To Recipe or Not to Recipe
/To recipe or not to recipe… that is the ultimate question.
In this video, I'm discussing how using recipes for our floral designs have completely changed the way we do business.
I know, I know - building from recipes sometimes feels like the thorn in all our sides as floral designers. But, it’s the necessary evil of what we do as wedding and event floral designers.
Designing from recipes gets a bad rep sometimes, but honestly, I can’t think of any other way that we could run a sustainable and profitable business without doing it. Creating recipes is a big part of what allows us to do 200+ events a year. There is no way we’d be able to pull off so many without a system like this in place.
I think what so many people are afraid of is that recipe-ing your flowers means that you’re putting a “cap” on your creativity, but it’s really NOT at all. It actually allows you to be free and creative in the confines of what you do. It helps me to be MORE creative in my designs, since I’m not spending unnecessary time pulling together designs that I’ve probably already done 5 times in the past with little tweaks.
Here are some of the best programs currently out there to help with building these floral design recipes:
Ularas
Curate
Floranext
Details Flowers
For the sake of full disclosure, Ularas is what we use in my business. I can’t even put into words how much this program has helped me grow and scale as a whole. It is numbers-oriented, project-oriented, creates workflow systems for you, and has all the info we need for my team to be successful when it comes time to execute.
What we love the most about Ularas is that, first of all, it's a program that is specifically designed for floral designers. They get our pain points, and the program is designed in a way that is really intuitive for floral designers to use. It's also a cloud based service, which means we can access Ularas from any computer or tablet if we're on the go.
People often ask us how we’re able to successfully pull off events with a six-figure floral budget. The truth is that having those systems in place allows us to do this many events at a higher level because we don’t have to worry about over or under-ordering our product while also managing our profitability. Programs like Ularas have the power to keep us as organized and running a efficiently as possible on a daily basis.
Think about it this way - this allows team members or freelancers to come in and know EXACTLY which flowers go in certain arrangements without hardly having to tell them. By equipping them with all of the information and necessary tools, it allows them to run with the design and take charge. This is such a freeing feeling for me as a leader, and your designer will immensely appreciate it as well!
Thinking ahead about how your freelancers and members of your team will know what to do WITHOUT you there is a huge part of running a sustainable business. Not to mention, wouldn't it be great if they didn't have to come to you with several questions throughout the day? Imagine all the extra time you could get back in your day.
If you, as the owner of the company, are not there physically designing with them, can that event run without you there? That’s the question you have to ask yourself.
Ultimately, building recipes with a program, like Ularas, is going to help you become more profitable because you’ll be able to spend more time on those things that REALLY matter in your floral business - engaging with your clients, getting all those perfect details just right, and making sure that your artistic vision for your client is executed beautifully in the end.
If you would like to learn more about Ularas, how to recipe flowers for profit, and how I use it in my business. I would love to hear from you. Let's schedule a time to connect over virtual coffee. Feel free to email at hello@moderndaycreative.com. Also, please join us every week by signing up for our weekly newsletter.
Happy Monday! xo
