Workshop for Florists in Vermont

Announcing A Spring Workshop for Floral Designers and Farmer-Florists!

Join us for 2 Days of Hands-On Training with Françoise Weeks, Phebe Robinson-Higgins & Alison Ellis, April 17 & 18th at The Round Barn, Waitsfield, Vermont.

Including Foam Free Woodland Techniques, Business Coaching On How To Sell A Wedding & Price For Profit, and Everything You Need To Run A Successful Pop-Up Shop in time for Mother’s Day!

Get the resources you need to level-up your passion & career.

Limited to 20 Seats. Doors Are Open Now! Click Here For Details!

Pack your tools, bring your refillable water bottle, and we’ll make sure you have everything you need once you’re on site!–from flowers to supplies to meals and snacks and bottomless pots of coffee (or tea)!

All Meals Included for Welcome Reception on Sunday and 2 Full Days of Hands-On Training on Monday and Tuesday.

If you’re a floral designer or farmer-florist and you want to expand your offerings to include more sustainable design techniques, or create profitable pop-up shop in your community, or book more profitable weddings & events, this workshop is for you!

You’ll walk away with inspiration to design with new perspective, know-how to price for profit and close wedding sales, and skills to Pop-Up so you can sell your flowers– even without your own storefront!

Get Your Seat Now!

TWO DAYS WITH FRANÇOISE, PHEBE & ALISON:

Sustainable Woodland Designs with Françoise Weeks
Successful Pop-Up Shops with Phebe Robinson-Higgins
How To Price For Profit & Book Weddings with Alison Ellis

Sustainable. Successful. Profitable. Ready to join us?

Elevate your creativity and level-up your business strategy!

Click Here for Pricing, Daily Schedule and FAQs!

We’d love to see you here in Vermont in April! Reach out with questions for me anytime. info{at}realflowerbusiness.com

xo. -Alison Ellis

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How Should Florists Set A Minimum

I’ve heard a lot of questions from florists about Setting Minimums (and raising minimums!) lately, which is why I was live today on Instagram to talk about How Florists Should Set A Minimum in their business. You can catch the replay from Instagram below!

Whether you already have a minimum or you’re just figuring out how to establish a minimum, this chat is for YOU!

Here’s what’s covered:

➤Why Florists Need A Minimum

➤How To Determine A Minimum For Your Business

➤How To Communicate A Minimum To Customers

Fact: Setting a Minimum isn’t a strategy to “attract customers”; it is meant to help weed people out! And adding a minimum to your website isn’t enough.

That’s why it’s important to understand WHAT your minimum is and HOW to present it to your clients.

I hope you’ll enjoy the replay AND I really hope you’ll sign up HERE for the Free Pricing Chat for Florists on Oct. 13th with 3 Numbers Florists Need To Know!

If you have any questions for me, feel free to get in touch!

xo. -Alison

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Don’t forget to register HERE for the Pricing Chat on October 13th at noon EDT/9am PDT!

By Alison Ellis Leave a Comment

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

By Alison Ellis Leave a Comment

What Do Florists Bring To a Wedding?

How do florists set up a wedding?

When I was first starting my home-studio floral business almost 20 years ago, I often felt like I was pulling a rabbit out of my hat on the day-of a wedding. I was passionate about weddings and flowers and running my own business, but I was still “new enough” that I was making a lot of it up as I went along. Sometimes, I didn’t know if I’d even finish setting up on time. Luckily I always did, but the pressure is real when you’re a wedding pro because there are no do-overs (and we are expected to make magic)!

As I gained experience, I developed systems to streamline my wedding-day set-up, as well as my entire week-of-the-wedding prep, and I know that whether you’ve been a wedding florist for 1 year or 20 years, you’re always learning something new! For example, over the last several years I’ve been working to cut out floral foam in my weddings and that’s changed my day-of and week-of prep!

FYI I’ll be sharing my recent #foamfree wedding mechanics and week-of tips inside my Patreon Creator Page this month. Patreon members get access to my best tips for booking weddings and you can ask me anything so if you have questions, I’ll answer them here! I’ll be taking members inside my week-of prep for an $11,000 wedding including the foam free mechanics I used (and then reused the next weekend, too!). Click here to access my Patreon page!

Today, I want to share this behind-the-scenes look at my “bag of tricks” so you can see what I bring with me to every wedding day set-up. It’s so important to have the right tools for the job–click to see what’s in my bag!

Remember: I’m continuing to answer the question: “how do you actually do a wedding” for the florists on my Patreon Creator Page, and you’re invited to join me there! Access starts at just $3 and you’ll unlock a ton of tips and lessons on how to book better clients, build a strong brand, and design beautiful weddings! Click to join me.

Patreon is a place where artists and teachers create content for their Patrons. There is no obligation–you can cancel your subscription any time. Hop in to grab the tips you need, hop out any time.

Do you have questions for me? I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. You can learn more about me here.

xo. -Alison

Additional Resources for Florists:

Find more tips on Wedding Day Prep HERE.

By Alison Ellis Leave a Comment

Wedding Day Prep

What do florists do on the morning-of a wedding?

A florist asked me recently, “How do you actually do a wedding?” She knows how to price it. She knows how to book it. But how do you actually “do the wedding”?

After 19 years of designing weddings in my home-studio, I shared my Morning-of Wedding Prep with my Patreon membership* and you can see a small sample of how I get started below.

*Patreon members can ask me anything and get access to a ton of tips and training videos to help you book clients consistently, build a solid brand and create high quality work year after year. Membership starts at just $3, but you can unlock more “stuff” with each membership tier.

Click to watch this short 2 minute clip:

In the full video on Patreon you’ll see:

How I tie and box bouquets
How I present bouquets to clients
How I pack centerpieces for delivery
How I prep a #foamfree arbor
Pictures of my work and the full ceremony set-up

Now, I know that no one wants another “membership”, but if you want to book clients with more ease and ask me anything about how I run my business and execute events, Patreon is the perfect place for you! (click here to join me!) There’s no commitment and you can cancel anytime.

What else would you like to know more about?

Ask me and I’ll turn it into a video lesson you can access any time as a Patreon supporter.

Thanks for making time to watch today’s clip of my wedding day prep.

Keep doing beautiful work!

xo. -Alison