The Floral Hustle

  📍 Hello, flower friends. This is Jen. And you're listening to the floral hustle podcast on today's episode. We're going to talk about how niching down has literally skyrocketed my business. And last year alone, For my particular niche, um, which is cultural weddings, so Hindu weddings, Muslims, weddings, um, Sikh weddings, you know, anything, uh, Pakistani, Somali, uh, I primarily work with decorators.

And with that, um, one decorator really in particular that I do a large amount of business with, but I've worked with about, I think I worked with seven decorators last year. So what is a decorator? You might be asking a decorator is somebody that does pipe and drape. That's the, the drapes that go on the background.

They do structures. Um, they Um, potentially have, you know, all the wood backdrop items that are, you know, larger grand scale structures to make an elaborate backdrop on a stage. They could also be, um, ceremony structures like a mandap or a hupa. Or, you know, something like that, um, those are people who are usually decorators.

There's pretty much decorators for every culture. Uh, I know a Hmong decorator that does really, really well, um, working within the Hmong community. I know, obviously, um, you know, Indian decorators. I know a lot of those. I know some, uh, decorators that, uh, African cultures that they specialize in that. Somali cultures, uh.

Literally, there's like a little sub niche for every one of those religions or, um, you know, just like geo, uh, cultures. So languages, um, because then that like whole ceremony is in like Hindi or, or something like that. So a decorator sometimes does wedding flower, the actual floral portion of it. Sometimes they work with like a forest, like me who specializes in it.

Specializing that in that is kind of, it's been an evolved evolving process over the years. I did my first, uh, I think, I believe it was a Hindu. That was my first like Indian wedding. And I did that 15 years ago. And God, I think back to that wedding and oh my goodness, I had hot pink sticks coming out of a tall glass vase with orchids on fishing lines coming out of each one of those things.

Like that. The wedding, like in retrospect was pretty bananas and I didn't charge enough because stringing orchids is a very crazy process, but I got. In the club. So like, that was like my first step into the club. And I actually did 10 years later, I did her sister's wedding. So a lot of those communities also heavily go by word of mouth referrals.

And so getting into that niche has really, because I'm, you know, this decorator knows me and won't recommend me this family. You know, they're, they're very family friend driven communities out there that just want to refer people and want people that they trust and know do a good job. Uh, and so capitalizing on that.

Is something that has really helped because I'm great at, at building relationships, I'm great at keeping my promises. I'm great at selling myself, selling my business, selling that I'm an expert in my field. So I position myself as an expert in cultural weddings. I have that is content in my social media strategy to help.

It out there and speak to that. This is something that I'm an expert in. So how did that all happen? I did my first wedding and I loved it. I also at that wedding made, um, in the middle there, a Hindu wedding, or a lot of South Asian weddings will have multiple events. So they'll have either depending on where in, um, India, like, uh, A sand gate is the party before the wedding, where there's a lot of dancing and it's very colorful.

That's a very usually colorful reds, orange, hot pink, um, purples, and then, uh, They also, depending on, um, the exact culture, will have like a Haldi, which is like where they're putting the turmeric on, um, the bride and all these things, and then they have the ceremony, and then they have a reception. I've done a lot that they're the same day, and we're doing the ceremony in the early morning, like at 10 a.

m. Which then I'm either setting up the munda flowers the night before, or I am doing them, um, really early in the morning. I, I, I've showed up at. You know, five o'clock in the morning to start setting up flowers for one of these that has a ceremony at 10 a. m. And a lot of time at these events Um, they have a thing called a barat Which the barat is like bringing the groom in and it's a big celebration And that starts earlier.

So a lot of things need to be done because when the barat ends they're Kind of trickling into the ceremony. So, there's a lot of timing and a lot of details that definitely accompany these weddings. But I got into it because they are fun. They are inspiring. They always seem to want to outdo each other.

They're always something really out of the box that is fun and different. And there always is like some fun twist that they're trying to make on their wedding to make it different, especially if a lot of people in a certain friend group are getting married that year. And I became kind of immersed in the culture, immersed, and, uh, immersed in just like.

All things understanding the mechanics because the mechanics are probably one of the hardest things to understand and how to be profitable how to execute these type of weddings because they're often on pipe and drape, which putting a phone cage or some or even chicken wire, you can, you know, deal with like the structure is turning bending when you get a lot of weight on it.

So things have evolved in. That's one great thing about working with a specific decorator or specific person. And I'm saying decorator, but you could be working with a cultural wedding planner. We also have cultural wedding planners in town that specialize in these type of weddings, because there are so many details that are just crazy to keep track of that that's their jam.

And they understand it and they understand all the questions to ask. Um, they understand, you know, like. The dynamic behind them and. So you could be working with a decorator, you could be working with a, and I'm just talking about my niche of cultural weddings, but this could apply to a lot of different things.

So I got immersed in it. I started working with my friend, Nora, who I've talked about, who I absolutely adore and love, not only as a business owner, but like as a person, her and I just are, are really, I mean, she's one of my best friends. And. We talk sometimes like at midnight because we both are late night, um, people and we just, we like, love interacting with each other.

So like. When you love interacting with someone and when you love someone so much that you're working with, like, I, I would talk to her at 3 in the morning if she needed to talk at 3 in the morning, because like, I just want to support her and we want to support each other. And so you can find that relationship.

