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 business basics. Something that I run into a lot is florists cutting corners when it comes to running and operating their business. And some of those Things can be very expensive mistakes or could be very big mistakes that just cause a lot of stress, a lot of anxiety, a lot of like disappointment or just some challenges that you can run into.

So I want to talk about some of those things and explain how easy this potentially could be for you to remedy that. So one thing that I see a lot of. is florist not having business insurance and you might be saying, well, why do I need that? What do I need it for? Just like anything in the world, uh, you're driving a car, you're driving a motorcycle, you have a house insurance is there to protect you.

And with that protection, there comes a small monthly fee, but that fee What is a lot cheaper than a potential liability if something in happens in your business and you are having to pay for it personally. A lot of people that I've met with, they just they don't think they need it. They don't think that the liability is there.

They don't have the funds to take on that type of expense. It is, in my opinion, so cheap and so worth it because most florist plans are anywhere from 25 to 35 per month. So you can pay this monthly, and then you have the peace of mind of having coverage, of having your, your self protected. In my market in Minnesota, we are having venues who are starting to require you to have insurance.

They will not let you be a vendor at their venue unless you have insurance. And with that is... If you go to them and say, I don't have it projects a level of seriousness or lack of seriousness in your business, it projects a lack of professionalism because these are venues that have spent.

Millions of dollars and their insurance is obviously a lot greater because their liability is, is greater with having the public there and all those things here, it is, somebody that wants to come to their wedding venue and they're not even investing in protecting basic things. I've personally talked to venue managers that are just.

Floored that somebody hasn't got insurance, they just don't understand. Do I think some venues are completely unrealistic by the coverages they are demanding? We have a venue here that I had to several times call and personally list them on my insurance on my business insurance as a co insured part of my insurance.

My insurance is a tad different than a traditional forest plan and I'm spending, I think it's 80 or 840 for the year and how it's different is in my state. And I don't know if it's just my state or if it's just state farms policy, since I am operating my business out of a, the garage is my studio, the garage is a detached structure, so it is not connected to my house in any way, with running a business out of it, it voided my homeowner's insurance.

So running a business period in my detached structure voided my homeowner's insurance on the structure. So my current insurance covers the structure if something happens to it. Even if you're just sort of operating it they were pretty clear to me if there's any business stuff in that. Space that voids my insurance.

So I would always, if you are running a home based business, check with your insurance to make sure for one, this doesn't mess up anything with your homeowners or your renter's insurance for two that you're just covered. When it comes to operating a business out of your home, often there are, loopholes and things like that around you're operating it just the actual flowers potentially out of that, but you're not meeting with people in your home.

So maybe you're meeting people in zoom or you're meeting people at a coffee shop. Whatever your process is, I would share that with your insurance company so that you just know and there's peace of mind that you're covered. So having business insurance to me is very important. And I personally have my insurance through State Farm.

State Farm has a florist policy. It literally says florist policy on the outside of it. And so it was really easy because that is a streamlined policy that they had. I had one of my coaching clients go and get that same thing and it was 35 a month because she wasn't having to cover the structure separately.

Next thing, having a tax ID number. I don't know why so many people are hesitant to do this. I see in Facebook groups all over, people are like, where do you get flowers from when you don't have a tax ID? It's like, why in the hell don't you have a tax ID number? To me, this is a basic business. tool to be able to go and buy wholesale.

So you are not paying sales tax twice. So easy to do. I've done it just over the computer. I've set up a whole business just not leaving my home before. So it, it is a very easy process. You can get a sales tax ID number for your state. If you want to get a federal EIN number that Would also be great just so you have all of your different numbers So you aren't personally putting your social security out there for things that require an EIN because when you don't have an EIN you use your Personal social security card.

So having that in place is so easy You do have to make sure you are filing accordingly, and so if you sign up for quarterly sales tax You need to make sure that you're putting in your calendar reminding yourself that I need to do quarterly sales tax if you are needing To do annual sales tax because your sales are lower Making sure you put a reminder in to go and file so that you're not hit with penalties for not doing so Maybe you want to do monthly whatever it is.

Just make sure you have a plan to keep consistent with it All right, then the other thing is properly setting up your business. I have seen in a lot of the Facebook groups that I am, people are operating this under their own personal name because they feel it is some big leap to actually have a business.

