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Are you ready to grow your floral business not only in profits but in creativity and fulfillment? Listen as Jeni Becht a wedding and event designer of over 25 years shares all the juicy details of growing and evolving her floral business into one of passion, purpose, and financial freedom. She shares all the secrets with actionable tips and strategies so you can wake up inspired and on a path to profitability while feeling lighter and more aligned in work and life. Join Jeni in building your business while ditching the overwhelm, avoiding burnout, and feeling fulfilled in work and life.
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Hello, flower friends. This is Jen and you are listening to the Floral Hustle Podcast on this week's Minnesota. Wedding season here in Minnesota is soon upon us. And if you are in a area of the world that, you know, you have this kind of clear cut wedding season, ours here starts in May and it goes till about November and we are going hard.
And you might be thinking. Freelancing. Like, should I potentially use some of my open space to go freelance for other florists, or Like, how am I going to find some freelancers? So I just wanted to talk about freelancing in general. Uh, I've seen in some of the Facebook groups that people have been like, I'm trying to find freelancers in a specific market, or, um, you know, I'm thinking about freelancing, like how much do people make, or I, I'm needing freelancers.
How much do you pay people? And. In that situation, I think that of course it is very dependent on your area, but I wanted to give you a couple like pointer tips. If you are thinking about freelancing on what you should really consider, I would, if I was going to go out and find someone to freelance, I would want to find someone who is inspiring to me as a business owner and as a designer.
I don't want to go into, I wouldn't want to go into a studio that I'm going to make like roundy mounty designs and like just be kind of uninspired and just like, you know, like this isn't, this isn't like lighting the world on fire, if that makes sense. Like I would want to go somewhere that I am stimulated.
I am like energized. I am inspired. Like, the energy in the studio is progressive, and even the studio space, like, just feels good. Uh, even if it's, like, somebody's house, I don't think that's bad. Like, I, we work in our garage, but I would want the energy coming in to feel good. And that is something that I try to make sure is present in my studio.
So I would consider just like, you know, for one, making sure that I'm looking at their Instagram. I'm kind of getting a scope for what their worth work is. And then if I wanted to find somebody, I would go, okay, I'm going to reach out to them. I would probably first start Sending a DM on Instagram because then they're automatically going to see my portfolio.
They're going to see my own Instagram. And from there I would go and send them a DM that just says, Hey, you know, I am, I have some availability this year and I am looking for some freelancing. I was just wondering if you were looking for freelancers this year. Start that conversation and just see what they say.
If they don't respond, you could potentially go to that next level and find their email address that's on their website and send them an email with kind of like similar content. If you really want to like put your best foot forward, you could make a portfolio that is literally just sharing. You know, your best work, if they're a wedding and event studio, I would have a portfolio that is maybe like, you know, two pages.
Uh, front and back and then, you know, another front and back. So for four pages total with a cover being one of them and just introducing yourself, you could have a photo of yourself. You could just like put that best foot forward and then go into it that like you're also like using this as an opportunity to learn, especially if there's somebody that's more established has, uh, you know, bigger budget weddings.
Like I would soak all of that up. And I usually, like, pre book out dates with people, so I'm, like, pre booking them for when I have bigger weddings. And, you know, you can approach it just the same. Like, hey, I have these dates or dates that I have available. Or you could ask if there's key dates that they need filled.
Then from there, uh, at least here in Minnesota, I have them fill out a W 9. Um, or I would give you, give them my W nine, which has my information that when I hit 600 threshold here in the U S you have to send a 10 99 and so I would then, um, get them to fill that out and then I would invite them into the studio, you know, at that time and kind of usually I like to just show people around a little bit and just kind of explain, you know, like, You know, here's where you can park your purse here.
Here's where like if you want to use since I have run a home based studio Like I have to run them inside to show them the bathroom Or like if they have to use the microwave, you know I tell them that I have dogs because I have two cuties that do want to greet everyone in the world So I just prepare somebody we do have studio bunnies.
So my two bunnies that I have Uh, are in the studio if it is icky weather, cold, otherwise they're outside and they're in um, their little condo that they have. So I also, just in case somebody has allergies before somebody will come, I just mentioned that I have studio buddies because it would suck for them to come here and then be allergic.
Then, if I was, you know, really trying to, you know, hire freelancers, I usually ask You know what their freelancing rate is. So if you're going into this or you are looking, like I usually just ask what your freelancing rate is. I don't personally like to put a dollar value on somebody's worth. I would like for them to position that because I don't ever want to offend anybody and it's really their value and what they think that their worth is what really matters.
Because if they come here and I feel like. You know, they're wanting 25 an hour, but they really didn't have a lot of experience. They're really slower. Like that just isn't going to work for me. So like, I also expect a certain type of performance or a certain type of, you know, just in general, like, Work quality or design quality.
Uh, and normally somebody's rated themself commensurate to that. I don't very often have it where somebody said that they were like worth 30 an hour and they just started and like, literally I'm having to coach them through everything. So asking someone just what is your, you know, freelancing rate, I think it's just such an easier way to approach it than not.
Then asking them what their experience is. If I also ask like, what is something that you would say that you're an expert at? Like I'm an expert at making bouquets. I'm, I'm usually fast and, and thorough, good, whatever you want to say with anything, just because I've been doing this so long, but when you ask.
I also want people to be happy coming to my studio. So if they love to do bouquets, like I'm going to tee them up for bouquets. If they love doing personal flowers, there isn't very many of those people just to let you know. I'm going to like tee them up for personals. I've had a couple people who actually like doing personals.
If they really like doing centerpieces and centerpieces are their jam, I'm going to do that. So I'm going to really position whatever makes sense. For them to, but if they're telling me, they also like, this makes sense for them to do this this day, but they also like doing it like that is a win. I want people to be happy.
Cause I want people to want to come back. I want it to be a learning experience when they're in my studio and I want to add value to them because you can go and freelance at a lot of different places. But like if that experience next year, you're thinking about where you want to freelance, you're going to go to where you feel good.
You're going to go to where you feel valued. You're going to go where you learn and grow. I mean, like that would be my default. And so if there is one of those situations, like I want to invite that in, I want to invite that back next year. Then you also want to make sure that you're just like clear with your freelancing expectations.
I've actually gotten a call from another florist slash educator and a florist that actually freelanced for the both of us, came and freelanced only on the day of the wedding, but then went and completely put all of these reels together that like made it appear like they were creating these big hanging installations and doing all these bigger things when that was not really the case.
They actually did not even help put this hanging installation together that was featured in one of their reels. So if you have, like, feelings about that, hey, just share with them. If somebody made something, I have no problem if they tag me and say that they created this while freelancing for Green Goddess Floral.
I, like, more power to them. If they made it or they helped me do a majority of it, go tag it as long as you mention. I don't care. I know that I've ordered the product, I've designed it, I've sourced it, done all those things, but if you helped, like, put your flair into it, like, go ahead. I am totally fine with that.
I am all about cultivating growth. But if that is not something that's comfortable for you, just make that a hard line. You know what? I really don't feel comfortable with you sharing, you know, my designs. Like, that is fine. If that's how you feel, like, just make that. Or develop, like, if you, like, Design the whole thing as long as you tag me, I'm fine.
Whatever it is, like just be clear on those expectations. I think most people get unhappy when those expectations aren't clearly laid out and it's so easy to lay it out. Just talk, just be like grownups have a conversation because that conversation is going to be so much more enlightening. Thank you so much for listening flower friends, and you have an amazing flower 📍 filled week.