Can you be professional without a storefront?

It’s not always easy to work from home.

But it’s not unprofessional to “not have a shop”.

A shop doesn’t make you “more professional”. Your talent-level isn’t related to your workspace.

If you create beautiful work and provide excellent customer service….from home, a small studio, or your basement or garage….don’t feel inferior due to a lack of storefront.

Click to watch, Can you be professional without a storefront:

A few questions for you:

How many people do you allow in a consultation?

Do you prescreen clients with a phone consultation?

Consultations are an investment of time and I like to start with a phone consultation.

We can arrange an in-person meeting if we both feel we’re a good fit.

I can put together a quick proposal and quote after a consultation to get the ball rolling, make sure we’re on the same page; it’s essential to have a meeting of the minds.

Have you signed up for my FREE e-mail course, How To Book More Weddings More Quickly?

Check it out my FREE course HERE to get some of my best tips for booking more clients in less time.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out some of my Real Flower Business “stuff” today!

Keep doing beautiful work, floralpreneur.

With love from me to you,

Alison

Find a full list of my course offerings HERE.

By Alison Ellis 1 Comment

Should you set an expiration date on your proposals?

Do you ever wonder how long you should wait after sending a proposal before checking in with a client?

I used to send out proposals and then wait and wonder for days, (or weeks!), whether a client was ever going to book with me! Then, one day, a business savvy friend told me to put an expiration date on wedding proposals and voila, my client management systems was forever changed.

Setting an expiration date on my proposals and was the single best move I ever made in my business. Period.

The expiration date is designed to set the parameters of your offer to honor this quote or “hold their date”…it’s a prompt for you to check in and see if they’ve made a decision or if they have any questions you can answer.

Checking in with a customer on, or before, the expiration date is to be expected when you’re trying to close this sale.

It’s not an ultimatum (most of the time), but it IS a clear signal that there’s a time limit on this offer because you don’t just “hold dates” indefinitely. Most offers are not open-ended. Neither is yours!

Click below to watch “Should you set an expiration date?”

Need some tips to write your next proposals in less time and present the expiration date to clients?

Save $30 Off Wedding Templates Here

Do you have a “System” for your client communication?

A “System” is essentially a process (or protocol) for how you accomplish a task in your business. Typically you document your systems in writing (ie your operating procedures), and use them to identify inefficiencies or opportunities for automation in your business.

Systems are critical for a successful business, because they allow for you to:

generate income with way less effort
reply faster and more effectively with less stress
automate and streamline to get more done in less time

I have a system for client communication (and you should too).

Your prospects MUST see you as an authority and understand your rules.

That’s it.

Before you earn trust as an authority, you MUST nurture the relationship.

And the best way to do that, hands down is with:

CLEAR COMMUNICATION THAT ESTABLISHES AUTHORITY.

Emphasis on the word “AUTHORITY”… In fact, just like it’s “OK” to want to make money, it’s also totally OK to WANT clients to respect you, and follow the rules of your “systems”, and treat you like A LEADER in your field.

In fact, that authority status is the key to unlocking your maximum potential so that you can be creative, profitable, and fulfilled.

Now the good news is… there’s a BETTER way to get prospects to see you as an authority… better than working without a system…and much better than starting from scratch on every single e-mail and proposal for every single event.

It’s called…TEMPLATES!

Here’s what a real florist said about implementing my Templates…

“A couple of weeks ago I bought a bundle of Alison Ellis templates after all the talk of expiration dates. Reading through the templates gave us a fresh pair of eyes and ideas over what we were already doing. BUT what I really want to say is – we decided to try the expiration date approach and we have a record breaker! Our ideal bride just booked with an 8 day turn around from quote to deposit! Wooohooo try it.”

-Danijela FitzGibbon (from the Facebook group)

Oftentimes florists ask, “How does this expiration date work? Does the price go up after it expires?”

Well, that’s up to you. Do you need to increase the price for some reason?

I don’t increase the price after the expiration date. I just want to make my offer clear; here’s what I can do, here’s what it costs, here’s when I’d appreciate an answer…

If the client needs “more time” (for whatever reason), then that’s up to you, too. Can you extend the expiration date? Or will the clock truly run out because you have another inquiry for that date? Or is their hesitation a sign that they aren’t really serious about committing to you? What is the reason for the hold-up?

An expiration date serves as a prompt to both you, the business owner, and the client.

Clients know that they should look it over sooner rather than later because you gave them the expiration date!
As a business owner you now have a bonafide reason to follow-up, check-in, invite questions and close the sale.

I want to be an easy choice for my clients. I want to be an easy “yes”.

Thanks for taking the time to read and watch!

And if you decide to implement an expiration date, I’d love to hear how it’s working for you!

With love from me to you,

Alison

Save $30 Off Wedding Templates Here

If you want to shortcut your proposal process and present an expiration date with confidence, click here to read more about my downloadable templates!

By Alison Ellis Leave a Comment

My first podcast interview

I am happy to share my first podcast interview on From The Ground Up Floral.

When Gina 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 here: fromthegroundupfloral.media/podcast/2019/6/14/flower-math-with-alison-ellis

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 Fomulas!

You can find the podcast on iTunes and subscribe to future episodes as well! I hope you’ll make some time to listen.

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’d never say never, you can currently find me on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram & Pinterest!

xo. -Alison

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!

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