fresh cut flower business plan

Feb 7 Helpful Tips for Starting a Flower Farm Business from Scratch

Starting a business is a leap of faith.

Have you been thinking about starting a flower farming business? You're not alone!

At the beginning of 2021, I launched a small flower farming business named Hideaway Flowers. I had already been dabbling in the cut flower world as a hobby for a few years, and I loved growing and sharing those flowers so much that it felt natural to transition my hobby into a small floral side-hustle to make some extra cash.

It sounded so simple when I laid out my plan in my head. I'd start an Instagram page, make a website, reach out to some friends and family, and I would be just fine.

I wildly underestimated the amount of work required to launch the business, let alone operate it all season long. But despite my initial naivety, I dove right into the process, successfully launching my business and making it through my first season. I learned so much this first year!

In this article, you'll find a few steps you can take to launch your own business, as well as some of the business lessons I learned from my first season running a flower farm.

Establish a Flower Farming Business Name

Choosing a business name for your flower farm will either be a no-brainer for you, or it will be one of the single most difficult tasks you will encounter throughout the entire business creation process.

Finding a unique name that represents you and your brand while appealing to your target audience can be a challenge. If you're having trouble coming up with a name, it can be helpful to write down words or phrases that come to mind when you think of your flower business.

A name is a very personal thing, and you may have your heart set on something particular, but there are two important things that you should consider before committing to a name for your business.

1.) Make Sure Your Flower Business Name Is Available in Your State

Has your business name or something similar already been registered by someone else with your Department of State?

It is important for legal purposes to make sure your potential business name, or even something close to your name, has not already been registered with your state.

When I was brainstorming name ideas, the Pennsylvania Department of State had an easy-to-use business registration online search that could quickly tell me if my potential business name was already registered.

2.) Make Sure a Web Domain Name for Your Business Is Available

Is there a web domain name available that will make sense with my business name?

If you plan to set up a website for your business, it is a good idea to make sure your potential domain name is available. A domain name is the web address that will host your website. Most people choose to use their business name or a shortened version of their business name as their domain name, which is why it's necessary to check domain name availability before settling on a business name.

The most common domain names end in .com, but they can also end in .us, .co, or a variety of other endings. For example, I wanted to make sure www.hideawayflowers.com was available for my business. You can use a search engine like www.instantdomainsearch.com to see if your domain name is already in use.

Search engines like this will also show you variations of your domain name that are available if your original choice is taken. Also, keep in mind that customers are most likely to visit and remember websites with shorter domain names that end in .com.

Registering your business will look different from state to state.

Register Your Flower Farm Business with Your State

Once you have established your business name, the next steps are to register your business with your state and apply for a Federal Tax Identification Number (EIN).

An EIN is a unique nine-digit number assigned to your business by the IRS for identification purposes. The process is different in every state, so I highly recommend consulting a local tax expert before getting started. Your tax expert can also help you decide what type of registration you want for your business (Individual/Sole Proprietor, Limited Liability Company, etc.) based on how you plan to operate your business.

The difference between these business types can be complicated, but based on my business model and discussions with my local tax experts, I chose to register as a Limited Liability Company or LLC. In Pennsylvania, I had to receive an EIN before registering my business entity with the state. Applying for an EIN was a simple process I could do entirely online, and it took less than a day to receive approval.

Registering my business with the Pennsylvania Department of State was also a simple online process. Still, they took about three weeks to process my registration and issue my paperwork.

I't’s also essential at this stage to determine if you are required to pay state sales tax. Again, consult your local tax expert for guidance. In Pennsylvania, I must pay sales tax, so I had to register online for a sales tax number. You will have to sort through and organize a lot of paperwork and registration numbers at this stage, so I recommend establishing a good filing system from the start that will be easy to maintain throughout the year.

Write Out a Budget for Your Flower Farm Business

Creating a budget is one of the most important steps to take when setting up your business and something you should do as early as possible.

This is one of the hardest and most time-consuming steps to accomplish, but creating a solid budget is critical in ensuring financial success for your business, especially during the first few years of operation.

“ Don’t underestimate the worth of your product, especially in this industry where the demand for locally grown flowers is on the rise. ”

It’s easy to get carried away with purchases during the season (I’m looking at you, seed catalogues) and lose track of how much you are earning versus spending, so having something on paper will help keep you on track throughout the year.

