“I now am much more disciplined about setting boundaries and the hours I work and the days my little man (he's 3) is at home with me are exclusively 'mummy days' (my first thank you to you and lesson from BBB).
I have a background in running someone else's business so consider myself pretty knowledgeable and fairly comfortable with everything admin, tax compliance etc. However even with all of my business experience, each industry is unique and I knew that I needed to find out more about how to run a wedding flower business.
BBB has given me insights into how I should write my contracts specific to the wedding industry and perfect my processes for proposals and booking clients. I'm a newbie to the floral industry having started Bloom & Bush a little over a year ago. Whilst I have done a number of weddings already last season, I've invested much of my time over the past 6 months working really hard on the behind the scenes, in particular on my website and SEO to get more visibility in the market (in the last month I've gone from not ranking at all to appearing sixth on the first page of google searches!!), my processes, contracts, price guides etc and I'm ready for the upcoming wedding season.
I've followed much of your advice in regard to sales process which for me has been the most valuable part of BBB. Like many florists, I'm often approached for a quote via email where they provide a list of what they want and ask 'how much?'. But I always revert back to my process. A 'thank you for reaching out, let's schedule a time for a chat' email and in that email I request more information via a link to a hidden contact form I developed in the back end of my website which asks couples for all of the information that I need prior to meeting with them. To date, every single couple that I have met with has gone on to book me. I have received really wonderful feedback from them about my process telling me it's personal, detailed and gives them confidence which is one of the reasons that they chose to meet with me over other florists.
I used the BBB proposal template as inspiration to create my own proposal template, which I feel definitely sets me apart from other florists in my area and makes my proposal process much quicker. My couples always compliment me on how beautiful they are. My hope is that they feel that if that's the kind of effort and detail that I give to a proposal, then they can confidently know that the rest of their experience with me will be personal and detailed.
As to the question of BBB being relevant to regions outside of the US, I feel it's not so much the region that you are in that determines what applies to you and what doesn't, but rather the stage of business you are in. As a first year florist I wouldn't feel comfortable charging the same rate as someone who has been in the business for 20 years, however it's really useful to know that what I am charging is reasonable and it also gives me a level to strive toward in the coming seasons. I would say to others to take on board information from BBB that is relevant to you right now in the stage that you are in, knowing that you're working towards implementing all of BBB as you grow and develop your brand.
Thank you so much, Jessica, for sharing your knowledge and enthusiasm for business. I'm both a passionate learner and passionate about sharing knowledge to benefit others, so you have my absolute respect and gratitude.”
—Kerrie Glover
Bloom & Bush
Rosebud, Victoria, Australia
We want to share some positive feedback for Jessica Clay Zimmerman and those of you on the fence with putting all her procedures in place. We started our business in December 2017 with an idea to one day get into floral design. We really had NO idea what we were doing or how to even really get started on the wedding floral side.
We bought BBB even though we didn't have the money to invest in it. We did the course live in the group and finished the week before our first meeting with our first bride.
We met, dreamed up a beautiful wedding and did everything to a T as BBB taught. We then met for our 2nd meeting, the Proposal/Contract meeting, really anticipating we weren't going to get the event as we were ridiculously higher than her budget. Because it was our first official company wedding and not a hobby wedding, we did discount bottom price in hopes to entice them and to use the pictures to build our media kit. After everything we learned and all the programs, templates and resources.... they loved it, they loved us and they loved how professional and put together we were. Little did they know this was our first run through and we nailed it. Well this past November we did that wedding and it all went so smooth it just seemed unreal!!!
During the last year we transitioned our vendor booth to a retail store and just kicked off the wedding side again after the 1st of the year. We booked our 1st consultation since we've been back and had our meeting last night. We thought there is no way they are going to go with us as their initial budget was $4k, but they have a massive wedding. Again, we built our idea board and presented it to them, walked them through the proposal and came to the summary. When we revealed the price, we just knew we were going to lose this bride.
But they not only took the entire proposal but added ALL the extra options. When her fiancé picked the most elegant classy venue we had no choice but to present a proposal that completely complimented their venue. I mean we just booked a $20k wedding!
This is still so surreal guys. BBB works and has been worth every penny we spent. I mean when you present a vision that based solely on your clients dreams and can pull it off professionally we are all already ahead of our competition. We have to say a huge sincere thank you Jessica for putting together a solid program that literally has taken 2 rookies like us with a dream and made it possible.
—Monica Coffman and Jordan Anderson
5C Custom Creations
Winnesboro, TX