I recently had a conversation online about farm planning, and I realized that an idea that I focus on, is that the Without a plan for success – can your achieve success? I see a lot of people asking each other how much they sell? What price someone else sells for? How large bouquets should be? But it is very rare that people have conversations about how much they personally need to sell and how much their flowers cost them.
So, today, I want to walk through the way I think about farm planning, to find the answers to my personal questions on the farm. By focusing on the end goal and then breaking down the steps needed to achieve that goal, I find that it can make the planning process so much easier.
Let’s talk about – can I be a market flower farm business, and if I can, what is it going to take?
Heres the post i originally wrote:
A good thing to consider before going to sell at a market, is how much you need to sell to make it worth your time. A market takes a lot of set up, prep, packing and driving – our market day is 8+ hours, but only selling for 5. So, what is your time worth? If it’s $20, then that costs $160+.
Then there is the market fee. Mine is $50. You will also have smaller expenses like gas, vehicle, insurance, ect.
So, if I was to ballpark the cost of the market at $250, then I need to figure out how much I need to sell to cover that cost. This needs to be a percentage added to the cost to produce your bouquets – this is just your retail cost, not your product cost.
So, in my case, I’m spending 2 full labour days to pick, process, and arrange the bouquets for the market. So, 16 hours at $20, is costing me $320 in labour.
And then there is the product cost. How much time I spent to grow the plants to the point that they are ready for harvest, how much money I investing into seeds and supplies. The cost of purchasing coolers, and the electricity to run it. The time spent doing my accounting, and marketing. The everything, lol. And honestly, I don’t have the numbers figured out for that yet, but its easy to guess that it is more then the $320 to pick and arrange.
So, final math tally. My break even point for the market is somewhere near $1000. More then that, and I’m starting to make a profit. Less then that, and my business is slowly bleeding out.
Now, my numbers aren’t helpful as exact numbers for anyone else, since it’s all going to be relative. Someone could grow less, and therefore have less cost. Someone could be faster or slower then me. It’s all relative.
But, HERES THE MAIN POINT, if I bring less to my market then $1000, then I’m never going to be able to be profitable. And, if I think there is no way a specific market could cover my costs in sales, then I’d also be setting up my business to fail. So, while it’s important to know how much you COULD make – but it’s also essential to know how much you NEED to make.
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22 Comments
Maybe you could work with a local coffee stand. Less driving and you could time it so that your flowers arrive to juice their sliwer afternoon timeframe. Win/win. I live the breakouts of cost and clearly others have great knowledge to share in comments
You should gather your flower cost before you do this exercise. Otherwise, you ramble on but then say nothing.
In my experience I don’t know any farmer that gets paid by the hour. My husband worked on a farm plowing fields late into the night and never got paid any extra. His salary was his salary no matter how many hours he worked. The man who milked the cows got paid a salary no matter how many hours he worked, he may have helped bailing hay or helped fix equipment or in the winter shoveled a path to the dairy barn, many, many other jobs than milking the cows, with no extra pay. Figure out your expenses per month, household ect. plus a little stash and then pay yourself a salary not considering how many hours you have to work. Farming has never been easy. Keep building your business, then reap the rewards. Just my thoughts and life experiences. 🌸💚🙃 More than likely Not something most people would consider because it seems now days everyone has to be paid for ANY labor involved . Money is the only way you can get people to do ANYTHING now days. 🌸💚🙃
Another thought is your initial cost of your flowers. A seed packet is what maybe three dollars for a normal size seed packet, how many flowers is that seed packet going to produce? Much much more than three dollars, yes you have to pay for a seed starting mix plus the cost of running lights for the seeds but with LED lighting that expense is minimal. You use a lot of “natural” fillers which cost you nothing. You have started planting perennials which up front cost you quite a bit of money but after the initial investment will pay for themselves in about three years or sooner depending on what you plant. So in upcoming years your flowers will basically be free then you start paying yourself a larger salary. It takes a lot of HARD unpaid work to get a business going but once it’s going strong you can reap all the rewards. 🌸💚🙃
Even though I’ve said I’m sure a lot of unpopular things, YOU DO MAKE SOME OF THE PRETTIEST BOUQUETS I’VE EVER SEEN.!!! 🌸💚🙃
I love that you broke down costs including time and labor. One of my favorite local farms opened a farm stand on the farm and they not only sell their production but they also carry local items from other farms. They do payments just like you do and they have there subscription pick up there. This may be another income stream even though it would complicate the accounting but possibly earn more money on the space.
