The Floral Hustle

Jeni: [00:00:00] [00:01:00] Hello, flower friends. I have a treat. I have my friend Whitley here and we are going to do a live business coaching call. I love doing coaching calls and I feel like sometimes that so much information for others could be helpful. So I came out with this new series called Business Breakthroughs where we do live coaching and I'm excited to hear about you and your business and see what kind of questions you have.
So can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Whitley: Yeah, so I'm in Mississippi and I just started this business not even a year ago. It's really starting this year. , last year was testing out the waters. And I've gone to a few or two, , bridal expos and kind of gotten to like meet some people and [00:02:00] network and everything.
And, , so I'm still getting my feet wet a little bit and still learning, , everything I need to know. , that my, my business is called the Petal and Plume. And so I do, faux floral. Design and drive and I offer rental packages as well. And I'm a graphic designer for my career, like my full time job so I also do stationary design as well.
So, yeah. Yeah, so I'm a mom. I have a 7-year-old and I stay busy. , like I said, I have a full-time job and, um, I also like, am busy doing flowers and I also coach on the side, and so I also Oh, what do you coach? , cheerleading and tumbling. Okay, fun. Yeah. Yeah. So I stay pretty busy. , but yeah, like with this whole new business, like I'm [00:03:00] jumping in, like, and don't really know what to do. , I've had like a few friends, like give me some direction, but it still doesn't answer all of my questions. So I've been following you a little bit and seeing what I could learn from you. ,
Jeni: so quick question. So with where your business is at.
What are you primarily trying to do? You're doing like, obviously you can do the invitations, , and then you do silk flowers. Are you, are you trying to do silk flowers with weddings? Are you trying to do silk
Whitley: home decor or? Um, so I've been doing, , weddings. So last summer, , I did my friend's wedding. , So I did like a big arch for her with a custom base that I built and designed.
Okay. And, , Did her bouquet and I did a smaller bouquets for like her, , not bridesmaids, , she had, , little flower girls. Okay. And I did some boutonnieres [00:04:00] and it went really well. And, , then I had a photographer. Okay. That was doing a, , brought a bridal shower for her daughter and wanting some vendors to collaborate with her.
So I did some, uh, like an arch for her along with some arrangements for some tables and it went over really well. And I also was doing a lot of floral design for my last job. I worked for a wholesale furniture and home decor business. And so I did. Like these large scale installments with faux florals and but they were like, all like, you're really good at this.
Like, you should continue doing this. I've just had a lot of, like, positive, feedback reactions. Yeah. Positive feedback to my designs. So yeah, but yeah, I'm
Jeni: doing
Whitley: Weddings and I've got one scheduled for this August.
Jeni: That's what my next question was. So you have one scheduled.
So any of [00:05:00] these jobs till then, till now that you've done outside of when you were getting, you know, paid your regular job, have you had like a transaction that you like did something and got paid for it?
Whitley: Um, no, this will be my first official wedding.
Jeni: Yay. And how do you, how do you feel about that?
Whitley: I'm excited, but I'm also nervous because I don't know what it is that I need to include the bride on.
Like this is going to be a very over the top wedding. It's very custom. Uh, she wants monochromatic blues. It's the theme is under the sea or deep sea odyssey with Victorian flair and oversized elements of Alice in Wonderland. That is kind of like what the bride said. Yes.
Jeni: She sounds like a handful.
Do you? So
Whitley: yeah, so, she has, I've made the [00:06:00] quote and I've sent her a proposal and she loved the proposal. Okay. And then the quote, she, we. It started off as like a 15, 000 order and we met on 9, 000. So we had to narrow some things down. And so I'm going to be doing like a large round floral chandelier above the ceremony.
And a friend of mine is going to be building a round floral platform, round platform base for them to stand on. And I'm making a. Like a round floor floral arch that's going to be in four pieces so they can, it can be pulled apart and then moved. For the reception.
Jeni: Okay,
Whitley: and then making her bouquet and They have these Banisters, so it's gonna go down some banisters as well But yeah so like [00:07:00] My biggest thing with that is like I'm gonna have to figure out how to like source all this stuff because like the The company I used to work for we we did a lot of florals, but we don't have any You Blue florals at the moment, and so I'm going to have to be looking to source that out and then also trying to figure out how to go about painting or dying florals as needed.
Okay,
Jeni: so you only want to do silk, right? Like you don't want to get into fresh.
Whitley: Welcome. So yes, because like I'm in Mississippi, this is actually going to be on the coast and it's going to be extremely hot. So we're going to do so and dried floor like your,
Jeni: your dream for your business is to not ever do fresh.
Whitley: No, I would like to get into fresh. I don't really know a whole lot about fresh. I have done it for like showers and stuff, I think it's just kind of intimidating because like, I don't know that like how well they'll hold up, [00:08:00] like how is
Jeni: it there?
Whitley: Is it like a hundred or is it?
