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 Canva proposals. And if you're using Canva to do proposals, how to streamline and minimize that process. I. Coach a lot of, a lot of different florists that are doing their proposals in Canva, or honestly, I think you should, because I feel that visual proposals really sell your designs, what you're trying to do, what you're trying to accomplish and, and frankly, like your vision and getting it on paper and in front of your client is a critical way to convert more sales, but yeah, I have seen some people do proposals and really like take a lot of time because they're putting so many details in them.

And one of the things that I have done is, uh, I, and I've talked about this in business owner, ADHD business owner, um, chat that I did. I've talked about this and how I simplify and get more done. Um, but with that, I am using some time that I've invested. Strategically for my long game. So I went in and invested in file folders.

I've invested, you know, just making them making file folders takes time. Curating images takes time. And with that, I have created folders that help support me to do my proposals. So some folders that I have in canvas, so you can go and actually create a folder in Canva. Is I have, um, go to flowers, so all my go to flowers that I use often because I love them and I like working with them and I know the quality, the consistency, the everything I have those in my, um, File folders.

So, like, if I want to use Playa Blanca's, I have Playa Blanca, a couple different white magellicas, uh, quicksands, pink mondales, white stock, white hydrangeas, blue hydrangeas, like, they're just all in this little arsenal of file, uh, files. of a folder that's just making it easy for me to pull them into my inspiration board.

Then, I also have a rentals folder. So all my rentals, I have stock images, I have images, um, that I have taken of that item in use, and I have all of those things pre set up in my file folder so that I can graph. But another thing that I've done is I have curated my rental inventory to really be like cohesive with each other so that I have pre done slides that I can cut and paste so you can actually go and copy a whole page in Canva, copy it into another proposal.

So you can just easily take that. And put it over here. So with that, I have, um, you know, made it easier for me to have. Already done, already priced out. I'm not reinventing the wheel because pretty much if they have a blush color palette, a burgundy and greenery color palette, all my bud vases when I sell three bud vases with three candles, it's going to be X amount of dollars anyways, that I'm not having to go in.

Okay, if I do this, you just want to make it easy. This is all about running your business with ease. And with that, having these pre done templates of your most popular rented items makes it so much easier. And if you need to just change a photo to be in their colors, you need to change a price because they want a premium bloom, uh, that's, that's a lot easier than remaking the whole slide.

And that's what shortens me to be able to make my proposals. Faster. And I'm also not giving so much information in my proposals that the person is overwhelmed. I've seen some proposals that they're like giving so many details that I'm guessing that that client probably in viewing that got a little overwhelmed.

And that's not what we want. We want them to look, be inspired. We want them to feel what their wedding flowers are going to be. Or their event flowers or whatever it is, like, how is that proposal making them feel that their wedding flowers will, will be like that day? Uh, if you're just putting, cause I have seen lots of proposals that it is a line item with a very small little picture and a price with a very brief description.

And normally those are coming from like curate details, one of those softwares that is not going to help you. Sell a wedding like a visual proposal is going to or a visual, um, you know, estimate the visual aspect of my proposals are what helps sell me more weddings and help me. Sell higher end items because I will often pitch and I've talked about this in my other episode on proposals Is I pitch levels of items so that i'm selling level one two and three of that item and with that I I want to You know inspire them that like if they spend eight hundred dollars more their thing is going to be twice as badass so i'm strategically selling visually The look and feel that this next level, um, of price point is going to sell or going to be on their wedding day.

Another thing I do to help streamline this process is I am also keeping, uh, those items that I've talked about that are streamlined things in Canva. I have file folders on my phone with comparable or similar images that if I am on a proposal, I, I do, or a consultation, I'm doing the majority of my consultations on Zoom or Google Meet or FaceTime.

Then I'm on the phone with them. I'm on FaceTime with them. Whatever it is, I can text them the picture because I also have it neatly organized. And that's helping me transition my proposal easier because that person has already told me I've. Felt, heard, seen their reaction to the photo because I'm doing it live during our consultation.

And I've also just like been on my computer and showed them my phone and took my phone and flipped it around once I found it in my photos file folder and just showed them. So I'm, I'm streamlining because I already know that they're bought in on this photo, on this vessel, on this look. And that's. Then I can just take that picture and pop it in very easily because now this is a picture and sometimes I'll just, I'll be on my console.

I hop into, um, you know, my web browser and I'm putting, um, you know, burgundy and purple, tropical. Wedding gold bowls or whatever. Um, or I'm just doing tropical, um, centerpieces or tropical, whatever. I'm just using tropical as an example. And then I'm finding that picture and go, I really love this, but then I'm, I'm, I'm selling the customization.

