The Floral Hustle

 Hello flower friends. This is Jen and you are listening to the Floral Hustle podcast. Today, I'm going to talk about money a little bit. I'm gonna talk about secrets to really. A multiple six figure or a six figure, wherever you want to be wedding season. So last year my business hit multiple six figures, but it has several other years.

Been in the six figure range. And it's so interesting to me because. When I, um, my husband is also kind of, he is a software architect, but he is also very much of an entrepreneur. He is, has a, uh, Amazon business and literally like, has always kind of thought about, you know, selling things or marketing things and with the kind of friend circle that's he's in versus like the friend circle and the peers that I'm around.

It's very interesting cuz, and I don't know if it's a male and female thing or what it is, but they often talk about money and how much someone's business is making. And he'll ask me whenever I'm around, especially like, uh, like I was in a mastermind and he was like, okay, like what kind of businesses they have, what kind of revenue do they have?

And I've always like, we don't talk about that. . Literally, I have never been in a mastermind in a group that is primarily women that we have just thrown out what kind of money we made. And it's interesting because that's the main thing that in the groups that he's in, the entrepreneurial groups, that's the main thing that they talk about.

Uh, like he has a friend that owns a. , it's like a gun parts. They sell scopes and he not only like has manufactured some of these things and has patents on them and has gone through all that, but he also like does drop shipping. He sells on Amazon and his website and he is like around $7 million. And so talking about money, like it's not a big thing and I've just.

It's so interesting to me that there's such a dynamic shift, especially cuz I think as Flores Anne, as women, I think we're a little bit more of a sensitive creature and I, I feel that we also don't want to be like a peacock parading around and men love to peacock that are in the entrepreneurial space.

Like in his, I, I mean, I literally even being around, um, I sold cars for a long time. I sold advertising to car dealers. Like there is peacocks running around everywhere and that is just not something that. I feel, and even being an entrepreneur in, in other areas like that, I have run into that. We do. So I wanna talk about money a little bit because I think it's something that, for one, we just don't talk about.

But I wanna talk about like getting money, like how you can make more money, everybody, if you are running this business and it is a hobby. I commend you for living your purpose and wanting to like, have something in your life be, you know, happy and joyful and like inspiring, but you own a business. I own a business to make money.

and to provide for my family, but I also have those other things that you might be feeling too. I do it to be creatively fulfilled. I do it because I love flowers. I do it because of, you know, all of those like heart based reasons. But today I wanna talk about like, what does it actually take? Because I think a lot of people want to own a business and wanna make money, but for one, I see so many people falling.

and the energy that they expel to do that. And the biggest thing I think makes a business owner fail is they are not keeping the promises. And I actually, I just did a live about this, it's on my Instagram feed. Keeping the promises that you make to yourself. because if you don't keep the promises to yourself to make things happen in your business, and those promises for me are showing up today to do this podcast showing up.

To do alive, showing up at that wedding, showing up at the wholesaler, even though like my kid maybe isn't feeling well, and like today is kind of not the greatest day in the world, I need to go get flowers because it's Tuesday. So keeping all of those promises yourself, it, it's, it's a game changer. Having that tenacity and that drive that you want to win, you want to, uh, succeed.

you want to be the best. You want to make impactful money. Having that drive, having all of those foundations like that is one of the biggest things that I see is going to make or break an entrepreneur. So let's talk about that. What are those components that really are kind of foundational for you to win?

at your business. And I, for one, I think that that is drive and passion. If you were someone who is not dreaming about what your business is going to look like, is not dreaming of what it could be, is not dreaming bigger, then you are probably should be having a floral business hobby. Because if you are not pushing yourself and pushing your business forward, there's gonna be no growth.

There's going to be. Potentially even you falling into like not loving your business anymore because you're then, you're not making money, you're not pushing yourself, uh, from a design perspective or from a business perspective or from a social media perspective to get yourself out of the box and driving yourself forward to really like kick ass at your business.

