The Floral CEO

One of the questions I hear ALL THE TIME:
“Where the hell do I find freelancers?”
My answer?
Do not start looking the week you desperately need 5 people.
😂
BUILD YOUR BENCH BEFORE YOU NEED IT.
Start following other florists in your market.
Follow their freelancers.
Like their posts.
Comment.
Cheer them on.
Say hi at the wholesaler.
Actually BUILD relationships.
And here is one of my favorite little tricks:
When I see another florist post a thank-you Story and tag all of the freelancers who worked with them…
SCREENSHOT.
Then I go follow those people.
I have a folder in my phone specifically for freelancers.
So when I suddenly need help?
I am not starting from zero.
I already have names.
Then:
Post in your Instagram Stories.
Ask your personal Facebook network.
Reach out to another floral studio.
Look at temp help.
Use community groups.
And PLEASE stop assuming everybody who helps you needs 10 years of floral experience.
Some of the best help in my business started with ZERO floral experience.
They can:
process flowers
clean buckets
prep hard goods
fill vases
organize
process roses
load
clean
support production
You can teach skills.
But if someone is hardworking, dependable, has amazing energy, and you actually LIKE being around them?
That person could become one of your biggest assets.
Build the relationships before the emergency.
Your future wedding-week self will thank you.

What is The Floral CEO?

Struggling to turn your floral design talent into a profitable, scalable, and stress-free business? Welcome to The Floral CEO® Podcast—the ultimate audio destination for wedding and event florists, flower-shop owners, and creative entrepreneurs who want to book bigger budgets, price with confidence, and lead like a true CEO.

Hosted by Jeni Becht, award-winning wedding florist, event designer, and floral business coach with 25 + years in the industry, each weekly episode dives into:

Profitable pricing strategies: markup formulas and minimums fine-tuned for weddings & events

Magnetic marketing & local-SEO hacks: social posts, blogs, and Google tricks that attract high-budget couples and planners

High-converting sales funnels: inquiry replies, proposals, and follow-up scripts that turn curious leads into dream clients

Streamlined systems & smart outsourcing: workflows, templates, and hiring tips that free you from the design bench

CEO mindset & sustainable growth: leadership habits and eco-friendly practices that keep both you and your business flourishing

Jeni pairs real-world success stories with actionable strategies you can implement today, so you’ll spend less time hustling and more time designing breathtaking bouquets, installations, and arrangements.

Ready to scale your florist business and reclaim your life? Follow, subscribe, and leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your favorite podcast app. 🌸

Connect & learn more:

Website & free resources: http://floralceo.com

Instagram & Facebook: @‌thefloralceo

Turn your passion for flowers into the six-figure floral business you deserve—one episode at a time.

Website- floralceo.com

Social @‌thefloralceo.com

 Hello, flower friends. This is Jen, and I wanna do an episode to talk about finding freelancers. This is something that I have ran into a lot, and actually has become a lot more difficult, uh, with me moving kind of farther away from the hub of the, um, Twin Cities market in Minnesota. And with that, I've still been able to find really great freelancers, and I've, I've gotten rid of some freelancers that weren't so great over time, and it's kind of an evolution of learning what works and what doesn't work.

But a lot of people don't know where to even start. Where would you even start? So this is a layered approach that I wanna teach you that will help you start to at least build, you know, some ideas of who freelances in your market. So first thing is- Are you following other florists? Because if you're not following any other florists, it's going to be harder for your content to be seen by them.

So if you are being followed by other florists, follow them back so that hopefully you guys can see each other's shared content. Support your other flower friends, like their posts, cheer them on. That is going to make them want to potentially freelance for you if you are a big fan and supporter of theirs.

It is hard to get actual content, content like comments, interactions, likes, whatever it is. Like, sometimes you feel like, "I'm not making any traction," but then a flower friend goes and said, "This is amazing. I love it." And it just makes that person feel good. So start building relationships. Then say hi to flower friends if you go to a wholesaler.