So in Mississippi, uh, in August, it can definitely be around a hundred, it can get up to like 110 sometimes. Um, and it's very, very humid here too. Okay. So like today it's probably going to get up to like 80 something degrees. Okay. But very humid too.
Jeni: So like
Whitley: you're worried it's super humid,
Jeni: you're worried the flowers might just like not hold up well,
Whitley: right.
I'm just worried like about them wilting or like turning brown or like, I'm also trying to figure out what the hardiness of each. Flower as well. So, uh, decided that like, I'm probably just going to go buy like a bunch of flowers, like from the grocery store every weekend, just to kind of play and kind of figure it out.
Yeah. Um,
Jeni: content for social media.
Whitley: Yes. But, um, just to kind of like get my, you know, hands dirty a little bit, just trying to figure it out. [00:09:00] But I want to figure out. How to do it on larger scales because like I make like these huge installments like I make I've made these big, large cranes out of.
Yeah, I saw
Jeni: that on your Instagram. I was really cute. And if you guys want to go look at these cranes are super cute. It's pedal dot plume, right? Yes. Instagram. Yep.
Whitley: Yes, and I've made like eight foot tall mushroom before. And we made a bit like a five foot tall butterfly. That's like kind of the wings like span off the wall and with large dandelions.
So those were a lot of fun. And, um, so I want to be able to do those, but, uh, like this last year I had a chance to be a part of like this big a collab with a bunch of vendors and they only wanted fresh flowers. And she was like, well, can you do one of those large scale installments with fresh flowers?
And I was like, Ooh, I've never done that before. And that's, you know, so I just, I didn't, I ended [00:10:00] up not doing it because I was so worried. That I wasn't going to be able to successfully do it because I didn't know much about fresh.
Jeni: Okay. So where do you want to start? I see you prepared a list. You want to start on your questions?
Whitley: Yeah. So, um, in my area, they're like all the floral, uh, florists here are just fresh. There's one girl on the coast that does faux, but in my area, like I'm really the only person that does faux, but I'm trying to figure out how should I market myself? Do I need to push towards that? I specialize in that area.
Like, is that what's going to make me stand out from everybody?
Jeni: I mean, if nobody else is doing it, that's definitely going to make you stand out. Yeah. One thing that I see because they're, like silk rentals are, are really, I think kind of. An emerging kind of subset for florists to get in [00:11:00] and I, we actually in my market have a couple of people doing it.
But I think the big differentiator is when you're doing like, really high quality silks that are like the real touch or the replica type or Um, You know, once that just like look really similar in color, in size. And I think those for one, they command a higher price point. I think your, the perception of your business is not cheapened by using, you know, like cheaper faux flowers.
So your ability to command a higher price point is so much easier. So like. even if this other person over there, they probably don't aren't using high quality because they're probably going to like craft stores or wherever. When you differentiate yourself with using high quality, I think you're setting yourself apart.
Whitley: Yeah.
Jeni: From the get go to even compete with the, the florists that are doing fresh.
Whitley: Yeah. I'm very [00:12:00] particular about wet flowers that I use because I want them to look as real as possible. Yeah. But I also like. Do you have like a modern kind of. Flare on mine that because like the flowers that, uh, I've been using from the wholesale company that I was working for we would sell flowers to like bigger name brands, like anthropology, Crate and barrel.
And so like, you know, they're good
Jeni: quality probably if they're,
Whitley: yeah, they're good quality, but they have like, you know, kind of a different look to them. I've been asked like, well, what flowers is supposed to look like? And I'm like, it's just kind of like, yeah, but it's a really cool looking thing.
You know, it's just modern and different. A lot of my flowers do look real too. And, um, like I've been at a market and somebody was like, Oh my gosh, are these real? And I'm like, no, they're fake. But But yeah, so that's, so that's one thing
Jeni: I think could really [00:13:00] differentiate you is if, if you're having an alternative, like let's just say your arch that you have is you rent it for 1, 100 or a thousand, but for them to get a real one compared would be 3, 500 or 4, 000.
Okay, you're just like your ploy or you're like marketing tactic would be right. I can produce something that looks real. That is a fraction of the cost that, you know, is easily transportable because a lot of those things you can't move them very easily. Right? So moving it into being behind your sweetheart table or your head table is dicey.
So, like, this is easily transportable, usually, depending on the exact arch. And, those things that look like real flowers, I think there's a perception that, like, people are doing real or baked flowers for Saving on money, you know, budget and with that more kind of real look, I think that that whole like stigma [00:14:00] around that kind of goes away too.
Because they look so real that people aren't going, Oh, they got fake flowers for their wedding. Does that make sense?
Whitley: That's another question that I had on my list was like, how do I go about the pricing difference between faux and real? Because like, I want to get into real as well and be able to offer that, but I don't know how to go about pricing them against
Jeni: each other.
Whitley: Yes.
Jeni: So have you done any pricing or like are from yes, I think
Whitley: for fresh. Well, I've looked at all the florists around here trying to get what their pricing was. The pricing guide that I have. Right now. So if somebody was to, uh, purchase like, and like keep to own like an arrangement.
