If you want clients to value your work, you must do this first

As a floral designer, you want people to value what you do; your time, your art, your expertise, and your unique, quality blooms!….all these elements come together to create your own unique brand, and that’s what brings value to your clients.

If you want clients to value your work, you do have to provide a quality product, however, there’s a bit more to it in my opinion.

If you want others to value your time and your work, you must in turn value the work of OTHER creatives, including their time, art and expertise.

It’s much easier to “increase your value” in a genuine way if you walk the walk in your own life as well.

If you’re someone who feels like everyone else is “too expensive” or “not worth THAT MUCH”, then it can be a challenge to demand that clients value what YOU do.

Finding value in others should come with ease if you aim to be the owner of a brand with integrity.

What are you willing to pay more for?

What feels “worth it” to you?

What are you willing to invest in? For business? For pleasure?

What artisan/creative/specialty product are you eager to pay for?

Who do you tip more than 20%?

Who (or what brand) sets a price that you do not question?

Your ideal clients feel the exact same way about you/your business as you feel about the products & services you value and are willing to pay for.

Real Flower Business

Clients must experience value from your brand.

And a good brand recognizes the value in others’ work as well.

Whether that’s the photographer, the caterer, the venue, the invitations…

It’s just good for business to acknowledge the importance of other businesses.

Value your work AND the work of others. Share on X

Here are some of the things I value (and will often pay more for):

Quality shoes

A “good” gin

Locally grown veggies and fruits

Eggs from my neighbor’s chickens

Fairtrade coffee

Freshly baked pies from the woman up the road

Gerard’s bread!

A great hair stylist

Education or workshops that help better my business!

When you “spend easily”, you’re an ideal client for the business you’re buying from!

What can you do to make your clients feel your value and, as a result, “spend easily” with you?

Find a full list of course offerings HERE. (including: 10 E-Mail Templates for Florists. Save $10 Off an Template Bundle HERE.)

Here’s the e-mail lineup:

How to tell someone you can no longer “hold their date”.
How to present a proposal that’s over budget.
How to ask someone why they did NOT book with you.
How to tell someone you’re not a good fit for their event.
How to reply to a complaint.
How to bill for damaged or missing rental items after an event.
How to explain you won’t order flowers until full payment is received.
How to tell someone that their most recent changes/additions will result in a price increase.
How to tell someone you will not update their proposal (again) or meet (again) without a deposit.
How to respond when a wedding is cancelled.

Plus a free bonus: How to Ask For A Testimonial.

Learn more about my templates HERE!

By Alison Ellis

What if a client’s budget isn’t realistic?

real flower business, floral design, education for florists, starting a floral business

If you’ve been in the floral business for more than a hot-minute you’ve probably experienced a client whose budget simply doesn’t align with their wishes.

Wedding pros tend to blame Pinterest for this “unrealistic budget epidemic”, but the truth of the matter is that all businesses experience this issue. Many skilled & experienced business owners manage to convert an “unrealistic budget client” into an “I’ll pay anything customer”….because there’s a way of selling and serving a client at the same time that establishes a level of trust.

Our clients rely on us to prequalify and educate whenever possible.

Unrealistic expectations around their floral budget does not mean the customer is “uneducated”.

An “uneducated customer” is an opportunity.

When a client understands the value of the service, they start to realize how much they actually want it.

Some florists may not be able to “get more money” from a client’s budget, however by expressing their willingness to do what they can to “make it work”, the client feels the value of service and expertise and proceeds with the knowledge that while her dream doesn’t fit their budget, they’re still getting the most “bang for their buck”.

There’s no right answer here…just for the record.

You don’t have to ALWAYS “do whatever it takes” to make it work…

You also don’t HAVE TO say “nope, this budget won’t work” if you want to make it work (as long as you can still turn a profit).

Learning to create your own boundaries is part of building your brand. Share on X

We can’t do everything and anything a client requests.

We should choose to create rules that align with our business goals.

Click to watch a video I made for Flirty Fleurs where I share how I address the question, “Are these flowers expensive?”:

Note: If you’re not 100% confident in your current pricing formulas, my Flower Math course has the answers you’re looking for.

