The Floral Hustle

  📍 Hello, flower friends. This is Jen, and you are listening to the Floral Hustle podcast. On this week's episode, we're going to talk about, are you acting like a employee of your business or the CEO. And this whole episode came out of a conversation where I was I was at CrossFit and I do personal training sessions with the owner of the gym.

And I love being surrounded, even though he's not a florist, obviously he's not you know, somebody that is. In my sphere of influence, that would be somebody that I would learn from, but he is a business owner. He is the CEO of his CrossFit gym. He is in peer groups slash kind of masterminds that are people who are in a similar field, elevating their businesses together.

And I always love. Hearing things about other entrepreneurs, other business owners and what they're doing and he had brought up that you know, he's considering like taking on this part of the building where he has the gym and was just talking about like ideas for that. Bringing in like a cold plunge slash sauna thing, or, you know, doing more personal training and, but he said something like that.

So many of the other trainers there are part time trainers, and they had this part time trainer mentality and anytime somebody was asking for help on something. They didn't. feel good about saying, I can help you with that. And this is what this costs. And that is a employee mentality. The owner could see, and I definitely have seen value in his expertise.

to pay him for that knowledge and specifically helping me do different things and I noticed since I started training with him that I've gotten stronger. I feel like I'm doing things better like I'm lifting properly. Some things that I felt like were a total train wreck, like just tweaking a few things and I'm able to lift heavier weights, do all these things.

Um, my posture is better. Just this list of things is because as the CEO of his business, he knows his worth and that he can charge accordingly. Some signs, because I, as a business owner, have made big shifts. That I am the CEO of my business and not doing this as an employee, not doing this as a donation or a nonprofit that so many florists operate their business as.

So, I want to bring up a couple of those to see if this is you, because these are things that I have done. There are times when you get that last minute call and, or that last minute email. They've already paid their final invoice and they need something else. They need cake flowers. They need styling blooms.

They forgot a boutonniere. They forgot that they need a roses for the moms. Are you sending another invoice so that they pay that? Or are you just saying, no problem, I'll take care of it and not charging them for it because it's a hassle or it's a whatever. It is money. You are doing extra work. Flower girl petals.

Notoriously, I used to give flower petals away when I'd get that last minute communication because I'd be like, oh, it's not a big deal. I'll just save. When I put pen to paper on what that part was costing me, I was taking some of my plastic bags. I was taking labor to scrounge all those petals up. And then I was putting them in a bag and labeling them.

Then, the great awesome thing is there would be times that they would add it last minute and so then it wasn't on my printout. I gave it to them and I would have to run home because it would be forgotten in the bag. Because it wasn't on the checklist. Because they added it last minute. So not only did I give them free Flower Girl Petals, Because they added it last minute and I didn't want to go through the hassle and just thought I'd be the nice employee of my business and not the CEO.

I then had to run home and waste almost an hour of my day to go get those pedals. The next thing. When somebody is trying to be customized.

The biggest thing I've seen is a lot of people who have like an a la carte flower program, including myself. Oh yeah, this is very laid out very well. Like here's your five color palettes. Here's your items, and then somebody wants something customized. This program is not supposed to be customized. This program is supposed to be easy.

It is supposed to be seamless, and it is supposed to be something you are having minimal input in, especially because it comes with a lower price point to do that. I was customizing so much stuff. I was not being the CEO. I was not laying down the law that this is a customized order and my minimum therefore applies.

I was totally being the employee of my business instead of saying this is not worth it. And when I did that, I was wasting money, I was wasting time, I was race wasting resources, and I literally, I would spend so much time customizing these things and then not getting to my minimum, which made that interaction then worth it for that customization.

So if you are doing that. Stop your a la carte program is your a la carte program and pricing for a reason, then I would also, when I got inquiries that had lower minimums, but then they wanted to start customizing, even though I recommended my a la carte, because they were a referral or something like that, I just got invested in working really hard on this transaction that Inevitably, probably cost more than was put out.

This also happens with daily deliveries a lot. If you are running the business as the CEO, and you go put pen to paper on delivering a 50 order, You running to the wholesaler to get that order, you running to Trader Joe's, you getting the vases, you cleaning the vases, you getting the delivery box, you getting the tissue paper, all of those things.

If you do the math, you probably won't be doing daily deliveries if it is not your core business model. And if you are running it as the employee. They don't normally objectively have to worry about the bottom line of the business. They just worry that they're going to get their check. And so if you are worried about the bottom line, if you are the CEO looking at situations that take a high amount of effort and have a lower return comparatively to doing a consult for a wedding or doing something similar.

It might be time to make decisions in your business that these things that take considerable effort are not worth doing. And if that is the case, you as the CEO of your business are completely entitled to make those decisions. This doesn't make sense for my business because I don't make much money.

When I do the math on a daily delivery that I have to do special, out of the normal, get flowers. For one, it is 14 to deliver flowers to my house. Thank But I could say, oh, well, that's cheaper than me driving up there, which is likely true with gas and my time. Then I'm buying 25 of flowers or I'm buying 20 of flowers for a, a 50 delivery, 20 of flowers.

Then I have to add my delivery fee. I mean, Because of the delivery, you don't want to, I wouldn't want to inevitably not have that person get something that looks like it's 50 value because they don't understand a 15 delivery fee is impacting their order. So in those cases, I as the CEO of my business choose not to do that daily delivery.

If I know that I am going to the wholesaler today, and I can pick up two things. Or I can take three yellow roses out of my, my rose bunch that I'm getting for my wedding that week, then that order might make sense. If it doesn't, I don't do it. If it doesn't make sense, I just don't do it. And that decision is your decision as the CEO of your business.

But an employee... is going to be like, oh yeah, I need to do every order that I can. You don't. You can do whatever order inspires and financially makes sense. If a daily delivery does not make sense today, that doesn't mean that it's not going to make sense next Tuesday. And it might not even make sense next Tuesday, but the one on Wednesday might make sense when you get that phone call.

And so those can be made on a situational basis. But when I look at those decisions, Is this a CEO's decision, or is this an employee decision? Am I acting like the CEO, or am I acting like an employee of my business? Am I really understanding the impact that this has, or am I just doing it because I think I'm supposed to?

Because I don't want to do things that I'm just supposed to, because often those are not profitable decisions. So next time you're making a decision, just think, I am the CEO of my business. And I get to make this decision as the CEO, does this make sense? Weigh your options and really care about the service that you are delivering, but also the impact financially that that service can have on your business.

📍 Thank you so much for listening flower friend and have an amazing flower filled week.