Building Fast Bouquets! 18 in 50 min & How I decided whether to sell $15 or $20 bouquets for my mkt

Efficiency is the name of the game if you want to make money with your market bouquets. So I put Floret's Summer Mini Series Course #3 to the test to see if it would work for me. I went from spending close to 3 hrs to just under 1 hr to make 18 bouquets. I also talk about how I decided whether it made sense to build $15 vs $20 bouquets for my market. Some math was involved to determine how to maximize revenue!

[@Thingys-Jill]

Your videos are quite informative and thought out. Some things you might want to consider in your planning of planting your farm is that gomphrena doesn't get tall at the beginning of the season (and sometimes never). You might want to consider closer to a 30% buffer because of seeds that don't germinate or the birds eat them. If you want 200 stems every 2nd week, then you need a minimum of 2 beds for that flower. Bed 1 is for the first cutting and Bed 2 is planted the next week for the 2nd cutting. You then plant Bed 1 the next week for the next cutting, etc. One thing you might not realize (and this is just so you know), you had 60 "ums" in your video! Your flowers are already prepped. People don't realize how much time it takes to harvest, strip, and hydrate the flowers. Cutting and wrapping also takes time. What works in one farmer's market might not work in another. It does come down to trial and error, so watching videos is helpful to get the basics. I wish you the best with your new home!

[@ElderandOakFarm]

Making bouquets faster was my number #1 goal this year. It used to take me about 20-30 minutes per bouquet because I would fuss about trying to get every stem in the perfect position, but then I'm like we'll even if I wasn't considering ALL of the other costs (growing the plants from Seed- the labor of planting the seeds, watering, fertilizing, etc. Each week, harvesting, stripping all the leaves/processing them, etc.) & I was JUST basing my pay off the $ I was making for that bouquet, & the time it took me to build it, then in an hour, making 2 bouquets, I would have made $30. But it costs about $5-$6 per $15 bouquet (when considering all the things I mentioned except for harvesting the flowers & processing them) & it takes about 3-5 hours to harvest & process enough flowers for about 15 bouquets (depending on tue flowers & how time consuming they are to process). So that makes it where each $15 bouquet costs me $12-$14.60 to make. & I'm getting $15, so I'm making $0.40-$3 profit for all that work?!? So I definitely had to Increase my speed! 🤣

[@serenababy6358]

This video was great! So true about color palette is determined when you buy the seeds. I really like how analytical you are about your business decisions & sharing that info. I made my mom a bouq from my cut garden today & kept messing with it to "arrange it"; it does take time to get it right, especially in an unfamiliar vase. My amaranth & Lisianthus were way too tall and my snaps were getting lost in the foliage. I am not a florist or flower farmer but i was expecting my bouq to look like one. Thank you for explaining there is a difference between floral & market (& therefore home gardener bouqs) 😊

[@matthewboddum7723]

I also struggle with this but I have started to call them "bunches of mixed flowers" because my impression is that customers primarily want a variety of colours and textures and they spread them out in a vase at home.

[@GosiaGW]

I admire, that you take time to show us your calculations. Great job!

[@EvelynM-vlogs]

At my farmer's market I sell $20 bouquets and someone else sells $15 bouquets. I like the difference as I feel we are supplying two different customers. She is way too far away from me to compare sales, but I have seen her bouquets and am confident that the difference in look is reflected in the price difference. Also, I have also noted that my flower customers are completely different than my art and soap customers with no crossovers at all. Another thing I added this week is large vases that display bouquets - 4 vases today and 3 of the four sold with the bouquets which helped boost my sales as well. The fourth vase did not sell but I sold the bouquet out of it. All the vases have been thrift sourced but each are - and must be - beautiful.

[@bareflowerfarm]

I love that the customers are different between the art, soap, and flowers. I estimate I’m only capturing 1% of the market traffic for any given item so it really does help to sell multiple types of items. That’s awesome on the vases. I plan to also do that one of these days when I have enough stems!

[@EvelynM-vlogs]

@@bareflowerfarm I had already been selling smaller vases with sweet peas in them with great success. This, for me was the first week I had enough $20 bouquets to try out the larger vases. I am finally loaded with dahlias. - only two weeks late. Everything grown outside is 3 weeks late here from a very cold May and June.

