New Year … New ways of doing things!!

New Year Resolutions (NYR’s)… the bane of our lives!  We’re all supposed to make them, but they can do more harm than good either because of the guilt trips created by failure or because they're not focussed in the right direction. 

You see we reckon NYR’s should be about your whole life … not just about quitting the ciggs or losing weight (although both are essential) but your business as well.  Because if your business is not in a good place chances are you won't be either.  The pressures of running a business … large or small … are immense and often the reason for excess smoking, drinking, eating, worry, stress, infections etc etc.

So, before you beat yourself up about your body and mind, take a cold hard look at the business and see if there are things you can and should be doing to make that easier and chances are you’ll feel a whole lot better too.

These are some of our key ones to think about.

We love this one because it sums it up.  If you splash around all over the place and go off in random circles, curves and heaven forbid, under the ropes, you will lose focus and everything will take sooooooooo much longer. 

Set yourself a list of what you want to achieve in the next four or six months (you can do a year but bite size chunks are often better) and stick to it as closely as possible.  You can have a bit of wiggle room … i.e. go to the ropes but don’t go under!! 

This applies to staff, family and customers.  If you can’t or really don’t feel comfortable doing something, then say No.  If it isn’t going to make you money and you’re only doing it because you are scared of losing the gig to someone else say No … let them take the hit. 

If your staff are being unreasonable and making demands that you genuinely can’t meet because the money is tight explain why but say No.  If the family expect you to be ‘superperson’ but won’t pitch in, then say No next time they ask for something – they need to understand the pressures of running a business too.  And once you’ve said No don’t sweat it or spend hours agonising over the decision. 

If you have a team you must learn to say No … to yourself!  There is no point employing people and then micromanaging their every move!  They are there to help you, not add to your workload and unless they are completely useless (in which case you need to get rid of) truth is they may well have skills you don’t and ideas you haven’t thought of.  Give them a chance to shine in 2024 and you could be pleasantly surprised … never mind have more time for yourself or the things that ONLY you can do!

We say this all the time but you are in business to make a living which means you must make a profit.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with that so don’t under price or undercut another florist to get work.  It may show a short-term gain but long term it will crucify your business and it is bally hard to raise prices if you start too low. 

If customers won’t or can’t pay the going rate you seriously need to ask yourself if you are in the right area and/or dealing with the right customers.  We totally get that there are regional differences, but we also see a lot of readers bemoaning mean customers and they are in affluent areas.  Are you being pressurised to reduce prices because of genuine hardship or because flowers and florists are an easy target.  People pleasing is fine but do it profitably.

This sort of goes back to Price Properly and will be self-determining.  If you want to sell loads of low-ticket priced items, that’s fine.  But if you want to work smarter rather than harder – i.e., sell 8 x £50 bouquets rather than 20 x £20 you’ll need to find eight customers with £50 to spend.  Is it easy?  Nope … we’d be telling porkie pies if we said yes.  Is it impossible?  Nope to that one either. 

Because it’s how you present yourself that will determine the type of buyer you get.  If all you showcase is low-cost designs, then you are only ever going to attract that type of buyer. You need to show you can and do do the high-end stuff if you are going to attract high end spenders.

Oh yes and please don’t ever assume you know how much is in someone’s wallet.  Remember that Pretty Woman scene?  Julia Roberts may have looked like a prostitute, but she was carrying a Platinum card! That person who comes in looking like a scruff could have oodles of money in their bank account, they just don’t like buying clothes or those scruffy jeans cost a fortune.  The person who ums and ahhs over making a decision isn’t necessarily trying to get a cheap deal, they just don’t understand how flower buying works!! Be very careful of making judgements.

Hate doing weddings.  Know you aren’t making any money from them. Can’t cope with the brides any longer.  Then dump them.  There is no rule that says florists HAVE to do weddings.  Far cleverer to work with a local wedding studio and refer customers to them in return for commission. 

The same applies to contracts, funerals whatever.  Ultimately YOU choose what you sell and do and if it means you can focus on the bits you do well and make money on, it isn’t just fine, it’s a real positive. 

You may think you are saying things clearly but are you sure.  Did you really explain a new plan to your staff properly or just say a few words and expect them to understand everything you were thinking about.  Is 2024 the year to introduce a monthly team meeting – with an agenda – so everyone is involved.