If that drive isn't there, we need to find it. And I think you can. Because you might have lost it. And I lost mine. I lost my drive. Like my, I lost like, just like light. I wanted to light the world on fire when I was younger. And then I got, you know, my, my daughter and things were kind of complicated with her.

Like she, she was a preemie and then there was just a lot of issues and then a lot of personal things happened and I just kind of lost, I, I lost some, like momentum or, or just. Deep down in my, my heart, like I, I was tired, which was really what was happening. So I needed to figure out how am I going to get everything back on track.

and get that momentum back in my business. And so I did that. I actually, and I knew I couldn't do it myself. So that's when I joined, uh, creative Business Owner's Mastermind. I started taking courses. I started, um, consuming podcasts. I started reading books. I started consuming personal development that showed me.

because I also, that's what I was around, I was around people that were just kind of okay with, with how things were. They weren't like big pushers. They weren't, you know, somebody that was just like, I'm, I want my business to be like the next level. And so I surrounded myself with those people to help me get to that next level, and that helped me get my momentum back.

But I also am always working on perfecting my skills as a salesperson. As a D from a design perspective, so I also want to be like really good at the fundamentals of how I'm going to make something. I wanna be cutting edge and understand trends and understand how people are doing things. I want to be on point, like if, if for white bowls or white ceramics are popular right now, I wanna make sure that I'm also on trend.

And so that is like this desire inside of you. You have to have that desire to want to be the best, to want to have a six figure business. Because if you're just, okay, oh, I had like five weddings this year and it was amazing and I'm thinking really hard about like maybe doing 10 next year. Well, 10 weddings is not going to get you to six figure.

you have to think bigger than that. Unless those 10 weddings you have been doing this so long that you do 10 weddings that are, are, you know, let's just say, uh, 10, well, 10 grand will get you to a hundred. So are you attracting a 10 grand wedding? Because that's what you need to think backwards into what is your average wedding right now, and how many weddings are you doing?

Where do you want that to? from an average perspective and how many weddings you wanna be doing because you gotta think more budget means more work. So you're able to do less of those more work weddings, and you're taking that and then kind of going backwards into a plan. Then I go and think, what kind of person do I need to be to do?

Hundred or $10,000 weddings in a year. What does that look like? What does that person do? What is that person saying on social media? What kinda weddings is that person doing? How can I be that person now, not when it actually happens? How can I be that six figure florist? Now, what does that six floor figure florist?

So a couple things. Let's talk about what that six figure florist does. They won. They have the mindset for a six figure florist. So if you do not have, if you are living in accepting that you made $30,000 this year, and that's just okay. And I did five weddings and it was good. , I want more for you. I want your business to be as big and as profitable and as creatively fulfilling as possible.

So you're gonna have to make some shifts, like, and it starts a lot with your mind. How are you going to change your mindset around what you accept, around who you're attracting? Because if you have the mindset of. , $30,000 florist, you're likely not going to be attracting a $10,000 wedding very easily.

That is going to be difficult, but if you have this energy of abundance, if you have this energy of like, that girl is on fire, or that guy is on fire, like look at all like the energy that they have. Look at. , like she's just, she's showing up and like teaching and like that energy is going to attract that.

But there's some other things that you can do to attract that as well. So first thing is if you don't want to play in little Bill little wedding bill anymore, you either need to figure a strategy around that, that you do. Let little weddings that are super inspiring to you and that's it, and then you have a minimum.

So will your minimum that you put in place help you get to your goals? And I think so many floors hesitate from doing a minimum because they're scared shitless that they're not gonna be, they're having to say no to weddings that they could have booked. If you don't say no to some weddings, you are going to keep booking the same old wedding.

You want to elevate yourself to attract a higher end. So with that, you, you might need a minimum in place to do that. So if your minimum is 2000, if your minimum is 3000, having it a little bit outside, your average wedding is gonna just whoosh. And I don't know if you've ever had those inquiries that literally they tell you your $2,000 budget is what they wanna spend, and they have all these things, but then you come back and you're like, that is not gonna happen for that budget.