Okay. I am charging about the same as what they are fresh. Okay. But they're keeping it. But they're keeping it. Okay. [00:15:00] Yes. And the thing is like, I don't know if I should be charging more because it does last, you know, it's not something that, you know, Wilson dies after two weeks. So like how
Jeni: much, like a bridal bouquet, what do you think, like one of your silk bridal bouquets costs.
Whitley: So I made a very large scale bridal bouquet last year and for my friend and I spent. About a hundred dollars putting into it and, um, yeah, so that one would have been probably if I would have sold it it would have probably been about three, three 50.
Jeni: Okay. That seems about right. And with those silks, those were probably like high quality silks too.
That's probably how you got to a budget of a hundred dollars a product. Okay. Well, I, I think that. You know, there's a, there's a really easy pricing formula for fresh. Um, most [00:16:00] people are doing three to four times the markup and then they're adding a labor percentage so that your labor is included in your, your, um, wholesale goods is included in one.
And then any supplies that you need, like, let's just say like it's a compote and you need the container. Then you're usually most. What kind of rule of thumb is at least doubling. Any hard cost of supplies, like your container, or let's just say you're using like ribbon and pins. I mean, those things can add up in the end.
And so having a markup on your supplies in there, but you're kind of only using supplies.
Whitley: Yeah,
Jeni: and there really isn't like this clear cut formula out there, which is kind of makes it harder in this situation because this is newer, like doing a lot of silks is just a whole new kind of way you can go in your business.
And so, like, I don't think like the doubling is [00:17:00] enough. Because it's just not going to, to be there, but I would at least double and then add your labor percentage, if not like three times and add your labor percentage. So in labor covers you going to get and source those things, labor you putting it together.
Whitley: Right,
Jeni: but there's another labor charge that is like your setup and delivery charge. If you have a tear down, if you're doing a room flip, like that's a separate labor charge and I label it. As such, like, this is a delivery room flip. This is a tear down. So, like, they are some floors will do this blanket.
Like, I'm going to do 10 percent 15 percent 18 percent as an overall percentage. But then also, like. They're the whole day and I'm kind of like moving things everywhere because you have just based on a flat rate price. They have you to do whatever they want that day. And so I always price my things [00:18:00] individually because then it's like, great, I'm leaving and I'm going home to snuggle my kids just like we would be instead of staying there.
Oh, I need to move this over here and this over here after the ceremony and then come back, you know, so.
Whitley: Yeah,
Jeni: that's kind of a structure for it at least.
Whitley: Yeah. So like I have the, the, the proposal quote that, uh, I made for that August wedding.
Jeni: Okay.
Whitley: And so, um, I had listed out everything. like her bouquet, 300.
The banister treatment is 900. The floral arch for the floor is a thousand. The ceremony floral chandelier is going to be 2, 250. thEn I have a design fee of 900, which is 10%. Labor, I charged 40 percent because I'm going to be having 2 assistants with me and then [00:19:00] transportation. It is a 3 hour drive there and back.
Yeah, so I'm going to be driving down to the coast. Yeah, and then coming back and I have to have a rental truck, but so I charge 750 for that and then supplies. I'm charging 10 percent that totaled out to be just over 9000. 9000.
Jeni: Okay. Okay.
Whitley: With the, the price of the bouquet and the, the other elements, like I, thought about like what was going to go into it about approximately how much I was going to be putting into it.
And then at least doubling it and then adding, like you said, my labor or time into that piece. And then I also, like, in this quote I put in there saying that, you know, it could be, like, within a range of, like, so if it's 9, 000, it would be, like, between 8, When [00:20:00] it's all said and done,
Jeni: could you have to source the item still?
Whitley: Yes. Okay. So the thing is like, if, if it comes out to be higher than I expected,
Jeni: so like just some feedback on pricing it, like I totally get like doing the different things I have found in the past and with coaching other florists that it's.
Those, those like additional, like the labor fee for making them, I would put that in the item because you want, when somebody is looking to not feel like, okay, what's this charge, what's this charge, what's this charge, what's that charge, just put it in, if possible, if it applies to an item that is being itemized, have that supply cost built in that item.
Whitley: Okay, so don't they can have like labor as a charge on there.
Jeni: I prefer to have labor, the actual labor of making the item included in the cost of the item.
Whitley: Okay,
Jeni: when we go to target, we buy a pair of shoes. We pay the price for those. Right? [00:21:00]
Whitley: Right. And
Jeni: that includes like them, you know. Going and making it in the labor for that,
Whitley: so.
Jeni: I think it's more digestible for someone.
Whitley: Yeah,
Jeni: to pay that labor in, in the, the actual cost of the item.
Whitley: Okay. Because like, whenever I sent off the 1st quote, she was like, okay, I see that this the labor fee is like, pretty big, like, pretty big. What all does that entail? And I'm just like, okay, well, like it's, you know, me sourcing me having to talk to you and email you.