Introduce yourself. Ask them about their business. Act interested, 'cause you should be. This could be somebody that is bailing your ass out in a really busy wedding week. Then don't ever, you know, like diminish somebody that doesn't have floral experience, not potentially being an amazing asset in your business.

I have several people in my business that I hired with no floral experience, and I have-- They help with things that I don't wanna really do, like my hard goods, getting all that ready, cleaning, processing roses, all those things. Like, don't ever diminish. If you see somebody that you're like, "I like this human, they're kickass," and I...

Like, maybe they're-- got a great work ethic. Maybe they're just really fun to be around. Maybe you just see something in them, and you just ask them, "Hey, do you have any free time that you'd love to, like learn flowers or, like help with flowers at all?" You never know when that person is going to be amazeballs.

So you have to give them the opportunity to show you that they could be one of your biggest assets in your business Then making sure that when you do need someone, that you have a queue of people to potentially to call on. And how you create this queue is starting with the flower friends, of course, like I mentioned.

But I go through and have a process that every time that I see somebody posting and they are doing a gratitude post with all of their freelancers' names in it, I go and screenshot that story with all of those flower friends' Instas, and then I personally go and click on each one of those names and make sure that I'm following that freelancer.

Then I have a folder in my phone that says Freelancers, that if for some reason any time I'm looking for somebody and need somebody, there we go. I got it. It's perfect. And when you have, like, this little, like, Rolodex, like you're going into a potentially a big scary week with, you know, a bunch of people you could reach out to, and maybe they won't be available.

You don't... You never know. But maybe they will. You, you don't know unless you try. So go in and start following fr- flower friends, seeing their stories content when they are doing those posts, screenshot that. All right. Then the next step is very simply go into your Instagram stories and put a very pretty photo of something you've done and say, "I am looking for freelancers on such and such date in," put your city so people know.

And if it's on site, put that and, like, throw that out there. And I see those types of posts all the time, and they are working, you guys. They are being effective because if you have built the right audience of flower friends who have followed you and you're following them, and they see your content and they're available, score.

That is amazing that you could easily connect with those people because you've already been following them. So create that opportunity for you to, you know, have that exposure with a very s- quick thirty-second, "Hey, I'm looking for freelancers, and this is such a date." That is going to be a really easy way.

Then if that doesn't work, you don't necessarily need freelancers that are experienced to process flowers You could go on your personal Facebook page and say, "I have a really big event coming up, and I'm looking for somebody who wants to play with flowers, like processing, getting vases ready, filling vases with water, et cetera.

It's this and such-and-such date. Here we go. Uh, if you're interested, here's my phone number, here's whatever." I have posted that exa- exact type of post a- on my personal Facebook, and have gotten people. And when I've had really big events, I've even went and posted on Craigslist in the general labor, like, "I'm looking for help for this such-and-such date," and I've been able to find people that way too.

There are so many ways. You can find temp agencies, um, you can find, um, you know, potentially even, like, if another studio isn't busy, just talking to the owner and being like, "Hey, is there... You know, are, are you busy this week? 'Cause I could really use extra help if you don't have the work for your team."

Whatever it is, there's always opportunity. I have actually also, and I've talked about this on the podcast before, created a group for Minnesota-based florists, and that is a total opportunity for you, too. If you don't have one in your market, you could totally create a group in your market to help be a connector of other florists.

So mine is called the Minnesota Floral Collective, and it is just a Facebook group that you have to be a Minnesota-based florist to, you know, join it, and I have questions that support that. But super easy, and I have seen so many connections. I've seen people selling their dahlias. I've seen people selling, getting rid of stuff in their studio.

So many things it has connected people with, and I want you to know that that is totally in your power to do that as well. It's super easy, and it takes me, like, once a week, I go in and approve people. Easy-peasy, and is a great way, 'cause then you have a very captive, you-know-they're-all-florists audience to help you find freelancers.

Thank you so much for listening, flower friends, and you have an amazing flower-filled day.