The Floral CEO

184 Airbnb for Florists A New Way to Find Studio Space and Freelancers
[00:00:00]
Jeni: Hello, flower friends. I have a special episode. You guys, I'm always on Instagram looking for new things, and in my inbox, I had these lovely ladies, uh, pop in to talk about something brand new in the floral world. And you guys, if you have struggled with finding to-do studio space, or if you struggle with freelancers, or literally you're like, "How could I do a wedding in another state or another wherever?"
This could be your solution. So I would love for you guys to meet Melanie and Michelle, and I'd love for you guys- Hello ... to just share a little bit about yourself and your background. And then we'll get into talking about this really cool product you guys came out with.
Melanie: You wanna go first?
Okay. Sure. Okay. Like Jenny said, I'm Melanie and I've been a florist for 22 years. I do mostly weddings and events, although I did have a retail side of my business for a while. But I just couldn't keep up with that and the [00:01:00] prices of the flowers here in Orange County. So, um, I just do weddings and events.
And I'm a mom and I love dogs.
Jeni: I like it. Me too. And how about you,
Michelle: Michelle? So I'm Michelle. I'm Melanie's friend. First and foremost. Before business partner.
Melanie: Yes.
Michelle: We've known each other, what, like 18 years probably. Yeah. I am not a florist. I have started several businesses, though. I just love just...
I don't know, there's just something about starting a new business that's just so exciting to me. This is probably, I think, the fourth one I've started. I was a photographer. So I do have a little bit of experience, like, in the wedding industry. So I did weddings for years. And then my son was born with Down syndrome and a heart defect, and so I started a clothing company for kids with disabilities and the people that love them.
And so I recently sold that. And I had a dream one night. Someone asked me, like, "What do you do?" And [00:02:00] I said, "Nothing." And then the very next day, we had this idea for Fleurspace. And so I just felt like it was, it was great timing.
Jeni: It was meant to be. Uh- Meant to
Michelle: be.
Jeni: Yeah ... And so Fleurspace is the name of your guys' company, and it's re- it's new, it's fresh, but you guys are already gaining some traction, which is so cool.
So explain to me what Fleurspace is.
Melanie: So Fleurspace is- Airbnb for florists
Jeni: Yeah, that's a great way to
Melanie: put it. Um, yeah. So basically, if you are a freelancer, you can list your bio profile, your rate, your expertise, on the p- the site to get hired by other freelancers or just other florists looking for help.
There is also an area for drivers, just set up crews or, um, strike crews [00:03:00] too.
Jeni: Mm.
Melanie: So if you don't do flowers, but you are a part of the industry in that way, you can also list. A- there's three ways to list on the p- on the platform. Um, the other one is, brick-and-mortar studios, workshops. So if you have space with a cooler, you would be under the studio category, and you can rent your space out daily or hourly or, well, daily or hourly. Mm-hmm. And, um, if you're a workshop, meaning you don't have a cooler, you can still hold workshops to, you know, for DIY or brides or, you know, bachelorette parties or whatever it is you wanna do there. And then the third way is just becoming a user, and you don't have to set up a profile, um, i- on either one of those.
And you can just either rent space as you need it- And you [00:04:00] can hire freelancers as you need them. All three are free to list.
Jeni: Okay.
Melanie: And the idea is florist to florist, what- whatever need you have, we're covering it.
Jeni: Okay. So you're really just trying to support florists that either maybe they get their first big wedding and they're like, "Holy crap, how am I going to..."
I mean, I've been there. I run a home-based studio, and I have for years. I've been a florist for 30 years now, and I, like, sometimes would go, "Oh my God, my little coolers. Are they going to make it with this?" You know, when you get your first, like, 20 or $30,000 wedding, it, it's a little bit of panic kind of sinks in.
Mm-hmm. And I think that this is a great option to look and see is there someone that could actually support this during these three days? Because one thing that I have learned through this is that renting a refrigerated truck, you guys, have you ever [00:05:00] priced that out? Mm-mm. It is bananas. It was $450 a day for me to have- Wow
a refrigerated... And I'm talking, like, a little, itty-bitty refrigerated truck, and that was I had to reserve it for at least five days. It, so it had a minimum as well. So I couldn't be like, "I just want it on Thursday and Friday," which is like right before the event. So that can be really cost inhibitive if, if you're all of a sudden having to put $3,000 into a cooler just for a couple- Yeah
days. So I, I hopped on the space and I checked everything out, and it seems really intuitive. Like, you're literally going in, you can see what city they're in. You can go in and see, like, what the rates are. Tell me a little bit about, like, listing as a freelancer, 'cause I think a lot of people want to freelance but don't kind of know h- where to even start.