Like, I have found an amazing relationship with her. There's another decorator who I absolutely love. Her name is Rena and I. I mean, I love, she's totally different than Noor and just this really kind of fun eclectic. She's very like eco. I had to do my first foam free munda with her because that's important to her.

Sustainability is important to her and she's like always trying to make the world a better place. So I'd love to be in her space for that as well. And then there's another decorator that I work with. He's just like, he was the first. You know, um, person I did a month up with and like, just kind of a funny, um, you know, good, very agreeable, like, just as okay with how his business is.

Um, but I generally just a good person as well and likes working with me likes the price point. There's a couple other forests in town that are substantially higher. Uh, based on their service fees, um, because they're paying for a big building that I don't need. I'm not paying for. They're paying for a huge elaborate.

Employee staff that I don't have. So I just, I don't need nor want to charge as much because I want to, I want to create things that I want to create and be fair about the pricing, but still make money. And I still do make money. Then, um, there's a couple other decorators that, that like have seen my work and then I've reached out to me as well.

So I've built this, you know, name that this is my jam and I've even had people That other florists have asked them about this and they're referring them to me because it's just they feels out of their wheelhouse. So how could you get into this type of niche? And the first thing is like you, you need to do one, you need to know you like it.

You need to know you love it. You need to know that it speaks to your heart from a business fundamental and it's just not a financial thing because often these weddings are bigger. But things that you could niche into. You could niche into Jewish weddings. You could Indian weddings. Like I, I mentioned, um, if you have a heritage that speaks to, like, doing weddings in your heritage, like, that would be a huge thing because you're on a common ground already because of that.

But there's other niches that you could totally dig into. Uh, you could be in the barn wedding niche. And that could be your jam. You could be in the, um, sustainability niche that you are focusing on sustainable practices in your businesses or your business, and that is speaking to a certain client. So if somebody is wanting a.

Green or sustainable wedding, they're going to reach out to you because that is your jam. That is your expertise and you have built things in place to support that. You could also be in a country club, a hotel weddings, a, um, I mean, even your style could be a niche that you are light and airy in your style or you are more.

You know, roundy, moundy, more conventional, um, traditional, um, you know, that is also a style. You could be a niche of budget brides. You could be a niche of high end brides. The level of possibilities is endless and you define That whole perspective in your business. If you want a niche into working with corporate events, if you want a niche into doing corporate installs, if you want a niche into doing installs, period as a sub niche that I am, there is a florist in town here that installations are her jam and she, uh, does amazing like next level installs that are.

I mean, really some of them aren't my speed, but some of them are very interesting. And like she, that must just love feeding into her creativity and thinking out of the box ideas for events. And she's pricing that creativity accordingly because she's got a full staff. She's got a studio and you're never too young in your business to have a niche.

Cause this girl has been a florist and our own business, I think for three or four years. And she is killing it with 50, 000 weddings with. 35, 000 art installs in that wedding. So you can always create your own define definition of success and definition of what's going to make you happy. And that is part, your niche could be part of that.

I think my niche out of my, my business was like 275 last year. My niche, I think was over 150 of that between all the different decorators and things that I work with. So that's pretty substantial. And that could be you. You could do the same thing. You could fully, like, embrace something that you're loving.

Um, one of your niches could be workshops. I have a flower friend that she just rocks doing workshops in her studio. And I think she really loves doing it because I can see the excitement. And I'm so proud of her for, for growing something that is important to her

and that she loves and that speaks to her. Because that's why we're doing this. We love flowers. But we should love ourself too and marry those two things together to live in fulfillment, to live in our purpose, to live in where we want to be at. And So many people are afraid because they think they need to do everything to be successful and I am proof.

You do not need to do that You can be successful and define your own success and I am here hopefully nudging you along so that you can do that and make your your goals your dreams your big ass dreams like For once on a little time dreaming, what are your biggest dreams that you have in your life and your business?

And are you working toward them? And if you're having a hard time, like really diving into that, my one on one coaching, my monthly coaching program, I feel like the progress that I've made with some of my clients and just like defining. Like one of them, the situation didn't feel good and they completely found, felt empowered enough to just say, fuck this, this is not me because you define you, not somebody else.

And you define your success, not somebody else. Somebody else can help you along the way, of course, and we want that help in any way we can. All right, flower friends. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I so appreciate you. I so love all of the DMs that I've been getting with the feedback. And if you want support, but you're like, Hey, monthly coaching like this, I'm just not there.

Go join my Facebook group. I would love for people to be asking questions that I can help support them giving me podcast episode ideas by questions that I'm getting, you know, asked in the group. I watch Facebook groups because I feel like people. You know, especially because you don't know all these people in the group are asking questions that genuinely are, are on their heart that they're trying to figure out, but like, I personally go in and answer the questions in our Facebook group, I will, you can have my energy on your problem.

So go in and join the floral hustle. Facebook group. There is, of course, a Facebook page, but we have an actual group that I am curating for florists only or somebody that's going to be starting a floral business or freelancing. So it's not like decorators and all these people who don't live in flowers.

We're saving this space for like minded, badass people who are action taking, problem solving women. That want to grow their business. So go join. I would love to see you there. I welcome you guys in every week. And if you have a question, I want to hear it. If you have a question, you want to send me a DM. I want to hear it because I want to support you.

I love supporting you guys because I don't want you to feel alone. Like I did in the beginning of my floral journey, because that was just, I know it doesn't need to be that way. So thank you so much flower friend and have an amazing flower filled week.