And I mean, it's like everything, like, I don't, you shouldn't have to do that.
Jeni: You shouldn't have to defend yourself. So that's why I think you're left off the defense with people when things are included in that actual price, you know, you want to be like, okay, here is this item. I, I have people that pick up from me.
So if for some reason, they're picking up, I want them to be able to go on my website. Yeah, like this item costs this [00:22:00] much and that's including me making it and they can pick it up or not pick it up. It's totally up, up to them,
Whitley: right?
Jeni: Having that like just clear and then it's easier to explain that transportation fee.
Like, that's easy to explain. I'm driving 3 hours one way. I'm renting a truck.
Whitley: Yeah,
Jeni: the labor and the fee. They were like, I'm already paying for that item. I also paying separately for that. It just it makes sense to so set up delivery. Room flip, tear down, and then that transportation fee in this circumstance.
Normally that transportation fee for myself, I'm building in to my setup and delivery costs. So again, that's then only like one line item charge for the items to physically get there because essentially it is one item. You're doing one thing. It's taking multiple components, but you'll be, I want to be less on the defense and more on the offense and make [00:23:00] things as simple as possible for me to up and delivery, you know, deliver this to your location,
Whitley: right?
Jeni: I usually look at, like, that charges based on if I need a truck or not, if I need extra helpers. If it is an hour away or if it's 10 minutes away, if I have to go into a loading dock and then I have to get in a freight elevator, there's one place in Minneapolis, I have to give them my driver's license to get a cart.
Whitley: Oh my goodness.
Jeni: Just like all these little things. So like I look at how easy is this for me and then I just charge that flat rate based on like, All of those circumstances together that this is my setup and delivery,
Whitley: right? Okay.
Jeni: Then my room flip is same kind of thing. Do I have to bring somebody with me?
How long do we have? Same with the teardown. I usually price teardowns. If you needed me to come at nine o'clock, 10 o'clock or one o'clock, like that's a different price.
Whitley: Okay.
Jeni: Then if I need [00:24:00] another person, if I need my delivery truck still. Like, that's a, that's like an increased price, but it's only one price for the, cause it's only one thing for tearing down.
Whitley: Yeah.
Jeni: One action. Does that make more sense? It does. Yeah. I think it'll be less questions. I also don't like to have a bunch of questions in my email, right? You know, you're a busy mom, you're working, so if you can just streamline the process to make it as easy for the customer to make a decision,
Whitley: like
Jeni: that's how you want to set up your business.
Whitley: Okay. Okay. Yeah my other questions. So since I am a new business, I haven't really finished doing the whole business side of things when it comes to like taxes and like my business entity. And so I had originally formally have a business setup. So, I'm in the process of doing that. Um, so I have my LLC name the pedal and plume, [00:25:00] I don't know, be an S corp or not.
It was just me. So that is something that I'm thinking about doing.
Jeni: Normally to transition to an S corp, my tax person who, I mean, has several florists has tons of different businesses, normally like 50, 60, 000 in revenue. Is that her for you to make that change?
Whitley: Okay. So I shouldn't worry about that until.
Jeni: Okay.
Whitley: Okay.
Jeni: so, and if you're wondering about this after this legally page is somebody I bought my contract with, but they have a great download of walking you through. What being an LLC being a S corp and like all the different levels and like the pros and cons. So I'll send you the link to that to download and then I'll put it in the show notes for everybody.
Cause I, I downloaded it and put it in my new florist foundations course. Cause I just thought it was spelled out like so well. Cause that's confusing. You're like, I want to be this one. [00:26:00] Why do I want to be that one? Yeah.
Whitley: That's awesome. Thank you so much. So let's see. Okay. So how much, so process from getting, I just, I'm trying to figure out like the whole process from beginning to end with a client.
Jeni: With a whole flowers client. Cause honestly they're going to be different.
Whitley: Yeah. So right now, like whenever somebody You know, writes me about like, Hey, I'm interested in your work. I'm like, okay, great. Here's my pricing guide. I send them my pricing guide. And I'm like, all right, take a look at this.
Let me know what you're interested in. Do you want to rent or do you want a straight up purchase or what do you want to do? And then we'll have like a phone conversation. Okay. About, What their plan is if they want to rent or whatever, and they'll tell me, you don't want to do video. You like to do phone.
We haven't done.
Jeni: I haven't even thought about doing video. Like if you can [00:27:00] get in front of somebody, get in front of them so they can see you. And like, like, that's where they see personality. That's when they form a connection with you.
Whitley: Okay.
Jeni: I always, ask for a video chat. Okay. Because I also like in my studio here, I will have, I have rentals, so I have like candle rentals and I have, you know, like paper candles and I have cute bowls and everything.
You could have your little arsenal of beautiful silks. Yeah. And be like, I use high quality silks and then you could take like this rose, like this is like a replica of a Playa Blanca rose. Yeah. And like, this is the most common rose. It's absolutely beautiful. And then they can see it. Yeah. and then they can see you start to feel your personality.
