The Floral CEO

 Hello flower friends. I saw a post on Instagram and I mean, I frankly was triggered because that post to me was detrimental to our industry and basically undermined us making money as a career, as a business and like for a moment. I was angry. Um, it was a florist here in the United States that basically posted here is your $2,500 wedding.

And they put their prices in, which I love people who practice pricing transparency because I think that I know the impact of that. But where it went sideways, they went three 50 for their bridal bouquet. $125 for their bridesmaids bouquets. A hundred dollars for an aisle marker. And my minimum floor piece, if I'm using like basic shit, is 180 5 with proper pricing.

So at a hundred there, none of this makes sense. And then on top of it, they were reusing those in the example for centerpieces. So not only are you now taking a three quarter sided, potentially cutting out a third of the flower cost because you're not covering one side. We are bringing that down to, we have to have this thing look good from all the way around.

And granted this could be a little bowl 'cause they did not share pictures. But even a low bowl centerpiece that is three quarter sided all the way around, I mean pretty much my minimum would probably be like 1 65 for basic ass stuff. And in the video that they had, they had a picture that, I mean, they took a video of going over flowers and.

Made it seem like they were talking about a wedding from, from this kind of visually, and there was white dahlias and cosa and playa Blanca roses and just premium blooms, and so like the math didn't work. Then on top of it, they talked about the setup and delivery fee for these items was only $175, and that was.

Because they actually returned back for a room flip. So for $175 they came deliver it and they came back to do a room flip. Uh, if they did it by themself even. And you know, like that's still not enough. You still need to pay for your van, you need to pay for your insurance. You need to get paid for your time.

You need to get paid for packing up those things. It just like doesn't make sense. So I initially was angry, but then I, I was like, oh my God, this is such a disservice. But then I stepped back and go, they might not know. And honestly, all of their posts, I was a little floored because that post got an immense amount of interaction from customers.

Uh, they made it into a lead magnet, um, gathering tool, which was giving them how tips on saving money on their wedding flowers. And this post had 125 people commenting the word to get this freebie. That is a huge amount of interaction. This, um, florist had about 3,900 followers. So I'm guessing they were also getting a lot of followers out of their market, but what they were setting out to do was worked because they got a, a ton of interaction in the post.

But where I wanna really talk about is that this really fundamentally is a disservice to florists in general who are trying to price. Uh, I think that there's one florist or maybe a couple florists in every market that are, maybe their play is volume and so they only double their flower costs and they don't charge labor.

Maybe their play is, you know, uh, they don't know what they're doing, so they're frankly just fucking excited to do anything. They're starting out their business and maybe their work isn't, uh, you know, premium. But they are charging, uh, because out of ignorance, they don't know what to charge. They don't know if they should be, uh, you know, charging for delivery.

Like, I get all of those questions often, people just don't know. And then I thought more about it, and this person used to be me. Like I, a million years ago, didn't know how to price flowers. I didn't know how to make profit. I. I actually had a florist in my market reach out and like I won a bid over them and they just like verbally assaulted me, like we're horrible, saying I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

I'm doing a disservice. And at that time I was just like young and excited and I had a full-time job. So it really didn't matter 'cause I just loved flowers and loved all these things, but it really didn't make sense. How I was charging. Um, my whole setup way back in the day was wholesale pricing. And they paid labor.

I mean, asinine. Like I, I didn't make any money hardly. 'cause I, of course then overbought and then didn't charge enough for labor. And then if I hired someone, I really wasn't making any money and I was working full time. So then I really had to hire people and it was just like this cycle. So when I made the big shift.

I mean that I immediately started making more money when I started pricing correctly. But I also look back at doing that in my market, created the inability for some other florists because they, that made them look bad. People don't know how much flowers should cost. So here's this person that's, you know, so cheap that people don't understand, and then you get this quote that probably is what it's supposed to be.

But you look like the villain, like you're trying to overcharge somebody because there's no reference. So if you are the florist who doesn't know how to price, go download my free pricing guide. It's at floral ceo.com/pricing. And this walks you through with examples how to price if you are not making money in your business.

