863
10 min 29 sec

Wedding Planner Earns Passive Income with DIY Flowers

This corporate employee turned wedding planner hated seeing young couples struggle with her floral design fee for their weddings, so she creates an alternative option: affordable, DIY wedding bouquets.
High Income Passive Income Service Transition Story

Subscribe Now For A Free Five Step Tutorial

What It's About

Wedding Planner helps people enjoy A-Grade flowers at B-Grade prices.

Business Model
Reselling
Skills Required
Sourcing & Communication
Complexity
Medium
Profit Potential
High

Words of Wisdom

Amy has great advice for anyone looking to follow in her footsteps:

"Start slow, keep it as a side hustle at first so you don't throw yourself into financial jeopardy. You will know if the business idea has legs to stand on within 6 months to a year."

Fun Fact

Amy was able to negotiate lower minimum orders with her flower wholesalers because she knew they wanted a way to sell directly to consumers, and via Flower Moxie was their best shot.

Notes from Chris

Episode 863
Amy McCord Jones studied biochemistry and forensics in college. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but once she had to start working with dead bodies in upper-level classes, she realized it wasn’t her life’s calling.

So after graduation, she tried out a corporate job installing bank security software. That wasn’t the best fit either—but it was tolerable and had the perk of not working with the dead, so she stuck with it.

One day, Amy and her mom were out walking her dog in her hometown of Oklahoma City. Her mom mentioned a nearby chapel that was up for sale. It was beautiful. It was old. It was historical, having been moved all the way from Nova Scotia decades ago. The financial crisis had lowered real estate costs dramatically, and the entire chapel—located right in the up-and-coming Paseo Arts District—was only $125,000.

She did the math. The mortgage would come in right at $900 per month. She figured if she could book just one wedding each month, her bills would be covered. Amy and her sister wrote up a business plan, asked their mother for help with the down payment, and went to the bank.

A couple of weeks later, they were owners of the oldest chapel in the city. And that’s how the wedding planning business got started. It took a couple of years, but Amy was eventually able to quit her corporate job and work with soon-to-be-married couples full-time.

But she noticed a problem. Many of her clients were struggling to keep costs low on their wedding. She’d become quite the floral designer, but she wasn’t using those skills as much as she would have liked—$3,000 for a simple set of arrangements was just too expensive for most people.

And that’s when she came up with her next idea: a website that made it really easy for brides to order DIY flower bouquets that they could put together on their own to save money.

After a bit of research, Amy confirmed that there weren’t any businesses like this already—at least, none that were in pursuit of quality flowers instead of B-Grade flowers like you’d get from Costco or other grocery stores.

She knew the idea would work—she’d already met her target audience dozens of times. Now she just had to build it.

Amy started by reaching out to wholesalers she’d bought from in the past. They were always complaining about not being allowed to sell directly to the public, and Amy knew her business could act as an easy workaround for them.

She shot about twenty instructional videos in her living room on how to actually make the bouquets, corsages, and table toppers once the brides received their flowers. And finally, in March 2015, Flower Moxie went live.

One year later, Flower Moxie had its first $10,000 month—a huge milestone—but not all was well with Amy. Collecting and shipping flowers overnight was stressful, and as business continued to grow, Amy got more and more burned out.

In January of 2018, Amy left the wedding planning business to her sister to work on Flower Moxie full-time. She’s since made more arrangements for sale, improved her website, and made more instructional videos.

Not only is Amy less stressed and tired now, but sales have grown dramatically—and all by word of mouth. After spending a few thousand dollars on ads in her first year, she turned off the tap and currently spends $0 per month. Simply doing everything she can to help brides-to-be save money on gorgeous flowers has been her most successful growth strategy.

And she’s not finished growing yet. At $60,000 per month in revenue (approximately 40% of that as profit), Flower Moxie is now well-positioned to expand into markets other than DIY wedding flowers. She’s currently exploring some new partnerships.

But the core of Amy’s success isn’t going to change: helping people enjoy A-Grade flowers at prices they can feel good about.

 
  MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Flower Moxie: Cut the stems off of some of those wedding costs—head over to Amy's website to learn more!
  • Shopify: Amy used Shopify to set up her site for Flower Moxie, and they're offering a 21-day trial and exclusive discount for all Side Hustle School listeners!

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

cg-sig-newsletter


Download Episodes By Months:

Season 6 (2022): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Season 5 (2021): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Season 4 (2020): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Season 3 (2019): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Season 2 (2018): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Season 1 (2017): JAN | FEB | MAR | APR | MAY | JUN | JUL | AUG | SEP | OCT | NOV | DEC |

Resources

WEB HOSTING @ $2.49/MONTH

Want to build any kind of website for your hustle? If so, you'll need somewhere to host it! This is the reliable company I've used for many websites. It's cheap, flexible, and offers support 24-7.

Get your own hosting plan for just $2.49 a month!


Learn More

GET $625 IN FREE TRAVEL

Earn 50,000 travel rewards points (enough for 2 round-trip plane tickets or $625 in travel credit). You'll also earn 2x points on all travel and dining spend, with zero foreign transaction fees.

I use this card every day all over the world! ✈️


Learn More

Quote of the Day
"The critics only criticize and never put themselves out there. The ones you want to listen to are your customers. Their opinions are the only ones that matter."
—Amy McCord Jones #SideHustleSchool

Sponsors & Gratitude

Don't Do Business Without It

Side Hustle School is brought to you by American Express.

No matter what you do in business, from working nine-to-five to working five-to-nine, it’s easier when you don’t go it alone. Get the powerful backing of American Express—don't do business without it! 💳


Visit American Express

Like the Show? Leave a Rating!

Side Hustle School is for you! If you’re enjoying it, please take a quick moment to leave a rating or write a quick review. It's really easy and it makes a difference! ✅

It also makes a huge difference when you tell your friends about the show. Remember, it's 100% free and listener-supported.


Here's How

Keep in Touch

There’s a new story every single day on Side Hustle School. Episodes are produced to be short and to the point—I know you’re busy. Be sure you subscribe to get instant notification of the day’s broadcast!





To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau