My life changed when I heard a seemingly successful florist tell me, “Kathleen, you don’t go into floristry to make money.”
I couldn’t believe this famous florist was uttering these words to me.
I was speechless.
Here was another florist who, from the outside, checked all the boxes of “successful florist” while telling me she was struggling to make ends meet. Meanwhile, I had made millions of dollars in my flower business (and wasn’t famous at all).
Up until that moment, I thought every florist experienced the financial success I had.
Turns out, I am the exception.
Turns out, when we tell ourselves money is hard, we make the process of making money…hard (real hard!).
Inside my Flower Boss Bootcamp, I share my exact approach to making money and teach you how to approach pricing with ease.
Very specifically, I teach you how to think about making money. When you ask me the question, “How much money does a florist make?” My response is quite different to other florists.
We all relate to money differently.
When you believe money is out of your control, you’ll stay stuck in inaction, waiting for the stars to align. (Yes, this is how most humans learn to think about money.)
When you’re a floral designer, on a mission to build a business, learning how to reframe your money stories and shift your thinking is how you learn to pay yourself a living wage.
You can decide to continue to stay stuck and tell yourself, you don’t go into floristry to make money.
Or you can decide that creating the flower business of your dreams, making more money and serving your clients at your highest level is the real goal.
Shifting your mindset, getting curious about your money stories and opening yourself up to the possibilities of being creative and making money is a must for any creative entrepreneur (including floral designers).
It’s also what makes pricing so easy and attracting better clients effortless. And it’s actually how you attract better clients, increase your profitability and grow your business.
Reframe your money stories
At the end of the day, money has no more inherent value than a Kleenex. But we all grow up in environments and are conditioned to believe certain stories about money.
We are told money doesn’t grow on trees. We believe making money is hard. We hear influencers tell us we should just be grateful for what we have.
And in most cases, we’re unaware we carry these blind spots in our potential.
At the end of the day, the amount of money you’re making (or not making) is up to you. 100%.
Money doesn’t fall from the sky. Money doesn’t just land in your lap.
You make money through your actions.
You are 100% capable of making more money in your flower business.
To do that though, you have to take full responsibility for the results you’re creating right now.
The best bit is, once you take full ownership of your results, you can DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
When you tell yourself making money is hard, you feel graspy.
You find yourself flip-flopping, doing all the things, offering discounts just to get the business, and will say yes to whatever comes your way. You never end up sorting out your prices properly and you stay stuck fulfilling the starving artist life (trying to stay motivated by convincing yourself you could just be grateful for what you have, right?).
The floral design industry loves to perpetuate this belief. This industry could be a textbook example of scarcity thinking.
Rather than openly talk about pricing and making money, florists like to brag about how busy we are. As if busy is a badge of honour and busy is the same thing as being successful.
I absolutely fell into this scenario early in my business. I said yes to every job that came my way because I thought that’s what I was supposed to do.
It only took a core meltdown for me to come to terms with the fact that I didn’t even like the business I had created. It took me a few years but I did finally learn there is a better way, an easier approach and, no, you do not need to work your way up the experience ladder.
How much money does a florist make?
As a very rough guide, if your flower business turns over $200,000 a year, you can easily bring home $50,000 (possibly more depending on your operations and the type of work you do). If you want to bring home more than $200,000, you’ll want to set a revenue target of at least $1,000,000.
For anyone who asks me “How much money does a florist make,” my response is always the same: You can make a lot of money as a floral designer.
But it takes a new level of awareness in your thinking and next-level belief in the value of what you’re offering your customers.
And, honestly, once you realise pricing is super straightforward (it’s based on an equation, not an emotion), you can get curious about limiting beliefs you have about making money, and you’ll notice things shift radically in your business (yes it can happen really quickly too!).
If you’re like so many other florists and struggling with pricing, be sure to check out this blog post (Florist Pricing Worksheet).