Self-Care for Florists: Helpful Tips For You & Your Team

Episode 112: Valentine's Day is a huge holiday in the flower business. It's the single busiest day of the year for the retail florist. Now that Valentine's Day 2022 is in the books, we asked Ellie LaFever, Creative Director at Flower Clique (and our expert on self-care and work-life balance) to share some ideas of what you can do to stay healthy and avoid burnout during busy seasons.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

I'm going to speak to you as a former flower shop owner and now a business owner again, right? We think as business owners that nobody can do it like us or that they can't do without us. Or we don't want them to do without us because maybe we'll miss a little bit of business. Welcome to the Business and Pleasure of Flowers.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

We're your hosts, Vonda LaFever and Lori Wilson, and we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda.

SPEAKER_00 0:38

Hey clickers, you made it. You're on the other side of Valentine's Day 2022. Now you might have a few last-minute orders today for people who are in the doghouse and really need you to cover for them, but for the most part, it's finished. I know from every aspect of the floral industry, from farm to wholesaler to retailer, there's a lot of relief there. You were able to satisfy and actually thrill so many customers with your beautiful product. So that's pretty exciting. I'm I'm so excited about that for all of you. From everything that I can see, it's been a wonderful holiday. Set with Cammy and the web team yesterday watching as they were marking things sold out, blocking deliveries for today, having them available either Tuesday or Wednesday. Some were allowing them to place an order to pick up later in the day. So it was really exciting to be able to provide that help for so many of our members. And I know all of you had a lot of things you were juggling during the course of the day. So I hope it was a wonderful time. Well, maybe not a wonderful time, right? I hope it was a very busy, profitable, and successful holiday. So that's what we're looking for. Speaking of after Valentine's Day, I've asked Ellie LaFever, who is the creative director for Flower Click, back to the podcast to talk to us a little bit about self-care post-holiday. Let's hear what she has to say.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Hey everyone, Ellie here, and I'm coming to you solo with a little chat about self-care. By the time that you're listening to this, Valentine's Day is a thing of the past. The red roses, chocolates, balloons, seasonal bespoke designs, difficult customers, icy conditions for some, flower drama, employee drama, even foot pain are technically over. But I know as well as you do, there is definitely some residual effects left over on more than one of these things. And just like you guys worked your tails off like little cupids, the Flower Click team essentially worked nonstop all weekend too. We love to be there for our members who need updates to their website in real time, like marking things sold out, swapping designs, making changes, all of those things that you guys just don't want to deal with when you're in the midst of trying to get orders fulfilled and manage your team. So I just am super proud of our team who honestly makes our members' lives so much easier and less chaotic. And I really felt like we did that this year, especially. So just wanted to give a shout out. I like to think of ourselves as your secret weapon for your online store. And uh shout out to the Flower Click Girls for putting in the work. So it's funny because on the outside to consumers, flowers are their form of self-care. When you Google self-care for florists, countless articles with the case for buying yourself weekly flowers come up. It's all focused on the consumer buying flowers, which is great. But I've found that there's not very much out there on how florists and flower shops specifically can do a better job at taking care of themselves, both um during the holidays and busy seasons, uh before and after. So I did find one article by the Floral Coach discussing three self-care tips, which was amazing. But other than that, the resources just aren't out there. So we wanted to come on, do a short episode with tips to take care of yourself and your team. It's very easy to burn out fast in this industry if you do not prioritize rest and resetting. So save this episode when you need these ideas, or take notes on your phone, something like that, so that you can remember these to look back on. But at the top of the list, it's nothing groundbreaking, and you guys know this, but it is probably the most important, and that is food and water, the basic needs of humans. So look back on your Valentine's Day. How often do you think you forgot to drink water during the day? Did you go a few hours without taking a sip? And then did you shovel food in your mouth after hours of not eating, and then you felt even worse afterwards? If you are still making these mistakes, this is your time to stop. Stop forgetting. Take two gulps of water and a bite of a granola bar frequently throughout the day, and that's gonna give you the mental stamina and energy to operate a little more efficiently, and you'll be able to tolerate those difficult customers just a little easier, too. Number two is to touch your toes. You are moving constantly on your feet, running around like a little chicken. You have got to stretch it out. Touch your toes, stretch your sides, wiggle around, take three deep breaths. I mean, you can even do a down dog for extra credit. Seriously, just wiggle it out to avoid becoming stiff and rigid and achy. The third thing is to take a day. Allow yourself to take a day. Is that day today, the 15th after Valentine's Day? I don't know. But schedule time to take a half day or a whole day to mentally and physically recover. And if you feel you cannot do that, just take a lunch break. Take yourself out to lunch, sit at the bar, bring a book, put your phone on Do Not Disturb for one hour. Is that really too much to ask? So these are a few things that make a big difference. And they're