Episode 51: Not just for the Holidays, but 3 Areas to Direct Your Energy in Business
It's mid-December, and if you're anything like Vonda and Lori, your Christmas shopping consists of exactly one gift ordered on Amazon. (Their fix: Ellie's Gift Guide, an annual, clickable guide at every price point that Lori sent to her entire family.) But the real conversation this week is about something heavier: exhaustion. After a year of pivoting, re-pivoting, and decision fatigue, even the most positive shop owners are worn down — and there's still a Sunday Valentine's Day looming on the other side of the holidays. So Vonda and Lori lay out three areas to direct what energy you have left, from December straight through the new year.
1. Finances: you're in business, not charity
Nobody wants to think about finances in December, but two numbers can't wait: cost of goods sold and payroll. In the throes of a holiday rush it's easy to "just throw a few more flowers in," and that habit quietly eats your profit. As Vonda puts it, not knowing your numbers is the number one reason flower shops fail — too many flowers going out the door, or too much staff on the clock.
The hosts dig into a mindset problem Lori runs into constantly: designers who believe counting stems means a cheaper, uglier product. Vonda's challenge to them is direct — a good designer should be able to take a profitable recipe and make it beautiful without adding a single extra stem. And if a recipe genuinely can't look like the picture at that stem count, the answer isn't to stuff it; it's to reprice it. "More flowers to protect my reputation" is a fast track to losing money on every order.
One more December deadline to keep on your radar: PPP loan forgiveness. Your application is due to the SBA ten months from the date you received your funds — so if the money landed in April, that clock runs out at the end of January. Vonda, who's been tracking the updates with Bill LaFever, promises more on that in a future episode, but urges everyone to get it on the calendar for early in the new year.
2. Marketing: stay in front of your customers — consistently
With fewer people walking through the door, staying visible means showing up virtually — and consistency is everything. If you post every Tuesday and Thursday and then skip a week, your followers start forgetting you exist. Lori's advice: don't leave it to chance. Assign social media to one outgoing team member, make it their job, and let them make it their own.
Two ideas from the trenches stood out. First, the personal shopping experience: Flower Clique members are offering FaceTime shopping appointments — booked through a free tool like SignUpGenius or a simple phone call — walking customers through the store like a Nordstrom personal shopper and steering them straight to gift ideas. Customers feel like VIPs, and the shops are getting rave reviews. Second, a wholesale rep Vonda spoke with posts a special on Instagram twice a week and says her phone "blows up" every time. Personal, consistent, simple.
And don't forget the benefit only you can promise in late December: last-minute, personal delivery. While FedEx is warning shoppers their gifts won't arrive by Christmas, your shop can be across town in an hour. Feature what you sell — but market the benefit.
3. Rest: everything works again when you unplug it
The third area might not sound like business advice, but it may be the most important: rest — for you and your whole team. In her shop-owner years, Vonda often closed the week between Christmas and New Year's, forwarding a direct line to funeral directors and her hospital account so essential work continued while the staff recovered. She even held her clearance sale until after January 1, which meant no competing with every other day-after-Christmas sale — and a fresh wave of shoppers a week later.
If closing isn't your style, stagger days off through the slow stretch so everyone gets real time away. Lori sums it up with her favorite quote: almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a while — including your brain.
Key takeaways
- Watch your cost of goods sold and payroll through the holiday rush — value for the customer, but profit for the shop.
- Trust your recipes: a skilled designer makes the stem count beautiful, and a recipe that can't look right at its price needs repricing, not more flowers.
- PPP forgiveness applications are due ten months after you received funds — most shops should tackle it in January.
- Put one person in charge of social media and post on a consistent schedule; try FaceTime personal shopping to turn browsers into VIP buyers.
- Market your superpower: last-minute personal delivery that shippers can't match.
- Schedule real rest for yourself and your staff before Valentine's season begins.
Sponsored by:
Flower Clique
Flower Clique Prep School
Real Life Retail Florist