How To Start A Floral Business

How To Start A Floral Business - Background Info:

A floral business is always in big demand. Weddings, births, anniversaries, birthdays, holidays, and even funerals - all call for the services of a florist.

You need not take any formal training to start. In fact, some of the most successful florists in the industry never had any sort of structured education on how to arrange beautiful flowers and bouquets - they are self-taught.

Flowers are a big part of people's lives. Their beauty and color allows us to convey our messages perfectly get-well soon for our sick friends and

family, congratulatory messages to a newly promoted colleague, condolences to a grieving family, and to express our love to another person. Every occasion is celebrated with flowers.

People often buy flowers to help them communicate their feelings. Flowers are often sent to both weddings and funerals, to congratulate someone on a promotion, to people on their birthdays, and to wish someone good luck before a big event.

Flowers are also often used to help spruce up a home or a garden, giving you the opportunity to sell a great number of flowers if you decide to learn how to open a floral business.

If you decide to start a floral business, you will need to find a great location which will let you showcase your flowers and the arrangements that you can come up with.

You will then need to let people know that your arrangements exist and that you will offer them at competitive prices. You need good contacts to get a constant supply of fresh and even rare flowers so that your customers will always be satisfied.

The floral business can be very profitable simply because you have holidays and events all year long that involve flowers. Yet, if you don't have the funds or desire to open a flower shop, but still like working with floral arrangements and have a creative flair, you have options. You even can work from home!

How To Start A Floral Business - Tasks And Skills Needed:

Business Specific Tasks:

If you are planning to do all the business tasks or hiring or subcontracting tasks, here's a list of tasks that need to be attended to when it comes to the business side of running a floral business:

Bookkeeping

Accounting

General office

Industry Specific Tasks:

Same as above if you plan to do everything yourself or get help, here are some of the tasks necessary to operate a floral business:

Fill flower orders

Cleaning of flower shop

Storing of flower arrangements

Delivery of flower arrangements

Inventory

How To Start A Floral Business - Approximate Daily Hours Needed:

General Hours of Operation: - When your business is open - Many florists will stay open during normal business hours, from about 8AM through 5PM or a little later. You will, however, need to go to work early to receive all of the shipments of flowers which will come in early every morning. You will also need time to put arrangements together, meaning that you may have some very early mornings.

Hours Needed to Prepare - Before Opening and After Hours Activities - Keeping current with new varieties of flowers that can be offered, promotion/advertising, billing, customer service.

Number of Employees Needed To Run This Business:

Minimum Number of Employees -During the Start Up Phase: You can start this business yourself on a full-time basis.

Number of Employees - Once Your Business is Up and Running Successfully:

Website maintenance

Record/Bookkeeping

General office

Customer Service

Flower arrangement

Inventory management

Flower ordering

Sales

Delivery people

Skill Requirements for This Business:

Eye for design

Knowledge of various flower types

Flower preservation knowledge and know-how

Licenses:

You need local permits to run a business as well as a lease to run the building space that you will run your floral business from.

Approximate Minimum Start up Cost:

Bare essential: - The rent that you will pay on your location will vary based on the size of the space as well as the location. The cost of the flowers will vary depending on the range of flowers that you intend to offer.

Minimal exposure - There are several ways to advertise for free but florists also spend the most money on advertising and local paper advertising.

Necessary Equipment to Run this Business:

Necessary Start-Up Equipment & Supplies:

Computer

Printer

Cell phone

Website

Flowers of varying types

Water source

Flower nutrients

Containers

Wrapping paper

Floral tape

Refrigeration unit

Supplementary Equipment: - Equipment or helpful products that you can acquire to once your business is off and running:

More refrigeration units

Storefront

Exotic flowers

Special containers

Gift cards

Balloons

Stuffed animals

Statuettes or hanging ornamentation

Van or delivery vehicle

Monthly Expenses To Consider:

Wages
Phone/cell phone
Internet access
Permits
Advertising/Marketing
Electricity
Water

Special Requirements and Considerations For This Business:

Find out all you can about the trends in the industry. Know your competition, in particular, their strengths and weaknesses. This will help you identify your competitive advantage. In other words, this will help you figure out what you can give your customers that they're not getting from the other businesses. And keep from emulating the competition's strategy. Instead, make the most of your own advantage points.
People need floral arrangements for holidays, birthdays and special events like weddings and graduations - but don't forget longer-term contracts with churches, hotels, restaurants and other businesses who need flowers delivered or arranged on a regular basis. Besides a consistent monthly income, it can be a simple way of showcasing your designs to more prospective flower buyers.
People purchase flowers and plants as gifts and for their own enjoyment. This growing business niche should be considered like any other retail business with a perishable product line. There are two ways to become an owner of a floral shop. You could start one from the ground up and build the business. The other way is find one that is for sale and make the purchase. There are valid reasons to go either way. The big plus for buying an existing business is they have a following from an existing customer base. This fact will mean an immediate cash flow to the new owner. A purchase of an existing business will cost far more than starting one from scratch. This is the basic reason to start from scratch.
The lower cash outlay to become an owner of a floral business could be the one factor that makes a person go one way versus another. If a person is going to open a brand new shop, they will have to pay particular attention to the location of their new store. Drive-by traffic and walking traffic can make a big difference in how fast the business grows. This type of floral operation would be the typical florist's shop that you can find in many shopping centers. There are other variations of this type of floral business that a knowledgeable person could start or buy from a current owner. You could get into the wholesale side of the business and supply retail shops.
You could supply businesses with floral arrangements that they want delivered every week. Weekly deliveries that are done on a contracted basis could be in addition to the normal business of the shop.

Pros And Cons of Opening A Floral Business:

The Pros of Running a Floral Business:

Flowers are beautiful and fragrant, allowing you to spend your day working with beauty.

You can also be quite creative in putting together arrangements, allowing yourself to express an artistic side.

It can also be quite a profitable business, as transporting fresh flowers can cost some money and this will reflect in the prices of the flowers that you sell. People know this, though, and are often willing to pay for the best flowers they can buy.

The Cons of Running a Floral Business:

When money is tight, flowers are often one of the first things to not be bought anymore.

You may also find yourself dealing with trouble when shipments are held up as this will decrease the quality of the flowers.

Also, at certain times, you may have too many orders to process and could lose some business because of this.

Type of Customers You Need to Attract:

The types of customers you need to attract will be customers that could be referrals from major flower companies to local residents who need arrangements for different occasions.

Floral Business Statistics:

Recent trends indicate that majority of those who buy flowers buy it for themselves. The American Floral Endowment Consumer Tracking Study conducted in 2000 showed that about 67 percent buy flowers for themselves, and only 33 percent buy it as a gift.

Revenue:

The Society of American Florists estimates that the floriculture industry will sell $19 billion in flowers, plants, and floral supplies for 2001. There are about 26,200 retail florist shops in the United States today making an average of $250,191 in annual sales.

Floral Business Resources:

Industry-Specific Websites:

The Flower Expert Shop

Courses:

Penn Foster

Equipment and Supplies:

Florabundance

Forums:

Bloom or Bust?

Floral Park

Franchises:

Suspended in Time

Associations:

AIFD

The Flower Expert List of Associations

Books:

Get Paid to Create Floral Designs

Floral Businesses

Amazon Books on Floral Business

Businesses To Related to a Floral Business:

Owning a craft store
Wedding planning
Craft shows
Special Occasions/events