The Floral Hustle

Hello, flower friends. This is Jen and you are listening to the Floral Hustle Podcast. On this week's episode, we are going to talk about one of the biggest things that I see posted about the thing that I get the most questions about, and I think the thing that most Floris. Feel most insecure about, and that is pricing.

I get tons of questions unlike how I should be pricing something, or somebody will do something and say, I, did I charge enough? And so they're basically asking, you know, to validate what they did. And normally they're charging a fraction of what they should have, um, with all the variables that they included.

And so foundationally. . The whole pricing strategy is a math equation, but some of the components of that math equation literally get complicated because we're dealing with a perishable product that often has to be shipped in, that often changes seasonally, is often dependent on a bride's Pinterest board.

Just so many different factors make up the base of what that is, and so when you get that inquiry, That says, I actually, I got one today. She sent a picture of this very colorful, very rose heavy arrangement. I want 11 of these, how much, and I literally messaged her back. I thanked her for inquiry and I asked her 12 different questions.

12 questions based on her. One question of me, what does this cost? Because it is not that simple. I do believe you can simplify. Your generic offerings so that you can provide a basis of pricing guidance, which will help you with price shoppers, which will help you, you know, go through a bunch of initial inquiries that literally can't afford you or maybe aren't a fit with your pricing structure, or maybe just are looking for the cheapest out there and you just don't want them on in your book of business.

So my normal pricing rule of. You would take the wholesale cost of your product times your markup, so that could be a three to four times markup depending on what you've chosen to do. Then your wholesale cost of your product, you would take, let's just say those come in 10 STEM bunches. You are getting a.

Let's use a nice simple flour spray. Roses. You are putting white mag spray roses. Those come 10 stems in a bunch. That bunch costs 1699. You are then taking it down to it is per stem, a dollar in 69 cents, and timing that by your preferred markup. If that is three times or four times. and if for some reason you feel like that is crazy, if you do two times, that's what you choose to do.

You are the c e o of your business, and that is what you choose to do. But that makes it very hard because you need to cover things like product that has gone bad or a product that got bumped or broken during processing, or got bumped and broken in the cooler, um, something got frozen. Your, your markup is helping you cover.

Your overages that you need. Sometimes you will need 22 stems, but they only come in a 25 stem bunch. You want those 25 stems because what if you have breakage? I have seen many flues run it so close to the wire on what they are ordering and it. , it makes everybody anxious cuz everybody is on pins and needles so that they don't break anything or something doesn't go bad or they're potentially using something that doesn't look great because there's no other option with the, this is what we have.

And so having that markup is going to help you create some room, create some, um, you know, that extra funds for you to have a little bit of an overage and it not making or breaking your. . So the next is going to hard goods. And hard goods are stuff like faces, foam wire, tape, glue, whatever your basic supplies that you're using.

Those are considered hard goods. Many people use the formula of two times, if not three times markup on a hard. You could also, of course, buy that base and then be renting it. And if you're doing that, that's a separate formula you're taking. Many people take the cost of what they bought it for, and that is their rental price.

But when you get to, you have your wholesale cost, you have your hard goods, markup and cost, then you're gonna want to make sure that you're covering your labor, that's putting, um, your arrangements together, that's processing and doing all the things. And most florist charge between 20 and 30% for that.

So let me back all of those numbers up together. You have your wholesale cost. Times your markup of all the products that are in your recipe for a certain item. Then you have your hard goods and times that markup of two to three per um, times. Then you're taking your design fee or your labor fee of 20 to 30% for that specific item.

So in using room numbers, let's just say that in a bk. You have $50 of hard good mark or of wholesale product that literally it comes to $50. Even then you're gonna need to figure out what your markup is. So let's just say you're doing three times. So it's $150 of wholesale cost. For that product with your markup.

Then let's just say you wanna account for your vase and your ribbon and your pins and all those things. So you literally put, um, in AOT a flat $10, including your markup. So then we're at $160, and that's before we've added the labor fee. So if we have $160 and then we are trying to figure out what our labor fee is, I take that 160 times 1.25, and that would give me the cost of that bouquet, including my labor markup of 25%, which then would be $200.

