How to start a flower business from home in the UK

Phone photoStudio photo

At a glance: what you need in the UK

Tax and registration

1. 1

   Most start as a sole trader

   It’s the simplest set-up: you and the business are one. Some florists later form a limited company; an accountant can tell you when that makes sense.

2. 2

   The £1,000 trading allowance

   If your gross income from the business is £1,000 or less in a tax year (6 April to 5 April), you don’t need to tell HMRC. Once it’s more, register for Self Assessment and file a tax return. You can use the £1,000 allowance or deduct your real costs, not both.

3. 3

   Tax and National Insurance

   You pay income tax and Class 4 National Insurance on your profit. The return and payment are due by 31 January after the tax year, and once your bill is big enough HMRC asks for payments on account in advance.

4. 4

   Making Tax Digital

   From April 2026, sole traders with income over £50,000 keep digital records and send quarterly updates to HMRC, and from April 2027 the limit drops to £30,000. Check gov.uk if you’re near it.

5. 5

   Keep records from day one

   Every receipt for flowers, sundries and tools, every sale and your delivery mileage. A spreadsheet or a simple bookkeeping app is enough at the start.

6. 6

   VAT comes later

   You must register for VAT once your taxable turnover goes over £90,000 in any 12 months. A new home business is usually well below that.

Running it from home

• Your mortgage lender or landlord: some agreements need permission before you run a business from home.
• Business rates: they may apply to a part of your home used for the business, depending on whether the Valuation Office Agency gives that part a rateable value (the figure business rates are worked out from). Small business rate relief can bring the bill down, often to nothing.
• Planning: usually only a question for major alterations, a garden studio, or lots of customers and deliveries. Ask your council if you’re unsure.
• Insurance: home insurance may not cover business stock, equipment or customers visiting. Public liability cover is worth having for markets, venues and events, and employers’ liability insurance is a legal requirement once you employ staff.
• Your car: tell your insurer if you deliver. Business use usually needs adding to the policy.
• Market stalls: street trading needs a licence or consent from the council, and markets have their own pitch rules.

Do you need floristry qualifications?

No. Anyone can sell flowers in the UK. Courses still help with skills, speed and confidence, especially for weddings: colleges offer Level 2 and Level 3 floristry qualifications, and many florists run short workshops in hand-tied bouquets, wedding work and Christmas wreaths.

Where UK florists buy flowers

1. 1

   Wholesale flower markets

   New Covent Garden Flower Market in London is the best known, and other cities have wholesale markets and cash-and-carry florist suppliers.

2. 2

   Flower lorries

   Flower lorries, many stocked from the Dutch auctions, drive a weekly route and sell straight from the van to florists. Ask local florists which ones call in your area.

3. 3

   Online wholesalers

   Boxes delivered to your door, usually with a minimum order. Plan time to condition everything on delivery day.

4. 4

   British growers

   Seasonal, scented stems that travel less. Flowers from the Farm lists cut-flower growers across the UK.

The UK flower year

Pricing in pounds

New florists most often under-price. A common starting point: flowers and foliage times about 3, the vase or wrap times about 2, then labour (often another 20–30% on top of that) and delivery. Include waste, card fees and your time at the market, then compare with local florists rather than supermarket bouquets. The free flower pricing calculator does the sums, and the florist menu maker turns them into a menu.

Your photos sell before your reviews do

When nobody knows you yet, your photos do the selling. A lovely bouquet photographed on a kitchen worktop looks home-made in the wrong way, and customers decide on price from that one picture. Take one phone photo of each design in soft window light, then FlowerShoot places it in a studio room made for flowers in about a minute, with your real flowers and vase. Your first menu can look as polished as a high-street shop’s.

Stand out on a small budget

You don’t need a photographer, a studio or a designer to look like an established shop. FlowerShoot is a low-cost tool made for florists that does three jobs every new flower business needs:

• Studio product photos: one phone photo of your arrangement becomes a studio photo in about a minute, in 200+ rooms made for flowers, with your real flowers and vase. Use one room for your whole menu and your shop looks consistent everywhere.
• Photos for your website and listings: sizes for your website, Etsy, Google and social media, cropped around your flowers so a stem is never cut off.
• Ready-made templates: product cards with your name and price, florist menus, and a Campaign kit with an Instagram post, Stories, a Pinterest pin and a banner for each occasion, plus captions and Etsy listing words, all with your logo.

Product cardMenuOrder-by post

Your first customers

• Friends, family, neighbours and local Facebook groups (check each group’s rules on selling).
• A Google Business Profile with a service area, so you appear in local search without showing your address: read Google Business Profile for florists.
• Local cafés, salons and offices that would take a weekly arrangement.
• Local funeral directors: funeral tributes are a big part of UK floristry.
• Etsy for dried and preserved flowers: read selling flowers on Etsy.
• Relay networks such as Interflora can send you orders for a membership fee and a share of each order; read the terms before you join.

The full checklist is in how to start a flower business from home.