Well, we would go up to three or we would go up to. So those are the people that you want. Okay? Yes. Then I can do that. I would love to meet with you. I would love to talk about your, your special day. So having a minimum is critical because you don't wanna be dinking around with weddings that are little and then that's what's booking your time up.

And then you don't have the mental bandwidth to take on more. You also need to provide a higher end experience. You need to be. The hundred thousand dollars florist. Again, you need to show that that's the type of work you produce, that this is the type of experience when you go to a used car dealership or you go to a Bentley store or to a Porsche store, which is funny cuz I used to call on those at my, my last job.

The experience feels different. So what does your experience feel like? Does it feel like Target or Walmart? Or Neiman Marcus, what does your, what do you want it to feel like? I want people to feel my energy, my professionalism, and that I genuinely care and that I'm here to help. And then I have my visuals that I give them and that are the brand of my business that support that.

Now I am not. I, let's just say ne Tiffany's from a brand perspective because that, that is not me kind of fundamentally as a person. I'm not one of those like tea time, like fancy schmancy or I'm not in the club. Like I feel like there's a club here in our market. I'm not in that club. Like I am perfectly happy being my badass self and having the business that I do and being, uh, my own self.

With a full sleeve tattoo, piercings, and whatever else that I want to be doing or wearing or riding a motorcycle. Like if I wanna be doing that like, and that it feels good, like I don't need to be. That florist. I don't need to be like having that whole, for one, that whole pressure around even creating that like that I'm just this like mythical creature and like I dance in my garden and I'm like a garden ferry or whatever.

Uh, I, that's not important to me. What's important to me is that like I am showing up in my business, I am making money in my business and I am enjoying my business. And then with that, , that experience kind of follows like people feel that I'm helpful, that I'm. For one, giving them options. Like I feel like options are such a, um, giving behavior.

Like if you give somebody options, they just feel like that you're going to bat for them more. So my proposals like have options in them. I'm not just telling 'em that this is what they get or I'm not showing them one thing. I'm providing experience that shows that I'm like really on their team. And so what does your experience look?

what does it feel like? Does it feel like Target? Does it feel like Neiman Marcus? Does it feel like Walmart? Like what do you want it to feel like? Because you were in charge of that? You can change your graphics, you can change your visual. I changed my whole business name and that was an epically crazy endeavor.

I actually did a rebrand and I thought, I'm gonna rebrand and I'm gonna get a new fancy logo and it's gonna look amazing. I was still attracting the same customer. . I had literally been attracting that customer with that name for the last, like, I think I changed it when I was 12 years in. So for 12 years, that name had been attracting that client.

So I changed my business name. I changed the direction by, uh, integrating locally grown flowers. I changed my mindset that I wanted to make money and I wanted to show up in my business in a different way, a bigger way than I ever had. And the money has been attracted. It is. Coming towards me because I, for one, I earn it because I work hard for my clients.

Are you really like putting in a six figure effort? When you think about it, is that effort commensurate with the money that you want to make? Because I've had people tell me like, I wanna make big money, but they hate a million things about their business, or they don't. , you know, certain facets or they don't really have the capacity.

Sometimes you just don't even have the capacity cuz you're a mom. Do you have the capacity, the drive, the, you know, mindset, everything to match what you want to make? Then are you providing a great experience? And then are you delivering on it? Because I know so many people, again, keeping promises to yourself.

Like you're up till two in the morning doing all this and the work just isn't like your normal work you're putting out because you weren't keeping the promise to yourself to make this easy, to make this feel doable. You were doing this to make it just be overwhelmed. And sometimes it happens cuz somebody's sick, especially with Covid.

It's just been weird. , are you delivering on all the variables? Like it's, it's matching the pictures. Cause I do see people throw in proposals, pictures that like literally, um, let's just say I lose the wedding and, and then I stock it that day cuz it was like maybe a wedding that I really wanted to do and then all of a sudden I'll look at that venues page and I'm like, oh, that is not at all what I quoted out after meeting with that couple.

