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Regardless of your role in the floral industry, it's no secret that the work you do includes manual labor. Lifting buckets, picking up heavy boxes, getting on your hands and knees, climbing up ladders, spending hours in the field harvesting—all of this and more is done daily in the floral industry! Manual labor is hard work, and for it to be sustainable for many years, you need to make sure you're doing a few things for your body.
If you’re in the same boat as me and you need an extra pair of hands (or two—or three!) for larger projects, there are a couple things to keep in mind.
I have good news for those who balk at the idea of trading the flowing beauty of a garden for straight rows and sorted colors and varieties. It is possible to maintain an organic feel and grow in large quantities. I’ll walk you through some of the pros and cons, as well as share some ideas for landscaping your space.
Business owners will be the first to tell you how difficult it can be to effectively market new clients. It can be even more difficult (but also more rewarding!) to turn your clients into brand advocates. But in doing so, you solidify them as clients for the long-term, while reaping the rewards of additional sales through trust, referrals, and positive reviews. With the importance of brand advocacy now in mind, let’s look at five ways your business can increase its number of client advocates.
We all know flowers are sweet and beautiful, but we hate to admit that they can be incredibly delicate. If there’s too much of anything, they can falter quickly: too much bacteria in the water (eek!), too much heat, too much humidity, too much dry air—the list goes on and on.
As we live life day by day, we learn things that make our lives easier—like placing your phone in rice after you've accidentally dropped it in the toilet or using a wooden spoon on a pot to keep the water from boiling over. As flower people, we have to learn shortcuts to make our jobs more efficient. Every minute is valuable! Team Flower members are full of floral design hacks and flower growing hacks for a simpler flower life. Take a look below. Perhaps a few of them will make your life easier!
There's nothing quite like flipping through the worn pages of your grandmother's growing books or finding inspiration in fixed botanical beauty with the turn of every page. At Team Flower, we have been exposed to a slew of flower books (and business books that help inspire sustainable flower businesses!), and we have an appreciation for the role that books play—whether it's for inspiration, teaching, or just for fun. Take a look below to see the Team Flower Staff's top picks!
Collaboration is not just about sending off a bouquet with a photographer and getting pictures in return. You can build relationships with vendors at real weddings and styled shoots. Here are three ways you can master collaboration and networking to make real, lasting relationships in the event industry.
Anything new that catches the attention of my local audience is a plus! I also love to get people thinking while they're looking at something pretty—it adds dimension to their enjoyment and increases the chances they'll be back to buy from me again.
You’re confident in your hand-tied bouquets and your ability to build the perfect installation—but when it comes to crafting a client proposal to effectively convey your design ideas, maybe not so much. A stunning proposal is crucial in gaining both the business and trust of your clients.
Looking to branch into new markets? Or are you moving to a new location altogether? As a floral designer who recently moved to a different state, I was faced with several questions. I first started my floral business several years ago while living in Southern California and recently moved to a small town in Utah. Shortly after moving, I realized that I would be limiting my business potential if I were to focus solely on my new local market. Therefore, I came up with a strategy to target my ideal wedding clients locally as well as in other locations.
Utilizing shape in floral arrangements is FUN. You can create a design that’s round or square, full or light and fluffy, large and in charge or pretty and petite. And that’s not even talking about the flowers themselves! From the bigger-than-your-face dahlias to the taller-than-life delphinium—and everything in between—your own imagination is your only limit.
If you think adding client gifts to your workflow would be a good fit for your business, I have some dos and don’ts for you to consider.
Are you hoping to grow your own field or patch of gorgeous and sought-after ranunculuses? Here’s a quick guide on how to grow ranunculuses to boost your growing confidence and get you started this coming season!
Do you ever feel stuck in a creative rut? Perhaps you feel this way when you’ve done the same three color palettes event after event after event or you always end up using the same rotation of flowers. Or maybe you’re a flower farmer, and because you see and grow the same flowers every season, you forget to admire each bloom’s individuality. If you’ve been in this industry long enough, you’ve been there.
Each year, Accent Decor searches the globe to find quality products to serve the floral community. And each season they share exciting new products from their carefully curated trend stories, both online and at market shows around the country.
In this day and age, social media is not only important but also vital to the growth and success of a floral business. Social media for floral designers is far more than posting pretty images for our friends and family to see. If utilized properly, it can be a real and significant marketing tool that will lead your customers to your website and ultimately convert those followers into paying clients.
I’m Phoebe, and my ethical floral events company is called Pollendine’s. I’m based in Cumbria, in the North West of the UK, and I am entirely freelance. I work as a copywriter alongside my floristry and also look after my two-year-old.
With an ever-increasing installation trend in weddings and event work, as well as the emphasis on foam-free floral designs, I was eager to figure out a way to create a ground installation, or living meadow, with foam-free mechanics that offered flexibility in multiple installation scenarios. There are so many options for foam-free installation mechanics out there, but this is the method that worked well for me. Hopefully, you will find it useful—or maybe it will provide you with a starting point for additional foam-free floral designs!
Working with flowers is a wonderful career and a great privilege - we live surrounded by beauty, and we get the honor of accompanying our customers as they celebrate many happy occasions. But what happens when the florist herself is going through difficult times? How do we find joy, beauty, and creativity to spread around when we are in pain?
