Avoiding Burnout In Your Floral Business

For today we were talking about Burnout in business. I just kinda wanna share my experiences with it. If you have experience burnout in business. I'm so sorry. It is literally the pits.
It just makes you feel like a crummy person, makes you feel like you're not good enough, makes you feel like you hate flowers, makes you feel like you're living a life. That's not aligned, a life that so doesn't feel good. It's it's this place where you're in it, and it's overwhelming and stressful and you're like, wait. This is what I've... This is it.

Like, this is what I've always dreamed of what the fuck am I doing with my time. It's not a beautiful place. It's a really ugly place. And and reconnecting with your why is kind of like a good first step in you know, unpacking your burnout of well, why did you start doing flowers in the first place? Like, was it a beautiful creative outlet for you?

Was it a safe space for you? Was it you know, an opportunity for you to push yourself and see, hey, could I make something other people would like and I could come into their space and. And create, you know, floral masterpieces for their special day? Is it wanting to share beauty in the world, you know, delivering arrangements to people in hard times like for funerals or happy times like new babies being born, you know, like, what what reasons or reason did you get started in this in the first place? Kind of you know, go back to your why I can guarantee your why it was because you had a passion for something.

Right? And you, right now, if you're experiencing Burnout, you have now sight of that passion. So we need to just reconnect with it. You know. So do a little bit of journal.

Do a little bit of exploration there, and, you know, remember your why. Remember why you started in the first place. Some things that I implement and practice in my business that kinda helps me reconnect first with flowers themselves. My why is I love the medium, I love flower so much. It is something that I'm passionate about.

I love being able to bring beauty and art to spaces and to people. And for me, I need to reconnect with the balloons themselves. So I will design for myself in the beginning of my floral design career, I would always just play. I would play the flowers. I'd make weird shit.

I would, you know, think outside the box because I would get weird with my flowers. And I do that still today. I will create. Sometimes I'll create for Justin, my husband, but I do that for myself. It's like I designed for myself.

That's really important to keep my passion strong. And I also try to have flowers in the house. Even if it's a bud based by my bed bedside table or a few whim on the kitchen table, like, I just... I try to have flowers around so that I can spend the time to admire them and love them and touch them. And even when I design, like, for an event or an everyday arrangement.

I will take the time to, like, admire the blooms. And I'll post on my social media. Like, look, how amazing this flower is? You know, it's like, they're amazing. I love sharing the flowers with people.

I love when people come to my house and there's flowers on the table, you know, and it's, like, they get joy out of it too. I also will sign myself up for design contest to keep pee in. I've done a handful over the years, and Even though I haven't won any, it's like this little side of myself, this competitive side of myself. That I get to feed and feed through this medium and have a creative outlet. That is just for me.

You know? And it's always fun. It's always fun to challenge myself and push myself, and that is something that I found that is for me. Again, like, it's this... These things are for me in my career.

And then I will also plan style shoots for myself, every once in a blue moon. These are completely for me. This is not piggy piggyback on like, a photographer reaches out with a certain look or, you know, a venue wants to showcase. Something for their grand opening Like, that's not what I'm talking about here. This is, like, completely for me.

It's my own styling. It's whatever my heart once, you know, I allow myself the funds and the time to do that. A good idea could be, like, every year on your births they or your business anniversary, like, you're gonna design something just for you. And, like, it just feels really, really good. And then, something that's super super big with burnout is boundaries.

They kinda go hand in hand. We have to set boundaries. Like, we need to reshape our workflows, and really dive into how we're spending our time, and if that's aligning with our goals. So are we filling our day with busy work items that somebody else could be doing, we could hire somebody 1 day a week to do those tasks to free up our time, you know, like, are we giving ourselves just busy work that isn't allowing us the opportunity to expand and grow? I took a business course from a business coach, and she spoke on this, and it really hit home for me, and it's been in my heart.

But the importance as creative and business owners to have, like, scheduled, free time to wander and dream and come up with ideas. Because these things are gonna push our business forward. Like, these are the things that are going to allow us to grow and expand as a human and a business owner. Believe she schedules like, 3 hours a week to, like, go on a walk and the think and just... Dream and imagine.

And, you know, come up with all these crazy ideas, and she is a hell successful, like, as a business owner, you know, we need time to reign our passion. And day dream, and it's gonna in and inspire us. We have these goals and dreams, but are we spending the time imagining them coming to life. Right? Like, let's say you have a goal of booking a 30000 dollar wedding.

