Whether you’re considering opening a flower shop or you’ve been running a blooming business for years, it’s always a good idea to do a checkup. The day-to-day of being a small business owner can often feel like a whirlwind. Managing a flower shop by yourself or with a small team is often about the art of keeping all your plates spinning — usually with the wobbliest plates getting the most attention.
But periodically taking a moment to pause and step back is equally important. When you can review your business’s health holistically, you’re more able to identify new opportunities for growth, stability, and joy in your business.
As a future or current florist, there are a few things to consider in how best to optimize your operations. Follow our checklist below to evaluate how your business can grow in a way that works best for you.
Review your finances
Is your business on budget? Whether you’re just getting started creating a business plan or have been operating for a while, it’s important to set aside time to regularly check in on your finances.
Looking for more insight on what’s driving profits at your flower shop? A Profit and Loss (P&L) statement can be especially helpful for identifying key drivers for your business’s profitability. Understanding your P&L statement can unlock insights into where you’re overspending — and what areas of investment could provide the greatest return. Download our free P&L template to get started.
Spruce up your space
Look around your store, and try to see it from the perspective of a first time customer. What stands out? Approaching your space with fresh eyes can help you identify what might be in need a little dusting — or a complete refresh.
When we work in the same space for a long time, we can easily become accustomed to how things are instead of seeing their potential. When you examine the health of your physical shop, here are some things to review:
Is the overall atmosphere welcoming and inviting?
Is it easy for customers to find what they’re looking for?
Is there clear signage where there needs to be?
Is any part of your shop due for cleaning?
Have you outgrown your current space, or is it time to consider downsizing?
As your business has grown or changed, is there a better way to organize inventory?
Does your location or neighborhood still work well for your business?
How else can you attract customers with eye-catching seasonal displays?
Revitalize your marketing
Marketing is a key investment for growing customer awareness and driving sales. Do your campaigns address customers at all levels of the marketing funnel? Explore holiday flower shop marketing ideas for inspiration, and make sure to advertise your offerings and specials well in advance for major flower holidays like Mother’s Day and Valentine’s Day.
As a flower shop owner, it’s important to periodically review your marketing campaign performance to see what’s working well — and what isn’t. Every business is unique and you might find that a certain type of ad, platform, or audience targeting might work better for your flower shop. To help local businesses grow their sales, DoorDash offers Marketing Promotions where you only pay for confirmed orders that are placed. Entice new and existing customers in your area to order a beautiful bouquet with a deal.
Check in with your employees
The happiness of your employees is important to the success of your business. Joyful employees create a better customer experience. Who doesn’t like being greeted by a smile when they walk into your shop?
As a florist, your area of expertise may be in arrangements, but that doesn’t mean you can’t help your employees bloom, too. Encourage employees to share honest feedback — and be open to implementing it. Some problems may not be solvable, but you can be open in communicating how and why you’re choosing to do things. Transparency breeds trust, and employees that trust you are more likely to be resilient when challenges do arise.
One way to set the tone for your team moving forward is to create a comprehensive employee handbook, which can help inform your operations moving forward and keep everyone on the same page. Download our free employee handbook template to get started.
Audit your customer service
On that thread, what else could you do to create a better customer service experience? Trace your customer’s steps from learning about your flower shop to making a purchase — where can your business add a special something that makes customers want to come back again and again?
Here are some key moments and elements to consider:
How customers are greeted when they walk in the store
How customers are greeted on the phone
Remembering the names of your regular customers
Other ways you build relationships with customers
Deals for repeat customers
How carefully flowers are packaged
Freebies, like lollipops, mints, or stickers
Your availability for quick turnaround orders
Your availability for same-day delivery
Your response when a customer is unhappy
Add delivery to your flower shop offerings
As on-demand delivery becomes the norm for all sorts of products, from food to flowers, offering flower shop delivery can be the thing that sets your business apart. Luckily, today with third-party delivery partners like DoorDash, there’s no need to hire or train your own delivery staff. (You can even add DoorDash in addition to your current delivery team, with DoorDash Self-Delivery.)
With DoorDash, customers find your business on the DoorDash app and can make orders for same-day delivery or up to two weeks in advance. Simply accept the order using a tablet, set a prep time, prepare the order, and hand it off to a Dasher for delivery. Flower shop owners can track everything in the Order Manager app, and review data and analytics in our Merchant Portal. Learn more about how DoorDash works for flower delivery, and how a florist in Atlanta grew his profit margins 10% by partnering with DoorDash.
We try to be where the customer wants us to be, in a very competitive market — and DoorDash helps us do that.
Ready to grow your sales?
After auditing your business from root to stem, you should have a better idea of how and where you want your flower shop to grow. Each business is unique, and plotting your own path to success is one of the joys of being a small business owner. It’s a continual journey — but one that’s more than worth it.
As you grow, consider signing up with a partner like DoorDash to help connect your business with more local customers, grow online sales, and facilitate same-day flower shop delivery.