really, they're nothing groundbreaking, but they are so important. But there's also a lot of other little things that you can do. So in the chats that we've had with members over the past years and recently on our Facebook group for the podcast, we asked you guys to share your self-care tips. So I wanted to read off a few. So during the chaos, whether that's you know, setting up for open house for your holidays or prepping for Valentine's Day, keeping platters of meat and cheese and fruit and veggies on deck at the shop for easy and healthy snacking is key. So that's a good one. Making sure that you have plenty of coffee, iced coffee, creamer, water, cups, so that your team can be well caffeinated and hydrated on the go. Another great tip is to have ready-to-heat meals stocked at home so that when you get home, you can easily heat something up that isn't, you know, take out pizza that'll make you feel even worse the next day. Another tip is to have heated wrap neck massagers on deck. So whether that's at your house, whether you can have one at the shop for your employees to take a five-minute break. Um, these neck massagers are on Amazon and they are amazing. I have one too. Another person said wine because wine does help at the end of a long day. Oatmeal for a good filling breakfast. Another one is meditations, so you can find short ones on YouTube that are guided, or you can just simply sit with yourself, close your eyes for five minutes, and breathe. You can do this in the morning to start your day on a positive note, or at nighttime to wind down and relax that crazy mind that is always spinning. And this one I love, and I do this every day. Um, in the morning, just write down three things you're grateful for. You can do it in your notepad and your phone, you can do it in a little notepad by your nightstand so when you wake up, but thinking of three things that you're grateful for that day can can change everything, it changes your whole outlook. So those are things during the chaos. But the week after, when it is slower, here's a few things. Number one, hire a masseuse to come to the shop and do quick 15-minute neck in hand massages for your team. So, you know, you can hire a massage masseuse for a couple hours and do rotations. Another idea is to do a team dinner outing, take your team out to dinner. And then the third one, which I love, is just allowing employees to take an extra 30 minutes at lunchtime or an hour or leave an hour early. Because, you know, during the chaos of the holiday preps, they are solely focused on business, they have left all of their errands to the wayside. So allowing them to catch up on the errands that they neglected when they were busy working for you, I think is very thoughtful and something that you might consider doing. So that is all I have for you guys. If you're doing something for your team or yourself and you want to let us know, um, we would love to know so that we can share it with everybody else. So shoot us an email. You can talk to Lori. So it's L-O-R-I at flowerclick.com. That's f L O W E R C L I Q E dot com and let us know. We'd love to hear what you're doing that helps.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Thank you, Ellie. Those are some really great tips. I'd like the lunch break one, especially because right now it is only Tuesday, and I think many shop owners don't really have a break until the weekend because they might be in the shop themselves, they have a smaller staff, they're letting their staff take time off, and so it doesn't allow time for really self-care. So if you can at least take a lunch hour or two hours or a block of time that you can actually go and just take a break from everything. If you need to allow yourself, give yourself permission to close the store for an hour or two. You need that. If they really need you, they will leave a message on your cell phone or leave a message on the answering machine at the shop. So it is really important, especially since it's a long week still. You have a long week ahead of you. So give yourself permission to do what you need to do. I'm gonna speak to you as a former flower shop owner and now a business owner again, right? We think as business owners that nobody can do it like us, or that they can't do without us, or we don't want them to do without us because maybe we'll miss a little bit of business. Self-care is more important than that other little order you might get in. And just saying that because many years I didn't think so, right? I was the one who owned the shop, I was the one who needed to be there. Then I realized, gosh, you know, my Amy, my Rachel, my Waynette, they could take care of things for me in my absence. And if somebody really wanted me, they'd come back and wait for me. They would leave a message and I would call them back when I was through with my personal time. I've learned that even more so here. You just have to have people behind you who really support you and can help you through those situations. If you're a single shop owner, give yourself permission to walk away and enjoy a little time for yourself because I'm telling you, when you jump back in, you're gonna jump in with both feet and you're gonna be excited again. That's why self-care is so important, is because it allows you a little bit of a break and then you're excited to get back into it. This is gonna be a short podcast. We want you to take those words of wisdom from Ellie about self-care and really execute them. Do something for yourself and enjoy the week. Laura and I will be back next week with a special guest, and we're looking forward to seeing you then. Thanks all. Be proud of yourself, post-Valentine's Day 2022.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you enjoyed spending time with us because we enjoy spending time with you. If you did, make sure you hit that subscribe button or add the business and pleasure of flowers to your Google morning routine or your flash briefing on Alexa. We look forward to seeing you next week.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

So please come back and join us and discover how a bit of knowledge and one small change in your mindset can take you to new levels in your life and business.