Hard Truths Flower Shop Owners Need to Hear

Episode 329: This one might sting a little.

Lori and Vonda are saying the quiet part out loud—sharing the hard truths flower shop owners need to hear but rarely do. From not knowing your numbers, to blaming your team, to staying stuck in design instead of actually running your business… this episode pulls no punches.

If your shop feels chaotic, inconsistent, or like it’s not growing the way it should—there’s a reason. And it’s probably not what you think.

This isn’t about tearing anyone down. It’s about waking up, getting honest, and making the changes that actually move your business forward.

Because at the end of the day, avoiding the truth is far more expensive than facing it.

Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:02

And what I mean by that is they are ruining the morale, the culture, and the customer experience for the entire shop.

SPEAKER_02 0:18

Welcome to the Business and Pleasure of Flowers. We're your host, Vonda LaFever and Lori Wilson.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

And we believe that business and fun are a perfect combination. Kind of like us, Vonda. When I see other podcasters, of course they're always wearing headphones, which we do not. Does it look better? Okay. Oh good. Okay. Good morning. Good morning. How are you?

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Cheers. Cheers. Oh, you're drinking coffee. I'm still on my walk. Oh, you're on your well. I've got water over there, but I don't think I need any more coffee. How was your weekend? Absolutely gorgeous weekend. Absolutely. Don't rub it in. It was awful here. It was raining. We need rain. I wish we had some rain, but no, it was an absolutely perfect weekend. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11

So a low Lenny update. So we had a doctor's appointment last week, just normal. You know, gotta go to the doctor to get your medications refilled. And skinny Lenny is losing. That's not good. He's so he's lost four pounds in like the last six months, which that's not good when you only weigh 134 pounds. Anyway, so we're trying to, you know, kind of figure that out. He feels fine, but I guess he's 91. Yeah, yeah. And so we're trying to monitor that. Anyway, I'm telling you that because there is a chance I might have gone to Chili's twice within 24 hours.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

That's your favorite chilies and has the best customer service.

SPEAKER_03 2:03

It is our favorite spot. Okay, it's our favorite spot, and we love our customer service at the Chili's, and he will eat there. And we still have to get his own extra little bowls because the man is a double dipper, and he will look me straight in the eye when I tell him to stop double dipping and just dip it in defiance. He's a defiant double dipper, and he's just funny. That's good. I mean, he ate really well then. He ate pretty well, so we'll we always split something because it is a lot of food, but we'll split like he loves chicken strips, chicken fingers, whatever. So we'll get those. And anyway, so at this point, whatever he'll eat, we order. It doesn't matter what you know.

SPEAKER_02 2:54

It's interesting because at that age it's that whatever they'll eat, let him eat. Because I remember a friend of mine, her daughter would not eat anything. And she said, the only thing she wants to eat are popsicles. And she went to the doctor, her pediatrician, and she was having this thing. And he's like, if she only eats popsicles, let her eat popsicles. Whatever she'll eat. Yep. Like, but it's not good for her. Yeah. If she'll eat once, same thing.

SPEAKER_03 3:18

They can eat lots, and then it's exactly the same thing. Same thing. And I keep asking my daughter, who, you know, is a dietitian in hospital and deals with patients all the time. And I keep asking her, like, all these questions about, like, ah, you know, he had this, and he had onion rings. She's like, Mom, he's 91. Whatever the man wants to eat, let him eat it. It doesn't matter. Just as long as he's eating and drinking, we're good. We're fine.

SPEAKER_00 3:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:50

Okay. So anyway, anyway, I laughed because I'm like, I cannot believe I've come back to Chili's and it's not even been 24. We were there for early dinner or supper, as he calls it. And then I brought him back after church on Sunday for lunch.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

That's okay.

SPEAKER_03 4:10

So it is. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 4:13

We got kind of a segue because that's kind of a hard truth, Lori.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

Yeah, it is a hard truth. It is a hard truth. And that's what we're talking about today. I was telling you last week something that I was seeing on TikTok. You weren't seeing it on there, but one of the trends, I guess you could call it, and it was what I would say to you if I knew I wouldn't hurt your feelings. And it comes from the point of view of maybe a school teacher. It's like what I would say to parents about their child if I knew I wouldn't hurt your feelings, or a therapist, what I would say to my patient if I knew I wouldn't hurt their feelings, or you know, fill in the blank. And I like these videos because I'm like, hey, tell me a truth. Tell me the truth. I can handle it. I want to learn this about myself. And so I was sharing that with you, and I was like, we should do this, like as who we are, you know, flower click. What would you say, Vonda, if you knew you wouldn't hurt their feelings? What would you say to a flower shop owner? I have several.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

I know you do.