Or 50000 dollar wedding or wherever you are in your business a hundred thousand dollar wedding, where that's their floral budget. Could you imagine playing with a hundred thousand dollars worth of hours like, man. That would be fantastic. But are we allowing ourselves to visit that that place in our mind? Are we allowing...

Ourselves to dream that and then breaking that down of, like, okay, what should I be doing to get myself closer to that goal? Like, who should I be networking with? Like, what should I be designing where should I be designing? Should I do a style shoe at this venue that has that kind of clientele? Like, you know what I mean?

It's just that free time, that helps us, kind of reshape you know, what our role is, what our role is in our business, you know, washing buckets, should we be doing that as business owners. And it's not that we're too good to do it. It's just... Our time could be spent better doing something else. And with our to do list, something that's been really, really cool that I picked up, is doing the thing that is immediately gonna bring money in.

So prioritizing, are rep prioritizing our to do this in a way that invites expansion and, like peace in our life, essentially. Are we aware of the amount of stuff we can handle in a day. You know, are we learning to say no to things are we understanding our capabilities? Do we know that networking and social events drain us so that we need you know, time off afterwards. Are we scheduling our schedules accordingly?

You know, do we know how many weddings we can take in a weekend? Do we know the cap of how many arrangements your flower shop can take on in a day? Like, do we know our limits? Do we know our limits and capabilities and are we planning accordingly? For example, for others, day, it's always on a Sunday.

Why I always take the Monday following off. Like, I don't work. My team doesn't work. Like, nobody works because day it's a busy day. It's been a busy week, like, we need that time to recoup.

Same with weddings. And I know that this can feel a little trickier because, you know, every force under in this world has had this happen to them where they... Book a smaller wedding, then they get a bid for a bigger wedding, and then they might get a, you know, big bigger wedding come their way all in the same weekend, and it's, like, we get excited. We can't say no. Do we have the boundary to know our capability?

Do we have... We you know, love for herself enough to say no to that third wedding. And, like, you know, we only perform the best when we take 2 weddings on in a weekend? You know what I mean? Do we have the strength to say no, because if we take on that third wedding, we're probably not showing up as our best self, and we're gonna be stressed.

And overwhelmed and not sleeping. And, you know, just because crazy Susie, the flo takes on 5 weddings in a weekend doesn't mean you need to. Something that I've implemented that has been super great is minimums, you know, I have a minimum wedding dollar amount so that I can take less on in a year and be fulfilled with the size of the wedding. You know, in my career, I remember being so excited when somebody spent 3000 dollars on a wedding. I was like, oh my god.

Yes. But I've I've hit that milestone, and I passed it now. That that wedding for full service, just doesn't align anymore. Like, I wanna be able to bring for my custom full service clients, things that are... Even more impactful than the 3000 dollar custom wedding.

Does that make sense? It's like, as I grow as a person as I grow as a business, I have different At different times and different boundaries. Also do a 3000 dollar wedding. It's just not a full custom wedding. It is you, no buyer designs online on my website, and then we do a quick consultation to grasp the overall design aesthetic and color palette And then I get hello creative with it.

And, you know, we don't even talk far varieties because there's that level of trust there and that level of creativity there. So that's a boundary that I've put in place this year for my wedding sizes. You know, also with arrangements, Like, do you have a limit on turnaround times for fulfilling orders? Like, will you bend over backwards to take something last minute or will you pass on it because it doesn't align in your schedule. For me, like, I don't take orders past noon.

And if something comes past noon, I don't take it because the rest of my day already scheduled. And let's say, you know, I get a phone clock 03, 00. And I have a consultation at 4, and then I'm gonna go to the gym at 5. Like, the thing that would have to get disrupted would be my gym time at 5. And I just am sick of doing that.

I am not a person that does that anymore. I am a person that shows up and makes commitments to herself and follow through with those commitments, and me agreeing to that last minute arrangement. Sure. What if I already have the fires in my cooler? What if it seems easy, Like, I miss the him not day.

And that's a disservice to myself. And in the long run, it's those little things. Those little boundaries, Those little things of saying, no. Like, sorry we can't do same day past 12, you know, I've I've really worked on creating a life that works for me and this flow, and I have those boundaries in place for a reason. And there are other people that could take care of that person, or they all come to the realization like, oh, I am really calling late in the day.