So it's just a math equation, but there's what really is happening when a lot of people are giving those hard numbers of, you know, the wholesale cost with the markup and building in labor and building in hard goods. Is that. There's all these feelings of am I going to be too expensive? And then those fears of worry that you're not going to get this wedding.

So then what normally happens is people start undercharging and undervaluing themself. And honestly, I did that for a long time. I did not, I did not charge accordingly. I did not. Build in enough for extra labor, for extra flowers. I, I literally was just charging the bare minimum to not even barely make a profit at the end of it, after all the expenses and after buying, um, you know, all the flowers that I needed and all the foam products and everything.

So, This simple formula, which I actually have an amazing handout, I created a pricing guide for Flores to literally simplify this whole process. It is available@thefloralhustle.com. Forward slash pricing, and in this guide it actually has some examples of a bouquet. It has a centerpiece example, and then it has an example page for you to take and so you can practice with proper markup what something would cost.

You could take an old recipe that you did, you could take an upcoming wedding. because at least then you're familiarizing yourself with what should this cost and am I priced appropriately? Cuz what happens when you don't, what, what a lot of, um, floors do, especially when they're new, they're like, well, I am new so I'm charging less.

And what that does in the marketplace, and I actually, I just had this happen where a. Wedding that I was doing, um, the, per the florist that was doing had a book been booked, their date had moved and uh, they were getting married five months earlier because they are now expecting. And, uh, the estimate was actually shared with me cuz they want the same exact thing, which I'm totally fine with.

Looking at what was mapped out and making this easy for them. But when I looked, the florist who is newer was so grossly undercharging that it just, it made me sad because this. this Flores is an amazing designer and either has one of two problems, either doesn't know how to price her product or doesn't see her value, and I'm guessing it's a combination of both because many new Flos run into this, including myself when I was new.

So having a formula, having the math, and then having the confidence to stand behind your pricing to ha stand behind your work and. I've mentioned this in many pockets, I feel like confidence in your business can sell. So if you do have pricing that's a smidge higher than somebody else, or even a, a, a chunk higher, if they like you more, if you provided more value to them.

Because to me, it's not always price, it's value delivered. If you just talked about the experience with them and painted this picture, Actually, like they can feel, they can like envision that this is happening, that they feel their, what their whole day is going to feel like when you deliver the flowers versus somebody sending over a proposal that looks like it's the cheapest in town and literally has no details, has no nothing.

then you potentially could be, even though your prices are higher, could win that wedding because you have delivered the value to support what you are charging. So then there's one more big factor and many flutists this is, uh, a debate because some people really feel like you should just charge a flat percentage of the wedding.

for tear down for um, you know, a room flip for run in a million places to deliver bouquets and doing all the things. And I feel totally different. , I feel you should charge for what you are delivering because if you are charging a flat rate, things that you thought you were agreeing to at that flat rate, Exponentially grow and part of that growth is because they added another stop because they're getting mar ready at a hotel, and now the photographer is telling them that you need to have the bouquets here so that we can take bouquet shots.

The groom has decided that he is getting ready at a cool Airbnb, and you need to go and deliver the ERs to. So that he's wearing his booter because you put a flat rate and just said delivery, tear down whatever, run on sentence of all the shit you're gonna do. You have created a potential monster that if you book another wedding, because you were set with the expectation of you're delivering, you know, to one place, you're setting up, you're doing your room flip, you're not doing a teardown, whatever.

Things could be added, and then you probably didn't charge a high enough percentage for that. So my rule of thumb is I charge for every item and the setup and delivery I charge is one item, and that charge is based off of what I internally call the pain in the ass factor. How many places am I going, how many stops?

And I will label. In the price. Two stops, one stop, three stops. So it is crystal clear that what I am delivering is what I am charging for and we're not, you know, putting in an additional stop. And if we take a stop away, I can d decrease it at that point. If I choose then the venue, am I going to. Crazy.