Create a Business Plan

Before you start listing out your expenses and anticipated income, take a moment to consider what your business goals are. Having a clear business plan really helps here. I could dedicate an entire blog post to the details of creating a solid business plan, so I will not get into the weeds now, but I encourage you to determine what your goals are for your first season and the next few years.

What kind of profit are you looking to make? Are you trying to fund an expansion or a new piece of equipment? Nailing down these plans at the beginning will make it easier to establish a budget to meet your profit goals and ultimately create a sustainable business model.

plan a 15% buffer into your Flower Farming budget.

Make a List of Your Yearly Expenses

After you have determined your profit goals, the next step is to list your anticipated expenses for the year.

If you find it too overwhelming to think about the entire year, it might be helpful to break it up by season.

Make sure you're thinking about all aspects of your business when you list your expenses. You will need the essentials like seeds and seed trays, but there are many more obvious and hidden expenses that you will need to think about.

Questions to consider when determining your flower farming expenses include the following:

Do you plan to supplement your soil with compost and other nutrients? Depending on the size of your growing space, the cost of compost can add up quickly.

Will you need to purchase or rent any specialized tools or machinery to prepare your growing space?

Do you have the equipment necessary to maintain and care for your flowers throughout the season? Hoses, fertilizer, metal stakes, and netting for support are some things to consider.

Will you need additional materials to create your final product? If you are selling market bouquets, you will need items such as mason jars, rubber bands, and craft paper.

One big expense that I missed when I put together my first budget was the fee required to buy my web domain and set up an online store.

There are many expenses to consider, so be as thorough as you can in this step, even if it seems tedious. I also recommend building a contingency of 15% into your budget to help cover those inevitable surprise expenses.

To do this, total up your planned expenses, multiply that number by 0.15, and add the result to your total expenses.

Set an Anticipated Income

After you've planned your expenses for the year, it's time to think about your anticipated income. This step requires a fair amount of market research and some detailed thought on your part.

The sale price of your product will vary depending on location, availability, and demand, which is why it is necessary to do some in-depth research before you set your price.

Check out the prices of other local flower farms and use that as a loose guide to set your prices. Remember that you want to be competitive, but you also want to hit your profit goals.

And most importantly, don't underestimate the worth of your product, especially in this industry where the demand for locally grown flowers is on the rise.

Estimate Your Sellable Product

The second part of the income equation is estimating the quantity of product you will sell.

Think about how many flowers you can produce in the space available to you and the window in which you can grow, harvest, and sell your product. My approach was to tally each plant in my planting schedule, estimate the flower yield per plant based on past experience or some additional research, and use that information to roughly determine how many flowers I would have available to sell during each part of the growing season.

Since my main product was bouquet subscriptions, I could do some quick math to determine how many bouquets I could sell based on my expected flower yield. While this method sounds very detailed, it turned out to be a valuable tool in setting my budget and a good metric to judge my production during the growing season.

Assess and Reassess Your Flower farm Budget

So now comes the big equation. If you subtract your expenses from your projected income, are you hitting your profit goal? If you are, then proceed full steam ahead!

If not, take a look at your expenses and see if you can make any cuts (maybe you don't need those rose-gold plated snips after all). It's also okay at this stage to reassess your profit goals. It is entirely normal and acceptable for a new business to break even their first year.

The most important part is to make sure you don't land in the red and end up spending more than you earn.

Using a system to track your expenses will help you stick to the budget.

Tips for Following a Cut Flower Farm Budget

Creating a solid budget will set you up for success, but how can you make sure you are following your budget and operating your flower farming business within your margins?

It’s easy to lose sight of your budget and your goals during the busy months of the growing season, but there are a few steps you can take to make sure you stay on track:

Creating spreadsheets to track your sales and expenses is a crucial organizational step to ensure you meet your budget goals. There are many free excel templates available online for these purposes, or you can choose to make your own. Try to stay on top of keeping these updated, even during the busy growing months. It is easy to neglect this part of the business, but falling behind on this step will only make for an overwhelming task at the end of the season trying to track down old sales records and receipts.

