A flower shop is a business—you need to make sure that it is profitable and sustainable. Luckily, there are many metrics to objectively measure your business's performance. Aside from helping make sure that your business is doing well, these metrics are also going to be measured when you’re trying to get a bank loan, for example. Having an idea about how your business is doing, supported by hard numbers on the table, can help you plan ahead and make adjustments to your current shop’s workflow. You can also readily adjust your pricing formula, and even see what needs to be improved in your shop, from your equipment to your workforce, just by taking a look at these metrics. That’s how powerful these metrics can be! Let’s dive deep into these metrics and how you can use the…

Are you looking to purchase a flower shop? Whether you are looking forward to getting started in the floral industry or you're looking to expand, buying a flower shop carries with it a lot of advantages over starting from scratch. Buying a flower shop saves you the struggle of a new business: building costs, hiring capable staff, acquiring equipment, and building your reputation. All it takes is ensuring that the shop you’re buying is worth your investment. Here are a few things you need to look into when buying a flower shop! General Floral Business In the end, a flower shop is a business, so you need to look into the profitability of the shop before delving into the specifics. There’s a lot of business jargon that might get thrown at you, but basically, you need to look in…

There are important tools to help automate your florist social media accounts! Simply put, social media automation software is used to automate or semi-automate the management of (usually) multiple social media accounts, from posting content to replying to comments and messages. They alleviate the painstaking process of going through each platform by providing a single place to manage them all. Most of these tools will allow you to post to multiple accounts simultaneously or schedule them on specified dates, some even going the extra mile of giving you statistics about how your content has been performing. Sendible If you're savvy with social media automation already, you might have expected Hootsuite to lead the pack in this article, but we opted for an undiscovered alternativ…

Florists, are you offering subscription services? Subscription flowers, or floral subscriptions, include a variety of services where customers can have flowers delivered to a place of their choice in a specified frequency. Depending on the service, customers may choose the bouquets that are sent or receive a random bouquet of seasonal flowers. Some services also allow flowers to be sent at specific dates or on holidays (eg. Valentine’s Day or anniversaries). While it's commonplace for customers to send flowers to mark a special occasion, the general reason floral subscriptions are gaining traction today is a growing appreciation for having everyday flowers nearby. The natural beauty everyday flowers bring to homes and offices invigorates and calms the area. Plus, the convenience…

Florists' goal is to make money doing the thing they love most! Writing technical papers like business plans sounds like a lot of work, and you may think it's irrelevant for someone who's starting out. However, business plans are even more important for a business early on. What Makes a Floral Business Plan Important A business plan guides your helps you track your long-term objectives and the strategies you use to achieve them. Planning is crucial in business because we are not simply dealing with money; time and effort are on the line—your time, and everyone helping you. Also, formalizing your vision helps you assess your current position and your capabilities of reaching it. Aside from that, business plans let you plan ahead for possible problems you might get into. This req…

As a present-day florist, you need to diversify the services you offer to stay above your competition. We all know that simply selling flowers doesn't cut it in the floral industry and economy of today. That's why florists offer delivery, holiday decorating, weddings and event florals, and many other products and services to help business thrive. Organizing workshops is one technique we'd like to spotlight today that helps draw in potential customers and serves as a way to give back to the community. A floral workshop is a space you can personally engage with your customers. You can do many kinds of workshops, from general flower arranging, caring for various houseplants, to arranging for different occasions and flowers. Preparing the space and materials for the workshops can be h…

Flowers speak a visual language in the natural world, communicating with colors and shapes. Flowers also have meanings and connotations that we have devised for them. As a florist, you can take advantage of this beauty because people nowadays have become especially receptive to visual content. Given the rise of platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, making use of this high time for visual content is a no-brainer. How do you take advantage of this, you ask? By creating visual content like pictures and videos! To do so, you can set up your space to be perfect for photo shoots. Today we will be discussing how to make the perfect DIY flower photo studio right at your shop, with little cost! A DIY Photo Studio’s Physical Look First and foremost, the most important thing we need fo…

Online advertising, online promotions, and online visibility are all musts to stay relevant with your target audience. Facebook has had the biggest user base among all social media networks, boasting 2 billion users globally. However, the story is dim for Facebook’s younger user base in the United States. For the past two years, Facebook has lost 15 million users, and the majority of them are teenagers and young adults. Instagram, a social media network also owned by Facebook, is experiencing the reverse of that trend: in the same span of time, its user base composition of teens rose from 64% to 66%. Snapchat, another social media network with a similar form as Instagram, is also experiencing the same trend. Still, Facebook remains relevant as a platform for businesses, giv…

Today's consumers rely heavily on the internet for everything, and shopping for flowers is no exception. That’s why your online presence must be strong! Search engine optimization should focus on customers in your direct vicinity. Local SEO is important, perhaps even more so than general SEO, because your direct source of reliable income will be the customers nearest to you. so optimizing your online presence that will prioritize them should be the first step for your business SEO. So, search engine optimization, as its name suggests, allows your business website to be easily seen at the top of search results, thus increasing your online visibility. The best way to go about your first steps of SEO is through Google My Business. Florist Tools For SEO For starters, Google My Busin…

Social media has had an overwhelming impact on human interaction since its inception, particularly in business. Social media has changed how people obtain information, and vastly increased the volume of content that we consume. Facebook remains the most-used social media platform, but recently its title is being threatened by another social media platform focusing on images and videos, Instagram. Origins of Facebook Inspired by unviersity face books which contain students' photos and basic information, Facebook began at Harvard University in 2003 as FaceMash. It creator, Mark Zuckerburg went on to open "TheFacebook" to other Harvard students in 2004. As time passed, membership expanded to other universities, high schools, then to private companies, until it finally opened to ever…