I'm selling my expertise. And then you can do this next level in Canva. I take that photo that the concept is there. Maybe the colors aren't there. And I can overlay. Because I have all the file folders with my favorite go to flowers, or I can Google and find a flower, I remove the background, and I can overlay that into this design that they said they like the design, it just doesn't have the colors, and I can show them this is what that's going to look like.

So, super easy, super doable, and... It doesn't take that long. So most of my proposals take 30 to 45 minutes because I have this process streamlined. I have a template I'm using. I'm on my like boutonnieres and corsages page. I have a like just a white background image that that I took of some boutonnieres and corsages that I made.

So it's like kind of a flat lay of them, but they're neutral. So I'm not switching out my picture every time. Then on the front, um, once I've added my inspiration photos, cause on my home, home, you know, the, the intro one, I'm putting their name. So they know that this is for them. I'm putting their inspiration photos big and bold.

So that right when they open the proposal, it's just, wow, look at these visual images that this is what my wedding is going to be. Then there's, I put a color swatch on there so that I know that I'm nailing the colors that they want involved. And when you've added your photos before, it actually pulls into Canva, into your swatches, those specific colors out of the images.

So you can just click on those. It's a little bit lower than the, the regular color picker, but it actually shows you these are the main colors that are being pulled out in these pictures. Super easy, super fast. And I think it's just amazing. That you can have this flexibility of really selling what you want to sell instead of a line item.

I mean, I saw a line item proposal. I'm guessing it's from details or curate that was for a 90, 000 wedding. When I sent my proposal, I mean, like I am visually like I'm, I want them to be like, well, this is, you know what, I wasn't thinking about getting this, but that is so pretty. I want that. I want that at my wedding because you know, I, I'm getting a lot and, and then me looking at proposal, I had no idea what they were getting.

So as a florist, if I had no fricking clue, I'm sure the client's like, I don't know what I'm getting for 90, 000. Cause I couldn't really even figure it out and had to ask a million different questions. So it's really selling in Canva is so easy. But you have to do a little selling yourself like during your consultation.

I'm positioning that I'm going to make you I called a bloom board. I'm making you this bloom board. That's like a vision board for your wedding flowers and, you know, in that you're really going to be able to understand the flower choices that I'm going in for the direction of them. They might not be the exact flower choices because I want to get you the best flowers.

And if I put this rose in and it arrives and it was held in customs, it looks like crap. I don't want to use it. I want to use the best blooms possible. And so then I just, I keep solidifying that like this proposals isn't like what other florists are doing. I'm curating this for you, even though I've like cut and pasted a million different things out of it.

I'm curating it for you and your special day. Then, when I'm delivering that proposal, I go back in afterwards if there's changes, and I go in and edit that. So I can go in and edit that there's nine of these instead of seven, or there's six of these instead of seven, and then I'm just re totaling things.

And that doesn't take, those revisions don't take too long. And I have the PDF of, that I've sent them, so that I have like, okay, this is what that was before I changed it, this is your total now. So I, I can always see what I did before, because it's in my sent emails to them. And so then I can compare once I've changed the document, I've changed the proposal, it's...

It's very easy to see like what happened before and I know one concern that I've had a lot of florists and I've seen in a lot of florists Facebook groups and I've had this that people are worried they're going to take their their proposals and they're going to shop them. I truly believe that I would never buy something this expensive.

Without understanding what it's going to look like, what it's going to kind of feel like. And so if you're in the mindset of I need a deposit, I need everything before I'm doing anything for the bride. That to me is like 1980s car guy. We don't buy cars like that anymore. We don't do transactions like that anymore.

I want to serve and if I am not the best choice. Then that is totally okay with me because I am going to be more expensive, but my expertise, my designs, my style. For one, it just commands more. And if I feel, and I've pre qualified that person enough that I know that they're shopping, I straight up tell them that, and I send them my guide.

Here is my beginner pricing guide. It's my brochure that I've talked about in other episodes. Here's my brochure. Let's take that and, and, you know, run with it. So I don't worry about being shopped. I feel like I'm competitive enough that there isn't going to be like this, holy crap, there's no way that there's that much difference.

So I've, I've done that, but I still have the confidence that I'm worth more. My proposal sells me more than other floors proposals. And you can do that same thing. Thank you so much for listening flower friend. And I hope you have an amazing flower filled week.