Want to Start A Home-Based Retail Floral Business?
So, you have decided to start a retail floral home business? Maybe a floral home-based business is the only option you have at this time as your start-up capital may not be as much as you wished for.
Sure at one time running a retail flower business from home was just not feasible – however, times they are a-changin– with the internet boom, it is becoming quite the “norm”.
If you are new to the floral industry and have decided to work from home but are wondering how to start a retail flower home business we have you covered! Let us explore the 5 steps on how to start a home-based retail floral business in no time!
Step 1: Floral Home-Based Business Dedication
Just like opening a retail flower shop you will need to dedicate an ample amount of time to marketing, organization, and structure of your home business. There is no EASY way to start a retail floral business regardless if it is home-based.
How much time are you willing to invest in building your brand reputation? Also, it goes without saying you should know how-to floral design but also how to prep/process your flowers. Making a few flower arrangements for your family and friends will not make you a floral designer.
Retail floral design requires floral processing “Know-How” so that your sold blooms are long-lasting. In order to make your home-based floral business work, you do need to provide a quality product -even more so.
Step 2: Designated Floral Area
You will need a defined floral design area in your home to accommodate your tools, supplies and a floral cooler.
If you are not receiving customers in your home-based retail floral business then you can create a space pretty much anywhere in your home-garage, studio or an empty room. Be sure that you have access to a sink as you will need lots of water for your blooms.
The important thing to remember is that flowers can be messy so you would not want to design in your kitchen if you can have a designated area that is ideal.
If you plan on receiving customers in your home then you will need to have a separate entrance and a more welcoming space.
Step 3: Retail Floral Website
In order to make your floral home business successful, you will need a retail floral website. Your floral website will build credibility in your brand, and allow you to sell your retail florals.
Besides that, your floral website is your potential customer’s first impression. Because you are running a retail flower shop from home it is even more imperative that your floral website stands out from your local competitors.
Make sure you hire a professional to help you with your floral website design. There are many floral website providers to choose from your best choice will be to go with a floral website company that does not take a cost per order or percentage from each of your website sales.
Also please do not choose a website company that offers you a web template that looks exactly like your competitors some website providers give every florist the same look and feel this is not good for your branding. You want to stand out.
You will also need to purchase a domain name, this you can easily do on GoDaddy cost is about $12-$17.00 USD a year – very inexpensive. Please purchase your own domain you do not want anyone to manage your domain name this is just like managing your virtual flower shop.
Step 4: SEO & Social Media
Now that you have a floral website on Google you will get lots of floral orders right? Unfortunately, that is not how it works, if your domain is NEW to search engines like Google it will have to index in order to rank. Just because your website is now pointed to the internet does not mean anyone will find it – it takes time.
So you will need to make sure your floral website SEO is “On Point” if you hired a Floral Website provider they can take care of your web backend SEO. But SEO does not start or end with your floral website backend .
You will need to sign up for Google My Business since you work from home you will choose the option –I deliver goods and services to my customers. Hide my address (it’s not a store).
Be sure to also sign up for as many social media communities as you can such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and so on. What you are doing is building credibility in your brand with search engines as well as getting important backlinks to your floral website this is crucial for maximizing your SEO.
Step 5: Marketing
Along with creating a website and signing up for social media now comes marketing your brand. Create a floral website and signing up for social media is in itself a form of marketing already however you will want to consider other marketing options to build your floral brand.
- Pay-Per-Click Advertising – Try Google Adwords to get traffic to your website before your SEO takes off.
- Business Cards and Brochures– Distribute these around your local community.
- Start Blogging– Start relevant blogs on your floral website with tips that are specific to flowers.
- Hire An Influencer– influencers have Social Media Power and affect many people’s purchase decisions.
- Newsletters – Send out newsletters to all on floral offerings.
- Text Messages– Just like newsletters but in text form – send out offerings and coupons
- Testimonials -Increase your credibility with Google My Business reviews. Be sure to also post testimonials on your website.
- Host Incentives– Social media contest draw people to your brand.
- Support A Cause – Support a good cause donation a portion of sold products to one of your preferred charities.
- Offer FREE Flowers – Offer local busy trafficked business a Free Flower Arrangement to display with your contact information for all to see.
These are just a few marketing ideas for your floral home business, do not be afraid to try something new- the objective is to gain creditability and brand awareness so that you may start converting sales on your website.
READ MORE GREAT FLORIST TOPICS
How To Use Canva For Floral Marketing
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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ON OPENING A FLOWER SHOP!
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Pandharinath Mhaske says
Very nice information to start new home based florists business.
hawaii flower hope says
Thanks for this blog. I learned a lot from this blog. I love flowers so much. Thanks for these tips you post for us. What a beautiful flower designs and arrangements. I hope you can teach me flower arrangements like that so that I can use it if there is an occasion in our family.