Airbnb. Airbnb that is on the 15th floor of some cool trendy building downtown Minneapolis. And I am going to have to park and pay for parking. Then I'm gonna have to unload and I am gonna have to go in and it that delivery, because it is not an easy jump in, run them up to, uh, let's just say into the venue, into the, the couple's room because there's so many more steps to that.

I am going to charge for the pain in the ass factor if it is a venue. , like one of my favorite venues. Um, now, well one, it was and now has, um, been sold, which is where I got married, which is Aria here in Minneapolis and it was this historic theater. Just absolutely beautiful but super easy to deliver to you pull up.

One of the reasons why I chose it too is you pull up and you can run things in and you're done. Same thing. There's another venue machine shop. Here it is so easy. Pull up. They have cart. You can bring them in. Easy done. If you're having to worry about bringing your own carts, if you're having to worry about paying for parking, if you're having to worry that you have to go to the 15th floor and it's going to take longer if you're having to rent a truck, if you're having to have three people come with you, all of these are.

Pain in the ass factors. So I look at that and go, okay, I think that this delivery and setup with this many people with getting a truck that I need to charge $500 for it just for that part. Or I need to charge 750 or I need to like, if it's a really easy peasy, simple wedding, like I can charge $250 cuz I'm really bringing it there, dropping it off.

The planner is putting it out after the room flip. And I'm not doing hardly anything. It's taking maybe 45 minutes outta my day. I'm fine with charging $250 for that. I'm being competitive. I'm being fair with the time that it's taking for me to invest in delivering their wedding. Then if they need me to come back for a room flip, I ask a bunch of questions.

How far are we flipping things? Are we having to deconstruct or move something? Uh, what timeframe do we have to do this? Because if it is a very short, like an hour, but we're flipping to have 25 tables with eight of them being elevated centerpieces, I'm going to need help. So with that help, This is what a room flip slash repurposing something is going to cost, and that can be just a flat rate that you also determined you feel is fair for your time, fair for you to get that team member and pay them well to come and want to do that hour worth of labor.

and if people bark on that, just say, it's really hard on a Saturday afternoon for me to find additional labor to come for your room, flip for an hour and 15 minutes. So I have to pay them a flat rate to come because people will bark. They don't understand that there are a lot of moving pieces and so I, if I have someone go.

why is the labor and delivery so expensive? Or why is the delivery and setup? I don't actually mark mine as labor. Um, some people I have seen, they charge it as a labor percentage, and to me, an actual labor percentage is the labor percentage fee we added to the item when we were pricing it out, not a separate p.

So delivery setup. . If I have that in there and they're barking, I can literally explain to them. Uh, well, it actually is quite a big process. If you are worried about that expense, I'm happy to have it ready for you at my studio. You're probably going to need, um, at least two minivans that have stolen go, so the seats fold into the floor.

You probably need at least three to four people to, um, unload, to place, to get the candles out, to do all of those things. Um, which I'm, if you want to do that, uh, you are, I'm, you are more than welcome to do that. I just, I know that's something that I wouldn't wanna worry on my wedding day about, but if you choose to do that to save the money, I completely support you when you start explaining all of these things.

They start to think it looks less attractive for them to do, and you're validating that this is work. This is bodies that you need. This is like a vehicle you need to rent. I've actually rented U-Haul like I need to rent a U-Haul for your wedding unless I find four cars or four vehicles to be able to hobb us down.

People don't understand the space that it's going to take because they're visualizing one little centerpieces. They're not visualizing the boxes that it goes in, so it's not shimming around in your delivery vehicle. They just, they don't understand. So it's my job, I feel to help educate them if they are not happy with that type of price, and I give them the.

If they want to come and pick it up themselves, they're more than happy. Welcome to, I, I'm totally fine with if I have explained everything and they are being really super stubborn about spending $500, that maybe they're not my, my ideal couple either, because this wedding really does require our team to set it up.

And I have gotten to the point where I've told people like I this. Requires a team of people and I don't feel comfortable having, you know, your aunt or your super creative friend Becky coming and helping and setting it up, cuz I just don't think that it's going to do these flowers justice. And once you've put that Howard boundary, they're hopefully just gonna respect it and you have shown them and you're not being, I feel a lot of Flores are secretive about it and you know, are not willing to explain.