You're smiling at them. You're excited to meet with them. They feel that energy that will come to their wedding that day. This like energy that you have in your business that shows up at their wedding and they can feel that.
Whitley: Okay. Awesome. Yeah.
Jeni: [00:28:00] You zoom, I give them options like FaceTime, zoom, or Google meet.
Yeah. If you have gmail calendar, which I think you probably do. Yes, you can send them a Google Meet invite out of your calendar, and you can just join in in the Google Meet and not have to deal with zoom or anything else.
Whitley: Great. Awesome. That, that makes so much sense. Okay, so like, then like after the phone call.
Then I'll be like, Okay, well let me take these notes like every. Thing that you told me and all create a quote for you. And so then I'll take everything and then I'll make a listed like an itemized quote along with like the, you know, labor, transportation, all that kind of fees. But so then, like I just did this the other day.
Now I haven't heard back from her. So I'm just like, okay, now I need to follow up. say, this one that I've already done that I've got - and the works for August. Yeah. So the quote. She [00:29:00] comes back and she's like, well, I kind of really want to be under this amount because at first she was like, I don't really have a budget.
She's like, this is all I want. And so I was like, all right. So like I listed out everything and, um, By the end of it, it was going to be about 15, 000. And she was like, Oh, well, I wanted to be like around nine at most. And I was like, all right, well now I need to go back and figure this all out again.
So what
Jeni: is in your starting at menu? Like what, what is in your like basic pricing menu?
Whitley: My, so my rental packages, my very smallest one is starting at 500. Okay. And what's included in that? So I'm working on reworking this because I feel like I'm not charging enough. Okay. So like my smallest package, I think I'm going to change that to be like an elopement package to where it just contains like a bouquet boutonniere.
And, [00:30:00] like, some kind of ceremony piece. That you are renting or are they buying? Okay. Which, with my rental packages, they get to keep their bouquet. Because most brides want to keep their bouquets. Yep. I'm allowing them to keep their bouquets with all rental packages.
Jeni: Bridal bouquets and bridesmaids or just the bride?
Whitley: Adjust the bride. Okay. Um, so right now, what I've had was the petite package was 500. They have the bridal bouquet, the groom's boutonniere, three bridesmaids bouquets and three boutonnieres. Okay. No ceremony. No. Okay. So now, like, after, like, talking to a couple of friends, they're like, wow, you're not charging enough.
And I'm like, okay, well, all right, let me try to rethink this, but I'm also thinking this is a rental package. And so I'm just like, I don't [00:31:00] really know where to go from there. So I have the option of doing like semi custom. Okay. And fully custom. So there's two different types of rental packages like the semi custom would be 20 percent labor because it's going to be done with everything I have on hand in their color scheme.
That way, I'm not having to go out and source anything. Also, there's not going to be a design feed with it as well, because I'm going to be, it's going to be my choice on. They're going to basically give me their color scheme and I'm going to take it from there and I'm going to, you know, make everything so no design fee, 20 percent labor with a full custom designed rental package, it would be 30 percent labor and a 10 percent or no, sorry, still 20 percent labor, but there's going to be a 10 percent design fee added to it.
Jeni: Again, I would just be including those fees in the item price. [00:32:00]
Whitley: Okay,
Jeni: people don't want to feel like their feed to death because like caterers do that. There's like a cutting fee. There's a, a bartender service fee and a five, whatever. Like I would just have this included in your price.
Whitley: Okay.
Jeni: It's going to make you less having to defend your pricing.
Okay. And also you can say like you just get the price and then the only thing is if they want a separate service of you setting up and delivering separate church. It's really easy to just like position that like, here's the price for this item and they can pick it up at that, that price. If you want me to deliver it, there's an additional fee based on the parameters of that delivery.
Whitley: Okay? So I should just have like bridal bouquet. It's gonna be, let's just make up a number, a hundred dollars for semi-custom. That's gonna be whatever I have on hand to make your bridal bouquet. Then, so
Jeni: I
Whitley: would come
Jeni: with color schemes. And then I would just have, so like, to [00:33:00] me, setting this up is, okay, here is this cookie cutter way for you to do business with me and the most popular color palettes that are currently, so that could be simply white, like with white and green, that could be soft and romantic, blushy, peachy, light blue, whatever you could have a a Like an autumn one, like a fall inspired one, and maybe like a colorful one.
And if you want dark and moody, you could have that. So like, I have this offering in these five colors.
Whitley: Yeah.
Jeni: This is what it is. This is the pricing. Mm hmm. They want something more than that, or different than that, you're, that's when you go to more like of your customization and that's when like, for me, minimums come into place.
And also like me understanding, like I'm meeting with them, I'm spending more time with them. Like these people, like. They're this is so simple. I've made the process so simple. They can just do business with me. Right. Looking at my [00:34:00] guide, looking on my website. This should be really easy. I'm, it's a little bit less expensive because I'm doing less work.