Save your receipts! At the end of the tax year, you will submit a record of your sales and your business-related expenses on your tax return. Your business expenses can be used to reduce your taxable income, otherwise known as a tax write-off. You can potentially write off almost all of your traditional business expenses (seeds, equipment, etc.) However, write-offs can also be things like mileage and gas for flower deliveries and trips to the home and garden store for supplies, so be sure you are keeping track of those expenses as well. The tax code is complicated, so be sure to work with a local tax expert to understand your taxes and maximize your profit.

Lastly, set up a business banking account. This will help distinguish personal expenses from business expenses and make tracking cash flow for your business a lot easier. The requirement for opening a business banking account in Pennsylvania is to have an EIN and proof that my business is registered with the state. You should also be able able to apply for a business credit card when you open an account, which could include some added benefits like a cash bonus and free financing for a certain period.

Taking these steps to establish your business can seem overwhelming at first, but I promise you it is worth it.

Starting any business can be an incredibly intimidating venture, requiring a certain level of imagination and ambition. But with a little organization, a lot of patience, and hopefully some helpful tips from this article, it is totally possible for anyone to launch and operate a successful small business.

Feb 8 Hanging Vines and Greenery on Any Surface

Feb 3 Large-Scale Flower Farming with Bethany Little

Feb 28 How to Create a Solid Business Plan for Your Flower Farm

Apr 18 How to Set Up a Florist Website and Online Store

May 16 How to Project Your Flower Farm Sales as a New Farmer

Grower's Library
Flower Library
Flower Farming
3 Easy, Reliable, Productive Cut Flowers: Sunflowers, Zinnias & Rudbeckia
5 Factors That Determine Vase Life of Cut Flowers
2019 American Flowers Week: Combining the Art of Floral Design & Couture
Celebrating the 8th American Flowers Week | Johnny's 2022 Botanical Couture
Celebrate the 7th American Flowers Week | Johnny's 2021 Botanical Couture
Collective Selling Models for Flower Farmers: Flower Hubs That Work
5 Cool Flowers to Plant Now | Lisa Mason Ziegler's Secrets for Growing Hardy, Cool-Season Annuals
Cut-Flower Harvesting & Post-Harvest Care | Best Practices from Pros in the Slow Flower Community
Cut-Flower Kit | Guide for Market Growers (PDF)
Easy Cut-Flower Garden Map | For Growers New to Flowers (PDF)
Easy Cut-Flower Garden Planner | For Growers New to Flowers (PDF)
From Color to Climate: 5 Floricultural Trends Subtle & Seismic
Flower Culture by Crop | Comparison Chart | Days to Germination, Weeks to Transplant, Days to Harvest (PDF)
Flower Farmers' Favorite Fillers & Foliage | Recommendations from 3 Farmer-Florists
Getting Started in Cut-Flowers | Top 15 Cuts
Heat & Drought: How Flower Farmers Are Adapting to Changing & Challenging Climatic Conditions
Introduction to Overwintering Flowers | Guide to Overwintering Flowers
An Introduction to Producer Marketing Cooperatives | M Lund & Associates
How Day Length Affects Cut-Flower Production
Flower Power for Roadside Markets
Growing Flowers in Hoophouses & High Tunnels: Cool-Weather & Hot-Weather Options
Tips for Starting a U-Pick Flower Operation
Year-Round Flower Production Strategy
Overwinter Flower Trials | Multiyear Results for 30+ Crops | Johnny's Selected Seeds | XLSX
Seeding Date Calculator | Johnny's Recommended Flowers for Overwintering | XLSX
Just Add Flowers | An Introduction to Companion Planting for Vegetable & Herb Gardeners
Sustainable Farming Methods | A Survey of Flower Farmers' Best Practices
Pricing & Profitability for Flower-Farmers | Pointers from a Diversity of Pros
Slow Flowers Palette & Petal Crushes | Evolving Colors & Shape-Shifts in Floral Industry Trends
Johnny's & Slow Flowers | Johnny's Selected Seeds
Slow Flowers | Celebrating Fifth-Season Regional Design Elements
Slow Flowers Floral Forecast | A Summary of Industry Insights & Trends
Slow Flowers | Building a Better Market Bouquet | Tips & Techniques for Flower Farmers
Slow Flowers | Tips for Staging On-Farm Floral Workshops | Johnny's Selected Seeds
Wedding Wisdom 101 | 10 Beginner Tips for Entering the Wedding Floral Landscape
Succession-Planting Flowers | Scheduling & Planning, Sowing Frequency, Recordkeeping & Recommendations
Succession-Planting Interval Chart for Flowers
Sustainable Floral Design | Techniques & Mechanics for Foam-Free Floristry | Tobey Nelson & Debra Prinzing
Video: Mason Jar Bouquet Tutorial
Video: How to Build a Bouquet
Video: Tobey Nelson | Sustainable Floral Design | Slow Flowers Summit
Video: Economic Considerations in Overwintering Cut Flowers | Johnny's Selected Seeds
Top 10 Cut-Flower Varieties for Direct Seeding
Video: Floating Row Cover | Baby "Cool Flower" Protection from Whipping Winter Winds
Video: The Procona System for All-in-one Flower Harvest, Transport & Display
Johnny's Overwinter Flowers Tunnel: Trellising, Supports, Ground Cover & Spacing
Video: Irrigation Considerations for the Overwinter Flowers Tunnel | Johnny's Selected Seeds
Video: Johnny's Overwinter Flowers Trial Recap
Video: Producer Cooperatives for Small-Scale Farmers | Johnny's Webinar Series
Climate Adaptation for Vegetable & Flower Farmers | Johnny's Educational Webinar Resources
Webinar Slide Deck | Flower Growing in Southern States | PDF
Forcing Tulip Bulbs | Guide to Forcing Flower Bulbs
Bloom to Boom: Flower Farm Profitability
Chrysal Professional 1 Hydration Solution | SDS
Chrysal Professional 2 Transport & Display T-Bag | SDS
Eat Your Flowers: Serve Up That Wow Factor With Edible Flowers
Chrysal Clear Bulb T-Bag | Cut-Flower Conditioner | SDS
When to Start Seeds for Overwintered Flowers | Guide to Overwintering Flowers
Introduction to Forcing Flower Bulbs in Soil | Guide to Forcing Flower Bulbs
Snapdragon Groups Explained
Flower Growing in Southern States | Johnny's Educational Webinar Series
Chrysal CVBN Flower Conditioner | SDS
Video: Flower Growing in Southern States | Johnny's Webinar Series
Chrysal Clear Universal Flower Conditioner | SDS
Chrysal Clear Bulb Flower Conditioner | SDS
Choosing Tulip Varieties for Forcing | Guide to Forcing Flower Bulbs
10 Tips for Building a Profitable Cut-Flower Business
Choosing Flower Crops to Overwinter | Guide to Overwintering Flowers
Webinar Slide Deck | New-for-2023 Flowers & Floral Supplies | PDF
Edible Flowers List: Top 20 Favorites from the Slow Flowers Community
Flowering in the South: Profiles of 5 flower farmers who cope with temperature, humidity, pest & weed pressure
Chrysal Classic Professional 2 Transport & Display (Holding) Solution | SDS
Chrysal Professional 3 Vase Solution Powder | SDS

