Case Study: Wedding Floristry

Background

I started working with an established, award-winning London based wedding florist in 2016 and we worked together for 18 months. The key problem Jane wanted to solve was how to keep her wedding business ticking over in the slower, winter months. She wanted to grow her business, but she couldn’t see a sustainable way of doing so. And her perfectionism was getting in the way.

This is something I see within in the female founder space. We hold ourselves to really high standards, holding ourselves back until we’re absolutely 100 percent sure we can predict the outcome. I used to be a perfectionist too so I get it. But as a female entrepreneur, being afraid of failure can hold us back.

A Strategic Approach

During our monthly coaching sessions, I followed a similar strategic planning process to the one I used as a Chief Executive. The aim was to answer the following four seemingly simple questions in order to come up with a strategic roadmap and action plan:

1. Where are you now?

2. Where are you going?

3. Which recommendations will best support you in bridging the gap?

4. How will you measure progress towards that envisioned future?

We began our work together by getting Jane to take a series of measures to improve her cash flow so that she began to feel more confident financially. She: 

• Started to implement weekly cash flow forecasting

• Sent automated deductions monthly to a designated savings account to build up sufficient reserves to see the business through the off season. 

• Introduced a payment plan to balance her cash flow. In this case collecting 25% upon booking, 25% at the halfway point, 25% at three quarters of the way and the final balance before the wedding date. 

We used a SWOT analysis to identify where the opportunities were. It was obvious that Jane had two natural advantages she could use to positive effect. First, Jane had won several awards and was well-regarded in the floristry industry. Second, she had originally trained as a teacher and knew how to create engaging lesson plans and inspire her students. 

Expanding Jane’s Business 

We came up with the idea of creating a series of courses for florists who wanted to work in wedding floristry and learn how to design and execute technically challenging installations. This gave Jane a profitable way to scale her business as students could join her online from all over the world. 

• Jane posted a weekly tutorial on Instagram and YouTube where she demonstrated a set-by-step guide for a seasonal wedding design. She encouraged viewers to sign up to her weekly newsletter and steadily started to build up an email list. 

• She asked her web developer to add a private members area to her website. Nowadays, unless they require a bespoke website, I advise my clients that Squarespace is the simplest way to start with a private members area. For a small £15 monthly fee, you get a beautiful storefront, SSL certifications, high-speed web servers, and all the beginner-friendly marketing and sales tools you could possibly need to run your business digitally. But the tech wasn’t as advanced when Jane created her courses. 

• She continued to enter awards competitions as this helped her to build her reputation. This, combined with PR and social media marketing, proved to be a highly effective strategy for reaching her target market. 

• Over time, Jane has developed new masterclasses, including one for brides and grooms who would love to create their own flowers. 

The Results  

In Year 1, Jane sold 20 places on her first course for $1,500 bringing in $30,000, enough to cover the costs of creating the course, and create a small marketing budget for Year 2. This side of the business has since grown year on year and now generates more than $250,000 per annum in additional revenue. 

I caught up with Jane last year to see how her business had been impacted by the pandemic. Her courses for florists came into their own as they used the time to develop their skills when it came to designing and executing technically challenging installations. This meant her business was in a much better position to navigate the pandemic than her competitors in and around London.

Work With Me

Have you enjoyed this case study? Has it helped you to see what’s possible for your business? 

If you’d like my advice and guidance to help you on you can build your business strong and safe like Jane, here’s how you can book a call to discuss how to work with me. I’d love to help you grow a successful and profitable business just like Jane.