Your floral design business requires a healthy dose of optimism.
While you can’t control the hand of cards you’ve been dealt. What you can control is how you respond to it.
Feelings of defeat can be overwhelming and often lead to doubt and delay. Weddings being canceled and postponed, financial stress, uncertainty, and the constant pressure of life during a pandemic are real. You are not alone in this. It’s important to know that there are alternatives to feeling lost or lingering in a state of uncertainty in your floral design business.
When your stress level starts to rise it’s imperative to keep in mind that you are in control of your response and your outlook.
It may seem strange and uncomfortable to concentrate on optimism right now. However, your mindset and the way you approach situations are 2 of the easiest things you can control. So, it makes sense to sharpen your optimism skills now. You’ll certainly need them to push through feelings of defeat now and in the future. We all face challenges as entrepreneurs. The process of starting, growing, and managing a business is filled with situations outside of our control. So, let’s say there is never a bad time to work on personal growth.
Have you been leaning towards pessimism and feeling defeated lately?
This week, I challenge you to dig yourself a bit deeper into optimism. You’ll see how it changes your perception of where your floral design business is right now and where you can take it from here.
As a floral designer, you already know that small business ownership is difficult. Navigating your floral design business through a pandemic is strange and awkward. It’s only human to have negative feelings. You’ve got to acknowledge those feelings. It’s important to acknowledge all your thoughts and feelings when these situations arise. It’s also key to accept your thoughts for what they are, but then keep going. These are the times when you can implement the 3 optimism tools I’ll describe below. These tools will remind you that your worth is not connected to your business and that you can rise to any occasion.
Here are 3 simple ways you can change overwhelming feelings of defeat into optimism.
No. 1 - Nothing is permanent. Use your endurance as fuel.
You already know current events are not permanent. Yet you still feel like this pandemic will never end.
Every situation comes to an end. You can battle feelings of defeat by reminding yourself that your current situation will not last forever. Even the burden of navigating your floral design business through a pandemic will have a final act.
Don’t dwell on negative situations that are out of your control.
Take time to consider this question. Is this situation going to affect you 5, 20, or 80 years from now? Most likely the answer is no. So, work through your feelings. Then use the knowledge that nothing is permanent to reframe this as a temporary situation and re-focus on your goals.
It’s critical to remember that your customers need your guidance. They need you to be helpful and to share your floral design expertise even more than usual during these difficult times. Many couples are planning weddings for 2021-2022. So, you need to be their guide. Use your knowledge and understanding that this situation is temporary to guide them towards making the best choices possible for their wedding day florals and décor.
Couples rely on you to tell them how they can get the most value for their money when it comes to floral design.
You can use your experience to tell them where to focus their dollars to make the biggest impact on décor. Wedding clients are going to need your positive outlook and realistic optimism to help them attain their goal of a beautiful wedding day.
Instead of asking them where they want florals, you can change up the scenario. So, based on their budget suggest a plan to decorate the venue in the most impactful way. Turn the tables on the same old standard. These new times call for fresh ideas and your clients will appreciate your creativity and leadership! They are relying on you to be the expert and experts are both knowledgeable and realistically optimistic.
The change of seasons from summer to fall are a good reminder that nothing is permanent.
No. 2- Create boundaries. Don’t let negativity permeate your entire life.
You can isolate negative thoughts and situations to manage your stress levels.
Don’t let 1 or 2 negative situations or thoughts at work spread out into all areas of your life. Set boundaries and allow yourself time off for self-care.
Set a time limit for business communications from home. Also, set a time limit for how long you allow yourself to dwell on a work issue when you are not at work. Most importantly, work towards understanding and accepting that your self-worth and your work are not intertwined or connected in any way.
For example, when I first started meeting with wedding clients I did not set boundaries well. I met with couples on Sundays or weeknights outside of my set business hours because they would tell me there was no possible way they could meet during the weekdays. It felt like most of those meetings went well, but then they’d ghost me.
I was spending too much of my personal time at the flower shop with these couples.
It was permeating into my personal life. Something had to change. I was headed for a burn-out.