Sign up for Flower Math & SAVE $100!

To paraphrase The Rolling Stones, “Time is on my side….yes it is!” …meaning, the longer I’ve been in business, the easier it’s become to navigate these budget conversations.

If you’re not making a deliberate effort to streamline and improve communication, so your clients understand exactly “how this is gonna work”, you’re not doing enough to ensure your longterm success.

Standards and boundaries clear the path to reaching your ideal clients.

And when it comes to unrealistic budget expectations, I must quote The Stones, yet again, “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try, sometimes, you might find, you get what you need.” (Awwww, yeah.)

Setting boundaries takes practice. And confidence. And more practice.

Thanks for taking some time out of your day to stop by my site.

Keep doing beautiful work, floralpreneur®!

With love from me to you,

Alison

P. S. Have you joined my Facebook group yet? Click HERE to join & I’ll see you in the group!

Additional resources:

By Alison Ellis

Do Customers Think Your Prices Are Too Low?

Have you ever had a client tell you that you’re not charging enough?

I have. And it was a real eye-opener…

I’m always seeking ways to reach more ideal clients, so I’m familiar with the concept of “turning clients off” by not charging enough…

but it wasn’t until I experienced “pricing too low” up close and personal, that I was able to transform my mindset around always trying to give the “best possible price” (i.e. the lowest possible price) for each line item in a proposal.

Before I dive into my experience with “under bidding”, if you want to learn how to price with confidence & stop over-buying so you can increase your income, I teach you everything I know about pricing in my online pricing course, Flower Math!

Learn More

Now, back to my experience with pricing too low…

In this case, the mother of the groom was in charge of the wedding flowers and she gave me an estimated budget of about $7,000. When I quoted her a price for centerpieces based on the ideal budget, she came back to me with concerns that the centerpiece pricing seemed low for what we had discussed. And I had to agree!

She was right. I didn’t quote what she wanted. I tried to provide a quote within the budget she gave me, but I didn’t actually quote what she wanted.

She told me to up the budget a few hundred dollars per table and I updated her quote for what it would *really* cost to get the look she wanted and she ended up spending quite a bit more. And happily.

It didn’t bother her one bit to come in over budget. She was more than happy to pay to get what she wanted.

I’m very lucky to have met this client.

This gig was a big one for me and she was an ideal client. She was kind, yet particular. She had great taste and was more than willing to pay to get what she wanted (gardenias, peonies, sweet peas, lush floral table runners….you get the picture). She was creative, smart and no-nonsense. (In short, she was my kinda gal.)

I learned a lesson:

If this client was willing to spent this much more than her stated budget, then there must be other ideal clients out there who are willing to spend more than their stated budget, too.

It’s up to me to give customers a proposal that reflects what they actually want!

I cannot be confined by a preconceived notion of budget (whether that notion comes from the client or my own presumption!…You can’t wear your money shoes when presenting proposals to clients…Clients often wear a different shoe-size than you!).

If you’re a skeptic, I understand. I was, too.

Until I truly experienced this tremendous gap between what the client told me and what she was more than happy to spend, I thought all the business gurus who claimed that “low prices are a turn-off” were talking about “other businesses”….not flowers.

Moral of the story….

If a $7,000 budget turned into an $11,000 sale, then surely I can quote $25 or $50 more than the “average centerpiece price” for the clients who want more choice blooms or fuller-than-average pieces, even if it pushes beyond the confines of the budget they initially described.

If clients want elevated pieces, but don’t have the budget, I don’t feel compelled to figure out how to make something grand for $100 or less. I tell them the truth; it’s $350 per table and if that doesn’t work for the budget…if they don’t l-o-v-e this look so much that they’re willing to pay for it… then, we select a different option to suit their budget. Easy. I can work within their budget, but the choice was theirs.

If you want to do beautiful work for years to come, you must set a minimum standard for your work. Share on X

Innovating and making deliberate business moves allows you to set your own standards for the work you choose to do.

AND if you’re really trying your best (i.e. you provide outstanding work so that you may charge more…because you strive to provide quality work and you deserve it!), then you should be making deliberate moves to enhance the value your clients experience.

