The Floral Hustle

  📍 Hello Flower friend. This is Jen and you are listening to the Floral Hustle podcast. Today's mini sewed is all about anxiety in your floral business. Over the years, I think I personally have gone through stages of anxiety where things have just felt hard and I, I know lots of florist. Personally, but also in florist groups that I am in.

I see so many signs of anxiety or almost taking over a person's business. Like everything feels hard. Everything feels. Like it is just a shit show. So I wanna talk today about some things that you can do to help reduce your anxiety, to help feel more in control of your business because I think anxiety comes when things feel out of control.

I personally like when I feel like there's a million things happen. and I am, um, you know, really just trying to grasp what is going on, how I can fix it. And that is something that I feel like I'm good at, but even sometimes that can get the better of me. And I just wanna make a plan with you guys and show you how I regroup.

And the first is if things are, are really. The shit's hitting the fan right now. Things are just falling apart. Uh, let's just say you're in your studio and a million things went wrong. Like maybe somebody made something wrong or didn't understand your directions clearly. Uh, and flower bucket tipped over.

All these roses got damaged just like this domino effect of stuff just happened. There is so much power in a 15 minute reset if. Are at your wits end that you feel like you are getting angry. Your chest feels tight. Anything. Taking a 15 minute reset could help you regain. for one, your composure cuz you don't wanna be flipping out on anybody that's working for you, but also can help mentally reset.

So literally what I do when I'm at a point that, um, and this happens a lot when you're a mother, you just like, you need a pause cuz it's, everything just feels like a lot. Um, first thing you do is I just, I need to step away. I need to pause. I go and I sit down. and I think about what I have control of. I have control of, you know, ordering more flowers.

Um, so everything that went wrong, what can I do? What do I have control of that can remedy that situation? I honestly will take some deep breath. And I know that that is something that seems really hippie and really woo, but you need to relax yourself. I personally have like a, um, I have a Whoop, which is a fitness tracker, and I have a, uh, Fitbit that I track my heart rate if I feel like my, my heart rate is really.

Um, I, I know my blood pressure is probably really high if I'm that stressed out, so I just literally need to do some calming things to my body. I need to take deep breaths. I need to just sit down because I am a go, go go person. So I take this 15 minutes to reset myself mentally, and the world will not end with you leaving for 15 minutes.

I, I'm telling you, it, it just won't. So you can step away. Even if you have like a little corner in the shop, you have a favorite chair, you can get yourself some essential oils to calm the shit outta you. Do something to take action, to change your state of being, because if you keep going, you're going to stay in this state.

So that's my first thing. 15 minute reset. So invaluable when you are really trying to, Just change how everything is going. Wholesalers, I've mentioned this in previous podcasts, but don't put all your eggs in one wholesaler basket. Having multiple wholesalers is going to, for one, help calm you because you have backups.

If you only have. You are going to get in a situation that they didn't deliver and you have no backups. And I know that some people just wanna be really, really loyal to somebody. I am super loyal to my main wholesaler, but I, I date my other ones on certain items and that is totally okay. So not having that dependency in difficult situations, I go and I will order.

A difficult or hard to get item from two places. That helps reduce my anxiety because if one of them doesn't deliver, I'm still delivering for my brides, for my couples. Next thing, not promising specific blooms can so reduce anxiety because you leave things loose. I'm taking creative freedom, creative liberty to make the most beautiful flowers on your wedding week.

And if I get some hesitation, I will explain to my couples on how that this is their benefit, um, which I've done, uh, a previous episode on before, just not selling specific blooms in general, so that can help reduce your anxiety. And honestly, if certain types of things. Give you anxiety in the floral business.

That could be funerals. If funerals give you anxiety, you just are not available to do those. If weddings give you anxiety, I would love to help unpack that with you because I think weddings are a huge profit center. But if they. You're not available to do that. Making things easy from a fundamentals of what you are available for can help reduce anxiety.

My next thing, having things prepared ahead of time. I have everything possible prepped ahead of time that can be prepped ahead of time. Foam things done, VSES pulled, candles pulled. And so I have this as a list for someone that fills the role in my studio of making sure that Vses are pulled and, um, cleaned and, you know, just prepped and ready for the next week.

I have a dedicated shelf for those things to go on. So we are not scrambling. There is nothing more stressful than. Holy crap, I forgot something, and then you can't find it. And then on wedding week, you are having to call and basically, I mean, you're, you're basically trying to just get yourself out of quicksand and trying to fix the situation because you weren't prepared.

Prepared. Preparation alleviates anxiety, in my opinion, so that is having things prepared. vases, uh, any foam structures, any supplies you need, like if you all of a sudden don't have chicken wire. I know this seems crazy, but my wholesaler has been sold outta chicken wire three different times in the last, um, two years, which I think is bananas.

But I don't want to be scrambling and to have to run to Menards or Home Depot and get the non-green coated chicken wire because then I'm just worried about that and I'm worried about the rust, and I'm worried about it just. Not being green and, and showing up different, and then my helpers having to, you know, not, um, you know, be comfortable because they don't usually work with this type, whatever it is.

Having the proper tools and having those tools ready is so invaluable. Having enough help is my next tip. I know personally, and I don't know if you can identify with this too, if you've had that time. where you were, your ass was up till two in the morning doing a wedding because somebody was sick, or you just frankly, Think that you had the budget, didn't think that you needed it, you thought things would go faster, whatever it may be.

I'm sure that's happened to you if you've been in the floral business for any length of time. I know I've had multiple conversations with friends. They're like, I didn't sleep last night because I was up doing flowers till like three in the morning. I mean, which has been me too. You need to plan for help.

And so a good way to do this so you make sure that you have things covered, is go in and look at all the items. Think about your averages. Okay? It takes you an hour, maybe 45 minutes. For a bribe bouquet, it takes 45 minutes. For a bridesmaid bouquet, it takes 15 minute for a corsage, 10 minutes for a boot, whatever those numbers are, and map out.

What that looks like from a time commitment, add 20% time just in case, because things go out of sort sometime. And then also think of your prep time. So all of that, like processing, unpacking, all those things need to be accounted for. And then look at your available time with building in sleep, building in children, building in whatever.

If this is your side hustle. And ask for help. There are so many people that want to create flowers and especially if something is simpler, you can find a flower friend that is probably more than happy either to a swap labor when they have a wedding, or B, just like willing to help and and learn. And maybe if they aren't a skilled florist at a lower rate, you never know unless you put it out there.

And so getting that help will help reduce anxiety. I hope these tips were helpful. They're just a few that I try to live by. I always think, do I have enough help? Do I have things organized enough? Do I need to like just reset? Do I need to look at ordering from somebody or somewhere else? Because I just, I want things to be easy and I want things to be easy for you because I know personally things can be better.

So if you're stress. , take a deep breath and let's figure it out. All right, flower 📍 friends, thanks so much and have a great day.