Starting a business is not an easy thing to do. Whatever you choose to do with your future will have to be interesting enough for you to spend the entirety of your life planning, investing money and time and lots (LOTS) of hard work into it. Well, if you do love flowers and know a thing or two about design, then this is the right job for you. However, you will need to “think outside of the box” to become successful and better than others.
And you don’t even have to own a flower shop in order to be successful in a floral business. Someone I used to know designed arrangements for big companies or restaurants on a regular basis. It was a nice, steady, regular source of income for her. Of course, there were also the weddings and funerals. This is where she got her idea. I mean, we all know that flowers are beautiful and often associated with love and positive emotions but there have been many websites that built their success by selling funeral flowers. Just think about your options and execute them.
The bad news for you, if you choose this profession is that you will be stupidly busy. You will work at Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. The competition will be extremely strong, and you will have to stay up-to-date with the newest trends. If you don’t do that, your competition will.
This is why we prepared 6 principles for floral business success. The 6 most basic principles we could think of.
1. Demographics
You need to know your customers. Demographics describe those people. You want to know their age group, what they like to purchase, who buys the most flowers from you and why. Also, you will want to find out where people are finding you – Google, word of mouth, Facebook, or some social media communities.
This is the only way you will understand the target audience you need to focus your energy and marketing on. And this research is not going to be an easy thing to do. This is exactly why you need to know where your consumers are finding you. That will help you concentrate your marketing in the right direction.
2. Marketing
Every business needs marketing. You can’t be successful if no one knows that your business even exists. There are so many ways you can market your products, and this is why knowing your demographics is imperative.
- What you want to do is start small and gradually build up. The only thing you don’t want to do is to miss this opportunity.
- Your business needs presence in all kinds of social media communities. One or two is not enough. Make your business visible on every social media website you can find. And make sure you ask your customers to like your pages (or profiles).
- You could start an “inhouse marketing” with your flower shop and website. And make sure you have a beautiful website.
- Your flower shop should look beautiful, so invest some time in decorating it.
- Ask your customers for their emails so you can regularly send them your newsletters.
- And if you are thinking about catering to events like Weddings or Funerals, make a website dedicated to those separate events. This will help your business by indexing the best keywords on search engines.
3. Good Customer Service
Bad reviews are extremely dangerous to businesses. This is why you need good customer service. That is the first contact between your business and a customer and you want to make a good first impression. And everyone’s a critic these days, and reviews are easily accessible.
This is why everyone in your flower shop needs to be well-trained and familiar with the products and services your company offers. And there is no need to mention that, besides knowledge, you always need courtesy and professionalism in your company.
Make sure your employees are always:
- Polite to customers;
- Look presentable;
- Punctual;
- Well educated and familiar with their work duties.
4. Waste
The amount of waste that is left on the floor will partially determine the future of your floral business. You don’t need unnecessary loss. We are talking about wire, ribbon, tape, rewritten cards, adding too many blooms to a vase, ordering too many flowers, etc. Plan every product used at your flower shop.
5. “Outside of the “Flower Box”
A successful business uses every single opportunity it has to draw in as many new customers it possibly can. Learn from the data you gathered and start bringing your current and different demographics into the flower shop. You have to use every single inch of your retail flower space. Every square inch you use means more money.
Suggestions
A flower bar or a succulent bar would be a good place to start. It is the perfect example of how you should organize all the space you have. You should also try selling more popular plants, some techy items with your flowers (phone cases with floral symbols, necklaces or earrings, chargers, etc.). Anything with flowers.
You could also try selling paintings, hand-crafted accessories, pet items, etc.
6. Know Your Competition
You need to understand your competitors. Learn about:
- Their floral designs;
- The products they offer;
- The look and feel of their flower shop;
- How much your flower shop is different from theirs?
Knowing your competitors will help you to communicate with your target audience, distinguish your business from competitors, improve your processes, and navigate all the problems and challenges that await you in your market.
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