How to start a florist business from home

Starting a business has a lot of different parts to it, even when doing it from home. This guide will cover how to start a florist business from home, including:

• Registering your business
• What you’ll need for your florist business  
• How to market your business to find customers 

To open your florist business, you’ll want to start by registering your business with your home address. You may choose to register your florist business as a sole trader or a limited company. You can find more tips on how to open a small business here.

As you start your florist business from home, you’ll also want to make sure you understand how your taxes will work for this business. 

Registering your business is only the first step in how to start a florist business from home. Next, you’ll want to find vendors and create a system to manage your business operations. Make sure you have designated space for your business within your home so that you can maintain your personal and professional space. 

Maybe you plan to grow your own flowers for your business. If this is the case, you’ll need enough garden or greenhouse space to grow your flowers. You’ll also need to find a vendor for your flower seeds. 

If you plan to sell cut floral arrangements, you may need a floral vendor. To keep arrangements from wilting, you may want temperature-controlled storage for those arrangements. 

Here’s some of what you may need to start your florist shop:

• Flower seeds
• Flower vases
• Floral foam 
• Ribbon 
• Scissors or stem cutters
• Floral cooler 
• Gardening tools
• Soil
• Planters and pots 
• Wire 
• Cards

Once you’ve set up your florist business, you’ll want to keep things running smoothly so that you can properly attend to clients. Tools like G Suite or Microsoft Teams can help you keep up with communications, documents, spreadsheets, and calendars. 

Maintaining business organisation will help you appear professional and make the process easier for yourself and your customers. 

Another important part in considering how to start a florist business from home is how to organise finances. If you register as a limited company, you’ll need to open a business current account. Either way, business current accounts can help you separate business expenses from personal ones. 

With the Countingup business account, you can easily organise your business finances. It automatically categorises business expenses and has a handy receipt capture tool so you can scan receipts into your system. . This will help you organise receipts digitally and update spreadsheets easily.

Once you’ve established your business from home, you’ll need to find clients to start earning from your florist business.

A great way to reach potential clients is by establishing a brand for your business. Branding is the way you present your business to the public. A pleasing brand can increase the likelihood of customers buying your products. 

Brands start with colour schemes, fonts, and logos. When considering how to start a florist business from home, you should consider what you want your brand to say to customers. You may want to create a logo with floral colours and a floral design. A branding with floral elements will show the customer what your business offers. 

You may also want to create marketing materials to share with potential clients. These could include business cards, brochures, or posters. Maintaining a consistent brand across physical and digital marketing materials can help you appear professional and memorable. 

A great way to find customers is by creating a website for your florist business. Platforms like Wix, SquareSpace, or WordPress make it easy to design websites for small businesses. This website can have your contact information, products and pricing information, as well as photos to promote your products. 

Some great social media platforms that can help you find clients for your floral business include Instagram and Facebook. These let you develop business profiles, keep people up to date, and post pictures about your products. You can also find potential customers through location tags, hashtags, and interest groups. Instagram’s photo-based platform can help you market the beauty of your flowers to potential customers. 

You can also create a  Twitter account for your florist business and engage with other florist shops and potential customers. You may also consider creating a YouTube or TikTok for your business. You could use these to post informational videos about flowers and floral arrangements to spread word about your business. 

Some great options for developing a client base also include partnering with events or organisations in your area. If there are trade fairs or wedding expos in your area, you may want to have a booth to market your business. You can also try to pass out marketing materials at events or shops in your area. 

Some local businesses or organisations may have events that they need floral arrangements for. If so, reach out to see if you can offer your services. Once you’ve successfully established some clients, you can use this foundation to grow your florist business. 

Once you’ve learned how to start a florist business from home and have begun to find customers, you’ll need to organise your finances. Financial management can be stressful and time-consuming when you’re self-employed. That’s why thousands of business owners use the Countingup app to make their financial admin easier. 

Countingup is the business current account with built-in accounting software that allows you to manage all your financial data in one place. With features like automatic expense categorisation, invoicing on the go, receipt capture tools, tax estimates, and cash flow insights, you can confidently keep on top of your business finances wherever you are. 

You can also share your bookkeeping with your accountant instantly without worrying about duplication errors, data lags or inaccuracies. Seamless, simple, and straightforward! 

Find out more here.