This is where you probably need to start. Pricing is the foundation of profit. And when you are not pricing correctly, there could be a million reasons why you fundamentally might not know how to even price something. You could maybe not understand the recipe or the flowers that are taken or. Maybe you go and buy super expensive containers and you do all these things that therefore erode at your profit.

So there's a million reasons why, but the first step is realizing like, I need to fix this because it is a disservice in your market if you are pricing. I, there's another florist in my market that, I mean like literally. Uh, if I had Tourette's, I would probably start screaming a million different things.

Every time I looked at their Instagram, it's having greenery on a table with a bunch of candles and they're saying they're charging like $25 or $35 for this thing that I, at a minimum would probably charge 65 to $75 for. We always are going to have florists like that. We always icon the biggest whores in town.

Uh, it's probably not that funny, but I think it's funny because that's what they're doing. They're like giving away their services and their cheapening themself to a level. But I, after time, of course, you know, you can be salty about it. It's easy to be salty about it when you lose a bit to them. Uh, I, I know a venue that that particular florist is a preferred vendor and every time.

A client goes and meets with, you know, some of the other pervert vendors, which I'm friends with, they lose that bid because she's so cheap and that's hard. After you meet with someone, do a consultation and do all this work to earn that person's business, and basically because somebody's dropping their pants and not charging correctly, maybe there are a million reasons why they aren't.

Um, you know, that still stinks. That is cheapening our trade. That is somewhat, I mean, setting us back, especially when we are not in an industry with pricing transparency as a foundation. So then we're making people look like they're the bad guy. We can't control other people's behavior. We can control ours.

We can control the value that we build in our products, the value that we build in our expertise, the value that we bring in our design and creative execution. We cannot always compete on price. I have had people pay more for me because I can come up with epic ideas, I will execute flawlessly. I, I even sometimes, in every consultation, I do a positioning statement at the end that positions me as the expert and as the best choice.

And in this, I talk about my experience, how many weddings I've done. I've done over 1700 weddings. Literally, if it's a younger bride and they're kind of, you know, eclectic or funky or goth or whatever, I'll be like the zombie apocalypse could happen. And I've been a flor so long, I would figure it out for you.

You would still have flowers on your wedding day. And you know, of course people laugh at that, but I'm serious. I come off with that confidence because confidence commands higher pricing. So I'd love for you to sit back and for one, if you are struggling with this, I see you, this is a big thing. This is the cornerstone of your business, the foundation of your business.

And if you don't have a clue on how to write recipes, you don't have a clue on how to, you know, price, don't know how to plan, don't know how to order. All these things are just a shit show. Like, I wanna help you and I invite you to the floral CEO Mastermind because in there you get my full floral, um, foundations course.

Plus you get. Uh, like access to me to ask any questions. I'll review your proposals, whatever you need help with. I'm here for you if you need a one-on-one session. I do one-off sessions to help really up level your game in whatever you are lacking in. I have, if I've done 1700 weddings, guess how many proposals?

I've done a lot. I'm an expert at Efficient. Fast proposals. I do not use a proposal software. I use Canva because I think it's beautiful and I have a very high close rate because my confidence in my, uh, meetings, the my expertise, my experience, and my ideas. So yeah, I charge more and I will tell someone that if they are comparing other florists, I am going to be higher, but I'm still the best choice.

And that's what you need to do. Somebody else might be cheaper in your market, but you need to make sure you build enough value that you are the best choice because that's how you win. You are the best, you are the best value you're gonna deliver, the best designs. You're gonna execute at a higher level, and they are going to look back at their wedding, at their event and know.

That you delivered flawlessly, go check out my free pricing guide@floralceo.com slash pricing. I think that that will be a huge help. I even walk you through pricing per square foot on how to price installations and all sorts of other fun, um, kind of ways to make ordering and planning and pricing. Super simple.

Thanks so much for listening, flower Friend, and you have an amazing flower filled day.