SPEAKER_03 5:31

I know you do.

SPEAKER_02 5:32

But we had to but I don't have a lot because I think I can tell most flower shop owners one-on-one this information. Number one is you have to be aware of the financial situation of your shop on a regular basis, not once a year when you go to the accountant and they say you have to do this. It's interesting because 80% of business owners are designers. And we have the Derek Zockeys, who isn't a designer, but he's a heck of a business owner. And we have a lot of them. Yeah. And we have a lot of our Flower Click members and a lot of people I know who are designers who own flower shops. 80% of those designers know nothing about the numbers in their shop. And they admit it. They say, oh no, no, no, no, no. I don't know anything about that. That just gives me a headache. It just makes me crazy. And my words to them would be, you have to know. And that's the hard truth. Yeah. But the reality of it is they don't have to do that all themselves. They just have to get somebody who can do that for them. Right. And I feel bad when people say, I don't know my numbers and I'm embarrassed about that. Don't be embarrassed. One, don't be embarrassed. Right? Yeah. Hard truth. Don't be embarrassed. Just have somebody help you on a weekly or monthly or however it needs to be. But I suggest at least once a month, do a check-in. How are your cost of goods? What are your payroll numbers look like? How are those overall expenses looking? So that's my reality is just make sure you know. You don't have to do it yourself. Don't give yourself a headache because I know Lori, that would give you a headache.

SPEAKER_03 7:20

That would give me a headache. It would give me okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:23

So your number one true, hard truth, if you knew that you wouldn't hurt their feelings in one sentence is know the financial situation at your shop at all times so you can make corrections when necessary.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

At all times, like weekly, weekly, right? Okay. All right, here's mine. And I feel I'm second guessing how I wrote this because I feel like mine's a little more harsh. Keep in mind you and I talk to a lot of the flower shop owners. A lot. And I talk to a lot of employees.

SPEAKER_02 8:01

Yeah, I talk to the shop owners. You talk to more employees.

SPEAKER_03 8:05

Yeah. Oh, I talk to a lot of employees. Okay. Here's my number one. Team is not the problem. Your leadership is likely the problem. If your team is confused, overwhelmed, there is chaos and inconsistency, that is not a people problem. That is a clarity problem from the top down. Okay. That is absolutely the truth. Absolutely. Yes. And I hear over and over and over from frustrated shop owners about the inconsistency and the frustration and all of these kind of things. And I just sit back and I start asking them, you know, what kind of meetings do you have? What kind of one-on-ones do you have? How many team meetings do you have? What's the dynamic? You know, all of these things. And when I start getting the answers, that's where I start hearing the chaos. Wow. I start hearing the chaos there. 50%. This is research from like a Gallup poll. 50% of employees strongly agree that they know what's expected of them at work. 50%. So 50%. So there's a huge that's only half. Right. So for example, this is going to show up in how your team answers the phone, how your team knows about pricing, right? How designers are overstuffing. Designers could interpret what does premium mean as opposed to standard deluxe premium. You know, like all of that. When your team is all over the place, it's usually because the clarity is not happening. And that is a management problem. Yes, I would agree.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Now we can go back. My next one would be when you have something on your to-do list for more than three months and it's not getting finished. Either take it off the damn list or put it at the top and get it done.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Oh you mean quit moving it over to the next day on the Google Calendar like I do?

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Well, the one I hear all the time is and I know our Donna hears this all the time. Is that we don't need Flower Click because we're doing our own images and we're gonna take pictures and we're gonna get them on the website. We're gonna do recipes, we're gonna do the whole thing. So don't call us. Okay. And then honestly, we look because a lot we're excited. We're like, okay, we'd like to see what you come up with three months, six months, a year, two years. And it's not done. And either, either just don't say you're gonna do something. If you love what you have on the website from whoever your provider is, great. If not, when you're planning on doing it, do it. Especially, I mean, you got a holiday coming up. If you have that on your list that you want to get done for Mother's Day, you should have it done by the end of this week. Period. I just get so frustrated when people say, Oh no, we're gonna do our own. Really? Are you are you really?

SPEAKER_03 11:47

Yeah, and that's my oh, that's a good one. And that kind of segues into my number three. So I'm gonna push my number three up to my number two so we can merge the two. So my hard truth was you are too busy working in your shop to actually grow your shop, grow your business. So you may be your best designer, and you know, the all of these things are so great, but your business isn't growing. That's that's not a flex to go, oh, I'm the best designer. I have to do all of this. Well, that's great. But your business is going to close because even though you love to design, you have to put your business hat on because you decided to open a business. And you have to do the business side, especially if, like you said, you're not going to hire Flower Click or hire, you know, whatever. I don't know who else they would hire besides us, but to do all of the other things. So this is one of the biggest traps for florists or flower shop owners. You're needed in production, so you stay there. You're needed to on the phone because you don't trust the new girl. Answer the phone because you heard her and you about fell out of your chair. So you or the biggest thing that you and I know is they feel like no one can do it like I do, or my customers just want me to.

