Deep dive into delegation for florists
Are you a floral design business owner? If you said yes, then this deep dive into delegation for florists is for you!
How does it feel to juggle a million things at once?
It can feel like you are expected to be Superwoman. And trying to do everything yourself will drain you. Fast.
You can avoid burnout, but you’ve got to learn to delegate. By delegating tasks like a pro, you can achieve your goals without sacrificing your well-being.
Every florist business owner needs to delegate on some level. We simply cannot wear all the hats of a business owner and do everything ourselves without any support!
And the process of determining what and how to delegate just isn’t talked about enough in our industry.
So Rachel of The Botanic Business Hub and LuAnn of EveryStem Florist Software decided to bring this taboo topic out into the open and shed some light on the subject in a recent chat!
You can watch the entire video here or keep reading to get the highlights and our best tips for delegation!
Rachel’s background is floral design focused but also very diverse. She’s been on both the retail and wholesale sides of floristry and has extensive experience in wedding and event floral design work. Based in the UK, she’s an experienced virtual assistant who helps to take her clients’ floral design businesses to the next level. It’s easy to see that Rachel loves what she does with all her heart.
Her wholesale floral experience makes her indispensable to her clients who take advantage of her flower recipe and ordering skills using EveryStem florist software.
Plus she handles the social media and email marketing for many of her floral designer clients. This allows them to focus on designing and client relations while feeling confident their marketing is taken care of, so they don’t miss a beat during busy seasons.
Rachel loves to challenge herself and she is always learning and growing. One of the best things about Rachel is that she emphatically encourages others to do the same!
You and I both know that change starts from within. So the fact that Rachel is consistently improving and diversifying her skills is a huge inspiration.
Thanks to her diverse background and years of experience Rachel recognizes the subtle and sometimes not so subtle signs that indicate it is time to delegate in a small floral design business.
So what are the signs that indicate it is high time for you to delegate?
Feeling overwhelmed and exhausted.
Lack of sleep and nightmares about flowers, flowering weddings, and work stress.
The expectation that you are Superwoman and that you can’t allow yourself to fail.
Existing in a state of chaos.
You are fighting fires and can’t push past your current workload to grow.
Feeling trapped at work all the time, not being able to take a day off.
Unable to keep up with email or influx of inquires coming into your business.
If you identify with any of these signs Rachel recommends that you do three critical things.
Stop and take a deep breath.
Own the fact that you can’t do everything yourself.
Muster the courage to ask for help.
It is extremely difficult to acknowledge the fact that you’ve put yourself in this situation in the first place. Being a small floral design business owner is difficult, but delegation can be a productive solution to unwrapping the feelings and stress of being over-burdened and trapped within the business you love.
You are not alone in this floral design business owner landscape.
Once you’ve taken the 3 steps Rachel recommends, you’ll be in a better place to take an honest look at your situation.
Evaluate the possibilities and value of the things that are keeping you up at night.
Ask yourself 3 questions.
Does this task absolutely need to be done?
Is this something that I must do as the business owner?
Is this something that I enjoy doing?
It’s understandable to have feelings of guilt for not being able to do everything your floral design business requires of you.
Your feelings are valid. Acknowledge and accept those feelings and then remind yourself gently that it takes support to run any successful business.
Then allow your feelings of guilt pass through as you work towards a solution.
Rachel shares a great point about client expectations and this common feeling of guilt floral design business owners often share.
Your clients may be putting expectations upon you that impart feelings of guilt. Some clients expect you to do everything because you are the lead floral designer and business owner. Don’t let that phase you. Those expectations are simply unrealistic.
Rachel reminds you that you are not your business, and your business is not YOU!
There is a separation between your business and you.
You do NOT have to do EVERYTHING.
Pass some tasks on that free you up to do the things you love. That could be the business portion or the design portion but determine what it is you love and then use delegation to spend more time on the things that bring you joy!
Do keep in mind that as the owner of your floral design business you do need to take responsibility for the tone of your business.
