The Floral Hustle

  📍 Hello, flower friends. This is Jen and you are listening to the floral hustle podcast on this week's episode. We're going to talk about planning your wedding week for success. Many people, they thrive in having some organization or structure around their week. And if you do the right prep work, your wedding week, or even if you are doing like corporate events, or if you have everyday deliveries, if you are prepping your week, you're going to be so much more productive.

You're going to feel so much lighter in your business, which I think is. Very important and you are going to deliver better work because you are not rushing. You are not throwing shit against the wall and seeing if it sticks because you are prepared. So I want to talk about some of the things that I personally do to prep for my week.

And you if you ever have any ideas or like, Hey, have you ever done this type of prep work? I would love for you to send me a DM on Instagram because I, I would love to understand what you guys are struggling with. I am a person who. Can handle a lot of pressure. I can handle a lot of I am the ringleader of the circus, but I am not a stressed out one.

I'm a very calm, very I strategically know all the pieces that are, are moving forward, are going to come with our end result. And I can still do that with having other things in my life, like going to CrossFit. Taking my kids to camps, um, going to the chiropractor, doing all the things that make me healthier.

I can still do all that and still get my wedding done because I am prepping properly. So the first thing I want to talk about, and I've talked about this in an Instagram. Video a few times is Sunday night prep. And this prep is for me as a person, for me as a business owner. I take this time to connect and understand what is going on for the week.

I get my family on that same page so that they understand what's going on this week. So I am not sitting there as the conductor having to tell. Everybody who's going where all the time, because that is exhausting. I have a magnetic calendar that is on my fridge. It is one that is a dry erase and I can go in.

I could just fill the days and the spots in, and it's super easy. But me just doing that doesn't get everybody in the house on the same page. So I need to make sure that I share. Hey, just let you know, I got this week's schedule updated. If you want to take a look and then let me know if you have any questions to my husband, to the kids.

I, you know, we walk over there. Okay. This week you have camp. And it is Monday through every day from nine to noon. And we're just talking about it. We're getting it to see Ben that they're going to have stuff going on so that they understand. Then I am taking my personal, I have a paper planner. I love the happy planners.

They sell them at Michael's, but they also sell them online. And I have a little insert sheet that I put in in the week, and I'm writing all the things that I need to get done this week, and I'm looking at okay, I need to email the tax person, and I actually categorize them by personal, by business, by kids because, you know, then I can pick them An item out of each category to work on.

So I feel like I'm moving things forward. Then on that personal schedule, I'm going, okay, I want to go to CrossFit this day. I have to get flowers this day. Okay. I going to be over here. So I could go to the chiropractor. So let me call and see if they have a, an appointment that day. I'm going to go get my hair done this day, or I need to get.

Flowers, but I'm not only going to get flowers from this place, but I'm also going to be getting it from, uh, northerly flora, which is one of my favorite flower farmers. And so I also need to launch that workshop. So how am I going to fit that in? And I'm looking at my schedule. So I'm, I'm organizing.

Tasks that I want to get done into my week. Then, I am also one of my things that I do is I don't want to be bogged down with something one every day of the week. So I pile all of the mail up for the week. in a little mail bin, and on Sundays I go through it. If I see a bride's check or a couple's check, then I'm going to you know, obviously go in and just grab that out, but it's usually staring at me because it's got handwritten and it's not printed.

I go through all this, I rip, you know, if it's something medical, if it's something that I need to do for the kids, if it's something I need to do for the business, I'm, taking everything apart, throwing the, you know, recycling the excess. And looking at these things, like, how do I need to build these into my week?

And then, it's usually just writing a bunch of checks. So that's pretty easy. Then, from there, I am going to look at my to do list. And if there are anything really, really pressing, then I prioritize that. And I try to time block that out for actually happening this week. I time block or try to batch.

Things that I'm doing. So like I usually batch my podcast episodes, I, my monthly coaching clients, I try to have them on Wednesdays because I want to be in a coaching mindset. So I'm batching my coaching together on Wednesdays. But if you have one off tasks that need to be done that are really super important, sometimes just popping that into your schedule will help you prioritize getting it done.