SPEAKER_02 13:19

They want my designs, they want me to answer the phone. And so I just need to stay right here where I am. Yeah, and I'll just take care of this. Yeah, and it's a safe spot for them. Right. So, you know, what you're saying is the truth is if you want to grow, you got to get outside your comfort zone and you have to do something, or hire somebody else to do it for you.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Or hire somebody else to do it. And I think we've and we've talked about this a million times, when you hire someone to do all of these things and you're doing it along with them, they can't just do it separate. It's not a siloed thing where you're separate because you have to communicate. Once you have that balance, it does afford you the liberties of being able to step in and do design every once in a while when you want to. And boy, how grateful you are and how fun because you realize, oh my gosh, I love this so much.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

It allows you to get back to doing what you love to do, you know.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Or right. Yeah, right. So that's mine. You get too busy doing it all, but you forget to grow your business.

SPEAKER_02 14:32

So it just that they used to say, you're doing too many things that none of them are you, you're doing well. You're dividing yourself too.

SPEAKER_03 14:41

Well, I think what they said is you're doing everything half-ass. That's true. That's better, Laura.

SPEAKER_02 14:46

It's half-ass. Half-ass, it's all happening. This is my final one. I only have this one, but this is the biggest one to me.

unknown 14:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

Don't let your employees make the business decisions for your shop. Hands down. Amen. Hands down. And it kind of goes with your first one that you know the owner needs to make the decision. It starts at the top. And we need to listen to our employees. We have to have an open ear and listen. But when it comes down to things like deciding how to price your designs and whether you should put a labor charge on them or not have a labor charge on them, how much you should have for a delivery charge, how much things should be, business decisions need to be made at the top, and the decision needs to go down through all the employees, designers, people at the front room, whoever you have on your sales staff. That from the top. And if you don't want to follow what I have set aside for what I should be pricing things, fire their butts. Get them out of there. You can't allow an employee to run your business and make business decisions that you're not making money because of them. I have had calls, Lori, that I actually wake up in the middle of the night and I want to make a call to that employee and say, Do you know what the heck you're doing to that business? Do you know what you're doing?

SPEAKER_03 16:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Anyway.

SPEAKER_03 16:22

And I would say they would say, I absolutely do know what I'm doing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:27

I'm running that shop. They they're running the shop, but they don't have the financial responsibility nor.

SPEAKER_03 16:34

Uh-uh. No, they're doing whatever the hell they want. I mean, so my number two aligns with yours. But I just wrote it a little differently. You're holding on to the wrong people for one. A man's sister. Yes. Yeah, it's the same thing. So if one of your employees is bringing the whole room down, it does not matter one iota how talented they are. I don't care if they're the most phenomenal designer you've ever had. They are too expensive for you to keep. And what I mean by that is they are ruining the morale, the culture, and the customer experience for the entire shop. One of our presentations we did, I think it was Texas State, where we talked about the word toxic, toxic employee. And I said, you know, I feel like we throw that word around a lot. Oh, that's toxic. But, you know, toxic is a heavy word. Like you, as the business owner, need to be really aware. Is this employee really toxic? Meaning they are infecting the entire culture of my business, or are they just having a few bad days? Like there's a difference, right? You need to know that we've all had a few bad days for sure. But you need to know the difference. But one toxic team member can reduce overall performance, increase turnover rate, just destroy a business. And you and I have both seen this happen. Yes. And it's incredible to watch. And I, you know, I understand all business owners have their own story, but it it blows my mind when they keep the person on.

SPEAKER_02 18:41

Came down to this, what I just wrote down. Expect respect. We there are so many who don't do that. They don't expect it. Come like parenting, right? You go to that through a time where they're like, they're not inspecting me. And it's like, you know, you have to demand that respect. And if they don't give you that respect, I mean, it's not your kids, you can't fire them, but you you can definitely fire an employee who is like overstepping their bounds or not having that respect for you and the business that you're invested in, you know, you're 100% invested. And I have to say that a lot of what we're talking about, we've seen in shops that have recently sold. I mean, we're having a lot of new owners come in with the last couple of years, two to three years, I would say. And so they're stepping into a situation where the employees maybe were already there. And yes, and maybe got one more with them or something. And so that, like you're saying, the chaos, the the designers think they're running the whole shop, those situations, because they're like, we know better than the new owner. Well, I think that has a lot to do with.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

I think it does too. I think it does too, which again blows my mind because yes, you may have more experience, but you are not paying the bills, you are not signing the paycheck. You don't understand. So you don't need to be.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

No, part of it. You you personally understand.

