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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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Introduction and Reflections on the Past Year
📍 Hello, flower friends. This is Jen and you are listening to the floral hustle podcast. Welcome to 2024. And with the new year, I'm sure all of you have been thinking through like your new bigger baddest versions of yourself that you want to emerge in 2024. And I thought it might be helpful because I do a lot of reflecting about the past year and What has worked, what hasn't worked, and what do I wish there was an improvement for?
There was kind of a big undertaking to, to really think of all of these different ways and to just subjectively look at it and go, God, this didn't feel good. That felt really good.
Successful Business Strategies and Growth
So I want to talk first about what went right in my business and. I feel like I, this year, what really went right is I hired or brought on people to take care of things that didn't need me taking care of them.
So I hired someone to take care of social media. I brought on a person who was really invested in organizing, in pulling items, in Really just keeping the studio optimized , we have all of our inventory pulled. It's all clean. We know the counts on everything. So really just having like an operations person that was looking over those things.
So that was a really big win. I hired more freelancers than I ever have before. noT only because the podcast was. Taking time. I also, at one point, I had like seven monthly coaching clients during the middle of wedding season, and I just didn't have the capacity with everything to do all the things, but I feel also.
The Importance of Creativity and Branding
That putting all of those people in place helped me strategically when I was being impactful in the business and working in the business, I was doing something from a design standpoint or a creative standpoint that was really driving and elevating the business forward and creatively, I think 20, uh, 23 was very successful which is odd to say, say like creatively the business went well, but we created some really interesting out of the box installations and really like I went at 2023 from a standpoint is that I don't want to do something that I wouldn't want to, really put my name behind, put it on social media.
So even in consoles. Like I took that from a, that, that standpoint that I didn't want to create things that I didn't want to post on social media. And if I had a wedding that had a couple of those items, I wanted to really make sure that one of those items was really something I would want to post on social.
That was really creatively giving. And with that, I also think that increased our revenue. Our revenue was up. I think it was 20%? Over the prior year, and a lot of that is because I did think bigger strategically about items in that wedding. That would really elevate that wedding. I had more clients coming to me that trusted my creativity to make something really stand out at their wedding and when.
You start to establish that brand that you have ideas that you can design, you can do all those things. I think when you have all of those things come together. Like the revenue is just going to follow and I know a lot of educators out there right now in the floral world They are talking about creating this portfolio and I do think that there is truth to that But if you create a portfolio and have no fucking clue how to run a business Like, that is going to bite you in the butt because you're going to be overbuying, you're going to be overstuffing.
You're going to be buying the most expensive product that's out there because you're trying to build your portfolio and feel that it needs out of the box flowers to do that. Also this year, I feel like I streamlined a lot of my processes for proposals, my actual meetings themselves. With clients.
I used to always say an hour. I think I have my consultations down to 30 to 45 minutes and I feel that they're still really good quality, even with half, if not 25 percent less time spent with them because I'm asking all the right questions ahead of time. I also feel like the garden or the urban flower farm that I have here at my home, there were, I changed up what I grew this year and I felt like that was successful.
I bought plugs this year, which I had not done before. And I felt like that was really successful. It was so nice to have, especially at points in the year when the flower farmers were out of things to be able to go pick for some amazing Lizzie Anthus for my bride's bouquet. So I feel like the garden itself, there are some things that didn't work.
And I'm going to talk about those in a minute, but that part, I felt really came together. I also think it was creatively successful and also from a. Like business standpoint, I did some pieces that I think really spoke to my brand or how I want my brand to be going forward. I got published in Minnesota Bride.
I'm going to be published again in the upcoming issue. So I feel like I've really elevated my portfolio, elevated my work by participating with Minnesota Bride. I don't feel like it's brought me a ton of weddings but I feel like It did get me some exposure, even though that exposure obviously has a cost to it.
Balancing Personal Life and Business
On a personal note I feel that I, from a fitness standpoint made some goals at the beginning of the year, and I didn't quite hit my, one of the goals, but I really put in an effort, which I think that Is a lot of times all that you can ask is that you've really been putting in the effort.
And so I feel like I've made it to CrossFit 3 to 4 times a week for this whole year. And that is a win. That is now a habit for me. I also. Think that I was able to create more space around what I want not only in my life, but professionally, I was able to really create some space so that in my personal life, I could grow.
And that space was, I, in a given week might design the bride's bouquet. And a few other key pieces, but my team is doing the rest of it. And that allowed me to have, five coaching clients at one time that allowed me to be doing the podcast. Like I I'm doing that allowed me to go to CrossFit that allowed me to go get.