Then. On Sunday, I also, anybody that sent me a contract, I print it because on Mondays, we have marketing Mondays and my my assistant comes and she's scheduling social media posts, she's doing all the things that are critical to me getting things done from a social media perspective, from a business perspective, Perspective so I'm printing all those things if I need to print anything and then I'm putting them so I know that I'm pulling that out to bring that to the studio and get that handle.

Then, I also am printing my weddings. So any of my Canva documents that are for the weddings this week, I'm printing those as well, and I've already, the week prior, looked at inventory that I'm going to need and gotten totals so that I can go in and I can just give that to my person who helps with those items.

So I've gone in and I've gotten all my totals and okay, I need like 11 sets of tapers. I need 55 votives. I need 19 cylinder races for all of the bouquets that we're making. I need five by five cylinders. Okay. Where are those? Those are at storage. So then I'm going into my schedule. When am I going to run over to storage?

Because they also need to be cleaned then I need. And so I'm going through and I'm like writing my little list. Of everything that we need. I'm usually doing that the week ahead of time, but I'm checking in or all those things pulled. So I'll often walk out here. I'll make sure all those things are pulled and I'll check it.

Otherwise I have a very thorough helper with that. And so I'm usually not worried that things are going to be off because she also grabs extras. So when you are pulling the items you need. Also try to pull an extra of each item in case it breaks. Of course, because I grabbed some from the storage unit, some really tall cylinder vases, and I forgot to grab an extra.

That day, of course, one of the planners that was carrying something and moving it, and they broke one of the tall vases. I had A shorter tall vase by just a little bit that I was using for the ceremony. So I grabbed that and we use that, but if I would have grabbed that extra, that would have been perfect.

I also put extra votives in there because votives seem to get damaged or whatever. So I want to make sure that my votives are covered as well. Then I am also looking and hopefully if not the week before or if we have a down week, I get all the foam stuff prepared. So I make sure that all of the foam cages have the waterproof tape around it so that it's sealing it together so the seal can't pop apart after it has the flowers in it.

All of the bowls. If we have the compote vacuum compotes, I use those a lot and I'm making sure that that is prepped and ready. And then any cages for taller centerpieces. Those are in a six inch loamy with a grande brick of foam with chicken wire around it. It's an elaborate process, but I've had the foam sever and destroy a centerpiece.

So we make a little cage to support the foam and. You can also do that. I've done those same centerpieces with fiber floral, which is an eco product. You could do it with agarwool. You could do it with an Oshun pouch and put a couple in there to help support that centerpiece, but those take time to make, and so I'm making sure that hopefully ahead of the week.

If not on Monday, those items are getting prepped. Then I take totes from like Target or Walmart, and I'm filling all that in. I'm putting my vase and foam food in there so that it's getting flour food into the foam or into whatever you're soaking. And then I'm actually starting that process on Monday and that surprises a lot of florists because they're like, I thought you could only soak foam for like a day or something.

Like, I haven't been soaking for days and it never has made it was never a bad move. I've never wished that I didn't soak my foam as early as I did because we just leave it in there and they're just ready to go whenever we need to, to start designing. Then I am also making sure all of the glassware is clean because there's nothing that slows you down than having to clean everything while you're designing.

So all of those things, I make sure that they are cleaned and prepped and ready to go, because that is also critical to making the week go Accordingly, when I am ordering online, another thing that I do is every time I am placing an order on the confirmation page, I am screenshotting that and pulling that to a document.

I just open a Google Doc and I just place that image in there. So I remember all of the online orders that I did. Instead of digging through my email, I just have them and what the prices were right in my Google Drive. Thanks for watching. So, putting that in there, when I get to the wholesaler and I'm looking, because I just use it on my phone, I don't print it, I go into my Google Drive, okay, I order these, these, these, okay, where are those, I don't see them on my cart, and then I order this, this, this, okay, where is that, I don't see that on my cart either, then I can, you know, go, hey, can you find this, I don't see this on my cart, then, I'm also, when I'm doing this check in for the week, I'm checking on last week's credits.

