5 Tips for Running a Florist Franchise

Starting a florist franchise could see you embarking on a new professional journey. A journey that allows you to wake up every single morning and smell the roses. If you’re ready for a career change and wondering how to start running a successful flower shop franchise, here are five top tips.

In 2019, the UK flower-growing industry reached a total value of £121 million [The Guardian]. Though impacted by COVID-19 closures, florist businesses are finally getting back on track in the latter half of 2021, and if you’re interested in making a career change with a florist franchise, now’s a great time to make your move.

Why start a florist franchise?

Since COVID restrictions began to reduce and the 2021 lockdown ended, the UK public has been more keen than ever to celebrate. That means that events are being planned and attended with great regularity right now, and many couples are finally getting engaged, knowing their weddings will be able to happen as they dreamed. Weddings are a huge factor when it comes to running a florist franchise, with wedding flowers generally costing a considerable 10-15% of the wedding’s entire budget [Interflora].

Florists are capitalising on this resurgence in demand and very much making up for lost time post-pandemic, but that’s not the only reason to consider starting a florist franchise right now. Other advantages of running a flower business and building a successful floristry franchise include:

• The chance to follow your passion and work with beautiful flowers
• The room to be creative and experimental
• The ability to improve and support your local community
• The chance to have a positive impact on your customers
• The opportunity to develop multiple streams of income
• The scope for future growth and expansion
• The extensive availability of franchisor support and guidance

5 tips for running a florist franchise successfully 

If you think you have what it takes to run a florist franchise, and you’re gearing up to make an investment in the industry, bear these five tips in mind. If you do, you’ll find yourself able to achieve profitability and long-term success running a florist franchise:

1. Build strong relationships with flower suppliers

A flower supplier could make or break your floristry business, and forging a strong relationship with a good, trusted supplier should be absolutely essential to you, allowing you to rely on a smooth supply chain, meet demands, and provide your customers with consistently quality flowers. When you work directly with a supplier and take the time to build that strong foundation, you [Flower Flow]:

• Can access a wide array of floral options and choices
• Can access superior products (potentially even at favourable prices)
• Will enjoy fast turnaround times
• Will enjoy a pleasant, mutually beneficial working relationship
• Will know your floral supply is being ethically farmed

As a franchisee, you might find that your franchisor already has a supplier relationship in place that supplements your need to find one. Still, you should work on cultivating that relationship and ensuring all of your communications with this supplier are pleasant. You can’t rely on the brand’s existing reputation to guarantee you endless goodwill.

2. Don’t neglect your professional development

Professional development is crucial to the continued success of a franchise business. As in any other business, if you let standards slip over time, you’re likely to see profits begin to slip too. Even after years with your franchise network, your franchisor should still be providing you with professional development opportunities, and if that’s not the case, it’s something you should chase up.

Seize every chance you get, as a business owner, to grow and learn more. You’re never too experienced to benefit from a new method or a new piece of information, whether that’s about floristry or business management or anything else. 94% of employees stay longer with a company if they’re offered continued opportunities to learn and develop [LinkedIn], and this should be your attitude, too.

3. Keep updating and assessing your marketing strategies

When you start your own florist franchise, you’ll likely create a business plan which includes marketing strategies. This is step one of the marketing journey, and it’s an important one, but listen up: It’s not the ONLY step. You don’t just create a few marketing and advertising plans once, and then stick to them forever. What worked for your business in 2018 isn’t necessarily going to work in 2021. Continuous assessment of your marketing strategies is absolutely crucial to their success, and you can do it by:

• Gathering customer data
• Developing a target customer profile
• Creating advertising for this target customer
• Gathering performance data on this advertising
• Adjusting strategies and campaigns as the data indicates
• Adjusting your target customer profile as consumer needs and wants shift

4. Maintain your flower shop with care for your customers

Creating a memorable customer experience - the kind that incites people to leave positive reviews and generates referrals - is all about going the extra mile. One of the ways to do this, when you become a florist, is by simply holding your flower shop to high standards in terms of presentation and cleanliness. A clean flower shop environment keeps customers happy and safe, and results in them sticking around (and likely spending more money). 

A positive customer experience will be influenced by the overall retail environment and has a direct impact on the purchasing behaviour of clientele. For instance, a clean retail space will attract and engage your market and potentially increase the likelihood of customer purchases, return visits and customer recommendations.
- Gretams

5. Stay up-to-date on floristry industry trends

Last but not least, be sure to keep up with your industry. What are the latest consumer trends, and how are these reflected by your customers? What are your competitors up to, and what can you be doing that they aren’t? If you want to help your network stand out as one of the top florist franchises in the UK, finding gaps in the market is a great place to start. Here are some 2021 floristry trends to look out for and dig into as you conduct your research [Homes and Gardens]:

• Soft neutrals
• 70s inspired arrangements
• Jewel tones
• Strong fragrances
• Dried flower arrangements

Start running your own business in the flower sector today

If you’re more ready than ever to plant the seeds for success and start growing your successful franchise business today, why not consider an investment with preserved floral arrangement specialist Endura Roses? As an Endura franchisee, you’ll benefit from a strong existing customer base, all the support you need, and the chance to capitalise on a unique and popular niche.