Questions with Rachel: Getting Started, Client Care, Day-of Stress, and more...
Welcome to the first episode of Questions with Rachel!
Rachel is a Bloomer turned Zimmerman team-member, which means we first connected because she took my course the Business Behind the Blooms, and then she came on to the Zimmerman team in January of 2019.
Rachel has a foot in both worlds-- she’s a student and floral designer, mom and entrepreneur, but she also gets to see the inside of team Zimmerman and the inside of my brain as she helps me communicate with our audience and students.
Each month, we’ll have an episode of Zimmerman Podcast called “Questions with Rachel” where Rachel will ask me real questions that we get asked all the time and haven’t been able to answer in depth on Instagram or Facebook. She’s also going to throw some of her own questions in there, just to spice things up.
I won’t see any of these questions ahead of time, so my answers will always be 100% raw and unfiltered.
Let’s get started.
Rachel:
If you’re just starting a floral business, or any business, really, what are the first five things you’d do and invest in? With limited money, where is that best spent?
Jessica:
Contracts! Having a lawyer that can draft your contacts is a must. Listen, people are trusting you with their money and you need to be protected. It’s best for their sake and yours… you have to treat your business like a legit business.
Hire a bookkeeper or CPA and meet with them at least once a quarter (I meet with mine once a month), but meet with them and know your numbers. For a lot of us in the creative field, this is not our strength, even if we know it’s important. I used to always push this task to the next day and then it would never get done because I kept pushing it to the next day. Anything that you have on your plate like that, that keeps getting pushed to the next day, that’s a very clear sign that you need to outsource that task. I get that this is hard to do at the beginning, and I know a lot of people think they can’t afford a lawyer or an accountant, but you can! Think about cancelling your gym membership for a year and running outside. When you outsource things, you free up time and brain space to be able to be more productive, which brings in more money.
Speaking of outsourcing, hire a team as soon as you possibly can – someone who can take care of the minutia of your business. Make a list of what you enjoy and what you don’t enjoy so you don’t get burned out. Kellie was my first hire. She began by taking care of email, and then we discovered one of her top strengths is learning – that girl loves to learn new things. Because Kellie handles the back end of the business, I’m able to save a lot of time and keep focused on my clients and the work that builds my business.
Have a website – and make it a good one. You don’t have to spend a lot of money initially, but make sure your create one that is professional, and that you are utilizing SEO (search engine optimization) when you name your pictures and in your keywords so your business is one of the top three that show up when clients google your area and floral design. You can always spend more money to make it better once you have it.
Finally, when it comes to marketing, Pinterest is the way to go. It’s the #1 biggest traffic driver to my website. We get inquiries from high-end, big-budget brides all the time. It may surprise some, but that is how brides are finding their vendors. We have a free training on Pinterest at: zimmermanpodcast.com/pinterestfreetraining.
Those are the 5 things I would do if I was getting started out.
Rachel:
Follow up question, in regard to contracts and accountants. How would you overcome the fear and intimidation of meeting with an accountant or lawyer, especially when starting out and it feels like there is so much you don’t know or that you may have messed up already?
Jessica:
I think honesty is always the best way to go- telling them “I don’t know anything about this but I want to be protected and start my business off on the right foot. I’m going to need you to guide me through this process.” Just like our clients who come to us for our expertise, it’s the same with an attorney or an accountant, you’re paying them for what they know.
Rachel:
Has there ever been a time a contract saved you and you thought “I’m so grateful I had my contract”?
Jessica:
We had a huge wedding last year where we were doing the floral design, planning, and coordinating. I had a very specific section in my contract that was something along the lines of “we will do our part in communicating with the other vendors, but ultimately, it’s their job to execute their service, and we’re not responsible for their work.” For this wedding, the company that was setting up the dance floor was 5 hours late. I remember thinking "I’ve done everything I could possibly do and if they don’t show up, it’s out of my control and I’m protected." They eventually did show up and set up the dance floor while the ceremony was taking place and thankfully no one from the wedding knew what was going on.
Rachel:
When you have something big planned for a wedding, in your case it might be a big installation, how do you keep your nerves form taking over on the wedding day? How do you keep calm and focused?
Jessica:
Three things. Number one - prep, prep, prep! Go to the venue and measure, figure out your mechanics. See if you can use command hooks, and how many you’ll need, etc. - physically look at and see what mechanics you’ll need and how they would work.