Tips for Building a Profitable Cut-Flower Business

By Debra Prinzing, Slow Flowers Society , February 2024

Author & Slow Flowers Founder, Debra Prinzing

Ten Tips To Measure Profitability: We Unpack the Many Ways Flower Farmers Track Costs and Income

There’s an explosion of flower farming, propelled by increased demand from florists and consumers eager for healthy, fresh, seasonal, and locally-sourced botanicals. The impressive number of people entering floral agriculture also can be explained by relatively low entry-costs to get started as a flower farmer, whether they are planting a backyard cutting garden or opening a micro flower farm.

And just like that, many gardeners and growers become owners of a small agricultural business—floral enterprises that need tending and nurturing, along with the sunflowers, zinnias, and cosmos. For many beginners, it’s exciting to experience the reward of growing beautiful flowers. Selling bunches and bouquets to neighbors, friends, and farmers’ market customers is just the start. Then comes one of the most challenging parts of flower farming: Figuring out which crops make money and (sadly) which ones might be less lucrative.

In her seventh season, Utah-based flower farmer Heather Griffiths of Wasatch Blooms , sums up the sentiments of most new growers. “During the first couple years, you’re just excited to be farming. You think, ‘Oh, my gosh—somebody bought my flowers!’ But after a few seasons, you start looking at your numbers and asking ‘Am I actually making anything?’ Flower farmers should be paying attention to pricing and look into it deeply to understand the value of their flowers.”

