Specifically for Florists, how do you feel about hosting seminars where you are teaching customers to make an arrangement?
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We LOVE hosting seminars and "floral design parties" for our customers! We also sell plants and it is a great way for our customers to learn how to use their backyard plants to create arrangements for their home, parties and special events!
We host a lot of lei making, especially Haku lei making classes. We are a small operation and would never be able to create an entire wedding collection AND 8 bridesmaids haku leis- hosting the class allows our clients to "have it all" for their special event.
As much as we would love to do the designs for all of our clients, the reality is that some people can't afford designer flowers. We want all of our clients to have beautiful flowers and we know they will come out better with our expert guidence- we want to avoid those embarrassing "Pinterest FAILS" especially on someone big day! We still make money on the cut flowers and on the event, which is more than we would have if they couldn't afford our wedding packages, and didn't take a class!
Often the friends and family are invited by the client and join the for the floral design classes, bringing us potential new customers- who might not want or need to DIY flowers and will think of us in the future when they are in need of flowers!
Plus, we enjoy teaching and we find we are always learning from everyone- you just might be surprised at how much you get out of sharing your knowledge! If you are still against hosting design classes, go ahead and send your clients our way! ;)