I don't think. , that's probably what they thought they were getting either. So are you delivering on the expectations that you've set to your couple? Because that when you deliver on those expectations, that's when you are going to start having this, you know, train of clients referring people to you because.

like Jenny's flowers are beautiful. She's just like so loving and energetic. Like those are things that you want, those things that will make you a six figure florist. Are your clients talking about your awesomeness and how like excited you were and how you had all these great rental items and how you made it so easy for them and just you just, you provided this experience.

What does that look like right now for you? Because you are going to need, if you are not attracting this right now, you are going to need to elevate it. All right. Then, does your brand as a whole, I just talked about redoing mine, does your brand speak to the client that you want to attract? If you are, and I'm not picking on anybody with this name, I'm just saying if you are wanting to attract.

a bride with a 25 to $40,000 budget, or let's just say even a $10,000 budget and your name is countryside, floral, like, to me, those are, it's not going to match. So does your, and then you have in your picture a little mason jar with some hand drawn flowers on it that you made in, uh, Canva. You are not delivering.

in their mind, like these artful flowers with this artfully scripted name or whatever it is, is your brand really putting off and attracting the client that you want? Because it is not the end of the world for one to change your business name. It was one of the best decisions that I made, and for two to rebrand and if you are struggling and feel like you need to do that yourself, I love the process that I went through with, um, this, uh, actually I did it with my redo of my rebrand and then I did it, um, with the whole making myself Green Goddess Floral.

Literally, I went on a website that all these designers. To win doing your logo. So you go in and you make a creative brief and literally go through this process of just, you know, just if you have any visuals that you are like drawn to, you put those in there. You explain like your vibe, your everything, and literally all these people submit.

Like mockups. And so in the show notes, I definitely will have the link to that website and I think it costs me, you can buy the number of submissions you want. So if you want a hundred submissions, 150 submissions, 200 submissions, literally designers will then compete and you get to go through and pick the most awesome one.

I mean, amazing. I literally was so surprised on some of, some of 'em were lame. I'm just throwing that out there. Some of the submissions were like, completely looked like they were Digi computer looked like they would be the logo of a nail salon, but some of 'em were like, holy, like they put some effort into it because they don't get paid.

until they book that logo. And so then you can ask for revisions and go back and forth. And so I used that company twice and literally, I think I've actually used it more than that, um, with other things in my life. So there are, you don't need to spend like $2,000 with a designer, a graphic designer to have your brand redone.

And for one, you're only pulling their ideas and their frame of reference. , the few snippets that they're taking from you. You literally can have a hundred designers submit an idea on, on your brand. So when you're going through that process, you need to think, does this, is this brand going to attract who you want to attract?

Because we want to start acting like the version of ourself, and our business needs to be the version of itself. That is going to be attracting your target customer. If you are a, uh, a brick and mortar florist and you're tired of getting $40 order calls, we need to change like what your website looks like, what your pictures are looking like, uh, on your price points on your website.

So they know that like $40 we arrangements just aren't our deal. , we can do you a $65 one or we can do you a $75 one. But that's our, our starting price point because we want our work to represent what our, um, you know, brand is on social media and our brand is out there. And if we're doing $40 arrangements and they're getting tagged on Instagram, we're gonna keep attracting $40 arrangements.

So that's the next point I want to talk about. What are you putting on your social. because if you are putting things that are things that, for one, you're not inspired by or not in love with, just because you feel like you need a photo to post, you are going to attract that same stuff. Do you wanna keep attracting that or do you want to attract.

A higher end. That's why a lot of Flos do styled shoots because they want to attract a higher end bride and having those photos that they get to do what they want and be creatively inspired and driven, like that's what you should be posting. If you have snippets. You don't have to post a whole wedding, cuz I do see some flos say like just post that whole wedding.

You wanna make sure that you're posting strategically things that you want to attract. You want to represent your brand and that speak too. Money like that they look higher end. Do not post a cylinder based trio with greenery unless that that's where you wanna stay, because that's where you're going to stay if you keep posting those type of.