If you deliver what you promise and your clients get the value they expect, then you’re doing the work of an integrity brand.

Keep doing beautiful work!

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog!….and please share it with a floralpreneur® you know and love.

xo. -Alison

More Pricing Resources:

And if you want to learn how to price with confidence & stop over-buying so you can increase your income, I teach you everything I know about pricing in Flower Math!

Sign up & SAVE $100!

Testimonial:

“In one wedding I felt more confident in my pricing & made my money back on the purchase of the class. This really has been a game changer for me!!

-Susan of Wild Blume

Remember:

If you want to do beautiful work for years to come,

you must set a minimum standard for your work…

And if you’re truly doing your best work,

then it should be worthy of a higher price.

If you struggle with pricing your work with confidence, check out my online course, Flower Math, The Florist’s Guide To Pricing & Profitability.

Learn to keep more of the money you’re already making! get all the details here. (SAVE $100 OFF RETAIL.)

By Alison Ellis

Do You Need A Pricing Guide On Your Website?

As a consumer I can appreciate a good pricing guide.

When I see the “pricing tab” on someone’s website, it’s usually one of the first tabs I’ll click on…That said, there are 2 reasons I don’t provide a pricing guide on my website:

Reason #1: I design custom work and part of doing custom design work means I provide custom quotes.

A pricing guide doesn’t fit my business model.

Each event has its own parameters and that’s how I determine what this job costs for this client on this date in this location. It’s not a one-size-fits-all pricing formula.

Reason #2: I want to work with clients who are more focused on “what I deliver” and less focused on the “price of each piece”; providing a price list doesn’t jive with that goal either.

Referring clients to a price list, suggests that they should consider pricing out their own wedding before speaking to you.

The intention of listing your pricing is to be helpful and informative, but focusing on price can work against the best interest of your business.

One can easily argue the virtues of a pricing guide and its ability to “educate” before going down the road of an official consultation process, etc., but in my experience, a price list doesn’t really inform the client of what it costs to do custom work for their wedding.

If you put the focus on price before service, it may work to weed out certain clients, but it may also turn other perfectly excellent customers away…

A sample pricing guide often presents a range of prices, which is likely only minimally helpful.

For example:

If I tell you that bridal bouquets range from $175-375+, what does that really tell you about what your bouquet will cost?

If I tell you that centerpieces range from $75-250+, how does that inform you regarding your overall budget expectation?

(And yes, I have seen ranges this wide on centerpieces in online pricing guides…..because it really “depends” on what the client wants before you to accurately quote a price….and centerpieces are usually the bulk of the “average wedding order”, so you don’t want to underbid on half the job!)

Instead of a price list….

Instead of itemizing a price list for your website, create a thorough contact form to draw information out of potential clients so that you can prequalify and start to assess their needs and then, start a budget conversation based around the requirements of this particular client.

If you focus on service before price, clients start to experience what it’s like to work with you before focusing on “what it costs”. They can feel your value!

The goal is to work with ideal clients who recognize your value and choose you for you!….not just because you fit their budget.

Ideal clients feel your value so they choose you easily…

And they pay you what you’re worth!

Keep doing beautiful work!

With love from me to you,

Alison

P.S. Does your website make it easy for client to choose you? Want a few stellar hacks to help streamline your site and make it SUPER user-friendly?

Click here to learn more about my Website Bootcamp to improve your website in 3 days or less!

And…you’ll find a full list of course offerings HERE.

By Alison Ellis

Bad For Business: Why Florists Must Say No To Sharing Economy

Yesterday, CBS News shared a story on a new company that advocates “sharing centerpieces” from one event to another. On the surface, this may seem harmless, even smart…an attempt to appeal to the millennial mindset that values minimalism…But here’s the thing, flowers aren’t Uber or Airbnb.

As a lifelong florist, selling flowers to one client and then re-selling the same flowers isn’t just an ethical conundrum; it’s bad for business.

The sharing economy has its place, but as a floral designer for over 23 years I am simply not able to get around the fact that in this “sharing” business model the florist is contracted to RE-SELL the same exact flowers to another customer the following day. This is simply not how florists do good business. Once flowers are sold, that’s it!

