I’ve never met a florist who hasn’t struggled with pricing.
Seriously. It’s part of the journey from Backyard Betty to Profitable Polly.
I work with florists from every corner of the globe and every one of them, at one time or another, has struggled with feeling confident in their pricing.
For me, I struggled with pricing for the first three years. One day I finally hit rock bottom and realised I couldn’t keep going the way I was going.
I didn’t have enough money in my bank account to warrant the work I was doing.
I had to make it work.
I didn’t have a Plan B. I didn’t have a separate household income to support me. I didn’t have time to get another job.
If I could turn back time to that old version of me, it would have been so helpful if someone had told me on day one of my business…
Kathleen pricing is actually super-duper straightforward. The math is easy. What’s making it feel so hard is all the self-doubt and meaning you’re adding to the math.
If some magic unicorn had walked up to me and whispered those words, I probably would have tilted my head and been like, “WTF are you even talking about?”
It certainly would have encouraged me to pause for a second and ask more questions (yes, about my approach to pricing but also, Why is there a magic unicorn here and does anyone else see this thing?!?!?)
I’m embarrassed to admit this but I was taught the florist pricing formulas before I even started my business. Early on in class we talked a lot about pricing and did a lot of math.
But what we didn’t talk about was feeling so full of doubt, fearing rejection and what it’s like to lack confidence in your prices.
I allowed all of that to lead the way in my business and it’s what stood in the way of me making it work.
Stories We Tell Ourselves
You know that little voice in your head that says:
😬 I can’t charge that much.
😬 I don’t want to be too expensive.
😬 My customers won’t pay that much.
😬 This area is too competitive to charge those prices.
Or…maybe your flower friends price have told you they only charge 3 x markup and so you feel obligated to fall in line.
Quite possibly you’ve got a little push back from your local flower peeps telling you anything higher than that isn’t marketing compatible or competitive?
Welcome to the world of being a professional floral designer and business owner my friends. It’s time to put your big girl pants on and step away from the crowd.
Do you want to be Backyard Betty or a Profitable Polly?
What no one tells you about running your own business is that it’s going to bring up all of our fears, doubts and worries.
For florists, a lot of that starts with pricing.
We fear rejection.
We fear failure.
We fear standing out from the crowd.
All of that fear is normal. 100% totally completely normal.
You are not broken. There is nothing wrong with you.
But the mindset shifts away from Backyard Betty to Profitable Polly is how you go from exhausted, struggling designer to thriving business owner and creative entrepreneur.
For many of us, our pricing woes are compounded by the fact that our industry is super secretive. No one openly talks about pricing and trying to find specifics on florist pricing formulas online is nearly impossible.
The result: we allow fear to lead the way and set pricing based on emotion, not an equation.
Florist Pricing Formulas
Yes, there are a set of commonly taught formulas for pricing. They go like this:
DAILY DELIVERIES / SUBSCRIPTIONS
Wholesale x 3 + 20%
WEDDINGS / EVENTS
Wholesale x 3.5-4.5 + 30-50%
Deliveries, set-up and pack down are charged over and above this.
And yes, your wholesale line item includes your flowers, foliage and sundries (hard goods). And yes, as wholesale prices increase, so do your prices. It’s the perfect market economy and you don’t need to carry the burden for increasing costs of labour, transportation, fuel, or fertiliser.
These florist pricing formulas have worked for decades. Through all sorts of economic situations.
This year is no different.
NOTE: I find the above florist pricing formulas necessarily complicated and take too much time to sort through. Here are my super simple formulas:
Everyday Flowers = wholesale x 4
Weddings + Events = wholesale x 5 (or 6)
If you’re struggling with your pricing, it’s time to dig deep and get curious about the stories you’re telling yourself.
How to Price with Confidence in Your Flower Business
Getting your pricing sorted is the foundation for your success – it’s how you grow your business, build a team, upgrade your workspace, buy a new delivery vehicle.
Setting your pricing with profit in mind is a must if you want to build a sustainable, successful flower business.
But I also know it can feel like a giant leap into the unknown to sit down and do the work to raise your prices.
How do you go from struggling designer to thriving flower boss? Here are three powerful coaching questions to consider:
- What are you afraid of? If you raise your prices and send your next customer an updated quote, what is the worst-case scenario? Write it down. Articulate it and be really specific. You’ll feel a shift right away in your approach with this one exercise.
- What is the downside in believing it is possible? Right now, your actions are being driven by the belief that you cannot charge those prices. Flip the scenario on its head and rewrite the story in a way that serves you. Get curious, what would happen if today was the last day you struggled with your pricing?
- If you let go of all the fear, doubt and hesitation, how would you show up differently? Who would you get to become if you stepped into your authority and knew you could not fail?
Remember, at the end of the day, pricing itself is super simple. The math is so easy your seven-year-old nephew could do it. (Grab my florist pricing formula worksheet here.)
It’s what we make the prices mean that stands in the way of our success.
NOTE: If you’re struggling to quote an event or full wedding set-up check out this super helpful blog post: https://littlebirdbloom.com.au/how-to-price-out-an-event-for-florists/
Pricing With Confidence: There Is An Easier Way
If you want to dig into this more, get support and blow your own dang mind with what’s possible in your flower business, grab a spot inside my Flower Boss Bootcamp.
We talk pricing, marketing, sales and all the things you need to know to build a thriving flower business.
My Flower Boss Bootcamp is the ultimate business program for florists, teaching you the exact process to follow so you can effortlessly attract more customers and make more money.
FBB is the program #ForFlorists, to help you earn a living doing what you love and grow your business. That’s because you’ll be learning my proprietary blueprint for creating a successful flower business, getting more customers while doing work you love and making money.
Join us inside the program today and, together, we’ll change the trajectory of your flower business.
Let’s go!!