What the sea actually is like. People don't understand you. It is your job to help educate them because not I'm, it's likely nobody else is taking that time to help educate them. And so you could be the winner of that wedding because, , you helped educate them and you didn't treat them like they were stupid and don't know what they're talking about and don't understand how, you know, weddings just are expensive and you know, don't you have this kind of budget?

I mean, I've heard so many conversations that just aren't great in that regard, but we have one more fee to discuss and that is Teardown. I am not a fan of late night Teardowns. I actually, I kind of hate it and I have. A friend who literally, um, he works at my wholesaler. I absolutely love him and I pay him to tear down my weddings and I give him a hundred percent of that teardown fee because I don't want to do it.

So you could, if you are running into, I don't want to do late night Teardowns. Cause I've actually had florist that have taken that stance and they will turn down weddings if that requires a late night Teardown. I literally just sublet it and I'm, I'm writing he's a 10 99, um, contractor that I will just give a hundred percent of that tear down to cuz I don't wanna deal with it.

But how do you price that? You wanna make sure that you're being fair. If you want to build profit in that and still pay someone to do it if you want to just do it yourself to, to capitalize on those profits. One thing I would really think about is you can't do everything all the time. And so if you are doing this setup, the tear down, the the flip, you're just gonna be exhausted.

You're gonna wish wedding season was done faster. You're not gonna be able to enjoy some of those weddings and you're just, you're gonna be burnt out. It's, it's just gonna happen. So I have made the choice that I am, I say no to overwhelm. I say no to being, um, you know, burnt out. And so I have put a hard line in the sand that that is not going to happen to me.

And so I make sure that I have people and resources to support that line in the sand. So what is. Line in the sand because that's part of your pricing strategy. If you want to outsource it, that should be part of your pricing strategy. If you want to do it all yourself, then you probably need more help or not do the room flip or not do something so that you still have the energy to do that tear down and not hate the world at the same time.

So for Teardown, I base that. Pain in the ass factor again. What time are we having to come tear down? I ask, when is your last dance and when do you have to be out of the venue? Because those two factors tell me when we can start blowing out candles and when. We need to have all of our shit out of the venue.

If that is very condensed and there is a huge installation that we did or some other factor, and I don't think that's gonna be able to happen in the hour and 15 minute window, I need to tell them that even with a team of people, that is going to be hard to accomplish. Is there any way that your venue would allow next day tear?

Because I don't want people staying past when the, the get out of the venue time is and have them attend potentially you can actually get they fine per minute. You are past the window that you were supposed to be out and I've never gone in that window and I'm not going to. And so I make sure that we have enough time to take that down.

I also have a person who is an expert at tearing down. So if you are sending new staff. or somebody that is, you know, just like maybe they're helping processing or they're not a full designer or whatever, but they haven't done it before. You need to have them dip their toe in the water before you send them to a big tear down.

You don't have to do it all, but you need to make sure that you have the staff that is. Knowledgeable enough to know what to do, and you need to train and walk them through, potentially go to one with them so they really understand. Or they come with you to the wedding earlier and you're walking them step by step through what they're going to do at 11:00 PM at midnight.

So then I ask, with all the extra flowers, do you want us to try and place them for guests to take home, or do you want us to dispose of. And there's two ways to dispose of them. Of course, composting them, which that does take work. If you were doing foam center pieces, you're deconstructing all of that, or do you want your guests to take them home or We can donate them.

We have a company here, and you might in your market as well, that is called Bluebird and Blooms, and they will. Flowers and they actually tear them apart and they bring them to hospice centers. They bring them to, um, nursing homes or long-term care facilities. So you can bring everything, like all put together and they will disassemble it if their rental.

Bases or whatever. Obviously those are things that you need to collect and you need to make sure that, you know, it's clear. Like if somebody takes one of them or whatever, cuz they didn't understand that they were a rental, then you need to ha be reimbursed for that. But if your team is there, like, and that happened, I would tell the planner right then so that you're not dealing with it in three days.