A back rub when my neck was not feeling good that allowed me to go to the chiropractor. So, like, all these things fell into alignment, and I was able to create space for me to feel like I could. Do things to take care of myself and as a mom, that is not something that moms are great at. And so if this is you, like you are entitled, I know as moms we don't feel like we deserve space or we don't feel like that if, if we have a space that we're not a good mother.
And that is so far from the truth. We are entitled. To have space, I personally feel like I'm a better mother when I have that space and you need to take that space. It's, it's not going to be given to you because you have little humans that need you, you have a husband that needs you, and you just need to, to make sure that you're really comfortable with saying, I need this space.
And part of that space was created with Bodhi, my son, who's four. Started going to preschool fours, which is two and a half hours a day every day. We also had an evolution. I am not a morning person and my husband started waking up and getting the kids going. And so I could, not have this jolt awake and I'm taking care of the kids right away, getting them ready, he's actually starting to take part of that process on which was a huge win because that had been my responsibility forever.
And it's nice to feel like that load is shared. I do think the word mental load in motherhood is a real thing. And it is something that I don't think. Most men really understand because their brain just doesn't work like our, how ours does. They're not. Really stewing on all of these things that could or could be happening or are going to be happening.
And you're trying to figure out mentally how it's going to happen and all the things. So mental load is a real thing. And it's something that I have tried to decrease my mental load of the household because I deserve to have space. I deserve to have things other than just being a mother. And so do you.
Thank you.
The Growth of the Minnesota Floral Collective
I also from a business standpoint, and this is separate I founded the Minnesota Floral Collective about, it was a year and three months ago ish from now. And that had some serious growth, which shows to me that people are craving community. People are craving belonging.
People are craving education. And we had two events this year. And they were amazing the 1st event. We had 56 people come to the 2nd event. We had 42 people come to and that is a pretty big win. For me personally, because it's something that I dreamed of for so many years, and now it's happening and it's successful and people are really.
Using the Facebook group and collaborating with other florists. So, to me, that has just been such a huge win. So now let's talk about what didn't work.
Challenges and Lessons from the Past Year
So with everything going on, I felt like I was always behind, like I had a lot on my plate. And so I fell behind in things and deprioritized some things, like planting as early as I could.
Weed control was out of control this year. Like the weeds were crazy and I felt like that stunted some of my growth, but also the weather here is, has been so weird this last two years, actually, that it is hard to wrap my head around. Like why. We had a 50, it was 50 degrees here on Christmas day. There is something seriously going on with our, our, our world in general, because that has not happened since like 1918, I believe.
And so something is up and our, actually our planting zone changed which has not happened ever from that I can recall, especially since I've been a gardener. anD You just kind of have to be okay with what is when you have a lot going on, like, what are you okay with sacrificing? And that was something that I wasn't like, I need to have this perfect or, and deprioritizing that was not something that was going to drastically affect the business.
It was not something that was. Going to, make us not have something for a wedding. I made sure that all the fail safes were, but that is one thing I just deprioritized because I just didn't have the energy. Do I wish it was different? I absolutely do. But I had so many other wins that I think it out out weighed what was happening in the garden.
And so many of the flowers were so far behind that it screwed a lot of my sourcing up a lot of sourcing that I had gone into the year intending to use locally sourced flowers for a good chunk of my weddings. And that just wasn't possible. And so when I needed a bunch of white dahlias or a bunch of burgundy dahlias, that was tough this year because dahlias were almost two months later, six weeks later than they were really flourishing the year before.
And when you're planning on using white ball dahlias, those are like a pretty big sized flower and it's a hard sub, especially because they look so unique. They're so different. I'm in love with ball dahlias. They're my favorite. And so I've been kind of like in love with using those in the, this wedding.
And so I just had to become flexible and creative. Uh, another what didn't work this year is I am a sponge for information. I do not have the time to do it often. So I bought a bunch of different courses that are still sitting in the to be watched pile and changing that in 2024 is something that I really want to do.
And so I am now going to be dedicating time to watching courses. And soaking up that information in bite sized bits so that I can take action on it. I'm not feeling overwhelmed. I'm going into it with a plan of, I'm going to watch two hours a week. And, time blocking that out and doing all the things.
I also think that one, another thing that didn't go well this year or what didn't go right was When I was so busy and I had a team of people here that were all working, I sometimes didn't give enough direction on what the end product needed to look like, what the design should have looked like in the end, because maybe I have like three inspiration photos and it's in my head, but I probably should have made it, but because I'm running to go get flowers or I'm running to go hop on a coaching call.
