4 Risks Your Flower Shop Faces (2024)

Owning a flower shop isn't always sunshine and roses. Understand the risks of your small business before your flowers start to bloom.

1 Seasonality

Florists run the risk of having to support themselves using the peaks of their seasons, when other times of the year are not as profitable. Running analyses to see if your business can stay afloat throughout the year, when they thrive mostly around holidays and during the spring, is critical to minimizing risks.

2 Hazardous Materials

To keep your flowers growing tall and looking fresh, you may use pesticides and other chemicals in your shop. These put you, your employees, and potentially your customers at risk of adverse health effects. Make sure that you notify all these important stakeholders of the hazardous materials used by posting a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS). You can find a how-to guide for creating this sheet, as well as templates for you to use, here.

3 Delivery

Does your flower shop deliver? If so, you should assess the risks of if this method is right for your business. Having an option for delivery may mean more convenience for your customers. However, it could cause even more worries for you. What if you're providing the flowers for a wedding reception, anniversary part, or Bar Mitzvah and your delivery truck gets into an accident. You now have to mitigate the problems surrounding the late delivery and the car accident. If you choose to offer delivery, make sure your customers find a time well in advance of their event for you to drop the flowers off. Also, make sure you choose an insurance policy that is best for your business and delivery employees. To best make your decision consult these sources on commercial auto insurance, for-hire auto insurance, and non-owned auto insurance.

4 Power Outage

Your flowers' growth more than likely depends on a light source and a timed watering system. What does that all boil down to? Electricity. So what would happen if there was a power outage? For a short one, you would most likely just have to reboot your systems. In your risk plan, make sure to designate an employee to do so. You may also want an employee to check your systems each morning to ensure that there was not a power outage over night. In case of a longer power outage you may want to consider mitigating this risk by purchasing spoilage insurance. To read up on what spoilage insurance is visit this source. You can get a quote for spoilage insurance from one insurer here.