The Floral Hustle

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Hello, flower friends. This is Jen and you are listening to the floral hustle podcast on this week's episode. We are talking about what to do to book your first bride. And this is something that, I mean, you might not never have done before, so I want to walk you through the process step by step so you really have a grasp for some of the major key points you want covered when taking on your first wedding.

For the month of February, we've been talking all things launching your floral business, or maybe you launched it at some point but never really did anything with it, and you're trying to reinvigorate that energy, that effort, and I think the whole equation around making money and getting paid for the work that you're doing Is an uncomfortable experience sometimes because you haven't done this potentially before maybe you've done like you're, next door neighbor Janice's flowers or your cousin's flowers or somebody and that's where this whole idea like formulated from.

But now the thought of you getting paid from someone who, is counting on you and you. estimated things, et cetera. And so you're charging for it and that can make many people anxious. So let's simplify that whole process. If I was going to try to find my first bride here or couple or whatever you are like the type of client, your ideal client, I would for one figure out.

My really like my unique kind of proposition towards people because hopefully I've practiced hopefully I've built a little bit of confidence and hopefully I've like identified this is the type of person that I want to work with. So that person for me right now is I want somebody who has a comfortable budget of at least like 5 to 8, 000 and values flowers.

And, you know, they also trust me creatively from looking at my Instagram or looking at whatever. So I've taken it through like that process of figuring out who that person is. Now how do I find that person? So several ways. Way number one is to find any client. If you just want to do any wedding, I would definitely start by personally posting on your personal Facebook or Instagram.

Go in there and say, Hey, everybody, um, I just absolutely love flowers and I am starting, you know, I've started my floral business and I am looking for couples, um, to help this year and next year, whatever you want to say from a timeframe. And so if you are getting married or know somebody that's getting married, I would love to connect and here's how to connect with me.

I then would also make sure that I had my Instagram and I would start going in and following people who worked in the wedding industry. So I would follow venues, I would follow planners, I would follow Um, photographers, people who are at the top of the funnel and are usually like some of the first people booked by couples, because then those people potentially can refer people to you and you can start to build relationships.

So if there are key people that you see, I potentially would just go in and start interacting with their posts. And making sure that you're strategically interacting with their posts so that you're being seen. Make a list. Okay, I want this planner, this planner, this planner, this photographer. And every other day, or every day, if you have the capacity, go in and, and, like, say something thoughtful about One of their posts, uh, if they posted a beautiful wedding at a lakeside venue or something like that, you could go, Oh my God, this venue looks absolutely stunning.

And you just crushed this wedding. It looks so beautiful. I love the X, you know, pick something specific about it. And I absolutely love that about this. And, um, you know, you're offering support, it is hard to get genuine interaction on your posts because like people have so many things to do in their business, even just going on and posting their own social media content sometimes seems daunting, let alone going and supporting.

So, I want to make a equal energy exchange. My strategy whenever I'm going into, um, Instagram or Facebook, so I am giving. Like, either the same as I am taking by posting or I am going in and really giving to other, um, vendors because that's how I'm going to build relationships and everybody would love further connection, more support, and so this is a really easy way to do that.

Then, I would start interacting with those people. I would start making what I call evergreen. Graphics saying now accepting weddings for 2024. We have 2024 availability left. Um, here is how you work with us. So you make this creative, which is basically your artwork in Canva, and then you can go and strategically say, okay, I am going to go and, um, You know, like post on Monday about our availability.

I'm going to go post on Wednesday about, um, like some type of wedding tip. And then on Thursday, I'm going to post my evergreen, um, creative in my stories. And then that is going to say we have 2024 availability. And it's going to link to my inquiry form on my website. So I'm creating this like strategy of how I'm going to post and what cadence I'm going to post in.

And then because I have a strategy, things feel lighter. Things feel a little bit easier because I'm always not questioning whether I'm doing enough in my business. I'm just Making a plan and sticking to the plan and then if I don't see any results after maybe like a month, month and a half of doing that plan, then I can tweak and mold based on looking at the data.

But I would develop a social media strategy because that is going to help get you in front of people who are already dealing with the client that you want to attract. So I've done those two things and that is kind of like my foundation. Using social media will help you, in the shortest amount of time, build your audience of potential customers.

Because those potential customers are, have been following or interacting with all of the wedding professionals that you already have been. But the third thing that I would do if you are new and there is a networking event that is the wedding world Networking event that you can go to and meet other wedding professionals.

Try to find those in your area networking in person is even better than networking on social media because Like I am very lovable in person. I ask a lot of questions. I'm very curious and I love to help people if I can By insight I have for you know being in business as long as I have or whatever So I when I go to those events like I want to learn more about them and about their business Because I'm also making that a reciprocal energy exchange again, that if I know someone and I've built a relationship, and I think this person would be a good fit as a planner for them, as a DJ, as a photographer, whatever it is, like I will facilitate a email to introduce them.