Or I am, taking care of the kids. This year we had the kids in more camps than ever. I think we did, what was it, nine camps this year. Nine. That's a lot. And that was constantly running them all over. the place. We did art camps, we did t ball, two t ball camps we did three art camps, we did swim camps, we did soccer camps, so it was just A lot of running and they were all in different kind of zones of the Twin Cities.
It seemed like so that we were driving everywhere as well. And while I really don't regret doing that, it did leave me less available than I would have liked. And Not available for more direction and so going into next year, I am going to look at how can I have things set up in my proposals in my, my printed wedding orders that really empowers that freelancer to take and run with it and it can't be screwed up.
So what kind of communication do I need to be putting out there or recording, especially right now when things are slower to make things work better. I also am going, I think, from a just a load standpoint have decided like going into this year, I need more organizational help with my calendar, with my inbox, with my social media.
And so I'm going to be putting someone in a role to help support me somewhat as an assistant, but somebody also that, that can do a lot of other things in the business other than do my inbox and the social and everything. And so I'm going to be putting someone into place that's going to help me be able to make sure things don't slip through the cracks.
I also think like some ordering happened last minute. You know, I want to avoid that just because I was, I was working so hard this year and had so much on my plate and especially with the kids and all the things that it was just. I fell behind. There are so many big things that I want to accomplish and I very easily can feel like I'm, I'm failing when something when there isn't growth.
Most people think it's failing when they try to do something and it didn't happen. Like mine is. I wanted all of these bigger things to happen. I wanted all these things to grow, and I just didn't have the capacity to do that.
Planning and Goals for the Future
And so next year I wanna, in 2024, I wanna create the capacity to do bigger things, but still have joy, still have space, so that I can grow.
One of my Things that I'm working on right now is getting certified as a mindset coach slash life coach slash, um, I'm getting certified in EFT, which is tapping and NLP, which is like a way to rewire your brain. And so that things become easier and more natural to make shifts. And that was like a huge time commitment.
It's an hour and a half a week for 24 weeks. And so with that, like I had to look at my, my schedule and be like, if I'm taking on an hour and a half of time, and then I have the mastermind is starting, that's an hour and a half of time. I Can't do everything, and I know that before I used to feel like I could.
And so just being really vulnerable and honest I can't do everything, but I can potentially put people in place to help support me do as much as that feels good. And I think because the business is operating at the level it is, I have the resources to do that, which is amazing. But I also want to make sure that I'm not just feeling so stretched thin that Things aren't happening that should be happening and that I don't even have the time to explain to someone how to do it, which actually happened this year.
I went and did some things that I could have outsourced because I felt like I just didn't even have time to teach that person. Which all of these things in the grand big scheme of life are amazing, but they also are
I'm giving it my all. I'm really kicking ass and wanting everything to be functioning at its highest level. And it just, frankly, can't do that all the time. So that's what went right and what didn't. And, I went and I actually had a, a piece of paper that I just went through this exercise and I was like, okay, what really went, what do I feel good about this year?
What do I feel like could have been better? What do I feel like just failed? And a lot of people will spend time, so much time thinking about what failed. And how they can fix it. And sometimes it just shouldn't even be fixed. Sometimes it just should be put behind you as this doesn't work. I know I've went through exercises with some of my coaching clients that we have talked through.
Okay, where is your revenue coming from? And how much money are you making on doing this? And one of my coaching clients, we went through and she's convinced she's working 40 hours a week. And we figured out okay, you were 40 hours a week. And she's spending it on daily deliveries and chasing down like 15 here, 20 there.
Before we even started taking her expenses out like her website expense, like her coaching expense, like her what, whatever outside expenses, if she's writing off her internet, if she's writing off studio space, all of those things without even writing any of that off against it, she was at an effective rate of 5 an hour.
It was a huge eye opener to me that she needs to go in a different direction in her business. She needs to either spend less time because it's not very much money, or we need to focus on higher revenue producing opportunities. So sit down and reflect like what went right in 2023, what sort of worked, but you wish was different and what didn't flat out didn't work that maybe you should be getting rid of.
And from there. Objectively, make decisions like this isn't working. Do I want to scrap it? Do I want to try to fix it? Is it worth fixing? How much is this opportunity even worth? Is it worth me investing my time in? And then from there, just go, Oh yeah, it is or it isn't. And then just make a plan. Have a plan in 2024.
Thank you so much for listening, flower friend, and you have an amazing flower filled week.