Pricing New Designs: How much should I charge for flowers?
Happy 2022, flower friends.
Many of you have told me that you are ringing in the new year with an inbox full of new client inquires. That’s great news!
Quite a few of these new clients have ideas and requests that will stretch your creative boundaries in the coming year. Growing and experimenting is a beautiful part of your job as a florist. So, I encourage you to embrace the clients that request unique designs from you.
Several of you have reached out to me with concerns about pricing designs you’ve never created before.
Your concerns are valid. After a year and a half filled with price fluctuations and product shortages, pricing new concepts can feel down-right stressful.
Pricing designs can be a bit overwhelming especially when it comes to a large-scale installation or design unlike anything else you’ve attempted before.
However, as you head into 2022, I must remind you it’s more important than ever to prioritize the profitability of your business.
Pricing out your designs using a strategy that takes into consideration the possibilities of price changes, product shortages, and substitutions can turn this stress-filled part of your job into light work! You might even have a little fun doing it!
Check out today’s Tip Tuesday video for some helpful pointers on how to push past the overwhelm, price it out, and book the client!
Remember to keep in mind that couples often book the vendors that are the most helpful and responsive. In fact, 50% of couples book the florist that responds first. So, be sure to use systems that allow you to get the information you need to create a quote and turn it around in less than a week.
Here are a few recommendations:
Let’s start 2022 out with proposals that engage your clients and don’t take 6 hours to create!
Start the proposal right after you get the information you need from your clients.
Whether you have them fill out a form online or have a consultation, book an hour to work on the proposal later that same day or the next day. Add it to your calendar! The hardest part of any project is getting started. This tactic can significantly improve turn-around time on proposals and increase booking rates!
Give it your undivided attention.
Have you ever heard of the Pomodoro Method? It’s a time utilization system and it’s perfect for creating proposals.
Here’s my recommendation.
Take that hour you dedicated to creating the proposal in step 1 above. Break it into two 28 minute segments and focus on it 100%. In between the 28 minute work blocks, you get a 4 minute break. I like 4 minutes because it’s long enough to reset, but short enough not to be distracted or pulled off to another task. Work hard to get your proposal done in this amount of time and if you need more, just reset for another 28 min time block.
Trust me, it works!
Lastly, the most important suggestion I have for you is to only price out the items you are unsure of or have never designed before.
Now, if you are an EveryStem member you have a dashboard filled with designs you’ve already priced out. You can use pricing from past events and your general pricing guidelines to quickly determine the prices of bouquets, boutonnieres, low centerpieces, and other more common designs. Then spend time creating a new Event in your EveryStem account for the clients that have a unique request or a design you’ve never created before. This way you are not pricing out every item on the client’s list, only the ones you need to confirm pricing on because it’s new to you.
This is the main point of my Tip Tuesday video above. So, if you haven’t watched it yet scroll back up and hit play!
I want to add a note to florists who are just starting out and need to learn how to price designs.
Start by pricing everything out. No questions asked.
I know. I know. It takes more time, but it’s an important part of learning how much you should charge for flowers.
If you skip this step, you will likely undercharge your clients.
With costs of everything rising, that puts you at a disadvantage right away. If your top-line margin is too low because you undercharge, it’s even harder to make a healthy profit when you factor in labor and other expesnes.
Trust me, this does get easier as you develop the skill. It’s much easier with EveryStem software as your system because you can easily see your top-line profit on every event you design! You’ll train your brain how much you need to charge to make a healthy profit!
One Last Pro Tip: Trust your instincts and add a buffer!
I recently spoke with a friend of mine who was pricing out a new design. Her first instinct about the amount of product she needed was spot-on, but she still questioned the amount of product she estimated and the price of the design. I was happy to confirm that her initial estimate was accurate. She didn’t need to question herself after all!
The internal argument that caused her to question her first instinct is called self-doubt. It’s something we all feel. It can derail our momentum and cause us to undercharge. So, if you feel this way and start questioning your pricing instincts I’ve got two things that you can do.
Phone-a-friend!
It’s what my friend did when she reached out for my opinion. Now, don’t just post a photo on facebook with the caption “how much should I charge for these flowers?”.
First do the work and plan it out with a flower recipe as best you can. If you struggle with determining how many flowers you need in a design, just know that a software like EveryStem can make this even easier!
Then, ask a flower friend, survey your favorite facebook group, reach out to your mentor, or even ask me! I’m always happy to help.
It feels great when another designer confirms your insticts and builds your confidence at the same time. #Winning
Trust your instincts and add a buffer!
Owning a business is one big experiment. So, go ahead. Take the leap. Estimate your recipe and price it out. Then, add a little buffer and send that proposal without second-guessing yourself.
What’s the worst thing that could happen?
Let’s use the $2,000 staircase installation design in my example from the video above. It was a retail price of $1825 and I rounded up to $2,000. That allows for a nice amount of wiggle room if the recipe needs to change or prices fluctuate before the flower order is placed.
When it comes time to design the wedding, as long as you stay within your budget of $2,000 you’ll be profitable. If you absolutely must go over your budget to achieve the design you promised, you’ll make less money than you had planned, learn a lesson, and try again!
So what? The next time a similar request comes along you’ll know that you need to charge more and if you use EveryStem you’ll have that last recipe as a base so you won’t have to start from scratch!
I hope 2022 is your best business year yet!
Feel free to reach out with your pricing questions or request a one-on-one EveryStem demo with me. I’d love to hear from you.
Until next time,
LuAnn