Do your customers really know what you are offering, or do you assume they know because you’ve been around for ages and you’re a florist so they should know.  Maybe 2024 is the year you send out a monthly newsletter … doesn’t have to be long but even a short friendly message is better than nothing and keeps you top of mind.

We all have a duty to do our best to be greener, caring and sustainable.  And there are some things you can do all the time like using recycled/biodegradable/sustainable products.  However, being totally green can be more expensive and there are some designs that just don’t work in a pure green way without it costing a small fortune in time.  So why not work create a truly eco range.   Market it as your ‘eco collection’ (or find a name that works for you) put together some explanatory text, especially if you are still going to use imported flowers* and make it a dedicated area on your website. 

** Imports are totally acceptable in our opinion as they do good in so many other ways, like giving families an income, education, medical support etc, and are often more sustainably grown than many given them credit for.

We have a printer that is sort of OK but glitches every so often.  Not only does it do our Editor’s head in but we’ve worked out that the time and money spent during 2023 trying to produce perfect copies could have paid for a new one by now!  In short if something is broken and genuinely can’t be fixed dump it! Same with all the grotty pens, blunt knives, old tatty containers .. start 2024 clean and clear … you’ll feel a whole lot better!

We love social media but unless you are in a wedding destination location, chances are the bulk of your business probably comes from the people in your immediate vicinity .. i.e. a 30-mile radius of your shop that should be beaten within an inch of its life in terms of marketing and communications. Of course, you will get ‘out of area’ orders but are you really ‘working’ your home turf to the full. 

Are you connecting with every group, company, school, fellow trader in your area or are you bunging up a post on FB/Insta/et al and hoping for the best.  Not only may you be hitting the wrong audience but in an increasingly crowded online market, sometimes it’s no bad thing to go back to the old-fashioned marketing routes of newsletters, flyers, pop up shops, dems, open houses etc.   ‘People buy from People’ (PBFP) is the best mantra to work to but make sure you are mixing with the right people.

In a perfect world you’d have a month at a time schedule of what you’re posting.  Life doesn’t always work that way and to be honest sometimes it's just better to post from the heart and 'in the moment' but do have a basic plan and aim for 3 posts a week.  You don't have to post everyday, it doesn't have to be instant and you can reuse content in different ways!

However rather than just posting pictures of your designs try to make it far more personal (that whole PBFP thing again) with stories about your team, what you’re working on (sneak peeks), the behind the scenes bits of being a florist, stories about happy customers (with permission obvs!), testimonials, a Q&A session … in short the behind the scenes stuff that goes into making the finished design!

The world and his friend sell flowers … the world and his friend aren’t you and all the personal service and character that brings!

You don’t have to be an accountant, but you do need a working knowledge of your numbers each and every week! If you’re not already using a bookkeeping system, make it a 2024 resolution to start even if you are only small.  They don’t cost a fortune but oh boy can they make life easier and save you money by not just doing the invoicing etc but making it quicker for the accountant to work their magic!

Knowing your numbers also means you’ll know if your pricing is right, if you need to tweak things or are on track and best of all give you the confidence that you are on the right track.  It’s all very well the bank balance being in credit but if you don’t know how much of it is due to go out then you could be fooling yourself.

This one is as old as the hills but we still see loads of sites that are out of date, have broken links and spelling mistakes.  It looks seriously bad!  The out of hours message you send to emails … and any social media channels you have one on - should be checked too.  Again, far too many are out of date, and most don’t include a call to action or click through to order online either.  We know we sound grumpy but it really is the little things that make the difference between looking slick and professional and just plain slapdash!

Fear is a killer in business.  You’re scared of saying the wrong thing to staff or customers, you are frightened to take a punt on new ideas in case it goes pear shaped.  You worry that you aren’t as good as the person down the road, you freeze when you see another fabulous post on social media and wonder how you can keep up. 

STOP! 

You may not be perfect, but chances are you are a lot better than you are giving yourself credit for.  Yes, things can, and do go wrong but we are pretty sure that if you were to write down everything you’ve got right it would be a chunky list. 

It looks like there has been a real swing to independent florist shops but that doesn’t mean you can be complacent.  In a tough old world, there will always be someone trying to knuckle in on your pitch so you need to keep shouting and showing loud and proud about how brilliant you are and make sure you are top of mind when it comes to EVERY flower purchase! Click here to see why the Editor reckons you need to be more Peacock!