I'm not having to field a million emails. I'm not having to do calls. I'm not having to do all those things.
Whitley: Yeah.
Jeni: Like that is
Whitley: Right. Okay. It's
Jeni: full service and that I do a quote for. Okay, that makes sense. So they're like two different service offerings. Here's I call it my a la carte. Uh huh. You can have your, your, my a la carte rentals.
Or fully my full service or my customized rentals.
Whitley: Okay, that makes sense.
Jeni: Yeah, so this
Whitley: is,
Jeni: this is how you do this with me. This one or this one.
Whitley: Okay.
Jeni: Want less than whatever you set your minimum. Let's just say you set your minimum at 750 for full service. Like anybody that inquires with a budget under that is automatically shuffled over to here, to the a la carte program.
Whitley: Okay. And you can
Jeni: do the same [00:35:00] thing with fresh, like this can be duplicated for your, if you add fresh down the road.
Whitley: Okay. Awesome. Yeah, that sounds great. Okay, let's
Jeni: see. So we were talking about starting up your and is there any, like, questions you have around that? Because I, I, I know we just talked about the escort, but was there any other?
Whitley: I think. One of my struggles is being seen or being found or like, you know, getting new clients. Like I've gone to, to bridal expos and I've had so many people be like, Oh my gosh, I love your stuff. And they loved the pricing guide. They loved that. I had all the pricing out front. So it's just like, following up with them.
Like I had a, like a card on my table. Table that was like enter a win like boutonnieres for your wedding or an illustration for your invitations or whatever. Yeah, and so like, I got their information [00:36:00] that way. So I've been wanting to set up like an email blast that has like photos of my floristry. And like, send that out to them.
Okay. Do you have an email system? I do not yet. Okay. So I've been wanting to do that, like follow up with them. And just like maybe offer a discount. Okay.
Jeni: And you mentioned that they loved that the pricing was easy. Do you have all these additional fees kind of listed out in your, your pricing guide?
The additional fees now. Okay. So that could be something to like, if they come back afterwards and then all of a sudden you're telling them more prices yet. Another reason if you will, I love when there's pricing transparency in a florist business, I think it makes it so much easier on us. But like, those fees should be included.
If that's just being published, or it should say plus, plus, plus, I will put like, plus any, service [00:37:00] charges for setup and delivery and tear down. And then it's just really transparent, but we didn't get to the point. It sounds like somebody's reaching out and asking more questions. Is that kind of where we're at?
Like, they saw you there, they're interested, but they haven't reached out from there.
Whitley: Right,
Jeni: exactly.
Whitley: But yeah, so like I've also thought about going to local stores like dress shops, and like bringing like a small arrangement for them to have in their store with my business cards. And, and that way, You know, when brides are there shopping, they can see their arrangement and pick up my card.
Jeni: That is a great idea, but I wouldn't do an arrangement. I would do a bridal bouquet. So that when they say yes to the dress, they can actually see themselves and, and this beautiful bouquet. And like get the vision of what that's going to look like on their day, and then they're going to have photos of that because they're going to have photos of them in [00:38:00] that dress with that bouquet when they said yes.
And so if you reach out to some different bridal salons and say, Hey, I would love to To partner with you to give you the opportunity to have your clients have that say yes to the press moment with a bouquet and there'll be like, Oh yeah, that sounds good. And so then I would love to set up like a little.
Display maybe on your counter that has a bridal bouquet, that's in a neutral color palette but kind of whimsical. And so that they get that feel, especially when they go get the veil and they're putting the veil on and then they could bring the bouquet. And then I'd love to be able to do that and put some business cards there for you.
Whitley: Yeah. Awesome. I love that.
Jeni: I think that's, that's a really great idea to really, especially cause like they won't die.
Whitley: Yeah, I'm happy
Jeni: to keep go go
Whitley: back. So yeah, that's such a great [00:39:00] idea. But yeah, so I've also wanted to like, reach out to venues because like, when I've talked to an event planner or somebody before they were like, Oh, they, it's easier, you know, to get clients when you're on their preferred vendor list or whatever.
And so like, I'm like, okay, maybe I need to go to vendors and like, show them what my capabilities are. So I don't know, like, do I need to take, do I need to take a bouquet, an arrangement photos, my pricing guide. So I go about putting myself in front of them.
Jeni: I've three times done kind of a blitz what I say, like a blitz, like I'm, I'm doing a concentrated or focused energy on trying to get.
My name in front of more venues, more wedding planners. And what I've done is two different things. I've done like coffee and cookies. Okay. I had my logo like put on a, this. Like a cookie person [00:40:00] locally that makes like custom, put my logo for green goddess floral on a cookie. I put two of those in there.
One had a bouquet on it. One had my actual logo. And then I put a, a thermos that I bought on like Vista print with my logo. And a little individual coffee and said, I would love to set up a virtual coffee date with you to tell you more about my business and learn more about, okay. So I put those in like little mailer boxes and I mailed them out to like 10 different people.
