5 Business Building Ideas for Florists During Slow Summer Months

Flowers are used to celebrate all sorts of different life events, many of which are clustered into national holidays in the winter and spring months. When summer is in full effect and business slows down, it can be easy to think it’s time to kick back and relax. However, now is your opportunity to sow some seeds for the coming year (metaphorically speaking).

Here are 5 ideas you can try during slower summer days. You’ll thank yourself for later.

#1 Set Up an Outdoor Display

With the warm weather upon us and more people out and about, you can take advantage of the increased traffic by setting up a beautiful outdoor display to show off your inventory. No point keeping them hidden away inside where no one can see them! Doing so can help to attract people passing by to stop and take a closer look. You could even hold a side walk sale or partner with other’s in the community to host a small farmer’s market. While people may not need a flower arrangement for a holiday, they might pick up some flowers that catch their eye to accent their home. Making the move outside to your customers may be just what your store needs to engage your customers.

#2 Network with your Local Community

Next, the importance of networking isn’t reserved for young business professionals, only. In fact, it is the very backbone of entrepreneurial business to begin with! Reach out to other local companies and organizations in order to establish a lasting relationship. Donate an arrangement to one of their events with your card visible of course. This way the next time these community members need a flower arrangement—whether for business or personal reasons—they have your company in mind. Your local Chamber of Commerce is a great place to start mingling as it is full of business connections, naturally. Be sure to carry business cards with you at all times, as well, because you never know when the opportunity will arise to share your business information.

#3 Build Your Facebook Presence

Holidays and special occasions are oversold in the florist industry so don’t rely on these occasions for making the most of your online presence. Instead, build your Facebook presence all throughout the year by regularly posting interesting and engaging things. During summer, you can really focus on building engagement.

Here’s a few actionable ideas:

• Post flower related articles. They don’t even have to be your own articles as long as they are relevant and interesting for your audience.
• Create albums dedicated to different occasions and arrangement types so that potential customers can virtually shop for what they’re looking for.
• Create monthly contests/drawings to create buzz and engage your potential customers more regularly. Don’t forget to post the winners.
• Ask your customers to share photos of your flowers at their events and to tag your Facebook page. This way they do some promoting for you!
• Post quality photos from all points on the budget spectrum so that you can reach all potential customers.
• Share fun flower-related facts.

By becoming approachable and relatable via Facebook you are making your company more accessible to your community. The key here is to be consistent, so plan how many times per week you can post and stick to it.

#4 Host Free Informational Classes

Slower seasons provide the perfect opportunity to bring potential customers into your shop for free informational classes. By doing this you are opening your doors to the community without the pressure to make a sale. Customers will love the creative activity and will remember your shop the next time they need to purchase flowers. Furthermore, remember that kids are out of school and parents are looking for things they can do to keep them busy. By creating a class or activity suitable for a younger audience, you could get great results. This will also give you more content you can share on social media, further improving your community engagement.

#5 Perform Flower Shop TLC

Now that you have a bit more time on your hands be sure to take a look at your shop from the eyes of the customer. Is a deep cleaning needed in areas that are mostly overlooked during the busy seasons? Maybe your flower buckets needs to be scrubbed or your windows need to be sprayed. Is the paint fresh and inviting? What about the checkout counter, is it also inviting and clean? Take the time to go through and make your shop sparkle so that customers don’t hesitate when more of them start walking through the door. Take advantage of this time to go through your to-do list and finally get it done.

There never truly is any down time in the flower industry as everyday is an opportunity to engage your customers. Take the time to work behind the scenes on your company when you aren’t pumping out arrangements at holiday volumes in order to keep the business flowing year-round. We understand the importance of building your business during the summer, let us know if you need some help!