September 24, 2017 By Alison Ellis Leave a Comment

My first podcast interview

I am happy to share my first podcast interview with Gina of From The Ground Up Floral. When she invited me on, I was an immediate yes….I love talking to florists about business so this was a fun opportunity for me. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to check it out! You can listen right HERE.

Here are some of the topics we talk about in our chat:

How I got started in the floral industry;
How do you make money as a home-based floral business?;
Industry standards on pricing;
Lessons from my best-worst boss;
A misconception I used to have about “ideal clients”;
The Art of Good Business (my online branding and biz building course);
Gina mentions that one of her favorite videos about the consequences of “adding one extra rose” (see below);
Should a newer designer charge less?;
Quoting on the spot;
Why grocery stores are losing out by not using Flower Math!

You can find the podcast on iTunes. Look for “From the ground up floral podcast” and subscribe to future episodes as well! I hope you’ll make some time to listen here: http://www.fromthegroundupfloral.com/podcast/archives/2017/9-2

Here’s the video mentioned in our interview:

Thanks to Gina for inviting me to your podcast!

Floralpreneurs sometimes ask me if I’ll ever do a podcast and while I have no plans to start my own podcast, you can find me on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest!

xo. -Alison

August 23, 2017 By Alison Ellis Leave a Comment

What happens after you meet a bride?

What do you do after meeting a potential client?

A floralpreneur® submitted this question in my Facebook group:

Q: What is your workflow after meeting a bride? Do you give them an estimate or a detailed proposal?

She went onto say: “Right now after meeting with a bride we figure up what flowers we are using and recipes and build our proposals. I am always calling getting prices on flowers for whatever month it is unless it is something I already have an idea about. It is so time consuming! Are we going about this all wrong?”

Well, if it’s taking more time than you’re willing to commit before booking a client, then the answers is YES!

It’s essential to streamline your workflow and create processes that are:

easy to follow,
accommodating to potential clients,
and allow you to take complete control over the booking process, planning process and beyond.

Over the past 15 years I’ve developed my proposal template so that I’m spending no more than 2 hours on the pre-qualification, consultation and proposal writing process.

You can sign up for my FREE e-mail course “How To Book More Weddings More Quickly” HERE where I share some of my best tips to booking the right clients more quickly.

I do not create recipes before booking an event. If I’ve “never made something like this before” I will create some recipes to determine a stem count and possibly bounce ideas off of another floral designer, but I don’t create a recipe for every single bouquet and centerpiece before I get a commitment from the client.

Here’s why….

I’ve set some minimums on each piece which I can use as a jumping off point when I create a quote.

A professional florist should be able to determine the baseline price for a bouquet based on an inspiration photo and their own pricing experience.

Do your centerpieces start at $75? $95? $125?….what is your starting point? What’s your “average”? What’s your “premium” price?

When you’re unsure about pricing, you must do the math! Will you use 12 roses, 6 callas and 5 dahlias? Can you make it with 9 roses, 5 callas and 3 dahlias? What’s the price difference in each of these designs? What price will you quote to THIS client for THEIR desired look? What does it cost to achieve their ideal outcome?

It’s so important to “think like a flower shop”, as I always say, and think of flowers in retail dollars. Yes, it may take time to learn the “average wholesale cost of snapdragons in August”, but it’s not hard to remember that snapdragons are usually $3 retail or $2.50 or $4….what do you SELL it for? That’s the number to focus on.

Moral of the story….

Your time is valuable and so are your design ideas, which is why you have to create processes that allow you to provide potential clients with enough information that they can easily choose you, but not so much information that feel like you’re giving away too many ideas to a client who’s “shopping around” and may decide to just take your ideas somewhere else. (Speaking of which, have you seen my post on O.P.P? check it out here.)

Thanks for checking out my Real Flower Business “stuff”….keep doing beautiful work!

xo. -Alison

Additional resources:

Grab my FREE e-mail course “How To Book More Weddings More Quickly” here!
Get my 16 Steps To Client Management HERE in my Wedding Workflow!
Can Florists Write Proposals Without A Recipe? read it here!

July 4, 2017 By Alison Ellis 1 Comment

Other People’s Proposals. You down with O.P.P?

A floralpreneur posed this question recently:

“Just wondering the group consensus on FLORISTS (not brides) who are asking brides to show them another florist’s quotes. I guess in order to come in lower to get the booking?”

The consensus from the group was clear; it’s unprofessional to ask to see another florist’s proposal.

(That is to say, we are not down with other people’s proposals!)

There are several reasons why it’s unimaginable to me, starting with this: How does one go about asking this question in the first place? Really. How do you ask a potential client to share a competitor’s proposal without sounding nosy, desperate or cutthroat?…or even worse, all three!

If there’s any gray area around this, let me state it plainly: Do not ask to see other florists’ proposals. It’s simply “not done”.

Not only is it “uncool” to try to undermine other people’s proposals, but you’re also putting a potential client in a really awkward position. The proposal was intended for them and shared with them by another professional who they’ve considered hiring. What if they feel sharing this information with you is unethical? What does it say about you? What if they tell other vendors (aka your peers!) what you asked of them?….and how uncomfortable it made them feel?

An integrity brand does not undermine competitors. Period. Click To Tweet

It happened to me.

A few years ago a lovely couple accepted my proposal, signed a contract, sent a deposit and THEN…a few days later….they received a lower quote from another florist. The bride wrote to ask me why the other quote was so much lower than mine and I replied honestly, “I have no idea.”

Maybe their arrangements will be smaller? Maybe they will use different flowers than I plan to use? Maybe I’m more experienced? The bottom line is this: I don’t know why or how the other florist came in “so much cheaper”, but the clients chose me anyway….even after I offered to void the contract and rip up the check (I hadn’t been to the bank yet) so she could accept the lower quote if she’d like.

When I gave her the answer, “I have no idea”, the client immediately replied that she did not want to accept the lower quote, that I was her florist, and even said, “Your reply was perfect.”

I know I’m not the cheapest florist. (I don’t compete on price.)

Liene Stevens of Think Splendid wrote a blog post in March titled, Why Are You So Much More Expensive?

In it she says:

“When a potential client asks why you are priced so much higher (or so much lower) than a competitor, the initial impulse is to compare everything you offer to everything the competition offers.

While this may sometimes work, it is often a fool’s errand, as it immediately commoditizes the services you provide.

The simple fact is that you most likely don’t know why your competitors are priced the way they are.”

Liene goes onto drive it home with this final thought:

“If you know the ‘why’ behind your pricing, you can stand behind it.”

Read the full post on Liene’s blog here.

If you really want to look behind the curtain on pricing & proposals…

I bring you behind the scenes of my business in my courses, Flower Math and How To Write Proposals That Sell!

Both courses bring you behind the scenes to show you how to price for profit (Flower Math) as well as a behind the scenes look at my proposal and more importantly how I streamline my process to write proposals more quickly!…but that’s completely different from asking to view another florist’s proposal. Completely different. And much more informative.

In these courses I give you a step by step look my process. Florists are not being “sneaky” by checking out my proposal (or my pricing!).

Get my downloadable pdf How To Write Proposals That Sell here.

Find details on Flower Math , The Florist’s Guide To Pricing And Profitability here!

Not sure if one of my courses is right for you? Shoot me an e-mail any time floralartvt@gmail.com

I proudly stand behind every course I create. (And I created them just for floralpreneurs, like you!)

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog!

You can find a list of FREE courses as well as a full list of course offerings right here.

xo. -A