The Floral Hustle

  📍 Hello, this is Jen and you are listening to the Floral Hustle podcast. Today I wanna talk about something that is on a lot of Floris mind. What the hell is going on with my bookings? They, there's this panic and fear that is just like rising up in so many flos right now because they're looking at their calendar and it just, it doesn't feel busy enough every year, right around this time till usually about March.

Is this just pressure, this, this just like angst and unruly feeling in your brain that you are going. Fucked this year, um, financially, because you don't have a ton on the books. So I wanna talk about what can we do about it? What is in our control? And I think the first thing to start with is really looking at your books because you could be having a feeling and it's not.

So go in and create a Google Doc or a Google, um, spreadsheet, uh, or an Excel spreadsheet, and literally make a month by month tab and go in and plug your weddings. And then if you wanna bring that to the next level, go in and forecast what that revenue is from. , uh, weddings. So if you have three weddings in June, one is a 4,000, one is a 5,000, one is a 2000.

Put that in there because you're also at the end of that exercise, not only gonna know how many weddings do I have, but how big are those weddings? So you can start wrapping your head around a dollar amount because what if you have 10 booking? , but they're way bigger than normal. And so you're really at the same revenue as you were last time.

And the reason why I think it is good to do it at this time, cuz this is often when that feeling comes up, but then have a separate, you know, tab in your spreadsheet that puts the date. Okay. It is one 15 and I'm going to, I have 33 weddings on the books and X amount of revenue. . Then in three months, you will go through and do the same exercise.

You can then go and forecast next year, or you can get, you know, a feeling of ease because maybe you're at the same spot. But by March it catches up. So there's less panic, there's less worry because this is normal. So that is part one, really just figuring out where you're at and what things really look like, not the feeling you're having.

So tangible data. Then I want you to go in, and I know this might seem silly, but go in and test on your website all of your inquiry. , I have seen things on different flos that literally they were not doing any of their inquiries because for one, they were going in their spam and they didn't know it because something changed with how something was being sent from their website.

For two, the whole thing was broken because something with their website, um, URL had changed or updated with their website. And it broke. So just to cover your butt, it wouldn't hurt just the test. It takes two seconds to test. You can make sure that the inquiries are coming over properly. But then what if that reality, that feeling you're having of holy crap, things aren't looking good this year, what can you do about it right now?

A lot of people are reaching out to a bunch of floors because a bunch of floors are booked or there's a perception or they've reached out to five different people and their date is booked. I want you to get your butt in Canva, and I want you to make some graphics that are on brand with your business and say, still booking 2023 weddings.

Please inquire about your. Putting yourself out there, not only to couples that are on Instagram, but I hope you have some wedding planners following you because those wedding planners might wanna start going and banging their head against the wall when they've reached out to five different Flores and they're all booked for their couples date then.

Oh yeah. I remember I was on Instagram last night and I saw pedals and blooms. Is available. I'm going to reach out to them. You are putting it out in the universe that you are open, you are available, and reach out and te. Then bring it to the next level. Another set of graphics. How do they reach out? How do people book you, how do people book with you?

Like what is your. Breaking that down is also great content. And if you listen to our other mini, so, so about my, um, favorite online tools, I talk about using plank to schedule all these things, you could build a consistent content schedule that literally just talks about your, um, process of booking, how you meet with clients, what the proposal, um, timeline look like, what the booking timeline looks like.

Uh, how they can inquire about what your date is. You could even on your phone, you could screen record. Uh, I used to be able to screen record on my Android that I had, but now I am an Apple user. I literally can go in and I can screen record with me talking, navigating on my website and showing people where they go to send me an.

It couldn't be any more simple. But if, if it is, if that feels daunting, you literally can put in your caption, DM me and I will send you the link. Super easy. But then you are telling people you are available, you are putting it out in the universe. And for one, you're also like just releasing that energy of like, okay, I'm trying, I'm doing something.

that is stepping towards my goal. So that is gonna hopefully help build your confidence a little bit, rather than just being this reactive, like, I'm gonna be down and depressed and you know, like, I'm a failure, I'm a whatever. Because you're not taking any action. We are action taking, problem solving women and men, and we can change our circum.

