Is Floristry the Right Career for You?

If your dream is to work with flowers all day every day, then floristry is for you. A challenging but rewarding industry to be a part of, there are some downsides to the work, but it could be your dream job.

To help you decide whether being a florist is for you, here are some of the pros and cons.

Pros

1. For what is technically a creative retail role, florists can earn good money, with the average being around £25,000.  This is distinctly higher than the regular retail-worker’s salary, so you’d be doing a fun job earning quite good money. What could be better?
2. You’d be working with flowers every day.  What could be better than working with the beauty of nature every day? What’s more, they’re a commodity which will likely never go out of fashion.  Although trends might change, the notion of having flowers in your home is here to stay.  That can only be good for business.
3. You don’t have to take your work home with you.  This means you can shut up shop around 5 and then the night’s your own. This is becoming less and less common!
4. You get to meet your local community.  Every day you will come into contact with the people from your local area; being a florist is a very social profession.

Cons

1. For the first year or so, your financial situation won’t be great.  This is a result of outset costs.  You’ll obviously need to find a great place to house your business, you may need a van, and you may need marketing materials.  The little things add up too.  For example, if you’re going to offer a delivery service you might need a mobile credit-card reader like the ones available from Card Cutters.
2. You need to wake up early.  This is because you’ll need to make near daily visits to your local flower market at around 4am to ensure you get the best quality flowers.
3. Business is variable.  There will be seasonal peaks and troughs, so although times will be great at Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, things could be more difficult at other times.

As you can see, there are a real range of pros and cons to being a florist. Depending on how you sit, floristry might just be your perfect job.