Here’s what Forbes says about companies that are geared toward the sharing economy:

“What’s fascinating is that the company is rarely the actual service provider; instead, they act as facilitator, making the transaction possible, easy, and safe for both the provider and the user. They break down the barriers that otherwise exist to starting a business or a “side hustle” for many people and make it both easy and lucrative to participate in this collaborative economy.“

While it may be lucrative to sell the same flowers twice, it’s not reputable.

Reputable florists should not sell designs at full price to one client and then offer a meager 10% refund or buy-back on those flowers so that they can be picked-up and RE-SOLD for an additional profit the following day.

How many clients will now question whether that florist will re-sell their flowers after breakdown even if they don’t choose to participate in sharing with Client B?

Does this florist also sell old flowers? Where’s the line?

Florists sell each stem only once. That’s the transaction. That’s the business we’re in.

“Buying back” so we can re-sell the same stems is not an option for a brand with integrity…even if the idea behind it is to re-purpose or re-use. If you want to repurpose or re-use, donate the flowers to a hospice or nursing home, deliver them to a charitable organization or give them away freely to family, friends and waitstaff who dedicated their evening to serving your guests.

Integrity brands deal in honesty. They rely on the trust of ideal clients to thrive. Share on X

How can you have an integrity brand and sell the same flowers twice?

Even if you can somehow get around this fact, which bucks all trends of professional retailing, i.e. you don’t sell the same item twice, what does this say about the value you place on your own work?

How does one have an integrity brand and approach Client A regarding buying-back their centerpieces with the intention of reselling them?

How do you value your work and time and skill and provide a quote for $1,800 for centerpieces, and then tell Client A your work is only worth 10% of what they paid you, and then explain that you’ll then be re-selling the flowers they’re taking $180 bucks for and making an additional $900 on top of what they already paid you?

I’m serious. How does one do that?

You can’t. You simply cannot. You cannot and you should not.

Oh, and if a bride’s aunt wants to take home a centerpiece, she can’t….because the clients accepted 10 cents on the dollar from another company so you, their florist, can retrieve the flowers, refresh them and resell them.

If you’re not sure what I’m talking about you can watch a feature on the company below:

But wait, before you watch… Brace yourself, flower lovers. You’re about to hear flowers referred to as “so wasteful” and “just thrown in the trash”…not the kind of P.R. florists are really looking for, of course…

which bring me to another HUGE reason why this is bad business for florists; in order to sell this service, the company has decided to amplify the idea of wastefulness and the wrap that flowers are SO expensive, which means they purposefully use the exact opposite messaging than that of a floralpreneur who’s passionate about her/his craft and wishes to demand a higher quality and higher price for your work and your art.

You cannot sell “high-end” and “wasteful” in the same breath.

And you certainly shouldn’t list the full retail price of Client A’s centerpieces on a website, complete with inspiration photo, and then show the new “low, low price” Client B will pay for the same flowers. It does nothing but devalue your work and this is exactly how the sharing connection is made by this company; by showing how very much Client A pays and how very little Client B will pay.

An educated buyer would hear this offer and say, “hey, I’m paying $1,800 for my centerpieces, but I’m only getting $180….that doesn’t even cover the cost of my bouquet!….My florist, however is going to make another $900 off of the flowers I already bought….this doesn’t feel good…and I don’t get to keep any of these flowers!”

Click below to watch the story, yet again, blaming the florist for being “one of the most expensive parts of a wedding”…

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wedding-flowers-recycle-reuse-bloomerent-discounts

The moral of the story….

Don’t compromise your brand and established reputation for the chance to make a quick buck….which by the way, won’t actually be quick at all. By the time a florist returns to Venue A around midnight to pick up the centerpieces, returns to the shop to rearrange or freshen the flowers, returns to the shop in the morning to re-deliver the flowers to Venue B….it’s been a very long weekend.

Keep doing beautiful work, floralpreneurs!

Value your time.

Value your expertise.

Keep raising the bar.

xo. -A

Find a full list of course offerings, including FREE courses, HERE.