Essential Considerations for Freelance Floristry Jobs

Essential Considerations for Freelance Floristry Jobs

Freelance floristry offers a wonderful opportunity to express creativity, work independently, and establish a thriving business. However, to ensure a successful and hassle-free experience, it's crucial to approach each job with careful consideration. In this blog post, we will explore the top things to think about before undertaking a freelance floristry job.

Clear Contracts

One of the first steps in undertaking a freelance floristry job is establishing a comprehensive contract with your client. Contracts are crucial for setting clear expectations and protecting the interests of both parties involved. A well-drafted contract should include details such as project scope, delivery dates, payment terms, cancellation policies, and any other pertinent information.

Payment Terms

Clearly defining payment terms is essential to maintain a sustainable freelance floristry branch to your business. Make sure you determine your rates up front and specify when payments are due, your employer may have their own policy on this and you need to make sure you’re both on the same page before you do any work. For example, you may state that you want to be paid within 7 days of the invoice being sent, but the employer usually pays within 30 days with all other contracts. You need to discuss this with them and work out if you can financially accommodate those payment terms or if they’re willing to meet you in the middle. By having these conversations and terms in place before you undertake any work, you safeguard your financial stability and protect against potential losses or misunderstandings.

Logistics and Expenses

Consider the logistics of getting to and from a job and if coming a long way, where you will be staying overnight if that is necessary. It is up to the employer if they are willing to pay for travel and expenses and is not something you should expect as standard. If you are concerned about this you might want to up your hourly or day rate to cover you for any of these things, something that is well worth considering. Clearly communicating with your employer is the key here, and if you do want to do exciting jobs that take you up and down the country or all over the world, you will really need to factor this in somehow.

Intellectual Property

This may sound like an odd one, but stick with us. It’s really important to make sure you and your employer are on the same page when it comes to your use of work done on their time with their product and their style/design. You may want to use images of work completed in their employment for promotional materials, such as your portfolio or social media and you need to make sure they’re happy with that and that you credit the correct people when you do so. Definitely never try to pass off work done on a freelance job as your own, a surefire way to annoy your employer. Instead, make sure you mention who you were working for and be complimentary about their design that you were able to contribute to. Also, don’t expect to always be tagged and included when your employer shares about a certain event that you freelanced on, yes it’s good manners but it’s entirely at their discretion as they have paid for your time and the flowers etc, you are just an extension of their business at this point, so they don’t owe you anything in terms of credit.

Cancellation

Make sure you establish clear guidelines for cancellations of bookings and definitely have a section in your terms and conditions where you specify how far in advance an employer can cancel on you, as well as any fees associated with cancellations. You might have refused other work, put off promoting yourself to book those dates elsewhere or even not gone on holiday during that time because you have committed to work for someone, you need to be protected if that falls through. Managing expectations through clear and honest communication is our best advice!