How To Start A Flower Business From Home
Flowers have been used for centuries to convey emotions, from showing love to expressing sympathy. This is a key reason that the floristry industry has been booming for decades and the need for beautiful, fresh blooms remains so strong. The sector is worth a staggering £2.2 billion in the UK, demonstrating the sheer size of the opportunity for a new floristry business. If you have some floristry experience, you may be wondering how to become a florist and make money working from home. Read on to find out more.
Setting Your Goals
The first thing you’ll need to do when starting a flower business from home is to set your goals. Think carefully about what you want to accomplish. Be realistic when doing this, focusing on steady growth in the right direction rather than getting instant results. Create a plan of action of how you will accomplish your aims, making them measurable so that you can track your progress over time. This will allow you to see just how far your business has come in the future.
Legalities Of Running A Floristry Business
You need to be mindful of the legalities of running a floristry business from home. There are several pieces of legislation to be aware of, covering areas like licensing, retailing and insurance. Whilst you don’t require a licence to sell flowers, there may be other aspects of your floristry business that do. For example, if your floral arrangements include champagne or wine, you will need to obtain the appropriate licence from your local council.
Various legislation exists that applies to home-based florists, with much of it designed to protect the interests of the consumer. For example, you are responsible for ensuring that all your products are of satisfactory quality and fit for their intended purpose.
There’s also consumer legislation covering online selling and off-premises selling. The latter refers to a situation where you agree a contract with a customer away from your premises. For example, if you went to visit a customer at their home to show them different bouquet options for a wedding. If you visit the Trading Standards Business Companion website, you’ll find further guidance on a florist’s legal obligations to consumers as well as the requirements when selling flowers online.
To protect your floristry business from any potential legal claims, it’s important to ensure that it’s adequately insured. Contact an insurance broker and explain to them how your business will operate. They can then explain what cover you need to have by law, and what cover you should consider. You’re likely to require public liability insurance, contents insurance (including stock), goods in transit insurance, and potentially employers liability insurance if you hire other people to work for your business.
Pick Your Business Name
When asking how to start a flower business from home, you may be surprised to hear just how important choosing a name is. Your floristry business name needs to signify not just what you do but also your style. The name needs to tell people what you do, with keywords that people will instantly associate with your industry and your location. For example, words such as flowers, blooms, buds, stems, floral, and so on.
Make sure the name you choose is easy to say and spell. This is more important than you think since you’ll want your customers to talk about your business to their friends and family. Word of mouth is one of the best advertising methods there is. By keeping the name snappy and easy to spell and pronounce, people can more easily search for you online. Another factor to consider when choosing a business name is if the domain is available. Before you decide on a name, make sure you can purchase it first. Ideally, you should buy both the co.uk and .com domains.
Grow Your Business Brand
Once your flower business is set up, it’s time to grow your brand. Starting with a logo is a good idea. In fact, a great logo is essential for creating an identity for your company and distinguishing it from your competitors in your customers’ minds.
We recommend having your logo professionally designed if you want the best results. It also means you’ll be able to use it not just on your new website but also on your marketing materials and delivery van. When designing your business logo, make sure you choose an easy-to-read font, select colours that work well together, and that the overall style accurately reflects your business. Other aspects of your business branding to consider are the colours and fonts you use throughout your marketing, web design, content and packaging.
Market Your Floristry Business
Don’t underestimate the importance of marketing your flower business online. Now you have become a florist and are spending your days putting together beautiful bouquets for your customers, the hard work should be continuing behind the scenes. You need to put together an effective marketing campaign which should include web design, content marketing, social media marketing, SEO and PPC. We recommend finding a local digital marketing company that can offer all the marketing services you need under one roof.
Now you know how to start a flower business from home, you can start making money from your passion for arranging beautiful blooms. As well as having floristry skills, you’ll also need to be prepared to develop other skills along the way, including sales, marketing, promotion, and accounting, for the business to succeed long-term. If you can be adaptable and are determined to achieve your goals, there’s no reason why your at-home floristry business can’t succeed.