Could you do it tomorrow, and I'll be like, I would love to do this tomorrow for you. Instead of a happy birthday, we'll put a happy be birthday on the card, and the recipient will still love it just as much. You know what I mean? I also have boundaries with, like, the size of arrangements that I do. I get so many phone calls.

Asking for, like, a 30 dollar price range or a 50 dollar price range, and I just don't start there. I start at 75, I start at 75 for the profit margin that feels worth it, but also, I get to have the amount of flowers. In that small sized arrangement that feels good to play with. Like, the level of artist tree just it... It's not there at a 30 dollar price point.

Like, you know, and I love when my clients, you know, by my larger sizes and spend 300 dollars on an arrangement, like, lots go. Let's play. But I have to have these boundaries in place, so that it just works for my my life and my goals. And, you know, someday, I would love for my arrangements, to sorta 300 bucks. Like, that is a gold mine.

That is a gold mine to be, like this higher end luxury forest that my arrangements are at 300. And that's getting to a point where the artist 3 can shine even more because, like, oh my gosh. We can play with, like, more expensive flower varieties, we get to have of so many more stems in this thing, like, when it's somebody's birthday, like, hell, yeah. Like, happy fucking birthday to you like at this some motherfucker. You know?

I want that vibe. I, you know, and and those are the goals they I'm going towards So I I have to say no to things to grow. Also saying no to things that don't align aesthetically. This is... So I will confess really hard for me right now.

I I know that saying no. It's this like attraction. Let me let me back. Saying no to things, is making room to say yes, for other things. Right?

And it's kind of the law of attraction. And you think of it as a magnet, you In order to say yes to the things you wanna be saying yes to, you have to say no to the things that don't align. So think it as like, a magnet, there's a positive and negative in order to attract those things that you're wanting, you're gonna have to repel. Some things. You're gonna have to push some things away.

And I'm learning in my business that that comes down to not just the dollar amounts of things, but also to the design them selves. You know, somebody calls me up, and they want... Want me to recreate, like a tele 1 800 flower design of daisy and a tea cup, like, that hurts my heart, and I don't wanna do that, and I don't feel lined with it, so I won't make it even though it's easy money, even though they're willing to spend x amount of dollars or, you know, it's just... It needs to line up. And even with weddings and events, it's like, if this doesn't align with your design aesthetic and your heart, having the drink to say no, like, oh, yeah.

I don't work with those flower. I Or Not feeling the vibe of this in spell, like, because somebody else will do it better, you know, back to the 30 dollar fire arrangements, Thursday eighties far shop that loves doing them and they feel aligned to doing it, and that's great. Like, those customers belong there. And saying no to something, says yes to herself. And on the opposite of that, saying yes to something could say no to ourselves, and it takes that trust out, and we need to just, like, really think through the things we're saying yes to, and the things that are allowing us to say no to ourselves because that self relationship, that self trust.

That is super super important. We need to also work on managing our time well and what things are keeping us from our in goal, a practice that I've done recently, which was super fun and interesting is writing out your job description. Yeah. You're the owner of your business. But have you ever, like, written out every single plan job or every single title that you hold because I'm sure it is a lot.

I am sure the list is really, really, really long. He just had 3 hats that we weren't instead of every single hat. What if you wore the salesman hat, the lead designer half, and the chief visionary officer hat. For example, those are the hats I try to wear. So think of just wearing these 3 hats, then you would get other people to wear the other hats.

You would get other people to strike the wedding after set up. You would get people to go set up the wedding. You would get people to deliver your flower arrangements. You would get people to, do, like, warehouse inventory and management of, like, all of your hard goods and base rentals and candles, people would be washing buckets. You would even hire an accountant in a bookkeeper to do those ends of the business, you would...

People hire someone to manage the team members, the freelancers, they would schedule everybody. Like, you would literally do selling. So this could look like networking events going to different places to share about the services that you provide connecting with other individuals showing up on its Instagram or social media you know, doing ads, you would be the lead designer, so you'd probably order all your products for your events or what's happening in the studio, you wouldn't process as lead designer, you would have somebody else process, you would make the mock up and then be like, okay, team, do this 10 times. And being the chief visionary officer, you would dream up new stuff for your biz. So you would get hell creative, you would have that passion aligned, and you would dream up new things for the biz if it's like new programs, if it's courses, if it's new design styles, if it's new products in your store, you know, decide what you wanna do in your business, decide what you want to be spending your time being, you know?

