Savvy Ways to Boost Your Income as a Florist
Floristry is a beautiful and creative profession, but it's also important to ensure that it provides a sustainable income. As a florist, there are several savvy strategies you can employ to increase your earnings and make the most out of your business. In this blog post, we will explore practical tips on how to supplement your income, optimise your budgeting and pricing, streamline your processes, and work smarter to maximise your profitability.
Freelancing to Supplement Diary Gaps
Freelancing can be an excellent way to supplement your income during slower periods. Offer your floral services for events, weddings, or collaborations with other businesses. By taking on freelance work, you can fill gaps in your diary and generate additional revenue.
As well as making sure you’re a member of our amazing freelancing community, why not try reaching out to wedding planners, event coordinators, or other florists you know and offer your services.This allows you to showcase your skills, expand your network, whilst also increasing your income when your schedule has available slots.
Budgeting and Smart Purchasing
Effective budgeting and smart purchasing are crucial for maximising your profitability as a florist, so keep a close eye on your expenses and be strict when buying flowers and materials. We would also suggest adding in a little budget for those ‘extra luxury bits’ that you know you’re going to be tempted buy. We all do it, go to the market to pick up our order and then get drawn in by something exquisite you didn’t know you needed until you saw it! Having that little bit of a contingency budget is a great idea in these cases. And if you don’t see anything extra, then you’ve come in under budget! Win win.
Realistic Pricing from the Start
Setting realistic pricing from the beginning of any project is vital to ensuring you are adequately compensated for your time, effort, and materials. Consider factors such as the complexity of the arrangement, the cost of flowers, and your expertise when determining your pricing structure.
By properly calculating the cost of flowers, materials, labour, and overheads, and factoring in a reasonable profit margin you should be able to avoid underpricing your work to attract clients. We see so many people doing this, especially in the first months and years of running a business, but this will only lead to financial strain and undervaluing your expertise, a perfect recipe for quitting before you’ve hit your stride!
Including Costings for Additional Help
When taking on larger or time-sensitive projects, you must always include costings for additional freelance help. Accounting for these additional expenses in your quotes ensures that you are adequately compensated for if the extra assistance required.
Knowing when a design will need more hands on deck will become second nature with time, so you will know that if you are working on a large-scale event you need to factor in the cost of hiring an extra pair of hands for setup, teardown, or additional design work. You don’t want to be panicking a week before the event that not only are you not going to be able to deliver but that if you do get help in then you’re margins will shrink even further. You want to go into every event prepared and calm!
Streamlining Processes and Implementing Systems
Streamlining your processes and implementing efficient systems can significantly improve your productivity and profitability. Look for ways to automate repetitive tasks like admin, customer communications and some marketing, organise your workspace, and optimise your time management to work more efficiently.
Some of our top tips would be:
As a florist, adopting savvy strategies to increase your income is essential for a thriving and sustainable business. We can all so often get bogged down in the minutia of running around like a headless chicken, not quite sure what we’re doing half the time. Unfortunately when you’re unprepared and disorganised this can often lead to wasting money fixing mistakes or last minute panic purchases can happen. We know you can run an efficient and thriving business and we hope that some of these tips might help you move away from feeling stressed to feeling in control and making the income you deserve for all your hard work.