The Floral Hustle

  📍 Hello flower friends, this is Jen and you are listening to the floral hustle podcast on this week's mini sowed. I want to talk about flat rate pricing and You're probably like what is that? That sounds like like the USPS Postal Service and It it kind of is because you're basically pricing out an item and You're Maybe choosing, like, some color palette, or, you know, like, five color palettes that you can get this item in.

For example, a, um, for a wedding planner, like, you have these flat rate pricing items, so that they just know that those are items that you can produce at this price. Uh, it could be for a la carte, it could be for a brochure, it could be for a million different things. But, this flat rate pricing gives you the ability to go in and have transparency in your pricing.

And transparency in pricing to me is a game changer because I think that people don't know what wedding flowers cost. Uh, I, I go to my car, car sales roots, like there are so many websites that talk about what cars cost. There are so many websites that talk about what hotels cost. There are so many websites that like Amazon provides pricing information and we have none.

There is no place for us to just like universally have pricing. So with having some transparency, you are differentiating yourself in the market. You are making yourself stand out. You are providing a experience for someone that is not adversarial. It is going into it like, yeah, hey, this is the starting at pricing.

That might not be what their price is because they might want something different, but at least they have a starting point. And It's pretty easy to figure out. Go in, and like, if you were to make this item in a way that made you happy from a, you know, aesthetic, lushness, whatever, you know, is really kind of important to you, then from there, you went and built in, Okay, I think that if I used, you know, I do the design foundations for me is some type of big or, Big bloom or, you know, focal bloom, a transition bloom, a filler, a line flower, a greenery, and a coverage flower.

And with those, you can, depending on the item, like if I'm doing a floral cage, Like, I could do a flat rate pricing with saying, I'm going to put five hydrangeas in my um, tribute size cage. Then from there, I'm going to put, you know, seven roses. I'm going to put a little bit of filler flower. I'm going to use three quarters of a bunch of greenery and with that greenery, I'm going to use some leather leaf and then I'm going to use some type of area greenery to provide some dimension.

And so then I can price out my base pricing starting at that. And I can put that on my website. I could do whatever. I have my base recipe already figured out. Then from there, if somebody wants something different, then you can take and switch out. Okay, they don't want any hydrangeas. Well, that means that I'm going to have to have way more greenery and I'm going to have to have more bigger blooms because I'm going to have to hire my mechanics.

Whatever it is, you can kind of work backwards into making this make sense. for you, business standpoint, as well as you're inspired from an execution standpoint, and you're providing a very streamlined service for a client. So this base price kind of recipe and flat rate pricing is something that you can use in so many facets of your business.

You can have that pricing transparency in a brochure that you share with a client when they first email you. You could have that as a lead bank then you could be like, Hey, if comment, the word, you know, price or Cost or whatever and i'll send you my free uh pricing guide Or you could, you can, you know, facilitate that with a software called ManyChat.

You could also use this as a response to if you're getting a lot of requests like on The Knot or on WeddingWire or Zola. You can use that in response to handling that and then you're not investing time, you're giving somebody A idea of what you cost. And so you don't go an hour deep into this process of doing a consultation.

You sent a bunch of emails and then you have to do a proposal and you're still. At a point where like they're ghosting you because they couldn't afford, you know, your pricing, or they potentially already had an estimate and it was less expensive, whatever it is. Like this is giving you. a tool in your tool belt to help stop being ghosted because having this foundation of this flat rate pricing of an item helps give you a starting point of a conversation that most florists are going to not be able to do.

Another way that this is really a game changer is in a conversation that I'm having with a client. I can go if I know that their budget is not great. Let's just say that their budget is 3, 000. They're telling me they have 7 bridesmaids. They're telling, you know, they want a bridal bouquet. They're telling me they want 10 boutonnieres.

They want, um, 5 wrist corsages. They want something for their ceremony. They need 20 tables of centerpieces. Like, I call it flower math. Um, I'm going in and doing like basic flower math with them. Okay, if I go in and take eight, at my base pricing, I take eight bridesmaids or whatever they have. And let's just say we're doing something smaller and not fancy and it's a hundred dollars.

Then we're at 800. Then we're adding your bouquet. Let's just say that's 250. So then we're at 1, 050. Then we're going in, um, you said you wanted 10 boutonnieres. So let's just say those are 20 really simple ones. So then we're at 200 there. So we're at 1, 200. Then you want five wrist corsage. Let's just say those are 40 a piece and you just keep going.

And, and I said, then you're at a point where before you even get to their centerpieces, you're at 2, 000 and you still have to account for delivery, setup, and taxes. Uh, I always then ask. You know, do you need that budget to be inclusive of taxes and delivery and setup or is delivery and setup and taxes outside of that budget?

You would be surprised on how many people will say, Oh no, you can add that on because they were just shooting in the dark for this budget. They, they didn't have any idea. They didn't have a plan. They didn't have a strategy. They're just winging it. So because there is no transparency anywhere, they have no clue.

So giving them, walking them through, I now am at like, okay, we, let's just say it has to be inclusive. We have, if I'm charging X amount for, let's just say they have a really simple set up and I'm charging 400 for it. So we're at 2, 400. And then we got to add tax. So if I just say, you know, like we have 400 for 20 tables and That's just not going to work So if I have 400 and I divide that by 20 tables and I will actually do this on my consultation That is a 20 budget per table and I I'm pretty sure that you want more than one bud vase on a table, but until like you, you're being super transparent, you're going into this conversation, trying to educate them.

I know I have a tone now because like it just is sometimes like, you're just like, duh, I'm, I'm normally like not knowing every single, they usually. I know somebody has a 3, 000 budget going into it, but then all of a sudden they spring another detail. And so that's when I usually have to go in. I've tried to think of ideas.

And if you have flat rate pricing, you also maybe shouldn't, could have in your arsenal, you know, my least expensive centerpiece option is this price. And so then you can go into that and say, okay, I, with this budget. You know with a 50 per I can do three cylinders and a little bit of greenery on your table I can do a couple bud vases and some candles on your table Whatever it is like then, you know, and you're already armed With that knowledge going into that conversation and it changes the tone it changes the direction you're trying to be helpful You're trying to be providing value for them and also optimizing your time Optimizing like not every florist is going to do this.

So you're really Differentiating yourself and that is gonna make you book more clients that is going to make you like somebody who is easy to work with and planners love easy and Other wedding professionals love easy. And so you could be that easy button. Thank you so much for listening flower friend and you have an amazing flower filled 📍 day.