This is the one of the few things you cannot delegate. If you do not want to take responsibility for the tone of your business you might consider bringing on a partner, starting a coaching program to determine why, or changing direction.
LuAnn adds that delegation needs to come from the top, with a positive mentality so that your entire team senses your passion for your business and follows suit.
Rachel says delegation avoidance is when you act like an ostrich and put your head in the sand.
You leave your team out there to fend for themselves when you avoid delegation. This is the absolute opposite of using delegation to strengthen your team. And leaves your team solely dependent on their own skills and talents to hopefully get the job done.
Are you feeling like an ostrich or acting like one?
Do you want to stick your head in the sand on a regular basis?
Planning ahead may be exactly what you need in your business.
Teamwork is crucial and that must start at the business owner level. It requires planning in advance.
From event timelines, flower recipes, ordering supplies, and coordination--Rachel believes that planning in advance is not given enough headspace.
We think we can get ourselves out of a hole if we need to without a plan, but it can backfire bigtime! She’s seen it happen. And that’s why she is commited to systems and introduces them to all of her clients.
Great systems can impact delegation in a direct way.
Your team can use systems and processes when you as the leader set those systems in motion.
Using a system like EveryStem florist software along with hiring a virtual assistant or a team to plan is a boost for both growth and delegation.
Floristry is already a stressful business that requires you to work with perishable products, strict deadlines, and demanding clients. So avoid the extra layer of stress that comes along with trying to do it all yourself and not being organized enough to execute to your standards.
Planning, systems, and delegation work together to streamline your business when you put them in motion. They can help you avoid unnecessary stress!
Business owners wear so many hats. Rachel mentions just a few of your many responsibilities: bucket cleaner, delivery driver, team manager, communicator, marketing manager, bookkeeper, accountant. Which others come to your mind? There are too many to name them all.
When you first start off as a business owner you can handle many hats, but as the demand on your business grows you naturally start fighting the change in your business and can’t don all the hats every day.
Your role as a floral design business owner changes over time.
Rachel describes it this way: the growth of your business takes you from something you love to something that you might not love because the business needs you to step into a different role.
This is a growth pain. And sometimes you just don’t want to do the tasks your business requires of you.
Here is where learning the art of delegation can save you!
You can assign the tasks you don’t love or the tasks that suck your time to other people. And when you find good people, it’s golden!
Finding the right team does not mean you need to hire full-time employees. You can outsource in creative ways instead of hiring direct reports.
LuAnn points out that it’s super useful to look at this issue from an abundance perspective.
Just think about this.
There is an abundance of skilled professional people out there in the world who would love to help you run your business!
Isn’t that an amazing perspective? It opens so many possibilities for you. An abundant mindset can shift your perspective to embracing the process of finding the right people to delegate to in your business.
An abundant mindset can unstick you from resentment.
No one likes feeling stuck or resentful. When you look at hiring people or delegating to people as a liability the result is often frustrating. So take the opportunity to look at delegating as a gateway to more freedom in your business.
Are you ready to offload some responsibility?
Take an honest look at what needs to be delegated. Is this a point where you get stuck because you aren’t sure how to determine what you should be offloading to others?
Here are two of the ways Rachel helps her clients determine what exactly needs to be delegated.
You can do a massive brain dump. Unleash everything you feel like you’ve been neglecting and dislike doing, all the things you are avoiding. Brain dumping is fantastic because it gives you the space to offload everything. Then sort through it all to determine which things are high priority.
You can ask yourself what were two of the best events, projects, or occasions in the last year that you loved and would want to repeat. Then ask which were your two least favorite that you wouldn’t want to do again. Why were those favorites so successful for you? Why would you do them again? Why were those least favorites unsuccessful? Why did you dislike them so much?
These two strategies work well even if you don’t yet have a virtual assistant like Rachel because you can simply ask a friend to sit down with you and talk through it with you to get started.
Don’t be afraid to recognize that areas outside of the business are eligible for you to delegate too!