I think I say that in my intro to the podcast today. We can change the direction of your business, the direction that, how you feel, um, the, the clients that you're attracting. Everything can change, but you need to take action. Taking uncomfortable action is sometimes what the difference between your business being successful this year and not.

So the next thing to take action, and I have talked about this in another, I think it was my three tested tactics to grow your business in, um, 2023 wedding planners. These are people who literally are living in vendor booking universe all the time. They're helping their clients and, and for one, they're interacting with vendors on a consistent basis to.

Their clients, book vendors and book awesome vendors on top of that. So if you are not in with some wedding planners, we need to figure out a strategy to do that. I'm actually working on a little something right now. There are a couple, um, cookie bakers in town. That make these absolutely beautiful, um, cookies.

And so I am getting, I, I just went and I put, um, my request into this bakery cuz they're actually booked out and I want promotional cook cookies. So I want a cookie with my business logo on it. And then I want a cookie with really pretty flowers. They're individually, um, wrapped and I am going to get a pretty.

And have a note card in there, and I'm literally going to send these in the mail because you can stock a planner and find out their, their, um, their home address or their office address. And you can send them an in or a little request on Instagram if you can't find it for some reason. But normally Facebook pages, that's normally where I find them.

So that business's Facebook page is a great place to find them because then they're getting a surprise. And if you have to ask, Hey, I'd love to send you, um, a little gift in the mail. Um, and in to introduce, Who doesn't want a gift in the mail. I'm just saying that's super fun. And then they're gonna get these beautiful cookies, like with my brand on it.

I'm just, I'm so excited for it that I just, um, I'm really hopeful. I've done different things like this. When I rebranded my business, I sent, uh, little coffee mugs and with a gift card in there for Starbucks. The coffee mugs were like little thermos, and they had my logo on it. And it, and it was during Covid, so I said, I'd love to have a virtual coffee date with you.

I got such a great response. And then I also sent out to planners that I was working with more, or I wanted to really work with. I sent a gift box that had, uh, a. Fun little, uh, notebook in there that had my logo in Boston. In it, it had the coffee cup, and then I had some candies in there and I had some pens and post-its in there.

So I sent this little, like marketing box to them and just said with a brochure about all of my services that I had printed at, I think it was like FedEx Printing or something like that. And I, I just, I sent them this big gift and if they had, um, a. that openly, cuz I'm a big animal person. I sent their dog a treat as well.

So I, I sent those out to I think 30 different planners and two of those planners have referred five, five weddings this year that I have booked. So it worked even though it was several years ago. But I also make sure that I'm. Thanking them and I'm sending them a little, I think one of the planners that sent, sent a bunch of, I think actually one of them's at five, but I think one of 'em, like, they've probably sent me like a dozen, but I've booked like seven or eight of 'em at this point.

I literally sent them a Target gift card because I know that they just got married and you know, everybody needs a something at Target, um, which is here in the United States. Like literally I sent that and it's super amazing. They're excited. So, Figure out a strategy to reach out to planners, figure out a strategy to reach out to your previous clients, even, um, telling them that you were so excited.

And if you know of anybody, you still have openings in 2023 and you would love to help any of your friends and family members, um, that are getting married. And you can even put an incentive out if you send a couple my way and they book, I bring you a beautiful bouquet to say thank you so you can also reach out to that current client.

And come up with an incentive to get them to take action to book. So thank you so much for listening to today's episode. I'm so excited about these little mini sos that are short. Um, so this one wasn't as short, but I just get so excited about really putting yourself out there, cuz that is something huge.

Putting yourself out there and taking uncomfortable action is going to just accelerate your business to new levels. So thank you so much flower 📍 friend, and have a great.