You would be better off and appear more higher end by taking a single bloom that's beautiful and open and taking a photo of that and posting that than you would be to post a cylinder based trio. You want to post what you want to attract, and if you don't have those photos, you literally can go to Trader Joe's or a grocery store, floral, or go to the wholesaler, invest 75 to a hundred dollars on some flowers for yourself.

And make a ton of things. I actually, um, it's on, I think it's on my greenhouses, floral, um, Instagram. I took $75 in flowers and I made 12 projects with it. So I literally kept reusing those flowers. I started out by making a large, um, kind of ceremony ish piece, and then I took that and I made a hanging flower thing in my studio with those blooms.

And then I made, uh, a compote. I made a bud vase, um, whole layout. , I made, um, a headpiece. I made a floral necklace. I made a booter, I made a corsage. I made puppy flowers. I literally made all of those items. I, I was literally doing like this challenge 30 days of creativity when Covid started, because obviously that was a big life shift, I think, for everybody.

And I needed to mentally just like go. , okay. I'm in control of how I feel, and I wanna be creatively inspired because all my weddings got canceled, obviously. And so I'm gonna be creatively inspired myself and I'm gonna build some content on social media that I can use. And so I took that and I reused those flowers by putting most of them in my cooler or in a hydration chamber.

For, I think it was like 10 days. I used that bunch of flowers and made different things each day. So if you don't have content that speaks to attracting that you are in control, you can go and create that content, go spend a little bit of money to invest in your business. It's a tax write off, so you can show the world for one, what is pot, potentially something you can create, and then the type of work that you want to attract.

All right. And then I wanna talk about, to wrap this up, one of the biggest and most impactful things in my business, and that is networking and creating a partnership, uh, with another type of wedding vendor. I am. . I would say one of my best friends is a cultural decorator, and we literally are a team and we have meetings to creatively be inspired.

We send pictures to each other of things that we screenshot on Instagram and in Pinterest because we just wanted to share like that. This was inspiring. We should try to find a couple for. Or I loved this on this photo, like we are a team and she, I am her florist for her business, and literally we create magic together.

But that partnership is something that requires work and investment. Like I will sit on, um, zoom calls with her or FaceTimes with her for us to just go over things, but literally, Her component is where you guys probably wanna be, um, from this discussion. Like, you want to be at a hundred thousand, like that investment in time and energy and love and like sometimes even tears because like something wasn't going when we dream up something, maybe it, we couldn't accomplish it.

How, or like we didn't sleep cuz the kids and then we were up late doing this or whatever like that. That relat. Has is a huge cornerstone in my business and like you can find that person. Decorators are out there, wedding planners are out there. You need to think outside of the box. I am not like the face in these meetings, in these discussions.

She is, and literally her business itself, invoices the client and I invoice. So I am not meeting with those clients. I am meeting with her. So you can build relationships and develop some type of incentive program, potentially with a wedding planner that wants to be full service, but doesn't want to be adding wedding flowers to their plate.

A lot of planners have added flowers to their business model because they feel it's an easy opportunity. A lot of times what happens is they get into it and it's a little bit more work than they thought, but you could be their florist. You don't need to have your name. I know what happens a lot of times is they're like, I need to be on there.

I need to be tagged. It's my work. Who cares? , like if you get a picture of it and they're okay with you posting that, like then it's your name, it's your work. But like you could be their person, their their like whole platform. As long as you are helping incentivize them to do so, you could network with planners for them to refer brides.

I've had so many dis um, podcasts that have included information on this, but you networking. I have so many planner. That send, and they're, you know, couples my way that recommend me, and that is a huge part of my business. Like literally, I invest a lot in making sure that I'm responsive to them, that I, I send gifts, I send thank yous, I do things that.

Make them know that I appreciate them so much. Um, this month I actually am going to be, I, I want to start reaching out to some planners that, uh, I haven't dealt with yet. And I want them to just know, Hey, it's me. I do wedding flowers and I would love to, uh, serve your customers or help you if I can. Cause I have some planners that literally they do elopement and they just send me an inspiration picture and I make their bouquet and they pick it.

like, and it's small, so that might be below your minimum. But if that planner does that five times this year and literally gets like $800 of flowers, a thousand dollars, $2,000 worth of flowers, , like that investment in time was worth it. So this month I'm reaching out to new planners. I found a cookie maker that makes these beautiful, amazing cookies, uh, and I'm having her put my logo on one and then do a flower bouquet on another one.

