Travis Wilson spent a decade working outside the industry in retail management and real estate. Now, he’s back at the family business, Breen’s Florist in Houston, where he’s slashing costs and building sales as the operations manager — all while learning floral design. Wilson, who was featured in the March/April issue of Floral Management, shared his strategies for success.
Boost Mother’s Day Margins
The mad rush for Mother’s Day (and Valentine’s) now unfolds in eight-hour days, thanks to careful production schedule planning. “Those 14-hour days of working until midnight are gone,” Wilson says. “Everyone may work more days in a row than normal, but they’re logging reasonable work days. It helps reduce overtime costs and boosts morale.”
To trim delivery fees, Wilson works with Roadie, a UPS company specializing in local deliveries. “It’s cut our delivery cost for the holiday about 50 percent,” he says.
Sell What You Have
There’s a saying in real estate: Buyers are liars. “That means people go into a purchase expecting one thing in their head, but once you talk about their options, what they end up buying is completely different,” Wilson explains. “It’s all about educating customers on possibilities that might work better.”
The buyers-are-liars philosophy comes into play at Mother’s Day, when the shop streamlines sales offerings. “We focus sales training on finding the right fit for a customer without fully customizing the arrangement. It means educating customers on why we chose the designs we and why those would give the message they want to send,” Wilson says.
The trick is learning to ask qualifying questions to determine what the customer really wants — the biggest skill Wilson took away from real estate. The shop still creates a custom arrangement if someone wants something specific, but the goal is to find the right design for a customer within the streamlined offerings. “It saves a ton of time on production,” Wilson says.
Beat Online Competition
During traditional floral holidays, Houston is a big target market for national flower companies advertising online. “The money they spend on ads completely drowns out local businesses on all the relevant keyword searches,” Wilson says.
To compete, Wilson reevaluates Breen’s SEO keyword strategy and focuses on emphasizing terms such as “shop local,” or “community”. “We can’t compete with the budgets of the big companies, so we have to outsmart them,” he explains. With this strategy, Breen’s not only connects with the local community, but differentiates their services from larger competitors. It’s a big win for the small business, yielding maximum marketing impact while staying within budget.
Another tactic Wilson has used to compete more effectively with larger businesses, especially during peak holiday seasons, is shifting Breen’s pay-per-click approach. By targeting localized keywords rather than broader terms like “flowers,” the shop optimizes its budget and connects more effectively with their community. This method reinforces Breen’s commitment to serving the local market, which drives customer engagement and loyalty.
Wilson has been using this strategy since July 2023, and in the last quarter of 2023, sales were up 15 to 20 percent during a time when many shop’s sales were trending down.
To learn more about Travis Wilson and where he finds inspiration, read the Talent column in the March/April issue of Floral Management.
Julie Martens Forney is a contributing writer for the Society of American Florists.