And in that email, that introduction is, um, you know, kind of planting a seed that I'm also supporting you. If you support me and my business by sending me a client, I do the same back whenever it is appropriate. You might not need, obviously, a arsenal of planners to refer to, but I have a core, like, five different planners that I send people to, and they send me business.

Like, I, and I also, if they need something outside of a wedding or whatever, I am making sure that I am there to support them on that. And that doesn't, you know, happen all the time, but I've had people, hey, all of a sudden something happened to the arch that they had rented. Can I borrow your arch?

Absolutely. I have a wedding. I'll put it outside of my studio, grab it, bring it back whenever. Like, I'm supporting them. Then, let's just say they, somebody passed away. I just had this happen. That arch thing was a real thing that happened last summer. Um, the, uh, mother in law of one of my, one of my favorite planners passed away and she needed funeral flowers.

And she was going to do them herself, but obviously in her emotional state, she just couldn't take that on. And so I made an urn surround, I made like 14 bud vases, and I made a statement piece. She paid for all of those things. I think it was like 750 or something and brought all the vases back and everything and I helped her out and took stress off of her plate.

And like she thinks of me when it comes to finding a florist for her clients. So having relationships that you're giving and taking as part of this equal energy exchange is really where I think the sweet spot in growing your business. Because those are the people that are going to be in front of your ideal clients.

When I think about when you throw a net out when you're fishing, or when you go and you're fishing just with your rod and reel. If you know fish, Are in this part of the pond, you know, fish are in, um, you know, this, this part of the lake, or, you know, that there's more fish if you moved your boat over 30 feet, like, that's where you want to be putting your line in, because that's where you're going to get a nibble way Faster.

And I'm a vegetarian, but I have brought my children fishing, so I don't know why that, especially when we had seven inches of snow yesterday, why that even was, um, a good analogy, but you want to go where the nipples are, and all the people surrounding those people are nipples, potentially, because they need your services.

This isn't, I'm casting this wide net out to Anybody who would potentially follow me, because we don't know if those people are getting married. And we don't know if they're getting married anytime soon. Then, so we've done the social media thing. We've potentially found an event for in person networking in our area.

We've strategically posted on our personal social media. So those are three big steps that will get you in the right, right direction of getting your first couple booked. We've built evergreen creative that we just have in our arsenal, and in that we use our links to connect directly with us. So you at this point hopefully have a website.

And from there, you're going to take and start to say, Hey, this is who I am as a business owner. So you're going into later layer in a strategy of introduction of education about who you are and why they should do business with you. Even if you have not done one wedding, you have still made other things.

At this point, I'm guessing you've made a few arrangements. You have experience. If you have gotten to the point where you are launching a business and trying to accelerate your business success, I am guessing that you have some good experience under your belt. So use that experience and start talking about like what flowers that you like, um, a wedding tip.

Like maybe it's from your own wedding that you wish you would have known. Those are going to really build you as a credible source. As a florist because you're educating people and you can do this with a video because I always think showing your face is best and I use an app for all my videos called reveal.

It's R E V E A L and The reveal app. I'm just going to look at it real quick. So I remember the colors it is a black icon with a Kind of artistic, uh, R in it that is in yellow and orange. I have an iPhone and I use it on there. It is, when I do one on ones, I, I show people this app because it gives you like this It's a little bit of a filter that makes your brows a little bit stronger and makes your skin look a little bit smoother.

And I don't know why, but I just really like how the image looks. I like, I don't wear a lot of makeup and I like that I just looked a little A little more polished and a little bit more like done up than I normally do on a day to day basis. There's levels that you can adjust. You're like, I want that to be a little bit harsh.

Well, then I just go and hit this filter that says nude, which is basically just like a little, a little bit of a filter that made my brows a little bit stronger. And Then, um, there's like two other, but I really don't like those look heavily filtered and I don't want to look heavily filtered. I just like just a little bit because I am in my mid forties and I don't like to wear a lot of makeup and I had my brows microbladed.

Like before COVID and it was mildly horrible and I have a pretty high, um, pain tolerance, but I've been tattooed for very, uh, long amounts of time and getting your brows microbladed was crazy, um, in comparison because I'm, it's near your eyeballs maybe, but it was bananas and so I, I love how that looks, but I don't want to do it again.

Okay, that was a tangent, but So there, there is some foundational things that you should implement that will help you book your first bride, but let's just say you have went and you've listened to some episodes on the podcast all about pricing. You need to know what to do with them after you've done this.

If you are in the Floral Hustle Facebook group, hopefully you have went and watched my creating proposals that sell. Um, I also did one on pricing. So you know, like, foundationally how to do that part at this point. But what do you do from there? So you've got somebody that you've quoted Outflowers to.

