Stupid question

I understand that this question has probably been asked many times on this site but what I want to know is what is the step before flowering in the growing process and when does one know when it is the correct time to begin the flowering stage?? Any info would be much obliged!!

I started flowering mine when the preflowers started showing. Go figure. At that time i had about 25 "nodes"

https://www.rollitup.org/newbie-central/14321-when-start-flowering.html

you can flower whenver you want, id wait until you had at least a few 7-leaf nodes. just remeber your plant will prob double if not tripleb in size in the flowering stage

well when have enough leaf nodes what do i actually do to flower the plant?