Uh, instead of having to revisit it. And we're like, no, you were there. Your team, somebody on your team will know right when we got there, it was missing. So, you know, just having everything clearly laid out, having your fee, if you want that to be, if it's gonna take an hour for you to tear the wedding down with just yourself, is it fair if it's at.

11 o'clock to charge $400, $500, you need to figure out what that is based on all of the factors that I've mentioned, because I think that charging a flat rate of no matter what size wedding it is, no matter what time, if it's one o'clock in the morning that Teardown starts, which happens with some, um, Hindu weddings that I, I do.

like literally I'm charging at least a couple hundred dollars more because it's an hour later and it is one o'clock in the morning, which is ridiculous that you guys are partying that late, in my opinion. But I just tell 'em, okay, one, 1:00 AM tear down, um, starts at X. Depending on the variables, I've torn down a 1:00 AM Hindu wedding that literally had 50 tables.

I had another person come and they had told me that the flowers are going to get taken anything like in the Gold Bowls, you know, I do these uh, plastic gold bowls that are just painted in nice antique gold. They're going to be taken. They weren't. So I'm literally tearing apart all these things that I did not foresee that we were going to be tearing apart because that expectation, even though I put them on a table on their way out, that they didn't take them.

And so I, I literally spent way more, and I went back and I just said, you know, you, you mentioned, and I even, I write it down, all flowers will be taken in by guests or family in, you know, the Gold Bowl centerpieces, the blah, blah, blah, whatever. So I went back and I said, you know, it took my team another hour.

um, of two people tearing these, um, centerpiece apart because they weren't taken. And I'm just trying to be fair with that time that I'm having to expend on that. I didn't quote that because I quoted everybody taking the flowers. And so then, you know, we just had to work out an additional fee for, or if you even wanna write down, if my team has to tear down, these are not taken, write what that is going to be because.

If it is more work, you are entitled to be paid accordingly. And I think so many people are, are afraid to ask, afraid to bring it up because they're afraid to lose that wedding. And if a wedding isn't profitable, I am not in the business of practicing weddings anymore. And I don't even if you've only got like a dozen weddings under your belt, you were in the business to make money and.

If you keep practicing and keep making this a hobby because you're scared to ask for what your worth is, this will always be a hobby and never be a business. And you are the c e o of your business. So when you are even thinking about you're doing a price quote and that nerve. , you know, and you, your chest tightens up and you're like, oh, I, I just, I need to quote this cheaper cuz I really want this wedding.

I've actually coached people through this mental breakdown that unfolds right then you do not need this wedding enough that you will potentially lose money. Which in that case, uh, bride was really being unrealistic with what her expectations for her budget was. , you deserve to make money. You deserve to have a profitable business, and if you keep saying those to yourself, for one, you're gonna keep building confidence.

Build confidence in yourself, in your business, and if you need to practice, Go to Trader Joe's practice making some SP okays practice making a compote and even better take that one bunch of flour and make 10 different things with it so you get some pictures, so you have some social proof on Instagram.

Please go ahead and download this guide. This guide is amazing. I spent so much time on it with so much detail. . I even had my, my husband, of course, I have him like re-look over everything and he was like, damn, this is so much value. Even talking about all of the, uh, what the factors that I look at. Most people just don't even think about, okay, I'm gonna have to go pay for parking.

I'm gonna have to go and do all these things for delivery and setup. And this is like a science. So head to the floral hustle.com. Forward slash pricing and download that guide. I swear it is gonna be worth it. You are going to, it's very eye-opening to me even just going through the exercise and repricing things out, so I hopeful.

I'm hopeful that it's just as helpful to you and can help you get on the path to profitability because you deserve it. Thank you so much for listening. Flower Friend. Please take me on social media with your biggest takeaways. I just love seeing that it brightens my day. And especially with this, because I want you to make money.

I want you to be profitable. I want your tax person to go, damn you were on fire 📍 this year because you deserve it. So thanks so much, flower friend. Have a great day.