In the 2024 Slow Flowers Survey, we included a few questions to gauge how our members understand crop pricing and profitability. We asked farmer-florist Lennie Larkin, owner of B-Side Farm in Warrenton, Oregon, for her input to develop the survey questions. As a grower, business coach and researcher, Lennie is on a mission to help farmers be successful in their cut flower businesses. She wrote her new book, “ Flower Farming for Profit ,” as a resource for anyone who grows flowers.

1. Do you have a sense of which crops are more profitable (versus higher volume)? (80%) Yes (20%) No

2. How much does your understanding of crop profitability factor into the crop-planning process? (21%) A great deal (40%) A lot (33%) A moderate amount (6%) A little

Most respondents (63%) say they don’t aim for specific net sales margins. They ranked learning more about flower farm efficiency (75%) as the knowledge most needed.

These insights show that there’s a desire among farmers to have better control over factors and variables that influence profitable flower farms.

Digging Deeper: Ten Tips for Profitability on Your Flower Farm

To dig deeper on this topic, I spoke with four Slow Flowers members, including Lennie and Heather, to learn about their practices and strategies, collecting 10 tips for you to employ on your farm.

Also sharing advice is Niki Irving, owner of Flourish Flower Farm in Asheville, North Carolina (and author of “ Growing Flowers ,” Mango Press, 2021) and Janis Harris of Harris Flower Farm in Saint Thomas, Ontario, Canada.

1. Track Labor Costs

Admittedly, labor is hard to track. The reality is most flower farmers are multitaskers, Lennie says. “We’re doing a million things all at once; it’s just the way we manage and it’s often to our detriment. It’s a challenge to know what time you spent on what crop and what activities are in support of those crops.”

Lennie uses a crop costing program called “Know Your Costs to Grow,” developed by the OSU Center for Small Farms in collaboration with Oregon Tilth and advisor Tanya Murray.

“Rather than timing every minute you spend on your bed of zinnias over the year, you take samples of your time,” she explains. “It leverages the fact that a lot of our farming activities, like weeding, will take the same amount of time, no matter whether it’s for dahlias or zinnias. You can time yourself doing the activity for one crop and then apply it to other crops.” On a few occasions during the course of a season Lennie times herself and crew members as they weed or perform any other activity on the farm. Based on how long it takes to weed a full bed or a square foot area, she calculates labor costs per unit. It’s not surprising to discover that the time spent per 100-foot row is likely to be similar regardless of the flower crop. “Once you have a baseline, you have something to measure against,” she points out.

Click here to download Lennie’s free tool to calculate labor costs.

Labor definitely factors into the bouquet-making process, says Janis Harris. “You have to be fast,” she insists. “We’re selling mixed bouquets for $9 wholesale to the grocery store; they aren’t big and don’t have a lot of ingredients. So, we’re not spending five minutes to make each one. I timed it and if I have all the stems ready, I can make 15 bouquets in 17 minutes.” And while she isn’t currently paying herself (due to her recent move from leased land to starting over again with the purchase of her own farm two years ago), Heather still calculates the cost of her own labor along with her employee labor.

2. Know Your Inputs

If you know how much compost you ordered for the year, for example, it’s useful to calculate the average amount spent per bed, row, or crop. “If you know the overall cost of what you bought and how you used it across your planting beds, you can estimate that average,” Lennie advises.

At Flourish Flower Farm , Niki Irving says she focuses on “big picture” expense numbers. “I’m always reviewing at the end of the year, looking at my costs of goods sold, payroll, expenses, and profit. Our accounting sheet is the telltale tool of what I’m spending on seeds, plugs, and supplies.” When it comes to income Niki tracks individual sales channels, including farm stand sales, florist sales, DIY buckets, online store sales (bouquets and bulbs), wedding designs, workshops, and guest teaching. She calculates cost of goods sold for each category. “This gives me a sense whether a crop is costing me more to grow. For example, I don’t grow lisianthus anymore, because it’s labor intensive and it blooms at a time where there isn’t much demand, so I can’t charge enough to make it worth to grow.” At Wasatch Blooms , Heather uses a spreadsheet to track all of her inputs and sales. She itemizes the costs of plugs, corms, seed, plants, compost, drip tape, landscape fabric—plus labor.

“I look at what I actually harvested versus what I thought I was going to harvest to figure out which crops are profitable. That’s how I learned that statice is not profitable for me.