More than 10 is too much just for you to keep track of, mail those out. And then I, I literally probably, I think I, I had virtual coffee with like five of the people and I had seven of the people tag me on Instagram when they got it in the mail. Oh, wow. Yeah. So that's 1 thing that I did. I also you know, was when I started really growing flowers.
I did this thing where when I near, like, when things were really popping, I went and I did another blitz. I went [00:41:00] and found, like, 10 people and I made arrangements and dropped them off. And had like a little, you know, like trifle brochure and just said, I just wanted to share a little bit of sunshine in your day.
So I made these up and I just would love to introduce myself. And I'm, you know, I'm doing this via email, I'd love to drop off some fresh flowers for your guests when they're coming in to enjoy and just introduce myself and tell you a little bit about my business because it is different, especially if you're doing the rentals like in silk.
This is different. It is a more sustainable option in many people's mind because it's like lasting forever. Even though some people are like, it's also plastic and you know, there's kind of a internal debate about it. But I think that that's an angle that you could take. I see more success with wedding planners than I do with being on a venue preferred venue list.
Okay, because that person is directly [00:42:00] in front and is in their best interest that that client is working with people who are competent and are going to do a good job and that there's going to be no question on how things go on wedding day, right? So, like, building those relationships. They're going to be referring people more naturally because they're with that process.
The venue is like, you booked me, we're going to work out day of logistics and probably the catering, but they don't care about who else comes.
Whitley: Okay.
Jeni: They're like not as invested as a wedding plan is.
Whitley: Okay.
Jeni: That makes sense. So I would start, my first thing I would recommend, cause I think I looked at how many followers on Instagram do you have?
Whitley: Not many,
Jeni: a couple hundred, I think my, yeah, something like that. So like, I'd love for you to start this process of go in and find every week, 10 to 15 different wedding professionals in your market. Okay. [00:43:00] Go and follow them. When they return. The follow and about half of them will.
Whitley: Okay.
Jeni: I would send them a DM and I would say, thanks so much for following me back.
Yeah, I really just absolutely love you know, something from their feed, like make it be known that you actually Went and looked at their feed. I really love, you know, that blue style shoot that you did. And you know, I'm, I'm doing this business is actually renting silk flowers, which nobody around here is really doing.
And so I would love to have the opportunity to tell you a little bit about my business and learn more about yours. Okay. Because you might find a client that needs a wedding planner. You might find a client that needs a photographer,
Whitley: right?
Jeni: And then you can tee them up potentially for that referral as well.
So I think it seemed like I want to do an equal energy exchange. I want to learn about your business and I would love for you to [00:44:00] tell, you know, to tell you about my business. Okay, great. Does that make sense? And so like, I would start like that cadence every week. Like I'm, you pick the number 10 to 15 percent or 10 to 15 people every week.
Then you're in there and you're going and responding. Okay. Does that make sense? Yes, definitely. Definitely. So that could be like the lowest hanging fruit. And you could also, like if somebody engages back, maybe you do like a virtual coffee date or maybe you do an actual coffee date and you can go and bring them a little, a little flower arrangement.
that they're going to hopefully tag you on Instagram for and all that
Whitley: good stuff. Okay. I have a fair amount of photographer friends in the area. Like you were saying with the whole bouquet thing with the dress shop,
Jeni: would it
Whitley: be a good idea to do something like that with photographers as well?[00:45:00]
Jeni: They're not usually in the part of that process that like, You could be interjected right there. So like the dress shop, it's like, it's a direct inner, inner, you know, interceding because here they are in this dress and you're putting that together. They're usually meeting with them just like how we're meeting, they're, they're not in person.
So that would be hard, but you could, and this would be a really cute idea is you could send out to photographers a little mini styling kit with silk blooms. That's
Whitley: cute. Stop, Flatley's!
Jeni: It's got like a really nice open rose. It's got like a ranunculus or a butterfly. And then it's got a couple cute, like maybe satin ribbons.
And so you could send that out, have a little tag or something that calls out, Hey, I just was, um, wanted to share a little something. For to make your job easier on wedding [00:46:00] day, here's a styling kit. If you want to bring with you and then you can use that. If you take me, I'd really appreciate it. I'd love to connect and learn more about your business.
Whitley: That's awesome. Yeah, I love that. On the opposite end of weddings, okay, there's also like getting into the business of like funerals or hotels or store displays. Okay. So I've thought about those things too. Um, does one seem more appealing
Jeni: displays.
Whitley: The hotels is definitely something that I've thought about in store displays, because that's something that I'm very used to doing because I've had to do that for the store or for the showroom front wall display for my last job. So store displays is something that is very like. second nature for me, I guess.
But hotels is something that I definitely am interested in doing. And
Jeni: you're interested in doing foes [00:47:00] like one time, or are you wanting to do like weekly rentals and change out their displays?
