Tips

Do your customers tell you they LOVE your website?

I hear this ALL THE TIME from my clients–in fact, it’s one of the reasons my customers pick me!–so if you’re NOT getting compliments about how much your customers LOVE your website, it’s time to fix that!

The truth is sporadically posting on Instagram isn’t a marketing strategy–an awesome website is still your most important sales tool to help you close sales with ease.

You can take your Website from “borderline boring” to “YES, this is the best florist for me!” with a few simple tweaks!

And you can get MORE easy-to-implement website and branding strategies inside my Website Bootcamp and Marketing Minicourse–both ON SALE NOW til August 31st!

August Sale Is On Now!

You can take advantage of these savings til the end of the month:

Do you have questions for me? Reach out any time. I’m happy to answer questions you may have.

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How To Book A Wedding In 10 Days

A floralpreneur® asked: “Do you offer any courses or advice on how you do your consultations and process? I have seen you post that you have a phone conversation with a client for weddings and then you usually don’t really have much contact until delivery/setup day of wedding. Just wondering how you go about doing this, so that you are not in constant back and forth with the client? Thanks!”

I offer a ton of resources for florists to help book weddings and write proposals quickly, inside my Wedding Templates AND I’m going to dive into this question in more depth inside Patreon member training on May 18th,

but questions on “the steps to actually book weddings” keep coming up–so I put together 5 Steps to Book A Wedding in 10 Days, and I’ll walk you though them here!

I’m going to lay out the timeline for how I book a wedding in 10 days below…

And when you scroll down, I’ll add more detail to each step with links to all the resources I have available that take you behind-the-scenes to show you EXACTLY how I do each step!

Because I have resources to help florists book clients more quickly, but if you don’t know which tools are available, you may be missing out on these proven strategies.

Here’s the timeline for How To Book A Wedding In 10 Days:

  • Day 1: New client inquires via website inquiry form (or phone).
  • Day 1 or 2: Reply promptly and invite the client to book a call.
  • Days 2-5: Ideally the consultation call happens ASAP.
  • Days 6-8: After the call, I send out the initial quote ASAP.
  • Day 9-10: Follow up to close the sale!

Want me to walk through the steps of the sales process in more detail?

Here’s a break down of all 5 Steps along with additional tips & resources:

Step 1. New client inquires via website inquiry form (or phone).

Pro Tips:

  • Your inquiry form should help to pre-qualify clients for style and budget by gathering data you need.
  • This helps you save time by weeding out clients who cannot afford you.

Resources:

  • You can find my tips on how to create a contact form that helps you pre-qualify clients inside my 3 Keys To Booking Great Clients Video Series on Patreon Here (access starts at just $3).

Step 2. Reply and invite the client to book a call.

Pro Tips:

  • This is where my Wedding Workflow kicks in. It starts with the 4 C’s of booking: Congratulate, Confirm, Compliment and Consultation.
  • I also establish a starting budget if it’s unclear that we’re a budget match.

Resources:

Step 3. Consultation call happens ASAP while the client has your company at the top of their mind.

Pro Tips:

  • The call is a mutual interview and an opportunity to listen to the client’s needs/concerns to make sure their expectations are understood.
  • This is also an opportunity to establish trust and authority with potential clients.

Resources:

  • You can get a Transcript of a Real Wedding Consultation when you join me on Patreon (access starts at $29).
  • I’ll also be walking through the phone consultation process in more depth with Patreon members on May 18th!

Step 4. Write up the initial quote ASAP.

Pro Tips:

  • I write this up quickly without a ton of detail, establish a minimum spend for the clients, and put an expiration date on the proposal.
  • This is usually sent to the client within a few days, but it may take up to a week.

Resources:

Step 5. Follow up to close the sale.

Pro Tips:

  • I’ve mentioned the expiration date a few times in the steps above and that expiration date serves as a cue or a prompt to check in and follow up to close the sale with clients.
  • If you want to book the client, it’s your job to follow up!

Resources:

After 20 years of booking weddings, I’ve found that a phone consultation and a prompt quote, combined with the follow-up email to close the sale creates a smooth process to consistently lead clients through the booking process to get to a “yes”.

 

For example: Client sends an inquiry on a Sunday (Step 1), I reply on Monday afternoon (Step 2), we arrange a call for Wednesday morning (Step 3), I send a quote by the end of the day on Friday (Step 4) , which means I could have this event booked by Monday (that’s less than 1 week)!

Though the quote would probably have an expiration date of Wednesday (or 5 days after I sent it). And in this scenario, Wednesday would be Day 10.

On Tuesday (Day 9), if I hadn’t heard from them yet, I’d check in to try to close the sale (Step 5): “I have a note on my calendar that your quote expires tomorrow and I wanted to follow-up to see if you have any questions for me or if you’d like to move forward.”

 

From my proposal template to the emails I send when a client inquires, to my Wedding Workflow (where I walk through the 16 Steps in my Client Management Process), to “up close and personal” lessons on how to pre-qualify clients, how to write quotes more quickly (and with more confidence), to a transcript of a real consultation so you can be like a fly on the wall in a real client meeting–I have resources available to help florists book more easily and I’m happy to help you create your own shortcuts to make a seamless sales process in your business as well!

In short, you’ll find all of my resources for booking clients quickly inside my Wedding Templates for Florists (found here) AND on Patreon where I share the 3 Keys To Booking Great Clients along with additional access to behind-the-scenes training that is usually only available to private coaching students. Patreon is a member-only creator page which can be found here.

If you have questions for me, get in touch. I’m a real person behind these courses and I’m here to help.

xo. -Alison

Learn More About Alison Ellis Here.

Read Real Student Testimonials Here.

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Do Florists Have To Go To Floristry School?

If you want to be a florist, do you have to go to Floristry School? It’s a question I see a lot and I know there can be some strong opinions on the subject. Click to see my answer to the question and let me know what you think!

The truth is, there isn’t just 1 right way to become a florist!

There are so many things to learn that you can’t learn “everything you need to know in just one place”. Whether you go to floristry school, or take an accredited floral design certification program, or you teach yourself through trial and error, there will always be something more for you to learn.

For example, I’ve heard from floristry students in Australia and England who enrolled in my Flower Math course and say that they got a much more thorough and clear explanation from my online course than they did in school! Even longtime florists have told me that they understand the design aspect of their work, but they’ve been kept mostly in the dark on the business-stuff.

And still, some floral designers manage to build a “busy” floral design business, but they struggle with attracting higher paying clients or creating systems to close sales (without a dozen meetings that drain their time and energy).

Let’s face it, there’s so much more to know as a florist than “just flowers”!

The secret to success in the floral industry is to keep learning and growing. Just going to floristry school isn’t enough.

And just learning from YouTube videos isn’t enough.

And letting 20 years pass between your last in-person learning experience isn’t enough either.

Never stop learning in your business and your life–and keep doing beautiful work!

With love from me to you,

Alison

Ready to learn proven strategies to streamline your workflow and create more freedom in your floral business?

See  A Full Course List

*Get my FREE eBook*

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$20 Easy Business Plan

Get Wedding Templates

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