We all have different personalities and character traits, so what do you bring to the table when it comes to business? There are three main categories that most of us will fall into. You may even fall into multiple!

The Artist  

The majority of the time, florists will fit into this category. It’s generally why we got into floristry––we’re creative and we want to create using flowers and make people happy with flower arrangements. The Artist often doesn’t think of the money or the admin; The Artist is a creative being who wants to look at the overall vision, and they want to get their art out there. 

The Manager 

The Manager is highly organised, managing the business side of things as well as the people within the business. They are excellent with time management and are able to map out a plan for where they want the business to go. While this will come naturally to some, these skills can be learnt or even outsourced.

The Entrepreneur 

The Entrepreneur is focused on the big picture and is excellent at creating a clear business vision. This is similar to The Artist, but this vision is more from a business and financial perspective. They have defined goals, both creative and financial, and tend to want to do everything themselves.

When you are a ‘solopreneur’––which is often the case in floristry as we are usually starting on our own––it means you have to take on all of these roles. It’s a great idea to figure out which one you naturally gravitate towards. Most times we are predominantly two of these types.

When I first started my floristry business I was The Artist with no management skills. I had an entrepreneurial mindset but didn’t understand that it was important for all three personalities to be working together in business.

For many of us, it’s The Artist, and The Artist wants to spend most of their time at the bench working on the arrangements and being creative. This is where you can see floristry businesses burn out because owners feel like they are constantly on emails or dealing with accountants and they aren’t doing what they love anymore. 

Other people sometimes start the business and then realise they really enjoy the marketing and creativity that comes with that. Or, they look at the numbers side of the business and find it as enjoyable as the art of floristry itself. It’s just important that wherever you focus the majority of the time, you have an overall understanding of the business. 

This is why I don’t suggest going and hiring people who fill your skill gaps right from the start. Start small and give yourself time to work on your weakest business personality before bringing other people in. This doesn’t mean that you can’t ask for support and gain professional advice (you absolutely should when it comes to legal and finance) but you should have a clear understanding of every aspect of your business. This is so that when you’re hiring someone or outsourcing a task to someone else, you understand the scope of what you’re asking them to do.

Completing a personal SWOT Analysis can help to define your strengths and flush which of the 3 types of the above business personality types you are more aligned to, learn about a SWOT analysis here

An important aspect of business is self-awareness, and a great tool that we can use in order to gain this awareness is a SWOT analysis. This is an integral part of your business plan and it can help you figure out what you need to work on. 

You might have heard the term before, but let’s break it down further. Your SWOT analysis covers four areas:

• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• Opportunities
• Threats 

Strengths

There’s no room for being humble here. When listing our strengths we want to consider our skills. What can you bring to the table? When you’re looking at your own personal strengths, it’s important not to get tunnel vision and focus solely on the strengths required for a floristry business. What may seem irrelevant might actually translate well, so we want to think broadly. 

Look at your previous jobs or careers. Perhaps you’ve come from advertising, a job that requires innovation and creativity, or healthcare, where resilience is an important attribute for facing the ups and downs of working in a hospital. Maybe you’ve managed a home full of kids with mess and chaos, and you’ve handled it well. A busy wedding weekend at a floristry studio will feel like a chaotic household too, so being able to thrive in situations of stress is important. 

We want to make sure we are spending more time on our strengths because whatever brings us joy will bring greater energy to ourselves and our business, which will help us attract clients, customers and success. The happier you are as a person, the more joyous you are and the better your art because it exudes through that. Just by creating that positive, happy energy, people will be attracted to it and it will pay off in a multitude of ways. 

Weaknesses

This one can be a little more confronting, so it might be easier to brainstorm quickly without thinking too much. We often want to gloss over our weaknesses because we think they might inhibit our ability to run a business. But if we don’t take time to identify these potential weak points, we open up our business to issues down the line. So it’s worth investigating why there are weaknesses, what you can do to strengthen these skills and where you need to ask for help.

Once we have our weaknesses listed, we can then figure out what will help us rectify this issue. If numbers aren’t your thing, perhaps you need to engage a bookkeeper, take a short online course or even just buy a book that covers the basics. While you don’t have to be a fully-fledged accountant, being literate in this area and understanding the simple concepts is important.

Opportunities

Opportunities can come in a lot of different shapes. Let’s say that you’re looking for your own shop or studio, then a space becomes available. That’s an opportunity. New customers can be an opportunity for different customer bases or target markets that emerge through word of mouth or networking opportunities. You can be your own PR consultant, and so can your customers, friends and family. Another opportunity can be finding the right team members that complement your strengths and help you with your weaknesses.

We know that one wedding usually leads to many––as there are often prospective brides at weddings––so their first question is: who did that? One opportunity can lead to many. Other types of opportunities could be business owners that want flowers for their space, or they just really want to support you. It might be that the opportunity is there for you to start doing flowers for your friends’ and family’s homes.

Maybe you can see a gap in the market, there isn’t a local florist in the area, or perhaps the florist in your area is of a different style, a different price point or there is more demand in the area than they can meet alone. Opportunity! 

On a personal level, opportunity could be time. Maybe you’ve changed jobs and have more time to commit to your creative endeavours, or maybe the kids have flown the nest and you’ve got time on your hands and are eager to start something new. Opportunities are everywhere so it’s good to keep your eyes open for them. 

