How Signature Floral Recipes Saved My Business and Sanity

Why Developing Your Own Signature Floral Design Recipe Collection is Going to Make it ALL Better, Floral Designers! (well most of it). 

Designing by flower recipe can sound like a buzzkill, but it’s really a path to more freedom. 

I’m such a proponent of flower recipes, and even more so, knowing your own signature floral recipes, that I made a little training about that (it’s at the bottom, but first, I blather).

There’s a thought error in the globally agreed upon traits held by a creative person.

Even some artists would recoil at the thought of trying to be:

• organized, 

• systematic, 

• process oriented, 

• methodical 

Somehow it’s become widely understood that any framework or system represses the creative flow. They just get all gummed up right in there. 

If any of those artists are also entrepreneurially inclined like you and me, you know that couldn’t be further from the truth. 

With roughly 1738.5 things to do in a day, a system can be the only thing that allows for any meaningful creation to occur.

A system like Floral Recipes!

When I first began my event floral business, I hand-drew each arrangement. Then I painstakingly estimated each little element. Each arrangement was a special, precious snowflake. 

Then I got busy…. And I cried a lot.

... I couldn’t be precious about each design. 

I started getting sloppy, exhausted, and eventually burnt out. 

But worse, I felt like I was letting myself down because I couldn’t make every arrangement as special as I wanted it to be.

I started pooling my ‘recipes’ I had been amassing and noticed there were some ‘Emily classics.’

If the client was a romantic, organic, gardeney, watcher of all the BBC period films, then I had one set of arrangements on repeat. 

If the client was minimal and modern, I suggested some form of the same low, wide vessel with rocks and ‘cool stuff’ paired with a stark, sculptural, tall floral that could only ever be described as  the mohawk or the muppet.

If the client was the woodsy type, I nearly always offered some variation of logs with sprouty stuff and moss. Modern log, classic log, elevated log, SUPER LOG… (that is multiple logs attached together in a massive display of LOGGERY!- it’s an Emily classic.)

As much as I loved the idea of being so customized, there were some go-to’s. And that was okay because, obviously,  these were the pieces I LOVED making. 

Many times, the more artsy arrangement was delegated to one or two pieces. All the rest:

The compote arrangement, 

The floral garland, 

The cluster of bud vases,

The ceremony arch with the flower situation, here and here, or there and there. 

...they wouldn’t necessarily standout from anything else you see on Pinterest. 

Enter the Signature Recipe Collection. 

I began to develop my own library of recipes…. And here’s the amazing thing that happened. 

• I cut my proposal and estimating time to a fraction of the time it had taken. 

• I could focus my creative energy on the one or two pieces, or the one or two clients that required truly unique arrangements. 

• I could teach a crew my signature recipes and focus on the more complicated, creative floral arrangements. 

• And because I had a ‘functional flower recipe’  for each signature recipe, I could get a similar style no matter what flowers were in season.

PS, IF YOU WANT TO CHECK OUT OUR NEWEST OFFERING ON HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR OWN SIGNATURE FLORAL RECIPES. CHECK IT OUT HERE!

All this meant I had more time, money, and more importantly… freedom. 

Though I removed the custom creativity in some areas, it only improved my creativity where it really mattered (and improved my sanity).

It’s those systems that handle the 80%  not-noteworthy things in your daily life that frees you up to relish the 20% that really light you up.

I have my own set of go-to’s. 

It’s worth the time exploring. 

If you are totally on board for how floral recipes will bring some organization and profit into your flower business, you will definitely want to check out the massive sale we have now on our newest mini-course:

Create Your Own Signature Floral Recipe Collection

In this course, you will learn how to :

• Identify your signature style

• Develop floral recipes that can be used year-round, regardless of what is available,

• Manage waste and flower orders with recipes to stop overspending

• Some tips to sell your signature style

• and Guidance about how to implement this into daily operations.

So much value and only for a little while- so affordable. Check it out.