3. Evaluate & Refine Sales Channels

Once you know who is buying your flowers, you can also evaluate the costs through each channel. “Rather than saying, ‘I made $2,000 at the farmers’ market this past Saturday,’ you might want to ask how much you spent to sell there,” Lennie notes. “If it requires eight hours of labor for two employees, including set up, delivery, and tear down, you might not be coming away with as much money you think you are by merely looking at the top line revenue.”

Your evaluation may reveal which channels, such as CSAs, are less profitable, Lennie points out. Growers often cite the fact that their product is ‘pre-sold’ (and therefore provides up-front income) as the advantage of selling CSA subscriptions. “That might sound great, but if we’re talking about a small farm with just five or 10 subscribers, how far is that money going to carry you through the winter?” Lennie asks. “Unless you can scale a CSA, it might not serve you well to continue that program.”

She argues that many farms are overdiversified, as growers try to sell through as many channels as possible. Lennie learned this lesson first-hand. “When I sold to so many people, I wasn’t investing in those relationships. I wasn’t seeing if I could sell them more flowers each week or more flowers throughout the season.”

Rather than the shotgun approach, Lennie channeled more of her energy into building a successful farm stand at her prior location in Sonoma County, California. “My farm stand brought in $125,000 a year—which is a huge number for a tiny shack on the side of the road.” Observing and evaluating sales taught Lennie to stock fewer flowers on Tuesday because it was a slower day, while instead developing wholesale channels to move product harvested early in the week.

4. Use Bouquet Recipes to Control Costs

It’s tempting to channel your inner florist and create the prettiest and most unique market bouquets ever seen. But these are unlikely to be the most profitable, Lennie says. “We have dialed in how to be fast and efficient, and also to use a combination of ingredients that have a higher perceived value.”

Her best-selling bouquets include one to two types of focal flowers; one to two types of branching filler flowers; one type of greenery; and one ephemeral element. This combination creates enough space, airiness, and contrasting shapes and textures to make a beautiful bouquet with perceived value.

“I got to the point where I didn’t need to write down extensive recipes, nor was I slowing down to calculate costs while making the bouquet. I know my wholesale price of stem – from 50-cents to a few dollars each—and then I count in my head as I add bouquet ingredients. I stop when I hit $10 because I want to sell the bouquet for $30.”

At Flourish Flower Farm , Niki plants with her bouquet recipe and design clients in mind, which helps her allocate costs per sales channel. “I want to grow focal flowers, secondary or supporting flowers, and ingredients for line, filler, foliage and whimsy. I keep a crop planning spreadsheet that helps me hit all of those categories each month during the season.” Janis Harris grows 10 acres of cut flowers in Ontario, serving local customers through subscriptions, a farm stand, and weddings. She controls flower costs in some instances by buying flowers from other growers. “It’s a better idea for me to buy snapdragons from another grower with a huge greenhouse operation, because he grows them all year at a better price.”

5. Tailor Record-Keeping

By looking at what your plants actually yielded and comparing that to what you sold, you can learn what percentage of your flowers you don’t have outlets for, Lennie suggests. “This information might tell you something amazing, like that you only need to plant half as much of one crop in order to meet the demand you have for it.”

One of the tools Niki uses at Flourish Flower Farm is to run a QuickBooks report for each flower. “I can see what was the most profitable flower, just in terms of sales channels. The numbers don’t lie!” It’s a gut-check that often reveals flowers that Niki might personally love, but what aren’t her floral customers’ favorite.

6. Start Simply

You can begin tracking your costs of production on just a few crops at a time. In her ongoing research, Lennie is working with 10 flower farms, each of which is evaluating two crops. “We’re looking at how much it costs them to grow those two crops so they can compare one to the next; and compare their crops with those of other farms,” she explains. “It’s very useful to measure the labor and the inputs by comparing one crop versus another, and comparing it per bed. So, then I can determine if I only have one bed to plant my crop, would I be better off planting zinnias or dahlias?”

7. Research Market Prices

At Flourish Flower Farm , Niki gathers information from other wholesale outlets to determine if her flower prices fall into a competitive range. She tracks details from larger wholesalers in her region and those who supply U.S.-grown flowers nationally, taking note of variables like stem length and stem count. Because she sells via retail and wholesale channels, Niki uses the industry data to avoid undercutting her wholesale customers’ prices.

