Plenty of leisure activities quickly transform into a money-making venture. But few have the enchanting effect of floral design. When you arrange flowers, you’ll feel less anxious and depress. A Rutgers study has shown this hobby has the power to lift emotional health, adding its impact on intimate connections.
Who hasn’t cracked a smile when receiving a floral bouquet? That alone should tell you of the beneficial effects of flowers. In creating a business out of it, you not only do something pleasurable but also make something pleasant for people. And it all starts with a well-built flower bed in your backyard.
Flowers for Commerce
You may only have one flower bed in your yard. And that’s not going to be enough to supply your business unless you decide to source flowers elsewhere. But that could get expensive and limit you to particular flowers.
The installation of more flower beds will cost more initially, with 5×12 feet beds ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 on average. The cheapest installation is at $600, but that means settling for low-cost flowers. At the high-end is $5,000.
You can save money by installing the flower bed on your own:
- You may already know how to prep the soil, making sure it’s moist, not wet.
- A depth of 12 inches is ideal with 2 to 3 inches of compost.
- Then you’ll want to layer mulch and top the bed with another layer of compost to lock in the moisture and lock weeds out.
If not, plenty of landscapers can do the job efficiently. What you spend now would be an investment in the quality and look of your floral arrangements.
Making the Cut
As lovely as it sounds, floral design can be tricky as a business because of the competition. You have to offer something unique from other flower shops to get more customers. What you offer will depend on which market you want to serve.
Are you focusing on flower design for weddings? Do you want to enter the B2B market and work exclusively with corporations on their events? Will you start with retail customers and brand yourself as the neighborhood flower shop?
Some of the best shops rise above the competition by offering large-scale floral installations that are sculptural and high concept. But this would require a lot of resources, and floral designers with experience.
The key is to establish how your floral design store differs from other services without losing your values as a business.
Flower Business by Design
As with any business, market research is crucial to get your floral shop off to a good start. You can’t know what to provide the market if you don’t have information on what it wants.
Once you have the correct data, be guided accordingly in creating your business plan, making that first sale, and marketing online.
But don’t forget why you started this hobby as a business. Although you need to treat it as a career now, you should still find pleasure in it. So if doing, for example, creative arrangements of exotic flowers aren’t your bag, focus on what makes you smile. It could be the installation of thematic table centers using seasonal flowers.
Flower arrangement is a relaxing, delightful hobby. With the right plan, you could turn it into a lucrative venture in the future.