[@margarethatton2965]

I just found your videos, I'm in year 3 and still feel like a beginner so am very grateful for you sharing

[@bareflowerfarm]

Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to write this. We are all constantly learning so in some ways, I also feel like a beginner too!

[@donnabauerofbrilliancebyde1178]

Thanks for the breakdown on your spread sheet, I have always wanted to do this but that part of the computer boggles my brain. So I use paper and pencil for calculating costs. Why do you count that aster as one stem when clearly you have 5 or 6 on that stem? I went thru the price figuring as we all do and have settled on 10 and 20 dollar bouquets. The 10 dollar are placed in little glass milk jars which only cost me a buck each with 10-12 stems. The 20 dollar are placed in repurposed sauce jars that friends save and they have between 20-25 stems. I tried wrapping in paper and my take away too much time, cost and they did not sell that well compared to my jars plus the customer would have to walk around without it being in water for who knows how long. That really bothered me. I also give care instructions IF they want them along with a flower food packet.

[@gardengirl7446]

GREAT job and FUN to watch!

[@LINativePlantConservation]

you really inspired me, on to the garden, thank you!

[@allenbeachy3511]

Your Asters are beautiful! Do you have any growing tips? Some of my stems were long, but others were short. Thanks, Anne

[@MEandBlueBoutique]

I love how you break it all down. Thank you!

[@christinast6346]

Excellent job! Excellent teaching videos! Thank you for your time and energy!

[@ambethk77]

So helpful as always!

[@shawnsg]

Selling them with low margins still provides you with useful information right? Next year you will have sales numbers to compare with. Projections. That sort of thing. I grew boatloads of basil. Way way way more than I needed. I always cut a ton of it and took it with me to the market. I used it to fill the empty space in the back as stuff sold. It flowered really early too so it didn't just look like a mass of green/purple stuff. Plus, the scent alone got people's attention. Although, that might be problematic with the soap/candle situation. Lol it's interesting how different farmers markets can be. For instance I've only seen a single credit card transaction.

[@bareflowerfarm]

Absolutely! Year one is more about learning what not to do in the future i feel. Low margins are ok right now bc I gain the knowledge of 1) are there certain flowers or colors that sell well? 2) are there certain varieties i never would have grown but actually love using 3) threshold of # of bouquets to attract people to the booth. Lol to the cc’ statement. I had people using their Apple Watch for Apple Pay. Def depends on the market!

[@cindynicholson372]

Thanks.

[@glaizaroe]

Wow! Very informative, Jessie. Can I make a request to have a video about taxes? I found out some vendors at the fm are actually charging sales tax so Im not sure if I should do it

[@shawnsg]

I'm not an expert but here's my understanding. In most cases you are responsible for collecting sales tax. There are a few states with exemptions for farmers markets, e.g., Arkansas, Missouri, Louisiana. There are a couple more I think. Each has a bunch of caveats from what I've seen. Check your state's revenue department website for details. You can usually contact them directly and they will help if you can't find the information yourself. This is usually your best bet. Never trust Google lol. You can also ask your market manager. It can be a little daunting at first but it's usually pretty simple once you get the hang of it. Most states, if not all, let you register and file online.

[@glaizaroe]

@@shawnsg thank you so much! Im in Missouri so I'll definitely look into it

[@bareflowerfarm]

Shawn is accurate here! It is definitely a state by state thing. I embed sales tax into my price and then pay the state on a quarterly basis. Note that this is also where a resale tax certificate comes in. If you are sourcing supplemental blooms from a wholesaler, they will ask for this certificate. It is basically a statement that you sign saying, “I’m not paying sales tax to the wholesaler right now bc when I sell to my end customer, I will collect sales tax there and then pay the state”. Hope this helps!

[@jonieward5827]

Thank you so much for all the information you provide, do you have info on where to find florets original video for this bouquet demo? Thanks again!

[@bareflowerfarm]

Hi there! Floret offered this video as Part 3 in their summer mini series. It was free but you'd have to sign up for it and get pulled into their email CRM system to access it. Any link that I send you would be "locked" for you. Sign ups usually occur in June but I would email them and say, "Someone recommended your summer mini series, any chance I can view them as I'm preparing over the winter?". Maybe they respond and maybe they don't!

[@jonieward5827]

@@bareflowerfarm thank you!