So how do they, how would they set up [00:06:00] a profile or use your site to really get their, um, you know, self out there? Yeah, you
Melanie: go ahead.
Michelle: So we have under the service cate- like, listing type, we have three different ways to list. So the first one is like a floral designer. The second one is a driver. And then the third one is, like, would be kind of like what a freelance florist who's maybe just starting out would fall under.
So they, so it's more set up and prep and help, so they would be helping processing flowers. They could help with the installs and things like that. And so they go in and they're gonna click on service, post a listing, they're gonna click on service, and then choose between one of those three things.
If, yeah, if they're just starting out, they should choose the set up and help. And then they'll go in and they'll add their bio. It asks how many years of experience they have, and they can just say, like, what their specialties are. And then there's a place for photos, so they can go in and show, like, what, you know, what work they've been able to do.
And that way when someone's hiring them, they can [00:07:00] see, "Okay, this is what they're great at," and, see what things that they've done in the past.
Jeni: Okay. And have you seen, does it show you, like, okay, this is exactly their rate? I know some freelancers go by day rate in some markets, and then some, like here in my market, it's kind of like an hourly setup.
So are they set up more just hourly or is there day rates? Or how does that work?
Michelle: Right now we have it as just hourly.
Jeni: Okay. To me, that's simpler, but that's how we do it here in Minnesota. But, you know- ... I, I'll have people that are like, they'll say they're moving to this market, and they'll send me a DM, "Hey, I'm looking for freelancing.
My day rate is..." And I'm like, "We don't even have day rates around here. I don't know what we're talking about." But I'm sure there's day rates somewhere, and they make sense, but, um, hourly sometimes, you know, it is just s- keeping it simple.
Michelle: Yeah. Well- We ran into that with the space side as well. At first we started out with just an hourly rate, but then we had someone message us and say, "I don't [00:08:00] really understand that.
I'd rather rent it out for the day." And we're like- Yeah ... "Okay. We'll add that for you." And so now they have the choice to either rent it out on an hourly basis or a daily basis.
Jeni: Okay.
Melanie: So with feedback, we're willing to- Yeah ... look into it and see if it makes sense on our website. So if, if you, if you, Jenny, get a whole bunch of feedback saying, "We do daily rates," please let us know.
Jeni: Yeah. Yeah, I think it... I, I really think it's market dependent. I know here in Minnesota, like- I've had freelancers that have told me day rate, but the majority of the time, those are people either who are freelancing out of the market that are travel fr- freelancers or are freelancers that are moving here potentially.
I haven't had, like, anybody that's actually just, like, born and raised here in Minnesota ever say the word day rate to me. But- ... it, it, it depends on where you're at and, what the circumstances are and... 'Cause I'm like, I sometimes work 12 hours in a day. If you're thinking that that's eight, I'd wanna be [00:09:00] fair to you as well and make sure- I agree
that, you're getting compensated accordingly, 'cause you're not gonna wanna come back unless you are fairly compensated. And-
Michelle: Yeah ...
Jeni: but it, it can be complicated, but I think, simplifying it with hourly is probably an amazing, uh, it would be potentially nice. I know a lot of freelancers especially, 'cause I live an hour out of the cities, 'cause I live on a farm, like, um, towards Rochester, Minnesota, and I... You know, they have a minimum of I want at least five hours or six hours. So that might be something that could be suggested. But if any of you guys listening- We have that ... have huge... Oh, you have that. Okay. Huge suggestions. We do
Michelle: have that, yeah. They set their minimum hours.
Jeni: Oh, that's great. Yeah. 'Cause that's the only thing that I've ran in now that, uh, I'm, farther out and people are having to drive a little bit.
Yeah. But...
Michelle: No, it makes sense. Yeah, you're not gonna wanna drive that far for one hour of work, so.
Jeni: Well, I sure wouldn't, but, you know. Never... Unless I was making something really cool and Passion Flower Sue was there, and, you know, I'm learning or something. That's [00:10:00] the only way I would ha- I would probably do that for an hour.
But that's probably few and far between. But what are you guys hoping to do with this? Are you, like, hoping to have studios, like, signing up or people signing up in, like, all across the United States, or are you hoping to be bigger than the United States?
Melanie: We are already are bigger than the United States.
Yay. Uh, we have, um... Yay. We have a listing in Canada, uh, for a studio, and then we have a listing in England as well.
Michelle: For a freelancer.
Melanie: For a freelancer. Cool. Um, and we have, I think they're users currently, but, um, was messaging them on Instagram they should be signing up here soon, freelancers in Colombia and in Romania.
