We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stephanie Lang. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stephanie below.
Stephanie, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?
Well, before I talk about being “successful” as a business owner, I think it’s important to mention that “success” will look different to different people. When you start or buy a business, it’s crucial to define goals, recognize your “why” and decide what type of success you’re looking for. The great thing about owning your own business is that your needs and picture of success may change over the years, and you’ll have total freedom to evolve your business to fit different seasons of life. Corporate jobs don’t usually allow for that kind of flexibility and they rarely take into consideration different people in different seasons of life with unique needs.
To be truly successful in your business, it’s necessary to define what success means to you, make reasonable goals to achieve success, and adjust if those goals aren’t met.
Stephanie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Stephanie Lang, owner and lead florist at Lang Floral Designs, a wedding floral studio in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Back in 2010, a friend of mine had a wedding-day DIY disaster with her flowers. So she ran to the grocery store for new blooms the morning of her wedding, and begged me, her “artistic friend” to help make bouquets before the wedding. A passion was born that day, and I started doing flowers as a side hobby shortly after. For years, I kept my full time Graphic Design job as well. After all, my degree was in Design and Advertising (knowledge that has transferred to business ownership very well).
I had two great Graphic Design jobs after collage, but both had limits that caused me to feel stuck as an employee. My unique experiences in a family owned business and a large corporate office each set me up to sincerely appreciate the freedom that owning my own business offers.
When I had my first child, I was feeling particularly “stuck” in my corporate job, working 50-60 hours a week with no end in sight, even post-partum. I knew that taking the leap into business ownership was my out and the best way to allow my career to grow and flex along side my family. But I had a LOT of building to do before I would call this business a “success”.
Honestly, I knew how to design beautiful flower arrangements, but I had no idea how to build or grow a business. I struggled upward for several years, until I finally decided to get serious and invest a good amount of money in some education to help transform my mind and process into something I could really take control of. That one decision to invest in myself was the best decision I ever made in my business.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I started out advertising myself as the “budget friendly” wedding florist. For years, I price matched other florists, undercut my work, and was terrified of offering a quote that was over a client’s budget. I had no way of weeding out non-serious clients, and was afraid that if I didn’t offer the cheapest quote every time, I wouldn’t book any weddings.
During those early years, I worked for way under what I was worth, which resulted in major burn out. It wasn’t until I purchased some quality education that helped me understand the damage that was doing that I finally took control.
Now, I’ve spent years working to change the perception in my local industry to a more luxury option. This allows us to do fewer, but bigger weddings each year, which has helped a TON to prevent burn out (which is SO common in the wedding industry). I set goals each year, block off important family dates off our event calendar, and make sure to allow for breaks. This ensures that we can come into each event fresh and inspired, rather than running on empty. It makes a HUGE difference. I had to value myself and my time first, before clients would.
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
Well, as I mentioned, I had to pivot my business from a “low budget” perception to the more “luxury” option. The first year or so of doing this, I had a very specific strategy. I rebranded and designed a more luxury-looking logo and website: langfloraldesigns.com Then I did a couple of free styled shoots where I designed florals that were more for a “luxury” audience. The hardest part of this transformation though was turning down the lower budget weddings and trusting that this was crucial to allow space on our calendar for the larger budget ones. I booked our first 5-figure wedding in a busy wedding season where, if I hadn’t turned down some of those smaller projects, there’s no WAY we could have pulled off something that large scale. Since, we’ve done several weddings even bigger than that, and continue to use this strategy to grow.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://langfloraldesigns.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/langfloraldesigns/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/langfloraldesigns/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lang-floral-designs-chattanooga
- Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/stephanielang06/
Image Credits
Profile Image: Ryn Loren, Image #1: Emerald and Ivy Photography, Image #2-5: Kori Elizabeth Photography, Image #6-7: Ryn Loren