How to Open Your Own Florist Business

Are you thinking about launching a florist business? A potentially highly lucrative venture that is perfect for anyone who wants to be surrounded by beautiful blooms all day, opening your own florist business is not as hard as it may seem.

With the right amount of passion, a willingness to work hard, and a strong set of business skills, anyone can open a florist business and make it a success.

Here are 5 top tips for opening a florist business in the United States.

1. Carry out detailed market research

Although the floristry industry is thriving, there is a lot of competition, so you need to conduct detailed market research to determine the demand in your area.

Find out the type of people that live and work there, their level of interest in purchasing flowers, and how much they are prepared to pay. Also, check out the competition to see what they are doing and how successful they are.

2. Choose a location for your store

If you want to have a physical store to sell your flowers from, you need to carefully consider where it will be. Make sure you scan the area for other florists to see what other businesses you will be competing with and what the transport links and parking offerings are like.

Ideally, you want your store to be in a bustling area where there is a lot of daily footfall, as this will enable you to attract more customers and make more sales.

3. Establish a relationship with a wholesaler

One of the most important steps when starting a florist business is to find a good wholesaler who can supply you with freshly cut flowers and plants. If you intend to sell flower gift baskets, which are highly profitable, you will also need to find a wholesale gift box supplier.

When choosing a wholesaler, make sure you take the time to do your research. Read customer reviews and testimonials and see how their prices compare to other suppliers.

4. Advertise your new business

Once you have sorted your location and your suppliers, the next step is to start to advertise your new business. If you are a local business, you need to let the community know about your brand, so you may want to think about hosting a launch event to get people talking about you.

Other low-cost forms of advertising you may want to explore include email marketing, social media marketing and blogging.

5. Control wastage

If you want to be one of the new businesses that make it through the difficult first six months of trading rather than one of the ones that fail, you need to make sure you are controlling your wastage.

Unlike other small businesses, where, if you don’t sell your stock, you can simply store it away, flowers have a very short shelf life. It can be a process of trial and error to see how much stock you need as too much and you waste money, and too little, you lose potential customers.