I understand that you are trying to bring more customers through the subscriptions, but I feel there is a lot hesitation around it. Esentially what you are asking is someone to commit to you every other week. In my business I try my best to give replacement class when possible, but still it takes a lot of my time. There is a potential issue that customer won't come one week and require the bouquet next week. It feels like a lot of hassle. Also what if you get sick or there are no flowers on the farm, there is no room for error. Better signage and developing the stand sounds like a good idea. Gift cards are also more flexible idea without the extra pressure on you.
Omg ❤ I love that purrr! 😻
thank you!
In the restaurant business we use a formula to get our numbers. There is probably one for farming also. We take food cost (which is an invoicable number)and add 70% to cover labor and overhead costs. A $3 food cost would be $10 just to break even. This is bare break even and you must add your profit to get net income.
For my business, I use electronic timesheets to calculate hours to a task. Perhaps trial this for one season to get some realistic numbers?
can't tell you enough how much I love those echinops! just bought some seed to start for next year's garden!
A U-Pick farm area would be really fun, and lower maintenance. Half of the labour is in harvest. Plus you have lots of people come by already. Strawberries, U-pick your own flowers etc.
I think going every other week to the farmer's market makes sense, but I wonder if you can also make $10 mini bouquet options to move more product while you're there. The $20 cost is totally reasonable, but I think a lot of the downturn is recession linked, so maybe a $10 price tag won't feel as painful. Coupling the farmers market with CSA pick ups also seems like a good idea to me!
I love how you show the "underbelly" of farming, how external conditions can pull the rug out of a stable business. Thank you for your frankness about it,and showing how we have to make sudden changes.
Serina, I think you messed up @38:20 but if it cost you $720 to make $1500 worhth of product, you wouldn't be able to afford to sell wholesale, because then that $1500 would only be worth $750 at wholesale price. So if you're selling $1500 worth (at wholesale price) then that cost would no longer be $720, because you would be spending more labor, etc.
I wish everyone that sold flowers had to go through some sort of training to help them figure out their costs. I see people totally undercharging for their bouquets because they're not including their time, or any of the $ they invested in seeds, compost, etc. because "they garden for therapy, the little bit of $ is justa bonus" and they don't care if they're making a profit… I always tell them they should really explain that to their customers then, or just give them away, because when they sell $40 worth of flowers for $15, it makes customers think every other flower farm are just gouging prices and overcharging. They see it as "well they have a successful business and they only charge x" but they don't realize that farm is pumping thousands of $'s into their "hobby" and aren't actually making a profit, the rest of us are trying to make an actual profit and usually even at our prices, like you just showed, the profit is very little!
I'm in year 3, and trying to figure out my costs have definitely been one of the hardest figures to figure out. I would definitely enjoy more videos like this Serina! I really struggle when it comes to keeping track of things over a long period, like to track the number of labor hours it takes to grow, harvest, etc. a certain flower…
& I'm so glad you mentioned you can't just look at the time/cost of labor for cutting and arranging the flowers, but also the time you spend the rest of the week, weeding, planting, watering, doing other business related tasks, because a lot of people don't…
If you are a farmer selling at farmer's market, you should run this like two separate buisnesses.
The farm buiseness should "sell" the product to the retail business. The farm buiseness should make a profit by selling to the retail, and the retail should make a profit when it sells it further.
Hope you enjoyed my brain fart 😛
gas, wear and tear on vehicle, equipment, getting apps for accepting credit cards etc, insurance, okay just popping up because there is a lot of input people dont think about.
I think a small market, there are some cute kits for "little red and white Barns", next to your house would be a fabulous money maker, crazy idea I suppose but I keep thinking your neighborhood lacks a real little market? anyway just remember you talking about it, I keep wondering if that isnt the better idea?
sounds like you are thinking in terms of a nursery, you havent' said the word, but the things you are talking about, really scream nursery.