The Floral Hustle

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Hello, flower friends. This is Jen and you are listening to the floral hustle podcast on this week's Minnesota. We're going to talk about pricing installations and pricing them in a super easy way. Installations have really done a lot, I think for making my job feel more creative, feel more fulfilling, feel like it's fun again.

Uh, and with that, It also kind of was counterbalancing that because then it was stressful. I was spending so much time Pricing things out, counting stems, doing all these like figuring out what I'm gonna have to order before I even booked the client. And so to counterbalance that feeling of overwhelm, that feeling like, God, this is a lot of work.

I wanted to make it as simple as possible. And I figure it out a way. On dim, it's a little bit harder with dimensional, but it's still possible. But on, especially like when I'm doing a munda, or I'm doing a hupa, or I'm doing a backdrop, I price out per square foot. So I look at, let's just say the couple gives me an inspiration photo.

And on that inspiration photo, I have, um, you know, I, it's obviously not on their structure. You can make it on their structure if you want, but I have a 10 foot wide, um, arch or 10 foot wide pergola that the venue has or whatever. And in my consultation process, I'm talking to them and go, okay, how big do you want the flowers on this?

Okay, uh, it's about 10 feet wide it looks like, or you ask them, or maybe they already have the dimensions from the venue. So, your inspiration photo looks like it's about 5 feet across because it's halfway. So we could do a piece 5 feet across and maybe like 3 or 4 feet down. We don't want it to look too little either.

You're getting married there and we want it to look beautiful. And then we're going to counterbalance on the right hand side by doing an asymmetrical piece that's about 3 feet long. And usually they're like nodding their head. Yep, yep, yep, that sounds good. So then, um, do you like the thickness of this picture?

Or, you know, do you want it a little bit thinner or even a little bit thicker? Because it looks like your structure is a little bit thicker than this structure. I make sure, like, I'm asking those details because if they heard me asking them and then another florist quotes that out that florist, if they didn't ask any questions, could be making it a lot thinner.

They could be making it smaller. They could be making a ton of different variables. So you, in your consultation process, have really set up that they've confirmed this is what they've wanted. They've been nodding their head. You now are empowered to give them what they've said they wanted, which is a great feeling and you know that once they get your estimate.

They are on the right track for, like, this is their vision. But let's just say, you know, they don't know. Well, I normally, you're just making it relative. I normally will do things like this. And so they don't need to have the answers if they don't know the answer to your question, just say, I would normally, um, if I was just doing this based on my own direction, probably make it about five feet by about three feet and three feet and about a foot wide.

Um, your structure looks a little bit thicker, so maybe if we even go a foot and a half. And I just don't want it to look really small or weenie. I use the word weenie a lot because I don't want it to look. Weenie in your pictures, this is like a big moment. And then I'm, if they do or have dropped, because I, there's actually some wedding planners in my market that are telling their couples that they should be reusing their arch flowers on man, fireplace mantles on head tables.

It drives me bananas because they are not meant to be there, but if we want to repurpose them, great. So, I'm saying, okay, and then after the ceremony, where will these stay? Because I want to know that, for one, because if I need to come back from a flip, I need to know. And for two, if they want to reuse it, I need to design it that it can be reused and not look weird.

So, if they're like, oh, well, I'm going to put it on my fireplace mantel, okay. Do I need to return for that? Or is that something that your wedding planner, um, could potentially take care of? Or somebody in your family? Cause you do need to get on a ladder. And, you know, just like you're making fax, you do need to get on a ladder.

And then it would just have to be cut down the zip ties and then moved to wherever. And if they say, oh it's gonna go on our head table, that to me then signals how I'm going to be making this. which is making sure that one piece can stand independently or together. And then I'm like, okay, that's great.

On my proposal, I have a picture of their arbor. Um, I have their inspiration photo. And then I just go in and I make a little text box in Canva that says this is going to be five feet and this is going to be three feet down. Okay, perfect. Then, I am going to say, okay, in the median, which means like not the one with the most flowers in it, not the one with the least, so the middle of a photo, in one square foot, what are the flowers that would need to be there?

Okay, I'm going to use two hydrangeas, I'm going to use a half a bunch of huckleberry, I'm going to use Some Italian Ruscus, let's just say half a bunch there, and I'm going to use five roses. Okay, so then I have my flowers in one square foot. From there, okay, my flowers in one square foot, I'm going to take all of that and add it up.

Let's just say for round numbers I get 25. The flowers in that square foot are going to cost 25. So then, I am going to take and I'm going to add my markup to that. I also need to account for my zip ties, my foam cages if you're using those, my chicken wire if you're using that. Okay, I can make usually one tribute cage can make two square feet at least.

So I would take half of the cost. of my tribute cage. I think they're 10. 99 right now. So I would, let's just say they're 12, just in case it changes by the time you do this wedding. So I have 6 in cost that goes towards that square foot. Then, I take my 25 times my 3, and I do double markup on supplies. So then I would be adding 6 times 2 equals 12.

So I would be adding my 75 or my 100 depending on what your markup percentages are. And then I would be adding my 12. Or whatever your markup on your hard goods is. I take those together. And then I'm going to times them by my labor percentage. There are two separate labor percentages. There is one that is built into your design.

And then there is a separate setup and delivery, teardown, room flip, whatever, labor. That is more day of labor. With that, I have my, let's just say my 100 in my, um, costs. I'm adding my 25 percent labor. You're adding your 30 percent labor. You're adding your 40 percent labor, wherever your labor percentage is.

Let's just say we're adding 25. So I take it to 1. 25, I'm timesing my, my floral product and my supplies together, times that. So I have 125 per square foot. I then have a foot and a half wide. I have 3 feet long and 5 feet across. So I take my 8 times 1. 5. So then I have 12 square feet. For that top left corner.

Then, on the right, a foot and a half wide, and three feet long. And then I'm going to, so that is four and a half. So I have my twelve and my four and a half, so I have sixteen and a half square feet. That are going in this design. So then I would take my sixteen point five times. It's 125 or 150, whatever your math is.

So with that, I then get my whole installation priced out in less than a couple minutes. It's so easy. If you want more insight into this and how it works, in my pricing guide, which is my most downloaded freebie, go to thefloralhustle. com forward slash pricing. And on there it has like a worksheet that kind of explains how to do square foot pricing.

You can also do square foot pricing on tall elevated pieces because you're looking at, okay, my linear feet around is going to probably be four feet. It's going to be about a foot and a half tall. So then you're just figuring out the math just like you did with that other um, uh, arbor piece. I hope this was helpful, flower friend.

Pricing is so tricky and I love to support you um, in any way I can, but this is my go to easy way to do installations and even if you have it priced out like per cage. Every time I do a cage, I need this much flowers and I need seven cages. You can do cage math if you, if you want to do that to make it even simpler.

But, the square foot I like because I'm actually then including those dimensions on my proposal. So then I have a couple that can't say, I thought this was going to be bigger, I thought this was going to be thicker, I thought this was going to be something else other than what you delivered because you're writing clear directions in your proposal.

So they see it very transparent. Thank you so much for listening Flower Friend 📍 and you have an amazing flower filled week. Thank you.