Alison Ellis on Mornings with Mayesh

As a floral educator, it’s always an honor to be invited to speak with floral industry professionals.

My appearances with Yvonne on Mornings With Mayesh are a few of my favorite live Q&A’s and you’ll find all 3 of my guest appearances in this post!

I’ve had some great opportunities to appear as a guest on other people’s podcasts, blogs and web shows that are worth highlighting over the next few weeks PLUS I’ll be on 2 stages in March and April where you can connect with me live (see below).

Appearance highlights:

Last week I was the featured guest on The Flower Podcast and then, Scott was a guest in my Facebook group (click here to check out our live chat).

Next up, I’ll be teaching live and in person in March in Minneapolis at Koehler & Dramm. Click here for details and to sign up today!

Then, I’ll be in Portland, Maine, April 4-5th teaching at The Floral Collaborative. Click here for details and contact Katey to sign up!

Now, onto the Mornings With Mayesh Mashup….

A few notes and questions covered in our most recent chat include:

If a customer “must have it”, then they must be willing to pay for it.
Industry standards have variation built into them. Once you know the standards you can customize your pricing model to work for your business.
How much should you charge for your markup and design fee?
Selling a wedding Pre-Pinterest vs. Post-Pinterest.
Should you itemize a wedding quote?

Click to watch here:

Grab my free eBook: Everything I Wish I Knew Before I Started My Business HERE.

Click below to watch my April 2019 chat where we address:

Should you set a minimum on weddings?
Do you price anything different with a hand tied vs a vase arrangement?
How to make sure you’re not undercharging your clients
How to charge clients appropriately
Do you mark up high-end flowers like peonies the same as you do a carnation to keep your margins? If you do, how do you use peonies and ranunculus in everyday arrangements? Sparingly?
Should you charge a different markup on rentals, vases, and labor?

Find a full transcript and additional show notes on the Mayesh website here: https://blog.mayesh.com/mwm-alison-ellis-talks-pricing

And in my very first appearance in April 2018 we talked about:

Writing prompt proposals.
Why should florists have a minimum?
Should florists do free mock-ups?
Why I took my minimum off my website.
What equipment do you need to start your floral business?

Find a full list of my courses for florists HERE!

Thanks so much for taking the time to tune in and watch!

Feel free to shoot me a message any time if you have questions for me. I may answer the live in one of my Tuesday Q&A’s on Facebook.

xo. -Alison

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Alison Ellis on The Flower Podcast

I am so excited to be Scott Shepherd’s guest on The Flower Podcast this week!

And because I’m SO excited to be on Scott’s podcast, I’m sharing a free gift with listeners.

You’ll get a sneak peek behind-the-scenes at how I save time on mood boards when you click HERE to Scott’s website.

I’m sharing 3 Quick & Easy Mood Board Tips including:

3 Easy (& Free) Ways To Make A Mood Board,
2 real inspiration boards I made for clients,
1 real life wedding I designed based on a mood board,
Plus I share a quote I sent WITHOUT an inspiration board,
And 3 Bonus Tips To Write Proposals More Quickly.

Click here to grab my tips!

Scott Shepherd knows florists and I find that he always asks thoughtful and insightful questions of his guests. He definitely asked me a few questions that I know many florists struggle with.

For example:

We talked about pricing, prequalifying clients, design fees, what it means when a “new florist” comes to your town, and, of course, website “stuff”. I hope you’ll make some time to tune in and check it out.

You can listen & subscribe to The Flower Podcast on iTunes or wherever you get your podcasts, AND you can click here to visit Scott’s website and grab my free mood board tips.

I’ve been tuning to @TheFlowerPodcast for a while now and I’m always impressed with Scott’s pointed questions, which truly reflect his depth of knowledge in the floral industry. Since Scott and I could have talked for hours, we’re going to be live together tomorrow in my Facebook group! Click HERE to join us!

xo. -Alison

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My Favorite Florist Tools

Florists often ask for recommendations on the best tools and for me, these ARS clippers are my favorite. I bought them in 4 colors AND saved the packaging because I didn’t want to forget which clippers I had when it’s time to replace them.

I got these at Jamali Garden in NYC several years ago and they’re still going strong. What I like best about them is that the locking and unlocking is more intuitive than other clippers. Makes using them safe and easy.

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A post shared by Alison Ellis (@realflowerbusiness) on Sep 29, 2019 at 6:53am PDT

After a few scrubs with a Brillo pad they’re clean and ready to go! Plus they come in fun colors. I have red, lavender, teal and yellow. So if you’re looking for a great clipper, this is my pick!

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Rose Petal Tip

Hey Floralpreneurs!

Today I have a quick tip for you on how to pluck all the petals out of a rose in one fell swoop.

This is a huge time saving tip and actually serves “double duty” as you can also use this tip to create a faux garden rose.

Click to watch (it’ll take less than 2 minutes!):

I feel like I’ve known this trick since the beginning of time, but last week in my Facebook group I realized that this one isn’t a no-brainer! So if this is a new tip for you, I hope you dig it!

If you want more tips, tricks and training I’ve got you covered!

Check out my FREE resources and online courses exclusively for florists!

You might like these free courses…

How to start a floral design business

10 Tips for Home-Studio Florists

And, if you want to take it to the next level, check out my course bundles….

Click HERE for best price bundles

Learn more about Alison HERE.

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How to open a Poppy

Today I have a quick tip for you, floralpreneurs! How to open a poppy!

Ideally, when I order poppies they won’t be “fully opened”….they don’t last terribly long, so we want them when they’re still protected by their fuzzy little sepals, but it can be challenging to force the poppies to open sometimes.

In today’s quick 1 minute tip I show you how I peel back the sepals to help the petals flourish!

I hope you enjoy the tip….and I hope you’ll use it this poppy season. If you’re not already subscribed to my YouTube channel, go on an sign up today to get more free, quick tips for your real flower business!

With love from me to you,

Alison

P.S. If you enjoyed this quick tutorial, you may also like my super quick Flower Crown Tutorial. You can get my free floral crown tutorial HERE.