Second, I’m really honest with my clients about the amount of time it takes to do things, and I always double the amount of time I think something will take. If I estimate two hours for an install, I plan on four. If a client wants a stair installation, arch installation, photo wall covered with flowers – I tell them there is no way we can get all this done in one day unless we double our staff, which will still be a frenzy. They usually rent another day at the venue so we can get in the day before. Also think through and prepare what I can ahead of time. But I suggest allotting more time and get in early if you can.
Last, you always need more people than you think you need. Hire people who know what they’re doing – not just your family members – because things happen! You need a team if something comes up. I always set up every wedding as if I’m not going to be there. If something happened to one of my kids, I know that this wedding will still be pulled off beautifully.
Rachel:
We get a lot of messages from people who have just finished design school and are now trying to figure out what’s next. How would you guide people who have invested all this time and money into getting floral training but don’t know where to go from there?
Jessica:
Just like anything, you have to do things in order to gain clarity. You can either sit in a space of wondering or you can know for a fact whether or not you want to do something. The only way to get clarity is through experience. There are lots of people who have gone through BBB and realized the business end is a lot of work and they don’t want to do it, they just want to work with flowers and not take on the stress of the business. Some decide to work for a gift shop or flower shop or contract their services out. The only way to know for sure is to try it out, and to also be honest about what you enjoy doing. Because if you don’t like deadlines, confrontation, money, pressure, and responsibility, then having your own business may not be the way to go.
There’s no right or wrong, you just need to be honest about what you enjoy and try things out because learning how to create beautiful floral designs in the classroom is a totally different thing than doing event flowers. AND it’s ok if you decide to go to school and try it out and eventually decide it isn't for you. Life is short, but it’s also long. You don’t want to do something you don't enjoy for thirty years because you invested one year learning how to do it.
Rachel:
I have an English degree and after teaching went into flowers. Now I’m back to using my degree every day for Zimmerman – you don’t know how what you invest in at one time is going come back around at some point in your life.
Rachel:
What would you say to someone who thought owning a business or floral design is what they wanted and now it’s different than what they thought? How would you guide them if their strengths are not suited for business?
Jessica:
It’s ok to change your mind and also, give yourself a break. We all have a set of specific strengths. We all grow and are different at age forty than we were at age twenty. It’s ok to change your mind and your priorities. It’s ok to pivot.
My husband, Brian, was a financial advisor for a decade and it caused so much stress that he got sick. Initially he felt like he had to keep doing what he’d always done. He felt like if he wasn’t a financial advisor anymore, then he’d wasted time and money. He felt like he would be a disappointment and he worried about what people would think, especially having a wife and kids. But we knew his experience would still be beneficial to us and weave into our lives somehow even if he made a switch. And he now gets to spend more time with his family. Just being honest with yourself and really, really not caring about what anybody else thinks… and I mean anybody… You have one life and you got to live it.
Rachel:
You’ve said this before, and I think it’s tangible, practical advice: to think about how you want to spend your days. When you think about that, it’s a much easier and clear question to answer, and then you can work backward to figure out how to make that happen. When we think long-term it can become murkier, because we tend to overthink it and second guess it.
Jessica:
If I was told I would have to do the same things for the rest of my life, I couldn’t do it. That sounds so boring to me. Some of us have a mindset where we can’t do the same thing forever. For me, every 4-5 years, there’s this little pivot. It may not be drastic, but I try new things and put other things on pause. This podcast is a new thing for me. For the people out there who need permission, especially for the entrepreneurial minded, just know that it’s ok to try something new and change your mind. And if you get burned out, feel bored or don’t like it - don’t quit, just think about a way you can pivot.
Rachel:
Ok, let’s end with a fun question. From top to toe what is your power outfit?
Jessica:
My wardrobe is mostly black – it’s easy and all goes together. I love black skinny jeans, a black top, a black leather jacket and a nice black ankle boot!
I loved this episode of Questions with Rachel. I’m going to predict this is going to be a favorite for our listeners.
IF YOU HAVE A QUESTION YOU WANT FEATURED ON A FUTURE SEGMENT OF QUESTIONS WITH RACHEL, SEND THEM TO ZIMMERMANPODCAST.COM/ASK.
SHOW NOTES & LINKS
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Free Mini Course
I’m so thankful that Rachel is part of the Zimmerman Team. Rachel first found out about my education through a free online training. She ended up becoming a Bloomer, taking part in my Annual Planning course, and then went on to become a member of the Zimmerman team. In honor of Rachel, I want to tell you about a free mini-course you can get access to today.
If you want to become a part of the Zimmerman family and get access to this FREE mini-course today, head to zimmermanpodcast.com/minicourse