Whitley: I'm not sure. I haven't thought about doing, I haven't thought about rentals for a
Jeni: rental. They come in and you change it out every, Every couple of weeks or once a month, even.
Whitley: So how do I go about putting myself in front of those people?
Jeni: So I would for one, put it out in your ecosystem, like on your website first. So I would create a page that is dedicated to, realistically, their hotel is somewhat corporate as well. So and you're doing a display so they could on the same page and for SEO purposes, I would definitely do this.
You're going to build that page and you're going to talk about like what's possible and it's going to have that, connection of them being able to fill out a form to connect with you afterwards. So I would start making that page. Then I would start once a [00:48:00] week on your Instagram. Make some type of post that is related to supporting that initiative.
Okay, that you're consistently getting it out there. That you do corporate displays, you do hotel displays. Okay, so then, that frequency. I pick a day of the week to make it like it is, I have like wedding Wednesday, or you can have tip Tuesday or, you know, I create theme days cause I think it's easier for one, especially as a mom.
Oh yeah. It's Friday, fun Friday. I'm posting about businesses. Okay, and pushing that initiative forward because what happens is somebody will make a web page and then they never promote it. Having consistent promotion is like step 1, then step 2, I would create some type of like postcard or communication that you can mail or just send and you just say, hey, I would love to [00:49:00] tell you a little bit about my silk flower rental program that will really help elevate your lobby.
and create a guest experience that, that wants them coming back for more. So you're like selling the sexy of this whole process. Yeah.
Whitley: Okay.
Jeni: Then from there, you send it to the hotel, to the hotel general manager or whoever, sometimes you can go on their website and you can actually see who is kind of like the hierarchy of all the employees.
And The general manager, the catering person, whatever, target that person and then potentially try to find their email. And then after a week, and I would do this again in a blitz. So like when you're focused on something, you're putting your full energy. If you're like trying one or two, like you're gonna, you know, you're never really gaining the momentum of talking to a whole bunch of people.
So I send out 10. 10 that you've targeted [00:50:00] and then really, you know, go back from there and then follow up.
Whitley: Okay. So that would
Jeni: be a great start.
Whitley: Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So 1 thing that I'm in the process of trying to figure out for this wedding that I have to do with monochromatic blues is if I'm not able to source. all the blue florals that I need and I want to dye or paint. Do you have any tips on that?
Jeni: So I really think it depends on the product that you're dyeing or painting.
So the like real touch are going to paint completely different than something from like Hobby Lobby.
Whitley: Right,
Jeni: so it really depends on the quality of the silks. I would use design master paint, which is a florist specific paint. If you're going to paint anything, I would get 1 and I would test it. They also have like dies, but most of the [00:51:00] dies are for fresh.
And they're like dipping them in there. So you could potentially try that and dipping. I don't know anybody that's personally tried to change the color of silks because they usually just source that color some way somehow.
Whitley: Yeah.
Jeni: So you can always test one, like with a dip dye or with just spray, spray painting it and see.
Whitley: Yeah. Okay.
Jeni: Blues are a really hard one. You picked a really hard first wedding from a color standpoint.
Whitley: Well, I'm up for the challenge.
Jeni: Yeah, it'll be good.
Whitley: Yeah, I'm excited about it. I don't, I think that's all the questions that I have on my list. That
Jeni: was a good chunk of questions. Do you have any more questions on like any of the answers that I gave you?
Whitley: I don't think so. Everything that we talked about was so helpful. I mean, you
Jeni: should be, I know like as business owners, you don't [00:52:00] hear it enough. And obviously you're around cheerleaders. If you teach like that is amazing that your first wedding that you booked is 9, 000. So you should be super proud of yourself.
That is holy shit. Amazing. I'm just, yeah. See, so five, 600, their first wedding.
Whitley: Yeah. So the only reason why I was able to get that is because, so you remember me telling you how I did the photographer's bridal shower for her daughter? Well, it was at a venue down on the coast and the venue owner was there and she was just looking at my stuff and she was just like, And all of it.
And just like, can't stop going, you know, you should do this. You should do that. And I'm like, of course, a million things. Yeah. We ended up talking for hours that day after I finished setting up and she just was loving it and she was like, I want you to come back and I want to talk business with you and all this stuff.
And I was like, okay. And so she has like listed me as her preferred vendor from then on out. And so she [00:53:00] had this girl come in and wanted to, rent her venue for her wedding. And she was like, this is what I want for my flowers. And so she was like, yeah, well, there's only one florist I know that can do this.
And so she asked me to do it. And I was like, yes, I would love to. Great. Yeah. That's amazing. You should be really proud of yourself.
Jeni: Yeah.
Whitley: Thanks. I'm, I'm very excited about it.
Jeni: Well, it was so nice to meet you and I loved all your questions and thank you for being on the podcast. I'm sure so many people are going to be learning from the conversations that we had.
Whitley: Yeah. Thank you so much for meeting with me. I've really enjoyed it and you were so, so helpful. [00:54:00]