Florist Tips
Every Tuesday we post a helpful tip on the @jaltheacreative Instagram account. This blog contains every tip from the previous three months (with a little more detail added, of course)! From processing to marketing, using these tips will help you run a successful home business and take some of the stress away.
FLORIST TIP: Processing Flowers
When processing your flowers there are different methods to extend their life.
Depending on whether you are designing weddings and events or designing for everyday deliveries, you’ll want to process your flowers for maximum impact (events) or maximum life (everyday deliveries).
Conditioning (the preparation prior to making the arrangement) is incredibly important to long-lasting flowers.
When you receive your flowers:
Remove any foliage below the waterline.
Always remove foliage below the waterline! This helps prevent bacterial growth which keeps the water clear and clean. This also allows the flower’s energy to focus on the main bloom for show-stopping impact.
Cut the stems at least 1” at a sharp angle
This give your flowers a chance to take up the most water
Use a hydrating treatment (like Quick Dip)
Hydrating treatments help flowers take up water quicker.
Place flowers in water prepared with floral food. Floral foods contain sugar, acid, and a little bleach in an exact ratio.
Some florists prefer not using floral food. Test it out-see which way works best for your conditions.
Store flowers in a cool place to allow water uptake. Remember-if you’re using a cooler, Tropical flowers prefer warmer conditions.
You want your flowers in a cool place, out of direct sunlight, and let them take up water. Let them take up food-water to help extend their bloom time by several days.
Conditioning is so important, but it's such a vast topic because we work with so many different types of cut blooms and foliage! Take some time to test your favorite flowers to see what treatment they like best. More on this below.
FLORIST TIP: How to Make an Everyday Arrangement Last
Are you unsure of how to make your everyday arrangement last?
Quick tip: Mix long vase life flowers with short vase life flowers so that it appears to last longer. Trust me, your clients will be amazed with how long these will last!
Some of the shorter lasting vase life flowers are:
Irises
Anemones
Delphinium
Lisianthus
Some of the longer lasting vase life flowers are:
Alstroemeria
Carnations
Ranunculus
Dianthus
Hydrangeas (when properly treated)
FLORIST TIP: Test your Flowers
Testing
Are you guessing when it comes to vase life of your flowers? I have one word for you, TEST TEST TEST!
If you’re not sure how long something will last, testing under various conditions is the best thing to do.
Pull them out of the cooler and leave them on your desk, out of water, with a draft on them, with hard rock playing, you name it! See how long they last to determine how long they will last in your client's home.
Some more examples of what to test are:
Water with floral food vs without floral food
Changing the water vs leaving it dirty
Placing flowers in direct sunlight vs in indirect light
Using foam, foam substitutes, or no foam
Using quick dip and floral food vs plain water vs or filtered water. (Flowers react differently in different types of water.)
FLORIST TIP: Good Enough vs. Perfect
High Standards
Do you hold your work to a very high standard? I think we all do because we're artists and we love what we do!
But there is a valuable lesson I like to call: Good enough vs. Perfect.
In business, ‘perfect’ will kill your profit margin and without a healthy profit margin, your business won’t survive. Sometimes ‘good enough’ really is good enough.
And remember, nobody but you knows what you had planned. The customer doesn't know exactly what your design is "supposed" to look like. If it's pretty, the mechanics are sound, and it fills the customer request, it's good enough! If you spend oodles of time making it perfect, you're not efficient and that means you're losing profit!
FLORIST TIP: Less is More
Happiness
At one point I thought if I could just get more done I would be happier.
Truth is, I've found the opposite to be true. When I commit to less and get that task done with outstanding quality, I am much happier with myself. And surprisingly, my business grows more, too.
Even after 25+ years running this business, it's still a daily practice for me to delegate and say "no" to things that don't work for me. Sometimes it's really hard to do, but I'm almost always glad I did.
FLORIST TIP: Time Blocking
Time management—a topic of thousands of books, podcasts, trainings...
Time blocking is one tool that I’ve found helpful for managing the many demands of running a small business.
Time blocking It makes your busy to-do list more manageable because your not switching focus as often. It also gives you more control over your day and helps you prioritize tasks. By limiting the amount of multitasking you do, time blocking also improves your focus and helps prevents procrastination...and you get more done!
FLORIST TIP: Working with Your Natural Rhythm
The lark vs the owl
Are you a morning or evening person or do you have a couple of peaks every day?
Finding what works best for you is crucial in having a successful business. Once you find your natural rhythm everything else will begin to run very smoothly.
Try to schedule mental heavy lifting during your peak times. If you have a mental slump at 2pm don’t try and do accounting then. If you’re a night owl there’s nothing wrong with designing at night rather than regular work ours. You’re the boss, you set the rules! Schedule your time for maximum production.
Personally, I’m a morning person and rarely work past 5pm.
FLORIST TIP: Marketing
Websites
Creating a beautiful, functional website is very important as a florist.
A website allows you to showcase your designs and lets the client get you know you (before getting to know you).
Your website should be easy to navigate as well as pretty. Ask friends to check it out and get their feedback on any changes that might need to be made. View it as someone that doesn’t know much about flowers.
Keeping it simple is a good idea because too many choices can be overwhelming to a customer. At the minimum, your website should have a Home page, an About Us page, a Services Offered page and a Contact Us page. Once you have these in place, start expanding to galleries and more details.
FLORIST TIP: Speed Up Your Design Process pt1
Preparing Early
One way to speed up your design process is to prepare everything as early as possible.
Anything you can do in advance will make things easier later on. Having one less thing to think about is always nice — especially when you’re busy.
Assembly Lines
Factories use assembly lines because they work. When you have multiple similar arrangements to make, you’ll work faster if you do several designs at once. Green all your containers; add flower #1 to all your containers; add flower #2 and so on. Don’t have space to do them ALL at once? Do as many as you can in the space you have. Every little bit helps.
Organization
Getting organized will ensure your tasks get done efficiently. Organization is key to staying on top of your to-do list and your design bench.
FLORIST TIP: Speed Up Your Design Process pt2
Time yourself!
Time is money, so knowing how long it takes to make something will tell you how much money you can make (or how much help you need to hire).
Timing yourself will allow you to get a baseline for your work. Then you can work to improve that baseline by tracking your time and focusing on improving the speed.
Walk away.
If you have trouble knowing when to stop designing, set a timer. When the timer goes off, walk away. Don't keep messing with your design - it's done! Trust me, after a few times of forcing yourself to stop, you’ll be able to complete the task in the allotted time!
Remember, the faster you work the more you can produce and the more money you make!
FLORIST TIP: Be Consistent
Being consistent
Being consistent builds trust and improves efficiency when running a business.
This can apply to social media, using recipes, scheduling your employees, or even your design style. It doesn’t mean everything is matchy-matchy it just means you have systems in place.
You’ll also earn repeat customers when you have a consistent style. Yes, you can branch out, but being known for a specific style will draw those clients to you.
FLORIST TIP: Learn from Failure
Experience, not failure.
Too often we see ourselves as failures, rather than someone experiencing a failure.
Although who you are and what you do are connected, experiencing a failure doesn't make you a failure!
Get up. Try again. Learn something. Repeat. EXPERIENCE is the key to success.
These experiences can be as small as remaking a bouquet. Sometimes it's a little more like a product you launch that doesn't preform as well as you hoped. And sometimes it's huge, like starting a new business. Yes, you might 'fail'...or you might experience something that turns out better than you planned or hoped for!
Go experience something 🙂