To top it off, I was so frustrated because none of those couples booked my business for their wedding. It was time to evaluate why I was not booking these clients, but I was booking a high percentage of the ones I met during business hours.
I examined what was frustrating to me and found that I had extended myself for clients that were a bad fit, to begin with. It was a mistake. I thought that because I was going out of my way to accommodate them they would respect me. Well, it was exactly the opposite. I quickly realized that if I didn’t respect my boundaries then they wouldn’t either.
I learned my lesson and stopped scheduling meetings outside of my regular business hours. If a couple couldn’t meet with me during my scheduled hours, then they were not the right fit for my business. My overall booking rate increased overnight because the clients that refused to meet with me during my set hours were the very ones bringing my average down. I stopped overextending myself and my business was so much better off for it.
The lesson here…respect the boundaries you put in place and your clients will too.
When customers infringe on your work boundaries, it’s up to you to remind them that you are human too. So, feel free to tell your clients upfront that respecting each other’s boundaries allows you to be the most helpful floral designer you can be. You can share this on your website and social media. It will weed out those clients who don’t want to respect your time before you even talk to them. Being upfront benefits everyone involved because you bring the most value when you are at your best.
No. 3- Don’t attribute blame to yourself. It’s not personal.
It’s not all about you. You can externalize negative things. Try to look at the situation from a new outside perspective. Learn what you can from the situation and use it to improve. Negative feedback can be painful, but it’s also useful.
It’s a refreshing reminder that most customer issues have nothing to do with you.
So, look at things from an outsider perspective before you place blame on yourself. Try to take 5 minutes to evaluate the situation before you automatically personalize a negative situation.
For example, let’s say a client didn’t book you as their wedding vendor after an in-depth consultation meeting. In the past, you might have assumed they didn't like your personality. However, next time I recommend you actively decide not to internalize the situation. Instead, take the initiative to ask them why they didn’t choose your business. Then, use that information to objectively look at how to improve your customer service, booking process, and improve them for future clients.
This example shows how externalizing your customer interactions has the potential to improve your business in ways you’d never imagine.
When you listen to your customers and avoid internalizing issues, you'll see opportunities for growth and improvement.
You can reframe negative thoughts. Remind yourself daily of these 3 ways to become more optimistic in your floral design business and life. It’s important to think progress, not perfection here because shifting your mindset takes time. If you put in the work you will see results.
Consistency is key to changing your mindset.
According to Psychology Today "There is some emerging evidence that optimism may be linked to the financial success of entrepreneurs… From these findings, one thing is clear: If you are an entrepreneur, being optimistic (but not excessively so) provides motivation, emotional fortitude, and cognitive resilience.”
Keep in mind that it’s not healthy to ignore negative emotions or try to be optimistic 100% of the time. That can backfire too. Do your best to strike a healthy balance. It’s good to recognize the negatives and shoot for the positives!
James Clear recently shared some thoughts on this in his weekly newsletter.
He quoted Morgan Housel on finding the sensible balance between optimism and pessimism:
"Optimism is usually defined as a belief that things will go well. But that's incomplete. Sensible optimism is a belief that the odds are in your favor, and over time things will balance out to a good outcome even if what happens in between is filled with misery. And in fact, you know it will be filled with misery. You can be optimistic that the long-term growth trajectory is up and to the right, but equally sure that the road between now and then is filled with landmines, and always will be. Those two things are not mutually exclusive."
He also writes:
"Optimism and pessimism can coexist. If you look hard enough, you’ll see them next to each other in virtually every successful company and successful career. They seem like opposites, but they work together to keep everything in balance."
Why not reframe your mindset this week?
Remember that nothing is permanent. Don’t let negativity permeate your entire life because it’s not personal. You can lean into a more optimistic outlook that will easily improve your confidence with customers. Shifting to this mindset more often will improve your floral design business and help to improve your interactions too. So, make a conscious effort to give it a try and let me know how it goes for you!
Until next time,
LuAnn
Confident business owners are optimistic. Take action even when you are not sure of the outcome!