Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this! I am about to embark on my 3rd year of selling bouquets and still struggling to find my niche in my area! I truly appreciate all you share and the time you take to do it!
Best of luck to you this year! The best part about running a business is that once you nail down one thing, another thing will pop up! It’s a constant learning experience 😆
I really appreciate your business oriented content. This is our 5th year farming. We have a market garden selling premium salad mix and micro greens at our local farmers market. We also sold little flower posies just to add color and intrigue to our booth. But last year I burned out and we took half the season off. I was almost ready to sell the business and liquidate assets. But I kept thinking about how much I looked forward to arranging those flowers. It was like my reward after slogging over the produce all week. Friday evening I'd set out all my materials, put on some music and just enjoy the creative process. So now we're switching gears, ditching the produce and going 100% on the flowers. But I'm leaning towards selling wholesale while I build up a reputation for my arrangements. The numbers just aren't there at our local market. My husband commutes to a big city and the florists near his office really appreciate the value of our farm fresh flowers. Lately I've been revamping our website. Trying to figure out how to make a drop down menu where these customers can select filters for type/shape and color. Anyway, I've been binging your content. You're good company :)
I totally hear you on this. A part of me wonders- is it just us, mentally limiting ourselves from a pricing perspective and thinking there’s no local market for the price we deserve? Or is it the truth? In either case I feel like I’m rebuilding right now by just going after a completely diff customer group- florists. And I’ve gotten rejected from a few florists who have the market who we were selling to. But once you find the right florist / designer, they are looking for locally grown and will pay! All this to say, best of luck to you in 2023 and it sounds like you may be on your way to making a name for yourself as a designer!
@@bareflowerfarm thanks Jess. For whatever reason I wasn't notified you replied so sorry for the late response. The "florists" my products are having success with aren't really florists. They're aspiring designers/creatives with high end boutiques that sell a lifestyle and like throwing arrangement parties for their customers. "Come on down to the shop and learn to make X arrangements" type promotions. You probably have boutiques like this around you too. They're tricky to find but maybe worth searching for on IG. Whoever your ideal customers are, praying you find them 💕
I appreciate your content so much! I just crunched my numbers for 2022. I was feeling badly about my expenses ($8300) and my income ($4100). Your honest breakdown was helpful to me. Hoping to make a profit this year which will be year 3 for me.
Living next to the forest on one side and the ocean on the other, mice are an issue in my coastal city. What we do is plug in two electronic ultrasonic rodent repellers in our garage, one on either side. We were worried it might aggravate out dogs, but they don't seem to be affected by them at all. They work, we had problems in our garage the first year in our house, and none since with the repellers and we have been in our house for 7-1/2 years, so that's a pretty good track record. Best of all, they work without killing or maiming, they simply stop the mice from entering the zone. We plug in two so that there are no dead zones created by the car etc. That is also were I stored my tulips bulbs and they are always untouched. Also, when we had 5acres on Cortes Island with a 6ft wood fence all the way around 2-1/2 acres of it, we hit a drought one year. I literally watched a deer from an upstairs window, charge and ram the fence with its head down, back up and do it again - repeatedly - trying to knock the fence down. If they are hungry nothing will stop them, as it wouldn't stop us either.
Interesting, I will try that. My parents tried an ultrasonic rodent repeller and it didn’t work but we may as well give it a try too! The deer are absolutely incredible when they get desperate. To your point, who can blame them!
You are really helping me feel equipped for expanding my business whenever that happens! Right now, I'm just selling a few arrangements a week to neighbors to cover my hobby costs. I really appreciate your content!
I'm glad I'm retired. Sort of ! Going into my second year flower farming. Nobody takes me seriously but I work my butt off. I'm renovating a 20 acre century farmhouse and selling at the farmers market. I loved selling at the market. I just bought seeds at the dollar store and foraged the rest. Bought some DeWitt landscape fabric. This my second year I am better prepared with proper seeds and we'll into it ! My goal is to have the property available for weddings. They can do their own flowers .
Good luck to you girl. I started recently too & actually got an amazing variety from dollar tree, Walmart, & other cheap flower mix packets. I separate the seeds & grow them in separate pots. I've gotten amazing flowers for cheap that way
How & where did u start yr website? I’m year one starting cut flowers in Kingston ON Canada. You totally rock love all yr stats and info❤ Good luck with the babe. Best advice go to bed when babe does! Don’t stay up to do stuff!!!