If you aren’t ready to hire a virtual assistant or freelancer that’s okay. Consider delegating some of your non-business tasks instead. If grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning are tasks that are taking you away from leading your business then you can outsource all of them!
Recruiting family and friends to help support you doesn’t mean they have to work in your business, but they can certainly pull more weight in your non-business activities!
Delegation of non-business tasks can alleviate some of your overall stress and allow you to focus more on your business. And that’s a great start!
You can also look at leveraging other people’s strengths.
There are skills that other people have that you do not. And that is the power of a team with diverse strengths.
It’s as simple as this. Richard Branson says, “… finding people better than you to do the things you're not good at… frees you up to do the things you are good at.”
If you are looking to delegate, it’s not always just about you.
It is about the person you are delegating to as well. The tasks you delegate may not be your top priorities or the things you dislike the most, but delegating repetitive small tasks can free you up to concentrate on big-ticket items.
This delegation strategy can give you the capacity to focus on something you don’t love doing but need to do and therefore make it a little less difficult for you.
Repetitive tasks can be easily delegated. Keep this in mind. When you make the effort to delegate lots of small things that don’t take a lot of your time individually you gain something back. You gain back a big chunk of valuable time!
After the brain dump and a transition period where tasks are handed off, Rachel’s clients feel a huge sense of relief! You can feel that sense of relief too. You simply need to work through this process. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it to save your sanity!
Rachel knows first-hand how transformative delegating to a capable team member can be and she feels truly connected to each of her clients. She complements their skills and helps them to find a better balance in their floral design businesses.
Rachel also shares how deadlines and feedback play a key role in delegation. Floral design business owners need to set the tone when it comes to expectations. She believes communication is key and shares some super tips on this topic in our video.
Expectations and deadlines can give you a comfort level with delegation. Sometimes you need to put some guidelines in place and reign it back in if work is not going in the right direction.
Setting up your team for success includes setting expectations for team members, freelancers, and remote workers. Things like launch dates, production timelines, and general direction of your floral design business needs to come from you or another leader to set the tone.
Rachel says “Don’t be afraid to know if a relationship is wrong. Letting people go who are not the right fit will do wonders for your business.”
She’s stopped relationships in the past when communication was seriously lacking, and she knew it was not a good fit for her. Keep Looking. You will find the right team members! It’s a process. You’ll find that the work and the days go smoother.
Rachel points out a big missed opportunity when it comes to delegation.
This one is a gem!
Many florists aren’t getting their monies worth out of their wholesale reps!
She encourages you as a past rep herself to pass your EveryStem stem-counts over to your wholesale reps. It is their job to help you find the product you need within a reasonable price range.
They are paid to get you the right combo of product and price!
And finally it’s important to have an ‘abundant money mindset’ to establish your value and feel confident in your business.
If you aren’t confident in your pricing, your team will not feel confident either.
Rachel says if you aren’t allocating all your expenses into your pricing and don’t charge enough for those, you will take home less than you expect to take home.
This lack of confidence in pricing comes through in all aspects of your business so it’s important to face this issue head on so that you can delegate to your team members with confidence.
Rachel recommends EveryStem florist software and shares more about how she uses the software with her clients in this recent post on her blog at The Botanic Business Hub.
Okay, flower friend. It’s time to wrap this deep dive on delegation up with a pretty bow so you can go get started working through this process for yourself!
Here are Rachel’s top 3 takeaways on how you as a florist can delegate!
We love what we do. We love flowers. It takes a lot of courage to make big changes. But with change comes incredible possibilities!
You are not alone. No matter what the outside looks like, just know that everyone needs support. We all need to lean on different people at different points in our lives.
Don’t struggle alone. Be brave and ask for help!
If you want to learn more about Rachel and her work as a virtual assistant and freelance florist, check out The Botanic Business Hub.
Interested in watching our entire conversation with even more helpful tips on delegation?
Here’s a link to the replay!
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Cheers to you running a profitable business! Until next time,
LuAnn