My wholesale rep at the one I order from the majority of the time is a really busy guy and he perpetually forgets doing credits. So I have to follow up with him and say, I wanted to circle back and make sure that all my credits got done. It was these items. Can you let me know that this has been processed?

And so then he usually is like investigating in it and, um, you know, getting them to happen. But it takes sometimes a little nudge. But if you don't follow up or don't have a process in place to follow up, then you're going to probably miss out on getting some of your credits. And that just gets more complicated as time goes on.

You can have it stack some of these items together. So if you always are doing one thing on Monday, let's just say that's coming out and you're printing your wedding order. You're going out and you're checking on your glassware. You can have it stack. If you've read the book, atomic habits, you can have it stack.

Sending an email when you go and check your glassware, check whatever you can have it stack something else to make sure that it's done on a weekly basis. So if you're checking on all of your orders to make sure that those are getting, um, the product is here, it's arrived and you're not worried about it, you can say then circle back with credits or I'm pulling foam.

Then that could be stacked with, I then check on my orders for the week with my rep. And then I also, in that same communication, I'm going to ask about my credits from last week. Habit stacking during this prepping process can help you make sure that you are hitting all of the things that you need to get done to efficiently make sure that you are getting are prepared going into the week.

If you are going into your week having to have your glassware cleaned, going to get candles and other hard goods that could have been prepped before is just bogging that week down. Finding zip ties. Checking and finding out that you don't have zip ties. And you need big zip ties or you need black zip ties, making sure that on Sunday, you're checking in or Monday, you're checking in to make sure.

But I always look ahead when I'm ordering my product two and a half, three weeks before my wedding. I'm like, okay, what supplies am I going to need? I've probably already ordered the candles because I just am wanting to make sure that that's handled. I am also then checking in. Okay, I'm going to need black zip ties for this because it's a black structure.

Do I have black huge zip ties? Okay, I'm going to go and look. And so then I go in and check. I'm going to need eight of these vacuum compotes for this week. I want to make sure that I have them. Otherwise, I order them right when I'm ordering my flowers. So I'm making sure that I am prepped, prepped, prepped for that week, way ahead of time from a hard goods perspective.

And if you need to order on something on Amazon, it's going to take sometimes a little time to get there. And so if you are down to the wire. That's going to be problematic because not everything is in prime on Amazon. Some of them are what they call FBM, which is fulfilled by merchant. And that means that that merchant is sending them directly to you.

They are not sitting in an Amazon warehouse. So if that happens, you could potentially not have the product. I have created a resource here in Minnesota called the MN Floral Collective, where that's a place like if you get into a jam, people ask, Hey, do you have one more of this compote? Do you guys, anybody have hot pink candles or anybody got blue candles?

Whatever. That is a place that has saved a lot of people for lack of planning for better words. Like they basically didn't plan very well. And so they're scrambling and, or they went to the wholesaler and their blue delphinium came in purple. And so they're trying to find blue delphinium. Maybe somebody got some, there's some wholesalers in this group as well, which is also really helpful because they can be like, yeah, we got it.

But if you don't have that resource being ahead of. The curb is going to be so critical, especially, I mean, just this last weekend. I think we had 1 wedding was. Around 15, another wedding was like, that was a pickup was 1800. And then we had another one and I think that one was 2, 500. So me making sure, cause all of these were backdrop, two of them had big backdrops.

Um, one of them had 90 bud vases. So the week before we're making sure we got all the bud vases. I luckily, because I knew that. We would need a lot of these cages. I ordered all my favorite tribute cage cages. I ordered boxes of them to make sure, and they're just sitting in my storage unit right now, because I don't want to all of a sudden, I, I, when I bought them, they only had three boxes left.

And so I just like, okay, I want to buy these three boxes, but I also want you to order from Oasis, another five boxes. Just so I would have them and I'm not have to worry all of a sudden. I need these cages So I'm always thinking ahead when the glue crisis happened I had 25 tubes of glue because I thought ahead every time I would go in I buy one or two because we're using One or two a week.

So I want to make sure that I have a surplus. And so I never ran out of glue during the blue crisis of COVID. I hope this episode was helpful flower friend, and I hope you have a fun 📍 filled flower week. Thanks so much for listening.