I started my website with Squarespace! The caveat here is that while I’m not a website builder by trade, I have been putzing around with website building for nearly 2 decades now! So i learned some HMTL (no longer needed) and have had experience with various platforms. My favorite is still shopify but I think for my flower needs, Squarespace is quite sufficient and it is very beginner friendly 🙂
In my personal garden I like to grow stuff that acts as good companions for my veggies or that are native to my space. I'm still trying to figure out what natives those are. But for non natives, I like nasturtiums, calendula, and really whatever the pollinators love :)
Thank you for doing this video! This year I would like to do (more) farmers' markets and I find watching these kinds of videos very useful to prepare. I've been writing and publishing books independently for the last 5 years and it's been going slower than I hoped with the sales, so this year I would like to do more (I only did one last year). Since we now live about 15 minutes away from where one is organised weekly (we moved recently from Manchester to the countryside in Scotland), I think it's a good idea to go there with my books and also have a few flowers (and maybe mushrooms as well - not this year but in coming years). This year I would like to still focus on selling the books I invested so much time and effort into. I'm planning to grow a couple of sunflowers and stock flowers to have at the booth to attract people with the sight and smell. We'll see how it works. Thank you again for the video! Take care! PS: if you ever want to sell some of my books at your market (they could be suitable, especially Miss Camelia and the Hugelkultur Mound because it's about a lady who finds her voice and smile again by being in the wilderness, planting seeds, growing food and sharing it with other beings - although it's a children's book, many adults find it enjoyable and therapeutic), please let me know. Just something to think about.🤗 I'll leave a link below if you care to take a look at the book. www.amazon.com/dp/B08D4RPJSX
As to your issue with field mice, I am learning from others also that it is a “if you store it, they will come” situation. I went to the Market Growers publication to subscribe and it had a place for a promo code. Is this something difficult for you as a business to set up for your viewers? I already subscribed, but was just curious how that might actually work from your perspective.
Guys please plant things for the native animals. Learn the land your on & give back. They're desperately looking for food. I never pull "weeds" I nurture them & replant them elsewhere & that helps a lot with animals leaving my plants alone. Also, flower seed mixes are underrated. Get them from anywhere, separate the seeds & label them. It saved me so much money.
I had to laugh at the mouse issue. We also live in the country. My first time starting tomato seeds indoors woke me up. When I came down to water them all of the leaves had been clipped off!😮 I have about a dozen mousetraps strategically placed. Near my seed starting spot and my pantry area as well. Just part of life when you live near fields.
Oh no!! That's good to know that they'll eat the leaves. I had no idea! We have a bucket mousetrap that caught one and we released it a few miles away. Other than that, I think they know to steer clear of the PB and oreos :D
There’s a certain point where running it just isn’t worth it if it doesn’t bring you the joy you seek. That being said I think I am going to rebuild the company by stripping it down to just 1 SKU (shampoo bars). The company was too “manual” and I need to better automate it!
Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this! I am about to embark on my 3rd year of selling bouquets and still struggling to find my niche in my area! I truly appreciate all you share and the time you take to do it!
Best of luck to you this year! The best part about running a business is that once you nail down one thing, another thing will pop up! It’s a constant learning experience 😆
Thanks for the info about the height for 8 ft deer fence! Mine stopped at 6 ft - time to go add more fencing!
When deer are desperate they can and will scale 6 ft 🫣🫣🫣
Thank you for being so open with all your shiz appreciate the chan fam
Thank you! I think it’s so important for people to see the realities of flower farming before they pour their life savings or go into debt!!
I really appreciate your business oriented content. This is our 5th year farming. We have a market garden selling premium salad mix and micro greens at our local farmers market. We also sold little flower posies just to add color and intrigue to our booth. But last year I burned out and we took half the season off. I was almost ready to sell the business and liquidate assets. But I kept thinking about how much I looked forward to arranging those flowers. It was like my reward after slogging over the produce all week. Friday evening I'd set out all my materials, put on some music and just enjoy the creative process. So now we're switching gears, ditching the produce and going 100% on the flowers. But I'm leaning towards selling wholesale while I build up a reputation for my arrangements. The numbers just aren't there at our local market. My husband commutes to a big city and the florists near his office really appreciate the value of our farm fresh flowers. Lately I've been revamping our website. Trying to figure out how to make a drop down menu where these customers can select filters for type/shape and color. Anyway, I've been binging your content. You're good company :)
I totally hear you on this. A part of me wonders- is it just us, mentally limiting ourselves from a pricing perspective and thinking there’s no local market for the price we deserve? Or is it the truth? In either case I feel like I’m rebuilding right now by just going after a completely diff customer group- florists. And I’ve gotten rejected from a few florists who have the market who we were selling to. But once you find the right florist / designer, they are looking for locally grown and will pay! All this to say, best of luck to you in 2023 and it sounds like you may be on your way to making a name for yourself as a designer!