Knowing the market ranges also helps when Niki uses crops grown for wedding designs. “A criticism I’ve heard is when farmer-florists undercut themselves by not pricing their own flowers the same as the ones they have to buy in. That’s your profit right there! If I’m using a flower I’ve grown in a wedding, that means I can’t sell it on my farm stand or to a florist.” So, she factors in the true value of each flower into her wedding recipes.

8. Know Your Markup

For most flower farmers who track costs, there are different markup percentages for wholesale and retail customers, our experts say. “For my farm stand sales, I tend to use a 2X markup, which is on the low side, but we’re out in the country and people have to drive here,” Niki points out. She figures that the lower markup also reflects the self-serve model of her farm stand. “No customer service is involved, so it’s different than if I sell at the farmer’s market. The customer has to do some extra work to shop here.”

For flowers used for weddings, Niki aims for a 3X to 4X markup, depending on the season and types of flowers. “Spring flowers tend to have a higher price per stem. I might spend 80 cents to three dollars on a ranunculus corm, versus the cost of one zinnia seed. There’s just a higher investment to get those spring crops into the ground.”

Heather relies on two different calculations to build profitability. She adds 30 percent for overhead (web fees, credit card fees, and fuel); 30 percent owner compensation; and 50 percent for a profit margin. Together, this gives her the “true cost” by stem.

“Some crops emerge below my wholesale price, which is nice. And some are well above wholesale. That’s when I look at the market value and decide whether I can increase (a bunch price) by a few more dollars or whether what I’m growing simply won’t fall within any kind of profit margin, which means we need to cut it from our list.”

To illustrate the decision-making, she’s prioritized Oklahoma and Queen series zinnias over the Benary’s Giant series zinnias. “The Oklahoma and Queen zinnias are much more productive and they sell better. Similarly, sunflowers are definitely more profitable for me. My true cost is 75 cents per stem, but I can sell them for $1.50 to $2 per stem wholesale.”

9. Pay Yourself

Profitability begins with paying yourself first, the growers insist. At Flourish Flower Farm , Niki says she reinvested her first five years of income into the farm to build its infrastructure. “Now, I pay myself a set salary based on an 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. work week. My hourly wage may not be as high as when I had an off-farm job, but I have to remind myself that I also keep the profits of the business. And tax-wise, it benefits the business to have myself as a W2 employee.” She also pays two part-time seasonal crew members (who total 35 hours labor each week) between March through November.

10. Know That Bigger Isn’t Always Better

This insight is closely related to #3-Evaluate & Refine Sales Channels. As flower farms mature from year to year, it’s important to drill down on the most profitable use of resources and energy. More than ever, the idea of finding work-life balance also factors into decisions about growing a business. Take time at the end of each season to evaluate wins and losses, Niki says. “I get together with my staff and we discuss what did we grow too much of; what needs to be cut out. Even though we have records of every single stem that we’ve harvested, I like to get their impressions because they’re cutting and deadheading every day.”

Several years ago, Niki created a decision-making “matrix” to help her understand which channels were extra time-consuming or those she didn’t enjoy. She decided to reduce the number of weddings, freeing up time to offer on-farm workshops. She also ended the wholesale-to-florists program, except to just one regular flower shop customer who is eager to purchase everything Flourish grows. “I decided it actually made more sense, profit-wise and for my personal happiness, to shrink the size of Flourish Farm.”

BONUS: Look For Hidden Sources of Revenue

Sometimes, the last-minute ideas pay off, and we love this example that Janis shared. Last October, when the first freeze was forecasted, Janis was looking at a field filled with gorgeous, end-of-season dahlias. “I knew I couldn’t save everything, so I posted to our farm’s Facebook account and let our followers know that they could come and pick dahlias for $30 per bucket. We had something like 50 cars here and we sold 100 buckets of flowers. People were so happy, bouncing out of our field with their buckets filled. In one afternoon, we ended up making $3,000 that we hadn’t planned on.”

Pricing & Profitability for Today's Flower Farmer
Collective Selling Models for Flower Farmers

This site uses cookies to personalize your experience, measure site performance, and show you relevant offers and advertisements. To learn more about our use of cookies, as well as the categories of personal information we collect and your choices, please read our Privacy Policy. By clicking ALLOW or clicking on any other content, you agree that cookies can be placed.