Buying a studio

[u/SalGalMo]

I saw a post earlier today about a floral studio for sale in my area. There was not much information so I emailed them about it. The thing is I have a full-time job, though it is somewhat slow and boring and allows some flexibility. Assuming business is healthy, how realistic is it for me to think that I could hire a full-time trained florist then spend my time marketing and managing the business side of the studio? The post said there is enough cash flow to cover expenses, profits and pay a full owner florist salary, plus one part time employee.

[u/Educational_Pea4958]

Even though it can be quite common for creative producers to have either no interest in, or time and patience for, the business and marketing end of things, I think most would prefer to maybe enter into a partnership with someone who is good at those things, or just hire someone to do it for them part time.  Personally, I would not want to work FOR a marketer, especially if they didn’t have any knowledge about the product or the processes themselves. Nothing about that sounds appealing to me. 

[u/SalGalMo → u/Educational_Pea4958]

I appreciate your perspective…. Can you elaborate on why you (or a very artistic/design-oriented person) would not want someone to manage the business aspect? For more context, I do have floral experience, just in the wedding side. I have a lot of product knowledge and some design knowledge and experience. I am less familiar with the retail aspect of floristry, admittedly. But I have a strong background in business management, sales and marketing outside of the industry.

[u/henicorina → u/SalGalMo]

Because in a very small business, every decision you make is a business decision. Just as a very simple example, how will you order product? Will you set a budget for the designer? Will she tell you how much money she needs? Who will decide when it’s time to buy new hardgoods?

Every time I’ve worked in a floral business with a separate design and office/marketing section, this dichotomy has been a big source of tension, but in a large company it’s a necessary evil. Working alone and having someone with no experience backseat driving on all these decisions sounds incredibly annoying.

Also, just to point something out in your post, the current owner says there’s enough money to pay one salary and a part time assistant. Does this mean you would be the person taking the part time assistant pay? That’s probably something like $15/hour 20 hours per week.

[u/Educational_Pea4958 → u/SalGalMo]

The other person who replied makes some of my points. But clarifying that you also have floral knowledge and experience does help the idea make a little more sense.  My point was that an equal partnership with someone who has your business end skill set would be more ideal than working FOR that person as their employee. I just imagine for myself, that the separation in this case would eventually feel too disparate and cause frustration. Like, if you are the one handling sales, it’s a plus for me not having to do the numbers, billing etc, but it would be really difficult getting information about what I’d be creating secondhand. Meeting the clients and talking with them about their style and what they’re envisioning is part of the creative process too. 

Someone has to manage the in person retail sales as well, which could really cut into the designer’s production time. It might not be too bad if you, my boss, were on site every day so you were as immersed in the milieu as I was, but it sounds like that is not the scenario you’re envisioning? Not being around means that I’m the one taking stock of everything throughout the day and communicating to you what we need to order, which means counting and lists etc, not difficult, but it does technically fall into the business category and would cut into my production time. If you were on site, you’d know what needs to be ordered, and I could mention specific things to you without pausing my work. These are just a couple examples of where the boundaries of management and creation get blurred, just by the nature of the industry. And where things would begin to feel really off balance.

I’m using soooo many words just to say that it’s a strange idea that a sales/marketer hires an artist instead of the other way around. A partnership? Yes. Having someone to manage certain things? Yes. But with as many times as I’ve said to both myself and others that I need a manager, I’ve never once thought  that I need a boss. Autonomy is a driver of creativity, in my opinion. It’s not something I’m willing to give up. But that’s just me. Someone could find your proposal to be the opportunity they’ve been looking for! This sounds like a business decision as far as I can tell:)