The Floral Hustle

  📍 Hello, flower friends. This is Jen and you're listening to the floral hustle podcast. On this week's episode, we're going to talk about time allocation in when you're spending time on your business and if you are spending it on the right things. So one thing that I see on and off, on and off, on and off with almost every florist is that they get busy.

In the details of how things look, how things look on their Instagram about curating their feed, about curating their website to a point that what they are doing is, is holding them self back and moving their business forward because they're trying to get everything perfect. And sometimes done is better than perfect.

I have also seen a lot of florists Spend time on activities. That are not revenue producing and what I mean by that is if you look at the activities in your business, if you are having a ton of okay let's think about what is a revenue producing activity. Obviously, meeting with the bride is a potential or meeting with a couple as a potential revenue producing interacting.

With other wedding vendors that potentially are going to send you referrals, I view that as a revenue producing, getting your estimates done is a revenue producing activity, but tweaking your logo for the 10th time. I know one floor is in like, Every time they order business cards, they put get a new logo.

Usually you should be like, okay, I'm sticking with something until it doesn't feel good anymore. But I'm making sure that all of my, my activities that I'm doing. Are leading me down a path of making more money, not just keeping me busy and you might want a new logo and you were completely entitled to do that.

Or you might want to dig around and make some fun thing on your website, but that you should be looking at that time. Could it be spent somewhere else to propel your business that could be spending time on making a video introducing yourself on social media and telling people what you do that could be posting on your personal Facebook page, your personal Instagram page is saying, Hey, everybody.

Just in case you don't know I own a wedding and event business and I do daily orders. So if you have anybody that's getting married, if you're getting married, I'd love for you to connect us, or I'd love to connect with you. And if you're looking for birthday flowers, this is how you can actually order from me.

And I serve this area or whatever you want to say, but you're telling people Hi, this is what I do if you need something. So you're, you're really laying breadcrumbs to grow your business. Those activities are going to be better served than you redoing your proposal template for the fifth time, or going to do a networking event that really isn't with wedding professionals, it's with like a BNI.

That's just business owners. And unless you're really doing everyday orders. That might not be a good use of your time. So making sure when you look at an activity, am I doing revenue producing activities? In my to do list, or are these busy work, frankly, just dinking around for no good reason, just because you think, or you're stuck on my business isn't growing because of the way it looks, my business isn't growing because I haven't updated my website, my business isn't growing because whatever it would be, that is just an excuse you're telling yourself, a story you're telling yourself to, to, Maybe because you're afraid of your business being successful, maybe you're afraid of being rejected if you put yourself out more, you are potentially having more opportunity to be rejected, which doesn't feel good.

But it is a part of owning a business, running a business. I mean, we are trying to get up to bat to do someone's wedding flowers, to do their daily order or birthday flowers or their anniversary flowers, whatever it is. And if we're never getting up to bat. Because people don't even know that we play, we need to focus and set on tweaking things because if I change my logo again, or if I change my template again, or if I go to this B& I meeting again, this, all these things are going to fall into place.

Those are distractions that are not serving you. You need to look at, okay, what did I actually do last week that was a revenue producing item? Was I networking with people who actually could send clients to me? Because they are working with the exact person that I want to attract. Was I getting my estimates done in a fast and efficient way?

Was I responding to inquiries or creating a process for responding to inquiries? Creating a brochure, creating a proposal, whatever it is. Look at the activities that you're filling your days and Weeks with to really understand when you look at it, if it is a revenue producing item. And if your week is not filled with items that are potential revenue producing items, that's where the disconnect is.

That's probably where your business, your effort is not vested in the right place. And so if your effort is not in the right place, how are you going to drive your business forward? Reevaluate, check in with your schedule and look at, okay, I did, I accomplished all these things last week. Were any of them really revenue producing items?

And if they weren't, maybe starting to, create a revenue producing to do list. Like, I need to market myself on social media. I need to reach out to 10 planners this week and introduce myself. Whatever it is. You're going to, identify those tasks and start implementing them, potentially start habit stacking them so that they become normal everyday activities.

You go in and I am going to, every day, go and invest 15 minutes of interaction time with other accounts. So I'm not just taking from social media and saying, look at me, I'm giving back. I'm practicing reciprocity and I'm giving back. I'm commenting on other wedding professionals feeds, wedding planners, photographers, venues, other floors, spend 15 minutes and do that.

Then habit stack that with anybody that followed you in the last week, follow them back and then send them an email, a little DM. That says, thanks so much for following me. I love X on your page or look at something specific so they know that you actually took time to look at their page. And I just wanted to let you know that I have availability in 2023 and 2024 to take on additional couples.

And if you have anybody that's looking for something, I would love to help them out that easy. And so you just did two potentially revenue producing items, because you are building and interacting with your audience. You are giving back instead of just taking, which is consuming content without ever interacting with it.

Then, Check in with the relationships that you have with some vendors. If you are constantly sending referrals to someone and never getting any back, maybe it's time to go, Hmm, for some reason, they are not sending anybody my way. that maybe you need to find a different place to refer to because reciprocity is important.

And I actually, I have a recent episode all about that whole subject about the number one way to grow your business is networking with other wedding professionals. So go ahead and listen to that because I think that would be so helpful in you understanding ways to go and interact with other wedding professionals without feeling, you know, Not genuine without it feeling salesy, all those things.

So please go take a listen. It's a great episode that had a ton of great feedback. So evaluate, check in with yourself. What are you doing that actually is, is purposeful to grow your business? And if you are fluffing things, check in with why. If I'm starting to do things that are dinking around that aren't really purposeful, Something doesn't feel in alignment.

Why am I spending time on these tasks? Why do I think it's important? Am I feeding my ego? Am I feeding my perception of everybody else is doing this? Am I just wanting to have my Instagram just look better because I want to keep up with whatever? What is speaking to you should be doing that? And just, like, ask yourself why.

Why am I doing this? And then you're going to tell yourself and then ask yourself why again, okay, I'm, I'm going in, um, redoing my homepage on my website again. Okay. Why? I want it to look better. Why? Because I want to keep up with other floors. Why? Just keep asking yourself why? Because you will keep digging deeper because I don't feel like I'm successful comparatively to these other floors.

Why? Because I think that they have three weddings a weekend and they're getting all these 40 grand weddings. Why do you think that? Why, why, why? Keep asking yourself why to check in and really start to elevate your thinking about the decisions that you are spending your time 📍 on. Thanks so much for listening flower friend and have an amazing flower filled week.