Oh, cool. And with that said, it caused us to think we should have the website easily accessible to everybody. And so we have translations, [00:11:00] uh- Mm ... for different countries being worked on right now with our coder. Yeah. So people from m- the major countries that we could think of Yeah. Are gonna be on there.
And then we'll, we'll grow as needed.
Jeni: Cool. And how would somebody, like, if they wanna learn more, I'm guessing, you know, like, I'm gonna put, of course, all your guys' website linkings and everything in there, but how easy is it to sign up, and what does that process look like?
Michelle: Want me to take that?
Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's super easy. It takes probably five minutes. Um, just make sure you have your photos ready to go. Um, you just go on the website, it's floor-space.com. It's floor and then dash space dot com. And then you just click on either list your space or list your services, and then you just a- answer a few questions and hit, what is it?
Publish? Hit publish and then you're good to go.
Jeni: Okay. And then when [00:12:00] somebody actually books you or you're getting booked, like, how does the financial part... Like, are they putting... How does the money get to you for getting a booking happen?
Michelle: So, um, once you get a request for a booking, I would suggest then is a good time to sign up for Stripe.
You can sign up for Stripe, like, when you're doing the onboarding process, but a lot of people just choose to wait, which is totally understandable. Um, but once you get a booking, it'll go through Stripe, and then after it's completed you'll get paid by Stripe.
Jeni: Oh, okay. Yeah, I, I've used Stripe. It's pretty easy to s- Yeah
not crazy. It's pretty easy to sign up with. And when, um, somebody is booking, do you just get, like, an email notification, or is there an app that you get a push notification, or how does that work?
Michelle: So you'll get an email, but you'll also get, um, on your little inbox, um, on the website you'll be able to message them back and forth.
And on the message we added the part where... So, like, a studio [00:13:00] for instance, if they, you know, are renting to someone and they're not gonna be there, let's say, they can have them, you know, send their ID, a picture of their ID so they know who this person is that's coming into their space. Sure. They can require insurance.
And so there's lots of things that they can do in the messaging back and forth to help people feel at ease and answer all the questions that they need to ask.
Melanie: Yeah. For my business, I have a, uh, code for the door. So at that point I would share, um, the code to get the key to come in. So that would happen with the messaging.
Jeni: Okay, cool. And it- when some... How far out can somebody book? Uh, like, let's just say, you know, you have a wedding in October. Is there, like, a date range that it's within, or, you know, is it kinda like whenever? I- is there a calendar picker system that you're doing when you're reserving it?
Michelle: Right now there's a calendar.
Um, the host can go in and change that as need be. [00:14:00] Like, if they're like, "Oh, shoot, I'm- I have a big wedding this weekend." Yeah. "I don't want anyone in my space." So they can go in and edit it. But there's, um, like a, a schedule set that like, you know, "I'm usually, you know, avail- open, like, these days and these times."
Okay. Um, but they can go in and edit that. But I'd say, you know, right now... That's a actually great question, I don't even know how far out that would go, but I'm thinking at least a year.
Jeni: Yeah.
Michelle: So I need to-
Jeni: Yeah ...
Michelle: look into that.
Jeni: Yeah. I'm always- Write
Michelle: it down. Write it down.
Jeni: Write, write it down. And if, if any of you guys listening have ideas, or if you have thought about this before, send these lovely ladies a message on Instagram, um, with your ideas.
'Cause it sounds like they're really wanting to make the floral world a better spot, and- Yes ... I think feedback is part of that journey. And you might have an idea but not want to have started this kind of business, and, you know, you can give your idea to somebody else and make it blossom, [00:15:00] literally, that would be great. Uh, is there anything else that you guys wanna share about, um, your platform? Or, like, how do people connect with you? What is your guys' Instagram? All of that fun stuff.
Michelle: So our Instagram is floralspaceofficial. Um, and we would love people to DM us. We've been just having a great time just connecting with people through DMs.
They can also email us at hello@floralsace.com.
Melanie: Is there a
Jeni: dash in there? And that's floral space with a dash? Okay.
Michelle: Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Jeni: Yeah. Okay. So dash or u- underscore? Dash? Dash. Dash. Okay. And I'll put that in the show notes so that, you know, if for some reason somebody's driving right now, that they can just go and click on it later.
Yeah.
Michelle: Right.
Jeni: Well, it was- Great ... So lovely to meet you both and to hear about your exciting opportunity for florists, and I really applaud you guys for trying to make the floral world a better place, and making it simple and more accessible for people to be successful. So [00:16:00] thanks so much for coming on.
Melanie: Thank you so much for having us.
Michelle: Thanks. Really appreciate
Jeni: it.