The Floral Hustle

  Hello, our friends. This is Jen and you're listening to the Floral Hustle podcast. Today we're gonna talk about profit and specifically how to make profit, not a bad word. . I, for years and years struggled in my business. I felt like I just literally had to give everyone this great deal and that m my path of Success was built on just doing tons of weddings and building this network of, um, referrals and experience.

And I genuinely love being a florist. I. Helping people. Um, but I, I literally, I was giving away the farm. I, I felt like profit was a bad word. Like me telling them what the cost on something with profit built in was just, uh, had all these negative feelings wrapped around it. And that is just not the case.

I, I really started making my whole business a hobby and. That's not the place that you want to run an actual business. If it is, you can always choose to make it, but with that, there is a lot of potential. Risks involved. If you are running a hobby and not running a business, uh, if the prices of flowers change and you've underbid it, you are nine times outta 10 going to just bite the bullet and pay for those more expensive flowers.

So having profit built into your business is critical. And so we need to change that narrative of how you feel about that. Uh, because when I wanted to start making money, I was at that point attracting. Not my ideal client. I was attracting people that wanted everything really cheap. Uh, I was attracting a lot of barn weddings.

I was attracting people that, um, didn't value my, my work, my design style, um, the lushness, the fullness of my work, my portfolio, and what I could actually accomplish. And. I just literally just kept repeating this cycle of couples that just didn't feel good because I had created from the get-go. All of these customers, and then they're, they're referring, obviously, they're their friends who have a similar mindset who you surround yourself with is going to, uh, You know, either be, this is your, your type of person.

I'm a, I am somebody that lives in this mindset. I live in this budget that you are usually going to get a similar referral from a bride, in my opinion. Um, they're gonna be a similar type of experience for you. Uh, sometimes it's a little bit better experience. Sometimes it's a worse experience. But if, if you want to attract.

A different client. You need to change a lot of things. And so that's what I did. I actually, I went through, and not only did I have to go through this, uh, complete mindset shift that making profit wasn't a bad, um, bad thing. I felt like I needed to change my identity. and so I actually completely rebranded my business.

I went and uh, I went through and I made a new logo, and I did all those things. And even with this elevated look and all of these things, I felt like I was still attracting the same client. And so I wasn't in love with my name anymore. Anyways, I made the big leap. and I changed my business name. I used to be simply stated Elegance.

I actually still have the website up cuz I owned it for so long. I just felt like I wanted to have it up and then I could create a gateway to explaining once I received that inquiry, um, the change in, uh, the name, the change in the direction of the business. Uh, because that experience wasn't the experience I was delivering anymore.

And. So it was a, it was a big change, but I am so grateful that I did, because I am attracting, and I don't know if it's the name or my mindset, but I am attracting a different client right now. I have elevated my business so much, not only with my design, it gave me more confidence in my design, but it really started making me think that I, I, I want to elevate my business to a level of, of profitability.

Really impactful for my family. And I mean, years ago I, if I, even though I was doing a ton of work, like there was a minimal, uh, value on our tax return because of course we did try to write a lot of things off against the business, but it, it just, at the end of the year, I just felt like, why am I doing this like this should, I'm putting a lot of work on, this should be impactful.

A lot of times, and I actually see people do this in a lot of the Facebook groups that I watch, is they post a picture and they go, how much should this be? What would you guys price this at? And I think that that is different for everyone. And here's why. For one, you might not copy that recipe, that photo exactly.

So that is a big, uh, variance because if you're using, you know, a third of the flowers or if you're using, you know, 1.5, the amount of flowers that are in that photo, or if you have a hard time even estimating in that photo, like the person that you're asking is not you. So if you listen to my, um, three Steps to Easier installations, I do talk about a very similar, a simple formula for pricing installations that.

Fast, easy and, um, gives you wiggle room to, you know, make it area over here, make it dense over here by using just a square footage formula, uh, which is just so easy in comparison to figuring out every single chunk of that installation and then pricing it out. But what a lot of people don't realize is that there's a lot of other variables that come into what this should cost.

Not only. , is it the, uh, you know, the vase and the flowers that are in it, but your business kind of runs with a different co cost structure than another business. You have a lot of other things. to pay for. And I, I'll just go through some of my expenses just to, to give a little, um, give a little introspection into, cuz most people are looking at that one transaction, but that one transaction.

And then the next one are needing to cover your operating costs and if you are not looking at your operating costs and, and making sure that those are covered just globally. You are going to be in trouble because those expenses can creep up. Uh, so some expenses that I make sure that I want to cover is my phone, uh, my vehicle, my van is covered by this business, and so I literally have my gas expenses and I'm not a tax person, so I'm not giving tax advice.

But these are some things that are expenses to my business. I might be making, you know, a profit here, a profit there, but I need to make sure globally the profit that I'm making in my business covers my expenses. And unless you're near tax time, which I just went through, um, some tax, uh, you know, kind of a tax recap to make sure that what things were looking like for the next year, um, for this year's taxes, um, how much should I pay myself, you know, all the different variables.

With that I have also, we operate the studio out of the garage. It's actually the reason why I bought my home. I walked into the, um, the garage. It was a two and a half by two and a half car garage that was heated, had a water source in it. and I, I was just like, yep, this is my house. I need this house because I wanted to be close.

