How to start a floral business

To start a floral business, you need to consider the costs, develop the appropriate skills, and purchase the essential items for a floral business. For details on these steps and others you can take to start a floral business, use this guide:

How To Become A Florist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a florist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a florist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.74 an hour? That's $34,823 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -21% and produce -9,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreFloristUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $34,823

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability Level

6.0

Growth Rate -21%

Growth Rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.43%

Asian 3.14%

Black or African American 2.71%

Hispanic or Latino 11.47%

Unknown 4.98%

White 77.27%

Gender

female 77.25%

male 22.75%

Age - 49

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 49

Stress Level

6.0

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity Level

4.3

Complexity Level is basic

7 - challenging

Work Life Balance

7.7

Work Life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a florist

Explore florist education requirements

Most common florist degrees

Bachelor's

35.6 %

High School Diploma

31.1 %

Associate

20.0 %

Start to develop specific florist skills

Skills	Percentages
Floral Deliveries	13.63%
Flower Arrangements	12.27%
Customer Orders	6.96%
Payroll	6.82%
Water Plants	6.77%

Complete relevant florist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New florists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a florist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real florist resumes.

Research florist duties and responsibilities

Manage all facets of day-to-day business administration, accounts payable/receivable, and payroll, ensuring an efficient operation.
Perform management, sales associate and florist duties.
Experience in doing FTD, Teleflora and other wire service arrangements.
Take orders over the phone and in person using a POS system.

Prepare your florist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your florist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a florist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose From 10+ Customizable Florist Resume templates

Build a professional Florist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your Florist resume.

Apply for florist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a florist job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How Did You Land Your First Florist Job

Karly Hoskins

Florist

My career journey started as a gardener in a garden center for a seasonal position. I instantly fell in love with plants, and the artistry in them, and the way you can bond with people about them. Afterward, I worked as the lead of a floral department in a retail shop and I fell in love with floral design. A core part of my work was creating arrangements for display cases, customers, and seasonal displays. It was a sense of pride I had never felt before in my work. Customers told me they loved my work, which was something I strived for. It was a wonderful motivator to continue to put my all into it. Floristry became my passion, something I struggled to find while in college. I realized that floral design was the only career path I would feel fulfilled in. After finding what drives me, I decided to go back to school and make myself a better asset for any team. Having an eye for floral design is important, but it’s important to care about your work. Floral design makes other people happy, and can help any occasion become one to remember. From times like prom and weddings, to funerals, to mother’s day or just because, the impact it has on people’s lives is another reason floristry speaks to me. As much as I love color theory, patterns, designs and the artistry that comes with it, helping people have their best day is what drives me more than anything. It’s incredible to find tools to help me achieve this dream, and Zippia helps me find careers in any place to better plan the future for me.

How do florists rate their job?

-/5

5 Stars

4 Stars

3 Stars

2 Stars

1 Star

Florist reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2019

Pros

Grow the plants and love with beautiful plants . Among the many major tracks or options in botany programs are plant physiology, ecology, plant genetics, systematics and plant pathology. Bachelor of Science in Botany. These 4-year degree programs feature a number of focused education tracks one can choose from. Master of Science in Botany

Cons

Cutting of plants