And I'm going to mail out two. I think I bought two dozen cookies. So I'm gonna just send out a little, like 12, um, planners. And how I'm finding those planners is literally when I'm on Instagram. . I see a planner. Hmm, I don't know them. I screenshot their page, so it's in my photo reel and I add it to a potential planner folder in my photo file, so then I can just go back and revisit like, okay, I have some time.

I want to invest 30 minutes this week, just. Sending a dm, sending an email, sending a communication, sending a handwritten note. A lot of planners will have to have their, um, actual physical address and it's on Facebook on their business page. So I'll just find their address there and I'll send them a little thing just to say.

Introduce myself. If you have a brochure, send in the brochure. Say I can customize this brochure to you so that we can even build markup in so that you could easily facilitate flowers. And I do great work, but, uh, if you wanna send also your clients, like, I have some availability in 2023, so easy. But that when you.

Five different planners sending business your way when you have 10 different planners sending business your way. When you have 10 photographers or 10 venues, like all those things add up to awesome. But you need to make sure that that person that's going to be sending the referral is attracting the client that you want.

We don't want referrals from every single planner because they are budget planners and they're our highline planners. Whatever you are, if you're Walmart, Uh, Neiman Marcus, that's the planner that you want to send business your way. And so what I, what does it look like on their feed? What does it look like they're attracting?

If you go to their website, what is their website? Is it matching your vibe? If you are matching each other's vibe and energy, literally, like, you're gonna close more of those customers because you know that that vibe is what they're attracted to because they book that. and then you can be that vibe to really kind of drive home that, oh, this planner, who is your vibe?

And then your vibe matches that. People want people that are, for one, they know each other and they work together. So it's not like this new experience. And then today is the test run and that's their wedding day. So people love when you say, I have worked. I have worked at this venue, I have worked with this photographer.

You're just gently networking all the time and you're sharing that back to your couples. Like I literally just had a bride reach out that has a, um, golf course wedding. I haven't done a wedding there for like, I think four years, but literally, you know what I have done, like I think a dozen weddings. So I literally said, I have a great amount of experience at your venue and so I would love to chat further cause I think I could really help you.

You, she emailed back, you've done my venue. That's awesome. I love that. They love the comfort in people that have worked together before and you being at places and having experience with it, that is invaluable. All right, so biggest takeaways today? Are you operating your business at the level where you already wanna be at?

Are you already operating your business and having the mindset of that a hundred thousand dollars florist? Are, is your brand, is what you're producing, is what you're posting? Is that also conducive with the a hundred thousand dollars Floris? , are you trying to create an experience all the way from your email communication to the estimate that you send back to how you meet with them?

Is all of that in alignment with a hundred thousand dollars florist? You need to be the a hundred thousand dollars florist if that's your goal. If that's not your goal, whatever it. Define what that person does. Define what you know. I wanna do $75,000. I wanna do $50,000 because I wanna spend a lot of time with my kids, or I'm gonna grow flowers, and so I want to, whatever that looks like, you need to embody that from your marketing, from your mindset, from your um, execution, from your, everything needs to be in that ball.

and I know you can do it. I've done it. I've seen other Flos really change their game. You can change the game before this wedding season. You can make this wedding season your trajectory of being to where you want to be. So make it happen. If this episode was helpful, like please go and send me a DM or screenshot it and message me like, this is my biggest takeaway.

Or post it on your Instagram stories, and this is my big biggest takeaway. I'd love to hear if this is resonating with you because I truly believe that there are so much opportunity, so much growth that every one of us has potential for, and I know that you. Deserve this and I know that you can be literally like a different person from a business standpoint, like next year.

By next year you could change everything. Thank you so much for our friend and have a great day.