Opening any business requires a lot of hard work and dedication. When it comes to opening a floral business in specific, you need more than just hard work and dedication. You need to constantly educate yourself about the new trends and tools dominating the floral industry month by month. Here are the top 3 things flower shop owners wished they knew before opening their business!
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You need to market your floral business. Being a talented floral designer is not enough to be a successful flower shop owner. You need to educate yourself on marketing. Stay on top of Yelp, Google Places, and other review websites. Customers are turning to online outlets to express their praise and frustration which can have a very high impact on your flower shop. In addition, make sure to build your email list and social media accounts in order to keep your floral business relevant and easy to search for.
- Never stop learning. You are not expected to have everything figured out from the start, that only leads to a lot of sleepless nights and stress. The flower shop journey you’re on is a process and it’s so important to keep learning. In any creative industry, it can become very overwhelming to try and have all the answers to your questions immediately so that you feel able to keep up. Let people love you and help guide you, take classes, level up, and be gracious to yourself. It is important to remember that the floral industry is one of the fastest changing in terms of trends and demand, so always make sure you are on top of that with constant education.
- Learning how to say no when needed. This space of not being comfortable to say “no” is what will leave you vulnerable to being taken advantage of and not treating your business as a business. You should never feel pressured to work overtime, cut costs, or even take on clients you do not feel comfortable working with. Learning to say ‘no’ is definitely hard but it is so important to know your boundaries as a flower shop owner and make them clear to your clients. This in return will help you become a leader in the floral shop business learning how to manage your shop at a higher level, as well as save you from unwanted and stressful situations.
You will stretch, challenge, and push yourself in ways you can’t imagine as a new flower shop owner. It’s an experience like no other and you should be compassionate in everything that comes along the way. Owning a flower business gives you the opportunity to do what you love on your own terms which does not come around for most people and is definitely something that shouldn’t be taken for granted.