And maybe these 3 hats that I'm describing don't align with you and you rather do more of the admin stuff. Or you rather do none of that, and you don't even wanna sell your stuff. You just wanna create or you love washing buckets and processing flowers like, then find other people to bring in. Like, understand what your skill set is and what lights your heart on fire and what you're passionate about. And implement them.

Like, your business, I see this so many times and I used to live in this space Your business will never grow by doing the same thing. Like your business will never ever grow if you're still wearing all the hats. It's impossible. How can you expect change when you're doing the same dance? Like hire that person 1 day a week to come in and help you.

Hire that virtual assistant? Hire people to just come process for you. Make sure you have a a strike cleanup up crew. There so many people that love you know, cleanup up crew. So many of my friends and, you know, college students, like, they're up late, and they want extra money in their life.

Like, it's, it's a beautiful gig for them. There... It doesn't have to be you. It shouldn't be you. You need to be getting sleep.

Like, you've already designed and execute this whole wedding all weekend. Like, find a crew to come strike for you. You should be taking care of your human. That's kind of the next point here is self care. Like, when we are busy up our schedule with all thousand things to do and things don't feel aligned, and we don't have minimums and boundaries, like, we're not gonna get enough sleep.

We're not gonna make it to the gym. We're not gonna have the energy to do, like, fun family activities. We're not gonna have our bath time. We're not gonna be able to stand barefoot foot and take deep breaths right before bed outside. That is 1 of my favorite practices and the weather's nice.

We won't be able to ground ourselves. Like, I love that grounding exercise. And, you know, it's just like, we're gonna be this stupid little robotic. Hustle that like hates life and hates flowers. Like, don't let yourself get there.

You gotta take care of your human. You've gotta get good sleep and feel creative. You gotta spend time at the gym. You've gotta drink water. You've gotta, you know, spend time on hobbies.

You need that downtime to decompress. We've gotta have those boundaries in place, and we've gotta just you know, show up. We, as the business owner, we are the creator. We have the power to change what comes into our world and We should have a life that we are in love with and that everyday is a beautiful gorgeous fucking day that we just show up in, and we love. Because we created it this way.

We are the creator of our lives. Like today, for example, I take orders till noon. And recording this episode at 11, 19AM. I am open for business. I'm doing error quotes from, like, 10 to 6.

That's when I'll answer my phone. And I'm not always at the studio all the time. I'll work from home if I have admin stuff to do, or I'll take the afternoon off. I'll hit a gym session in the middle of the day, like, I love being able to do same day orders, and I do it till noon because if I don't have orders this day, like, if I didn't have orders today, then I would plan the rest of my afternoon differently. Like, I would go on a walk.

Like, I don't have events this week, and it's kind of like a down week, like, I have, some things I need do on my to list on my website, and I need to get back to my graphic designer about something that he's working on for me, and I have these little checklist to dos, but I could go for a gorgeous walk for an hour and get that creative flow. You know, like, I already hit the gym this morning so I don't need to schedule that into my day. But for today, I've had a phone call order and then another order coming in on me. On my website, fortunately enough, like, I bought flowers. Yesterday, so we have half hours in the cooler.

Like, you know, I'm gonna go do those 2 arrangements in fulfill them and go deliver them. Yesterday and then I'm gonna do my to do list things, and then I have the rest of the evening free. Like, this is the life that I wanna be living. I love, inter 20 my personal and business life. Like, this is the dream.

I living the dream, and I'm am so great. Full And again, implementing that gratitude practice for this life that I've created everything I've learned in the past couple of years and saying no to things and implementing boundaries and just really getting aligned with what is happening in my world. And then also reconnecting to why I do what I do. And it's a beautiful balance you know, there are busier times. There are slower times.

You know, my personal wedding cap is 3 weddings in a weekend. And, I have some of that this season, and that just comes with the territory, and I love the busy times, and I love... Appreciate the slow times and give myself permission to slow down in the slow times and really allowing myself to rest and and recoup so that I am in for those busy times and my creativity can flow. I found that it's just all little things implemented in your business that will really help you find success and small you know, taking those risks, hiring that person, outsourcing that thing, you know, get really clear and sit down and journal and unpack the things that are distracting you from your it, like overall and goals and how you see yourself in your business. You can create a life you've always wanted.

You can live in this harmony balance in your business in your personal life. You are the creator of it. You know, I believe in you. I hope you believe in yourself but connect with me, shoot me a dm on Instagram if you want me to go deeper on any of the parts of today's post.