Buying a florist

[JCconvert]

Hi all

An opportunity has come up to buy a florist in our local high street. The unit is absolutely tiny, about 4m2, but has a large pavement space and a garage included. The rent is tiny - just under 4k pa.

I've had a look at the accounts, they turnover around 50k with 16ishk profit. They open 4 days a week (wed - sat) and mainly do funerals, referred from a local funeral directors. They have no online presence at all, no social media or online orders. I can see a real opportunity to grow the business in that regard. The high street has a thriving independent greengrocers, bakers, butchers, cafes and (in my opinion) is missing a florist that

I am currently extremely burned out in a middle management corporate career and would LOVE to do something different. The thing is, I have no formal floristry training. I'm passionate, grow my own at home and in an allotment and have done amateur work for friends & family & pta etc so I'm not totally starting from zero but would have a lot to learn. Ideally I would open in February and use the time between now and then to do some intense training.

I feel confident that I would be able to handle the business side of things, whilst hopefully maintaining existing business, then grow revenues through physical and online sales in y2. We could manage on the current profit figures for a few years.

Has anyone got any advice or thoughts? Just writing that all down has helped.

It really does!!

Your gallery sounds lovely btw, sounds like you have a great attitude and mix of skills with your wife.

It is quite fun to use some of the "big business" skills I have learned over the years on a tiny micro level.

Seems a little strange as those are the years when you typically need more income to top up student loans. If you do decide to go ahead you will need a non complete clause in the contract as there's nothing to stop her from trading from home and simply exiting the retail market.

This has been a fun thread to read during the day. Our sales today have been £25.50, which is not bad for a Sunday. Gross profit about £10. Our September sales this year are about 10% up on last year. About £1500, so gross profit of £300.

As I said - launching a business is a slow burn.

However, the (say) £20k selling prices isn't income to be declared on a student finance application, so it's feasible she wants to reduce their household income temporarily and then bounce back when the cash has been spent.

Another chartered accountant colleague did this. He maximised the student finance his son could receive before his son realised that the higher than expected maintenance loans meant his parents had abdicated all responsibility for finding his education and he had a lot more to repay in the future.

I also suggest you ask the current owner for a breakdown of the seasonality of the business. £3k sounds high for the inventory, especially as you could be left with obsolete stock you might not be able to use relating to weddings etc.

One area which does tend to be quite lucrative are floral displays for hotels and similar venues. However, I would be extremely reluctant to give repeat business to an inexperienced start up.

Are there evening classes or short courses which you could attend now? Would the current owner be willing to give you some work experience before you commit?

Also be aware that there is likely to be a degree of bias in those unaudited figures if they know they are planning to sell. It might not be deliberate. Some aspects of the business may be more lucrative then others and those might be the things you don't plan to touch.

This is undoubtedly a hobby business on those levels of profit. On a 4 day week, 48 weeks per year, she's achieving around £10 per hour & that's with goodwill, experience and reputation.

How prosperous an area are you in? Flowers and plants are very much a luxury spend in a worsening economic climate. A friend’s very talented and experienced florist daughter opened her own shop 2 years ago (admittedly not in a high street location). Despite having loads of contacts that she thought she would be able to convince to subscribe, and having direct access to a funeral director, her business sadly only lasted a few months.

I would also wonder why she is selling up 1 year into a 10 year rental.

Very good luck with your plans to escape corporate life.

I spoke to a florist friend recently as one is for sale in our high street. She said she would not start again now. She’s 63 and can’t wait to retire.
Extremely experienced. She said people don’t want to pay , they think they can get a nice bouquet for £20 because of supermarkets.
Flowers are going up all the time, and are sometimes hard to get.

In the next street to me there are two florists working from their garage and selling on insta/Facebook etc. they sell loads of wreaths at Xmas. No overheads though.
When I first read this thread earlier I thought go for it if you can afford it it may be the change you need . But some comments have made me less gushing.
I love looking in the florists at plants and candles and all the extras they sell. And treating myself. I would say it's up to you to create your business.

Thank you again for all of your thoughts, it's really helped frame my jumbled thoughts slightly.

I'm going to spend the next week or so mulling it over, meet the owners again to get my hands on their full accounts and dig a bit more into what their situation is, and looking at options for training. I'm also putting together a business plan which hopefully will be something that can stand regardless of whether this particular venture is the one or not.

To answer one question - the local area is affluent, not as much as the next town over with the boujie florist, but for example the butchers which is next to the unit has queues out the door every Friday and Saturday morning (why not grab a bunch while you're waiting), the nail salon has increased their prices to £40+ for a set and you still can't get an appointment for 2 weeks, a reformer pilates studio has recently opened above the £100pm gym etc etc. So I do feel that there is somewhat of a cushion against the current economic pain.

Anyway, in the meantime it's the start of a new week as an ant in the corporate greed machine - I'm up and off to make some $$$ for my American overlord!

It is exciting planning for things like this. You will see other opportunities if this one doesn't quite work

here are my thoughts. I hope they’re helpful in some way while you are thinking this over.

You will have to pay tax to the council i think (business rates) have you looked into how much they would be?

4K does not seem tiny for me for rental of such a small place. Particularly for the first year. is there room to negotiate?

Closing between now and February will make your address book practically worthless. The customers will have to move on and find other people to supply in the meantime. and your shoppers may just get used to buying flowers from the supermarket. Please bear this in mind.

Funeral work can be as high pressured as weddings. I’ve seen grieving families get really stressed when they feel that the flowers haven’t turned out right. It became a topic of conversation throughout the funeral and the wake. The worst was years ago And I can still tell you what that florist was called. Reputation in this kind of industry is really important.

If you step up to online sales and subscriptions and deliveries and those things, you are going to need staff. After all, who will deliver these flowers that have been ordered if you are working in the shop? there won’t be space for you to Make up any kind of volume of these products either. If this is the kind of business you want to go into, would you be better off renting an industrial unit

Finally, redundancies may be coming, would you be better off waiting to get that Little bit of extra money (assuming you will be entitled to something, and with it being an American firm they often go with compromise agreements that are enhanced to go quickly & quietly)

This could be a really lovely lifestyle for you - But it will be hard, Extremely early mornings to get to the flower markets, and exhausting.

@JCconverthowis your week going? Is it too soon for an update 😀

I say if you really want to be a florist, leave your current job, go and do some training, go and work for a florist for a year to learn everything you need to know, then look for premises. That way you know what you’re doing and can hit the ground running. Plus find out if you really want to do this.

Some small updates. I've had a look at their books and accounts - it's about 65% funeral work, <5 weddings a year (bouquets & buttonholes only) and the rest walk in and telephone orders. Lowish volumes but 70% gross profit then about 40% net.

They are selling because they want to finish work (husband health issues) but have no pension, so need to sell their house and move to a cheaper area to release a lump sum. Because they're ties until their youngest goes to uni next September they were open to delaying any purchase til 2026 which is when we would need it to be. She also said she's happy for me to come and shadow/learn between now and then, particularly around the funeral work.

We're very much considering it at this point. The local college is doing a evening course this term which annoyingly started last week so I need to see if I can start that late, or look at post-Christmas or elsewhere.

That's exciting! I'm sure you could get on the course, and it's good that there could be a handover.

Reason for sale sounds ok

That sounds really positive for you. I would get on the course. But keep quiet about it as you don't want someone else nipping you to it if they heard about this opportunity. Hope it all falls on to place for you.

Oooh! Promising!

I'm sitting in my art gallery today, having made a few sales. Lots of people going past on the way to the horse racing. @JCconvert how are the plans going?