A side hustle is a fantastic way of earning extra money while developing one of your hobbies into a fully-fledged business. And who knows, maybe it will become your full-time job soon enough!
For instance, if you love flowers and know all there is to know about cultivating, maintaining, and arranging them, you may want to start a flower business. Plus, as more businesses and customers turn to online for help, why not try opening a flower business online?
If you’re interested, here are the steps to follow:
Assess your Space, Skills, and Dedication
Before making anything official, run an analysis of your current situation and make sure you want to get into a flower business. This is important because it’s not just about flowers – you also have to find customers, suppliers, pay taxes, and negotiate contracts.
Next, think about the type of business you’d like to start. Do you just want to put together bouquets using flowers you’ve grown (if you have a garden) or do you want to cover flower decorations for events as well?
If you’re only interested in something small and you already have the raw material, you may not have to deal with suppliers as much. Still, you’ll have to find customers, which may be a bit difficult since your offer is limited to what’s in the garden. But, if you offer flower deals, there’s a good chance you’ll attract some new customers and you can use time-limited offers to push flowers that are about to get out of season.
Lastly, think about the space needed for your business. While you can do everything from home, flower decorations and storage take a lot of room, which can be challenging if you share the space with a partner or you have pets or family living with you.
Find Your Channel
Are you planning on building a site for your online business? Or maybe you want to take the social media path. Florists can also use big retail platforms like Amazon or eBay to sell their creations.
Luckily, there are plenty of online channels you can use, but it’s best to find one or two that work for your audience.
Side note: if you decide to take the big retail platform path, keep in mind that some buyers can be more difficult than others. Sadly, they also hold a lot of power since a negative comment can have a serious impact on a small business. However, you can also report a buyer if you feel they don’t respect the rules and are only looking to create trouble.
Market Yourself
Once you know your goals and channels, it’s time to start looking for customers. Big celebrations like Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and others are amazing for florists but you need a constant stream of customers.
For this, find ways to place your product in front of people who might be in need of a florist in the near future (having a wedding, a baptism, an anniversary, etc.). You can use online ads (both Google and Facebook ads are extremely well-targeted) or you can partner up with other businesses in the industry such as makeup artists, caterers, cake bakers, and more.
Just Start!
The best way to become successful at something is to start! Once you’ve done your thinking and analyzed your options, it’s time to dive in. You’ll never know if things will go well until you actually do them. Of course, there will be challenges and obstacles, but that’s how we grow and learn.