SPEAKER_03 20:20

Right. So step, step off, sister. That's what I would say to him. That's what I would say to him. Stepbrother, whoever. Step back. Step off. Step back. I don't know. I don't know. It's it's crazy. All right. I think I have one more. Okay. Well, I have two more. But one is you're avoiding hard conversations and it costs you, it costs you money. That aligns with what we're talking about. A lot of times they allow the quote unquote toxic employee to keep going because they don't want to have this conversation. But every conversation you avoid today becomes a bigger problem and it you will have to pay for later. It just keeps going. It's snowball.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

And we've even had Flower Click members who have had that situation right before holiday. And the rest of the employees say, no, get rid of them now, get rid of them before the holiday because you'll have a better holiday.

SPEAKER_03 21:17

Exactly. Exactly. And their team rallied, and you know, production went sky high. Leadership research consistently shows that clear direct feedback improves performance and engagement, while unclear expectations create anxiety and mistakes. That's why the hard conversations have to be had. I'm not saying every hard conversation ends in termination, but hard conversations should give clear direct feedback, which will improve performance and engagement, or will make the person mad and go, I don't want to do that. And then it takes care of itself because they end up leaving.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Clear expectations is what everybody wants, right? Whether they choose to follow those expectations, so that hard conversation is you've set the expectations. Maybe you've already done it and they're not meeting those expectations. Or that again, you're clarifying this is what I expected to do. And if it's not done in a timely manner, right.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

I also think it saves you because that's easy for you to document. Like you would have it written down almost like here are our expectations. And we went over this performance. And so, you know, you have data to back.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

Some shops can have them sign that document. These are the expectations. This is the way I presented this to you. Are you do I understand that? And then have them sign. Especially if it's a situation that you think, you know, they're gonna come back at you for some reason or another.

unknown 22:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Right. Right.

SPEAKER_03 22:53

The last one I want to talk about is something that a lot of shops struggle with. And they don't really say it out loud in like our shop talk groups or big groups, but they say it when I'm having one-on-ones. I think all of us struggle with this uh in our day-to-day, honestly. And what I would say to them is stop comparing yourself to everybody else. Stop comparing your Instagram store to everybody else's Instagram store. So comparing your behind the scenes to somebody else's highlight reel, and then wondering, God, my floor is so dirty. Like it's never gonna look like that. First of all, social media has completely distorted our view of what reality is and what success looks like. One of my favorite, I'm gonna go back to TikTok, Vonda, because you know it's where my life lives in the evenings. There is some blogger, I don't even know who she is. I don't really follow her that much. But one thing I do think is funny is she does a lot of home decor, and it's soothing to me, you know. So I'll watch her stuff. But what's funny is her husband has an account where she'll show a room, a video of a perfectly curated guest bedroom. And I was like, oh, that's just beautiful. And then, you know, you can click her link in bio and it takes you to all the links, and you can buy everything she has and make your guest bedroom look just perfect like hers. And so you're like, oh, love it, the dream. But then her husband will come and he'll do on his account like a video, a little video, yeah, that's it. But the bedroom across is just filled with junk because she had to clean out, like it's just a and I'm like, oh my god, I love this because this is real. And so they're so endearing to me because this is real life. This is this is this is what I have. This is what I have. I have one of I have two bedrooms like that upstairs, right? We all do, like that's totally agree. Right, right. So, but they're cute and they're funny, and he's like, Yeah, look at all these boxes I gotta go break down in the garage and all this crap and all this, you know, and all the d anyway. But when we focus on comparing ourselves or our business, even on a personal level, you know, me looking at what Ellie's Instagram for her wedding and going, my god, my wedding was so, you know, whatever. It was a different situation. Everything was different.