Threats

What circumstances or events could be a threat to the success of your business?

What the pandemic brought to our attention is that there are a variety of different threats out there that we could never expect to have and are entirely out of our control. And while we can’t plan for every single possible thing that could go wrong, we can take action against the threats that can be controlled to a degree. 

For example, let’s say there’s a premises for lease in a good location, but you don’t check to see that the local roads are about to be repaved, or that it’s near major construction and foot traffic will be limited. These are potential threats that need to be considered.

What also has to come into play here is our own internal strengths. This is why personal development is just so important––the stronger we are in ourselves, in what we know and what we want to achieve, the quicker we bounce back. Negative beliefs or ideas are a threat to your growth, and the success of your business will be a direct reflection of your own personal development. 

Learn the skills to run a profitable floristry business

When it comes to creating a showstopper arrangement, your tools and accessories are your secret weapons. 

A floristry workbench

To get started, we need to make sure we’ve got a designated place to work. We recommend finding a workbench that’s approximately 90cm in height. Kitchen and laundry benches are usually a good place to start looking, as these benches will usually come with a large in-built sink area which is perfect for filling up your vases and buckets. They’re also quite spacious and given that we recommend having about one metre of space to arrange on, this is a big tick.

Another advantage to kitchen/laundry benches is that they’re purpose-made to deal with spills and water. Whatever type of bench you choose, make sure that the table part is equipped to deal with water and can be easily cleaned. This is why we don’t recommend arranging flowers on your dining table––it’s likely to get nicks and water damage!

Don’t be afraid to look around for custom options either––at the Bloom Studio we used beautiful, wooden Ikea table tops and had the legs custom fitted to make them the correct height. We also had wheels added for movability. Add a thick coat of gloss on top to protect the wood from scratches and water damage, and you’ve got a sturdy, custom floristry bench.

A florist’s toolkit

First and foremost, make sure you’ve got your trusty, highly absorbent hand towel close by for mopping up any spills as well as keeping your hands dry.

You’ll also need:

• Pair of protective gloves – important for making sure you don’t get nicked and for removing any leaves on flower stems
• Flower cutting snips – ideal for cutting softer flower material
• Secateurs – for cutting hard-stemmed foliage and sticks
• Apron – for protecting your clothes from any splashes or dirt, as well as providing a handy pocket to keep your tools in
• Parafilm floral tape – for wiring and taping
• Snips sharpener – to keep your snips nice and sharp
• Wire – we recommend having a variety of sizes

Sharp snips are an indispensable tool for floristry, keep a few pairs for home, the studio and maybe in your car for any foraging finds. Just be mindful of putting your snips in safe areas, not on the edges of benches where they might fall off. Never place them into your pockets either, we recommend a good quality leather tool belt.

Preservatives

The aim of preservatives is to prevent the growth of bacteria. You may add a flower preservative to the container holding your flowers, just keep in mind that a little goes a long way, as they’re heavily concentrated products. Look into the different flower preservatives and what they are commonly used for. There are also preservatives specifically designed for certain flowers, or even natural alternatives to preservatives such as combining citric acid or white vinegar with sugar. 

Unfortunately, preservatives can speed up maturation, so if you’re keeping your vases/vessels clean and changing the water every day, you don’t need to use preservatives.

Waste Material

It’s important that floral material is disposed of properly. All green waste material can be put into a central green waste bin. There are companies out there that compost green material and some local councils also have green waste bins that they collect.

Contamination of green bins is something that you will need to be careful of, especially as some companies will charge if they find foreign material in the bin. Contamination can be something as little as a few bits of plastic wrap or some rubber bands.

With wired work, it’s easy for small bits of wire and parafilm to make their way into the bin, so to be on the safe side, it’s best to work into a general waste bin. Also, any material that has been in floral foam needs to go into the general waste. This is because flowers pick up the foam, which is a microplastic, contaminating the green waste.

When sweeping and using a dust pan to clean up, all that waste should go into the general bin as non-natural materials may be picked up and will contaminate the green waste.

Extra Care

Bacteria

Bacterial growth is one of the fastest ways to shorten the lifespan of cut flowers. Bacteria will grow in dirty water and containers, so be sure to change the water regularly and keep the container clean. For bacteria to grow it needs both a wet environment and something to attach to. This is why the removal of any leaves below the water level is so necessary.

Stem care

Many people know they should recut stems before placing them into fresh water, but don’t know why. Flowers and plant materials begin to heal themselves once cut, effectively blocking the flow of water. Giving the botanical material a fresh cut reopens the flower to allow for water flow. Cutting the stems on an angle creates a greater contact surface area so more water can be absorbed, while also allowing water to get beneath the cut end of the stem if it is resting on a container’s base.

Temperature

Always store your fresh material in a dark, cool, draught-free area. Home fridges are usually set at a temperature that is too low for flowers. The optimum temperature for most varieties is 6°C to 8°C. Any fresh materials originating from tropical climates should be stored above 12°.

Transporting Flowers

Transporting buckets and bunches of flowers can be a bit of a learning curve. You may be purchasing multiple bunches of flowers which will often be in buckets. Using larger containers to hold buckets of water can help to hold them steady, and catch any water that might spill.

You can purchase your Toolkit here