Starting a Flower Shop – Sample Business Plan Template
1. Register Your Business
The first thing you need to do after making up your mind to start your own business is to ensure that you register your business with the appropriate quarters in your country. There are a lot you stand to gain when you get your business documented. Your business would be seen as a corporate entity, you can easily open a corporate bank account for your business and also you can bid for contracts from both government and big corporations. It is only when your company is registered that is when you can get your Tax Payer’s ID et al.
2. Master the Art of Color Combination and Design
For you to do well as a florist, you must ensure that you master the art of color combination and design before opening your business to the general public. There are several ways you can acquire this skill, you can understudy or work as an intern with an expert in this line of business, or you may consider buying the “How” to Book or Video and learning from the comfort of your house. Another key factor that will aid your learning is to first learn graphics design and start designing your own flowers from your computer before doing it in real time.
3. Rent a Shop in a Well Positioned Area
With this kind of business, if you want to start on a small scale, you can choose to start it as a part time business from your home. All you would need is contacts, business cards and your catalogue. However, if you intend starting it as a full – time business person, then you should consider renting a shop in an area that is prone to high human and vehicular traffic. The good thing about ensuring that your flower shop is visible to all is so that people may easily walk into your shop to make enquiries even if they aren’t buying at that moment. With that you will be able to build your potential client list that you can use for marketing purpose.
4. Join Relevant Associations in your State or Country
Another key factor that could help you grow your business fast is to leverage on existing platforms. You can join a florist association in your area, as well as can with wedding and event planners in your area. Better yet, you can also work with caskets seller too. If you are in good business relationship with all these people mentioned, then you can be rest assured that your business will grow in within a short period of time.
5. Prepare a Comprehensive Catalog
You might not have all the designs and color combination of your flower per time in your shop, but one smart thing you may do for your business is to prepare a comprehensive catalogue that contains all form of flower designs. Your catalog should be your number one marketing tool so you must ensure that it is well designed and of high quality. You should be ready to always update your catalog when you have new designs – that is where your graphics skills will come in handy.
6. Create a Strong Online Presence
In this era when the online community is growing rapidly, you would do your business a whole lot of favor if you create your own online presence. One of the easiest ways to get people to see you as an expert in your line of business is to blog constantly about flowers. You may also want to leverage on social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and others to publicize your flower business. You can as well go ahead to open an online flower shop where people can order flowers for their special occasion from your shop. You must ensure that your delivery system (shipping) is efficient if you intend to do well with your online flower shop.
7. Advertise Your Business
You would be required to advertise your flower shop if you intend to build a big flower business. It is important that you adopt strategic advertising method for your flower shop, just ensure that you advertise on wedding planner magazines, Event forums, and dating sites. If you don’t have the capital required to go into big time advertising, you can start with the conventional distribution of handbills that carries details of your business in wedding venues, public facilities, religious centers et al.
If you are determined and are a go getter, then you would surely do well if you start your own flower shop. There are loads of people making good money from this type of business and you can join them if you follow all the steps listed above.
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