SPEAKER_02 25:41

And you know, everyone has different situations, right? And if we start comparing ourselves to our neighbor down our street, or I look down and I'm like, oh gosh, that's really great. I should have something like that. And I'm like, bond us up, just right.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

Exactly. So as a business, when we do this, it two things can happen that are very dangerous. Number one, you start undervaluing yourself, right? You start second guessing, going, maybe I'm not as good a design. Oh my god, maybe I'm not, you know, and and all that doubt starts flooding your brain, and that's never healthy. And number two, we make reactive decisions instead of strategic ones, and we become these really impulsive people because I see this beautiful Instagram video from Vonda's flower shop, and well, I gotta do something like that too. Okay, let's just do it now. Well, that wasn't strategic. I'm just reacting because I have to do it because they did it.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

That's not gonna probably be well, and you don't have the same followers as that person does anyway, and everything is so different. You really can't compare, you know, apples to apples on that right.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

So our shops don't have to look alike. Your shop has to be profitable, sustainable, and aligned with your uh customer base, your customer base, not theirs. My customer base here in the woodlands, Texas is gonna be different than someone's flower shop in Washington, DC. Yeah, or Knightsville, Florida. Right. I mean, different, very different.

SPEAKER_02 27:28

I love it. I love it. And when people talk about Instagram and how it needs to be perfect or they think it should be, I always think of very early on the picture of the apple that was in front of the camera, and then they put the camera in the back, and the back had big bites out of it and everything else. And it's like, hmm, see, they're showing you perfection, but truly the rest of the story is maybe it is the chaos that we're trying to get away from, you know, those kind of things. So I always think of that. I'm like, hmm, which do you want? Do you want that perfection when comparing myself to that perfection that I see, not knowing that there's imperfections in every single person and everything? It's just you know, focusing on the good. But anyway, comparison is something that takes us down a spiral. What do they say?

SPEAKER_03 28:20

Comparison is the thief of joy. I don't know, but I like that. I feel like my grandma used to always say that comparison is the thief of joy. That's true. It really is when we go through life constantly looking at what others have and we don't. Like it's it also, I would say it is exhausting.

SPEAKER_02 28:43

And what it also robs us the joy that we should feel for other people. I mean, because I see people get something new or have an achievement, and I am so stinking proud of them and happy for them. Where if I was comparing myself to that person, I'd be like, hmm, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Yeah. I I have one story, and then I know we'll because you we're running past your time, but I remember this was probably 28 years ago. I mean, a long time ago. So I lived here in Texas, but I lived in a different neighborhood back then, and our kids were really small, and I was really good friends with two ladies, one of them, which I'm still very good friends with, and one had since moved away. Praise the Lord. So, anyway, the three of us were were good friends, and one was just kind of, I think, struggled with comparison, but I didn't really know that. I didn't know what it was. I was very young and had two little kids, but the one friend that I'm so good friends with, she and her husband bought a beach house in Galveston. I mean, they were doing very well, and you know, we were all very young, fairly newly married. We were all in the same Sunday school class, and so we all went over to her house one night for dinner and they were telling us, and I was just like, Woo-hoo! We had a beach house! Like, I was so excited because I knew I'm going to this beach. I was so excited because I wasn't gonna be able to afford a beach house, but my best friend had a beach house. I'm going, and she was like, Yes, and you can help me decorate it, and we'd both our kids were all the same age, and we were going. And the other friend like changed, she just kind of flipped, and she was like, huh.

SPEAKER_02 30:39

And did she like not say a whole lot?

SPEAKER_03 30:43

Not really, but then she kept making like little underhanded remarks about like our other friends. Anyway, I don't want to go into but I look back now and I'm like, wow, she there was jealousy, clearly, but it was this comparison that one friend was constantly comparing herself to the others as far as lifestyle. And I wasn't stupid, I was just naive, and I wasn't raised that way. I was raised, should we just be happy for when other people get stuff? Because maybe we'll share. I don't know, you know, and so it wasn't until later that I don't know, I just think about that a lot. And I think about how she just robbed herself from so much joy and so much fun the rest of us had, because they literally opened that beach house up to like our whole Sunday school class and like whoever wanted to come, they just shared it with everyone because that's what they they were are lovely people.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

But isn't that interesting if you know and that's it probably took a number of years because we're at a certain part in our life when we don't understand that, you know, because that's not the way we were raised, and then all of a sudden you're like, ooh, uh-uh, that was a strange reaction.

SPEAKER_03 32:15

Right, right. I don't think I had the language for it then. I knew it was bizarre, but I didn't cognitively go, hmm, she struggles with comparison. Like there's some deep-seated things here, but it is what it is. I think about that, it makes me it makes me sad for her.

SPEAKER_02 32:36

Well, I hope we didn't upset anyone with our hard truths today, yes.

SPEAKER_03 32:42

I hope not because it wasn't to anyone specific. No, just in general.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Hopefully, maybe somebody could learn. So now maybe we've just made the whole industry mad. I don't think we never did that.

SPEAKER_03 32:57

It's all good. No, I don't know. You never know. All right, I gotta go refill my coffee table. Till next week. 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.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

We look forward to seeing you next week. 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.