Uh, I was seven months pregnant when I bought, uh, this house with my daughter, and I wanted to be able to have the floral business really close so that I could bring her out here. And I wanted to have a. Space that we could grow, uh, which I felt like this space we could. And so I actually pay, like I rent this because we use the entire, um, garage as the studio.

So I rent that back to my personal self. And so I need to cover that expense. I also need to cover a portion of the electricity. Uh, I need to cover a portion of the water bill. I need to cover a portion of my phone bill. I need to cover a portion of the internet bill. , I need to cover, uh, my, uh, van insurance.

I need to cover my website. I need to cover any, uh, additional subscriptions that I have from a personal development standpoint. Uh, like if you're in some type of membership or if you're in a mastermind or if you're buying courses, like all those things need to be covered, then you need to pay. And you need to pay help freelancers.

So it's really easy to look at one single item or one transaction, which is why I was talking about when people post, how much should this cost in the Facebook groups? Because they're like, okay, I'm seeing about a hundred dollars in flowers. So I was thinking like a three times markup, and so I'm gonna price it at 300 plus labor of 10%.

Well, is is. Where you should be if you can take this time before you've booked a whole bunch of weddings and really think, okay, uh, what are my operating expenses? Because that is going to dig into your profit. So you need to understand that first. Then you need to understand, okay, how much do I need to make to make this successful?

and then back into that equation. So on a quarterly basis, I need to pay myself this to make this work as a minimum. I want to potentially. Also have the business contribute and myself contribute to a 401k. So then we gotta put that into the equation, and then you need to map out. And if you don't have a tax professional, a tax professional should be able to help you with this.

I know mine does. The previous one I had did. It is a great resource because they, they live in the weeds of people doing this every day. I actually, I'm pretty lucky cuz my tax person has several Floris, which is, is nice because then she has experience, they have retail shops. I'm her only studio Floris, but they have that experience of.

Seeing what other floors are dealing with. She's asked me about expenses that I was like, huh, I never even thought about that. Um, that is a good idea. Why did, why didn't I think about that? So they, it's just more introspection because you are running a business to be profitable, to pay yourself and to make this worth it.

So knowing all your numbers, they might see some deductions potentially that you might not have seen. So that also is a super great resource as well. So take some time now, figure out, okay, what do I need to pay myself this year? What are my operating expenses?

Where do I want to take my business this year and what investments in myself, in my business do I want to make? Then step back and just back into all of those numbers, and then figure out, okay, with this I will need to do X amount of weddings with. X amount of average, um, cost. Let's say I need an average of a $5,000 wedding and I need to do 25 of them, or I need an average of a 10,000 wedding and I wanna do 10 of them.

Whatever it is, look at what your average is right now and, and use that guidance to help make that decision. And then, Try to meet with a professional and get some advice on like what your profit margin looks like, what your operating expense are, because they're going to make suggestions for you. And if you don't have that person, have a flower friend that literally will help you, you know?

If they are that kind of friend, and I hope you have those kind of friendships that, yeah. Like will you ever, will you look at like what I'm spending, I don't know if I'm spending too much, I don't know if I'm not spending enough, like this is what my average wedding is, this is what, um, I'm spending in labor.

Like what do you think? And if you don't have that person, I can be that person for you. I do one-on-one sessions. We can do, um, just a single one-on-one session that you can send me all that information ahead of time and I will look at your books. I will look at everything to see. , are you wasting money?

Are you in a good place? Are you at a point where you maybe could take on a little bit more risk and that would help you grow your business? Uh, and then if that isn't something you're interested, I also do monthly coaching. And so we could actually on a monthly ongoing basis, like set some objectives, set some goals, and really build a plan to make those goals happen.

You know, if you're building an action plan of all these things you want, you might need somebody to help support you. I know I personally, in my floral business, I invested over $20,000 in personal development this past year and that might seem absolutely and crazy. Um, cuz five years ago me, that was absolutely crazy.

Who would do that? I am. So much more of a floris of a human being of like my mind thinks differently because of who I've surrounded myself with. So if you are looking to really grow, you might need to grow your circle. You might need to get a coach. You might need to just to bring yourself to another level.

You just might need additional tools. There's expenses with that, but those are tax deductions. Talk to your tax professional because I, there's a line on my taxes that I basically deduct education, and that could be. Coaches that was coaches for me. I've hired several coaches. Um, I actually flew to Arizona and did a one day intensive with someone that I absolutely adore, that I wanted to be in her energy.

I wanted to be, um, you know, around someone who thinks like that, that thinks bigger. and I have, um, some courses that I bought, uh, this past year. I think I bought a Flourish Society, like Bloom Bundle and things like that. I mean, I love learning. And so I know that that's an investment and that's an investment that I look at at the beginning of the year to, uh, really e equalize.

And really stay in that area of profitability that I need my business to be in for it to, to make sense on so many different levels. So, Profit is not a bad word, and I hope that's led a little bit of insight into maybe changing the way you think about it, and I hope it did. Please let me know if this episode was helpful.

DM me on Instagram with your biggest takeaways or do a screenshot of the episode and tag me with your biggest takeaways that would be so appreciated. I 📍 hope you have a great week flower friend, and thank you so much for listening.