You often, if your business is small enough, can do a addendum piece in your taxes. But still have a business name and make that process very easy and streamlined. You don't need to have a corporation to run your business. My business right now is a corporation and I have it as a corporation because I want to protect.

our assets. I want to have the business as separate as possible, but I also want to reduce my tax liability and by running an S Corp, I am reducing my tax liability by having things funnel in anything beyond any revenue beyond me paying myself a reasonable salary is funneled into that line. So it is super easy to have a formal business.

You can do it on a Secretary of State's website and then you just have that added protection. We did not hire a lawyer to run through because the state that I live in helps walk you through starting up your Corporation very easily online but just setting up a regular, like, sole proprietorship is even easier.

Okay, the next thing, Workman's Comp. If you are in the United States, You need to have workman's comp. You need to have unemployment filed for. These are things that my tax person who is helping with my payroll literally takes care of it for me. I don't have to do anything. They go and they send me an email.

We want to make sure you have money to pay this. The answer is never no. I'm like, yep, go ahead. And then they go in and set up that money transfer and payment for those two items. And I know that I'm being compliant. I know that I'm being covered if something happens. And so it is. Not very expensive to do and I just have that added protection.

I've actually also had a venue demand documentation of me having workman's comp, which seems like it's way outside their bounds of what is okay, but that is a requirement to be at their venue, which is crazy. Those two things are payroll type. Things that I have help from my person implementing my payroll, but there are tons of payroll companies that can help you take care of those types of things, but just making sure that you are, you know, dotting your eyes and crossing your T's from a coverage standpoint is so helpful because you feel this.

Sense of relief, like what happened if you got hurt, what happened if, if something bad happened uh, you fell off a ladder, you did whatever, like those things, having that coverage for is so helpful, not just from having them, but like, I feel so much more at ease knowing that I have, I have coverage I'm not like stressing about, if something happened, cause For one, that's out of my control and I can only control what I can control.

And so why add extra stress when you don't need it? Pretty easy, but seems to be hard for many business owners. All right, next thing, having a professional proposal. And I know this seems well, why do I need that? Like I can just tell them the pricing. Having a proposal that is visually driven is helping you cover your butt so somebody doesn't garner the expectation of photos they've seen and not put it together with, with this is what this is actually going to look like.

So it helps you deliver and them understand the sizing the everything of a, an item, it helps them visually. Picture it more, and that is going to help you sell it more. So it's really a kind of a step process, like I'm clarifying expectations. I'm selling it visually so they can get excited about it.

And I can then print it and I have the inspiration to make the order off of. So it is a great tool to help elevate your business. You can put your logo and branding on it, but also it is making you look like a professional. You are looking like you have a, a real business and you are like, running with the big boys because you have the template that makes you look like you are running a top notch business.

The last thing I'll just mention is this might sound really overwhelming to you, to have all these things in place might seem heavy. If it does, I have a freebie. It's at thefloralhustle. com forward slash starter. So this is like a starter kit that walks you through a million different things that you should be checking off your list to make sure that you have set them up.

And with that, it actually just has checkboxes. So you can almost have a task list of everything you need to do to start your business. One last thing I'll touch on, and this isn't a have to have, but I think it is something that makes your business look so professional is your email address being personalized to your website.

So many florists. In my email list, there are so many blah, blah, blah, blah florists name at gmail. com. I would say that's 75 percent of the emails that are in my system versus jenny at green goddess floral. com or jenny at the floral hustle. com. This seems really hard for many people as well, because it is technology and technology is not always easy, but there are easy ways, as long as you have your own website and you own the website name, you can take and go into Gmail and set up a personalized account.

email address with your business name in it. If this is difficult, find a friend that is good at technology or good at these type of things. You have to go in and you have to grab something off the DNS server. And I've literally just had my husband do it. And it's taken a few minutes. You get in a couple of days, you get the email that the connection.

Is complete and I think it's like six bucks a month from Gmail to have G Suite for businesses, which also gives you Excel, Google Drive, all the things. So well worth the six dollars a month in my opinion, but it's not that difficult either. I just think it's so professional when I see. Somebody's went the extra mile and that they're taking their business more serious because they've done the work to get their personalized email address.

So head on over to the floral hustle. com forward slash starter to get your starter kit that really will help you on just launch your business or really elevate your business to the next level. with very easy you know, just tasks to get, get taken care of so that you are putting your most professional foot forward.

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