Week 8

Entrepreneurial Journal – Week 8

For these next two weeks, I worked on weddings revolving around friends/youth in my Stake that I have known for many years.  This is one area of my business that needs more reflection, work and resolution.  I hear about this difficulty often from business people who are members of the church and the expectation that things should be done either on a service basis or for deep discounts.  These people are friends of mine, I am happy to do flowers for them and I am honored to be asked to do their weddings; however, sometimes I wonder if the reason I am asked is because a discount is expected.  In the past, I have handled it by prefacing that my discount is part of my wedding gift to them.  Sometimes I have come with an extra gift, sometimes I have not.  It all depends on situation.  The main thing that needs changing is my attitude and choosing how to handle these business situations and decisions.  I don’t have a bad attitude, but I sometimes feel like people really don’t understand how much flowers cost and assume I will give steep discounts.  The decision really is to decide whether or not I take on these weddings in the future and decide whether or not it is worth my time. 

All in all, this wedding turned out very beautiful, and the family was very happy.  I was happy to create something beautiful to make a special day even more magical, it is fulfilling on many other levels, just not on my wallet.