They want to book you. What do you do next? Is What I want to talk about now, and that would be the first thing is I would have a contract. I Have had my own contract that I have tweaked and molded that I took from a million different examples while I was googling, but I recently purchased A contract, and I will take that in the show notes from Legal Page, and it's P A I G E.

And they have a ton of different contracts. I do believe. I bought mine when they had a 40 percent off sale. And so with the 40 percent off, it was like 2. 75, but it is a florist specific contract. And they primarily work with creatives, which we are creatives as florists. And so they have like photographer contracts and independent contracts.

Contractor contracts and a wide variety, but I've recently purchased that and I'm going to be using that with some, a few of my additions from being in a climate that gets really, really cold. I want to make sure that I have clauses in there about cold weather, because even when you tell someone not to bring their bouquet outside, they do.

And then it looks completely burnt because it's frozen and they, you've told them that in the consult. But they did, did it anyway. You told them they should get a second bouquet and not bring their bouquet likely outside and then you reminded them on the day of and they still do it. So I want to make sure that like, from a weather standpoint, I am covered and telling them.

that like we're not liable if you bring your bouquet out, especially against our recommendation. So I've done those things and then I am going and having some type of contract that I'm going to send them. I also have a what I call a basic information sheet and in that basic information sheet it's telling me the who's the what's the where's and the when's and it's also like there's a spot for budget and even though I've quoted it I'm always Making sure that what they put there is what I quoted.

And sometimes they'll fill it in at lower, a lower price. So I just always double check that. You know, hey, I saw that you put this down, and I just wanted to make sure that I understood, um, you know, my estimate. I want to make sure you understood it, and right now, my understanding is that we are at X dollars.

So from there I, you know, have this contract, I have this bride basic information sheet, and that you can make in a Word document, you can make it in Canva, and attach it as a PDF. If you want to have an electronic type contract, if you have Square as your payment processor, That is for credit cards, et cetera.

They have a contract tool, and you can go in and cut and paste and add different, uh, elements of contracts, and they can electronically sign it, and it just goes in your Square account and is kept there. I have done that as well, but normally I just send them the PDF and they sign it and scan it back in or take a picture of it and send it to me.

And I, that's pretty easy, but you can electronically do it. And then you can actually attach an invoice for the retainer right in there. And so that process was pretty easy for me to set up. You can just cut and paste your PDF. Some people don't like signing electronically, so I give them the option. I can send it over to you electronically, or I can just send you the PDF is attached.

And so they can choose from there. Then from that standpoint, I'm taking a deposit, and I've actually done episodes on deposits. Uh, but if for some reason you don't know what to do on that, you can definitely listen to that episode, but you also can just, I prefer to take a flat rate deposit. And the reason why is because I don't want to have to keep track of that.

This person gave me 1, 221 and this person gave me 987. This person gave me 325. This person, because it's some weird percent percentage. I don't want to have to track that. So I charge a 500 deposit, which is enough to hurt if for some reason they decide to go a different direction. But I also make sure that, um, it's not like so much that I am holding a bunch of money and don't need to.

If it is more than an 8, 000 wedding, I then take a 2, 000 deposit. So, 500 and 2, 000, I have two contracts with those two deposit amounts listed, and when they book me, if the wedding is above 8, 000, I'm sending them the 2, 000, if not, I send them the 500. So it's pretty easy. They're returning that back to me with a deposit.

I then am emailing them and saying, okay, I have received your contract and I have received your deposit and here are the next steps. And then I actually have that in my brochure. So I can cut and paste it into there, like what our timeline is, or I can just tell them, Hey, um, from this point, if you find an image or something that you love, I'd love for you to send it my way.

Or if you have any questions, please reach out. But otherwise, we're going to touch base a month before your wedding. And then at that point, we start finalizing items and go from there. So, I'm setting the expectation of my communication, I'm setting the expectation of what's next, so they're not wondering.

And around a month out, probably around, you know, five weeks, I'm emailing them and telling them, Hey, I just, your wedding is coming up, and I'd love to either Um, you know, get clarification on these questions, or I'd love to set up a time for us to chat to finalize all the details. And then I just set up a video chat from there.

So that's what I kind of end with at the end. I've booked them. I've made sure I'm setting the expectations. And then from there, I'm doing all the things to get ready for that. If I have to order things. And if you're looking for a way to organize your weddings, you could use Trello, which it's T R E L L O, it's a project management software that you can go through, okay, these are all the things that I need to do for this wedding, that I need to order, and, you know, you keep, like, crossing things off the list and dragging them over, it's, it's pretty advanced for probably what you need, but if you are a concrete thinker, and Sometimes having a tool like that will be super helpful in you navigating the whole situation.

So that's how you go from beginning to end on booking a client for 2024. I hope that you are really making big decisions, taking bold action, and really trying to get some momentum if you are serious about starting your floral business. And this is a great way to do that. So thank you so much for listening, flower friend, and you have an amazing flower filled week.