The Wedding Florist
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Episode 9 | The Look Back at 2023

Thank you for joining me on this podcast episode.

I appreciate that you’ve all got your Christmas celebrations with your family and your friends and you've taken the next five to ten minutes out with me to listen to this episode.  It means so much to me! So in this episode I wanted to just reflect on my year in 2023, what's worked, what hasn't worked and what I would do differently going forward in 2024.  So reflection is really important because it helps you to see the progress you’ve made, what you want to do the following year and helps you manoeuvre through your personal life and your business.
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So in 2023 I decided to take a bit of a side step into teaching, what I know, what has worked for me and I really wanted to use this opportunity to help others start or grow their wedding flower businesses.

Why teaching/mentoring  
And that’s come at a crucial time for me because I’ve been wanting to do this for some time but because my focus has been on delivering weddings and delivering events, I’ve not had the time and the focus to be able to do this.  My girls finished their university studies this year. I've really played a very pivotal role in their educational life and I just feel that there’s going to be something missing because I’m not able to mentor them the way I used to. I used to really put a lot of effort into their studies and I just think that’s going to be a void. So that’s why I decided to step into teaching and helping florists grow their businesses.  

Invested in a course for myself  
So, I invested in a course to help me learn the process to create a course, create a curriculum and learn how to teach people because that is not a skill that I’ve been able to have myself, so that’s something that I invested in early part of the year just to help me put things together put processes together. Had a VA join me, virtual assistant, join me on my new business and she’s been there to help me with the backend processes - really learn the new system that we’ve been able to implement and she’s been phenomenal right from the get go.  So I really want to thank her as part of my process.  

The Wedding Florist Academy Launch  
So after months and months of hard work behind the scenes, learning how to piece things together, and put things together, I launched the Wedding Florist Academy course, through a masterclass in June of 2023. In the masterclass, I taught the steps that I took to build my own wedding flower business from hand ties to installations.    

I had 40 people join the masterclass and gained an amazing set of founding students who believed in me and invested in themselves and their businesses.  And I’ve seen them work through the year, we’ve been working together diligently since July of this year and we’ve nearly completed the course lessons and I’ve seen them grow and I’ve seen them put the processes in place into their new businesses and I can’t wait to see how they flourish next year.  And I’ll be sharing their journeys with you through the podcast so keep tuned to those.  

Etsy  
Also last year, I started a passion project on the Etsy platform. I wanted to create templates for Florist businesses, and I’ve continued to help people through my existing store this year, where I sell templates for florists at affordable prices.  And I’ve been able to help many florists around the world through this amazing platform.  

Podcast  
In September of this year, I wanted to start a podcast for florists, so I started the Wedding Florist Podcast which is what you’re tuned into now. I learned how to implement it on my website, how to email my followers weekly with the updates and I’m so proud of my achievements there. It’s not been plain sailing but it’s been another steep learning curve and it’s been phenomenal and I've thoroughly enjoyed the process.  

Facebook Group  
In terms of the Facebook Community, I started this nearly 3 years ago and we are at 3000 florists worldwide. So It’s a beautiful community of florists around the world.   Events in 2023  In terms of events, we delivered 2 events in 2 new venues that I’ve not worked at before and they were amazing! One of the weddings, we used the Pantone Colour of this year 2023 which was Viva Magenta. That was the mood board the bride came up with and it was a phenomenal wedding. I absolutely loved working and it was just amazing. So lovely that two events that we delivered and I had so much fun with those.  

Luxury Holiday  
In terms of personal growth, my personal journey, my personal life, we had an amazing holiday with the family, just the four of us, my husband and our girls.  In June we had a luxury holiday to Dubai, 10 nights of sun, sand and pure relaxation - it was just amazing.  

Next Year  
We have a limited number of weddings booked for next year and I’m looking forward to working with those clients and delivering those weddings in person.  

Personal Growth  
I’ve always been interested in personal growth and psychology and this year I decided to join a personal growth program to help me become more self aware  and to grow more on a personal level. And this started on a high note but I’ve not been able to be consistent and I’ve fallen off the rails which is fine but this is the reason for doing this reflecting and I’ll be picking up the pieces in the new year and making a conscious effort to keep this going. I’ll share with you my progress with this. Strategies that I’m learning and strategies that work on the podcast next year  so keep a watch out for those.  

My girls  
Also as I mentioned at the beginning of this episode, my girls are at the final stages of their university education and I’m so proud of their journey so far. It’s not been an easy journey but they’ve both worked really hard and they’ve got the results and I'm looking forward to where their journeys take them next year.  

House Update  
On another personal high we bought a new house, we bought a new home in 2021 and we decided not to move in because it needed work done to it. So we submitted architectural plans. It’s been a long journey but we’re pleased, I’m so pleased now that we’ve got the architectural plans, we’ve got the structural plans. They’ve all passed and they’ve all been created and I’m looking forward to where that journey will take me with the build next year. So we have a busy year ahead in terms of our personal life as well but let’s see where that goes.  

And I just want to finish it on that note and I want to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas, a peaceful and joyous festive season and I’ll see you again in the new year.  Keep tuned to the podcast, stay blooming, take care and see you next year!  

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So, here are various ways you can work with me.

I have free resources to help you in your business -  
Get your Complete Guide to Write Winning Proposals and
The Ultimate Social Media Kit with a social media calendar, florist specific hashtags and strategies to grow your audience.  

I know how hard and time consuming it can be to have the right resources in your business and that's why I have created various digital templates and resources that you can use in your business and these are available for instant download in the Etsy Store  

Watch the free training on how I went from hand ties to installations and grew my wedding flower business to a 6 figure profitable business.    

That’s it for now -  if there's a topic you want covering in the future let me know and I'll get it sorted for you.    

So until next week, stay blooming and take care  

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Hey there Wedding Florist

I'm Sarita B 

I'm the founder of Wedding Florist Academy. After qualifying in City and Guilds level 2 in 2014, I started my wedding flower business and learned how to sale my designs from hand ties to installations and grew a 6 figure business. I now enjoy helping other florists do exactly the same thing.  

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