@@bareflowerfarm thanks Jess. For whatever reason I wasn't notified you replied so sorry for the late response. The "florists" my products are having success with aren't really florists. They're aspiring designers/creatives with high end boutiques that sell a lifestyle and like throwing arrangement parties for their customers. "Come on down to the shop and learn to make X arrangements" type promotions. You probably have boutiques like this around you too. They're tricky to find but maybe worth searching for on IG. Whoever your ideal customers are, praying you find them 💕
I can’t believe you don’t have more subscribers! The algorithm must be terrible. I love your content and I don’t grow anything ❤
Aww thank you for the kind words :)
I appreciate your content so much! I just crunched my numbers for 2022. I was feeling badly about my expenses ($8300) and my income ($4100). Your honest breakdown was helpful to me. Hoping to make a profit this year which will be year 3 for me.
You are in good company (and misery) 😆. Here’s to a good 2023!!!
Living next to the forest on one side and the ocean on the other, mice are an issue in my coastal city. What we do is plug in two electronic ultrasonic rodent repellers in our garage, one on either side. We were worried it might aggravate out dogs, but they don't seem to be affected by them at all. They work, we had problems in our garage the first year in our house, and none since with the repellers and we have been in our house for 7-1/2 years, so that's a pretty good track record. Best of all, they work without killing or maiming, they simply stop the mice from entering the zone. We plug in two so that there are no dead zones created by the car etc. That is also were I stored my tulips bulbs and they are always untouched.
Also, when we had 5acres on Cortes Island with a 6ft wood fence all the way around 2-1/2 acres of it, we hit a drought one year. I literally watched a deer from an upstairs window, charge and ram the fence with its head down, back up and do it again - repeatedly - trying to knock the fence down. If they are hungry nothing will stop them, as it wouldn't stop us either.
Interesting, I will try that. My parents tried an ultrasonic rodent repeller and it didn’t work but we may as well give it a try too!
The deer are absolutely incredible when they get desperate. To your point, who can blame them!
@@bareflowerfarm You need to make sure nothing is blocking the sound waves, which is why we have two plugged into the garage in different locations.
You are really helping me feel equipped for expanding my business whenever that happens! Right now, I'm just selling a few arrangements a week to neighbors to cover my hobby costs. I really appreciate your content!
I’m so glad to hear this! Good luck to you in growing your flower venture!
I'm glad I'm retired. Sort of !
Going into my second year flower farming. Nobody takes me seriously but I work my butt off. I'm renovating a 20 acre century farmhouse and selling at the farmers market. I loved selling at the market. I just bought seeds at the dollar store and foraged the rest. Bought some DeWitt landscape fabric.
This my second year I am better prepared with proper seeds and we'll into it !
My goal is to have the property available for weddings. They can do their own flowers .
Good for you! Flower farming is alot of work and people who don't grow flowers don't realize it. Best of luck to you in your 2nd year!
Good luck to you girl. I started recently too & actually got an amazing variety from dollar tree, Walmart, & other cheap flower mix packets. I separate the seeds & grow them in separate pots. I've gotten amazing flowers for cheap that way
Thank you so much for this. Once again, super informative and well put together. I really appreciate your videos.
How & where did u start yr website? I’m year one starting cut flowers in Kingston ON Canada.
You totally rock love all yr stats and info❤ Good luck with the babe.
Best advice go to bed when babe does! Don’t stay up to do stuff!!!
I started my website with Squarespace! The caveat here is that while I’m not a website builder by trade, I have been putzing around with website building for nearly 2 decades now! So i learned some HMTL (no longer needed) and have had experience with various platforms. My favorite is still shopify but I think for my flower needs, Squarespace is quite sufficient and it is very beginner friendly 🙂
Great video! Valuable information. Thank you.
I toss a lot of my sod and grass in the chicken area for them to eat and turn into good soil.
For sure, I wish we had chickens when we had cleared our sod. Right now it's just a mountain of clay soil haha
We are a beginning iris farm looking to add more flower varieties. What’s your top 3 or 5 favorite flowers you grow in your personal garden?
In my personal garden I like to grow stuff that acts as good companions for my veggies or that are native to my space. I'm still trying to figure out what natives those are. But for non natives, I like nasturtiums, calendula, and really whatever the pollinators love :)
@@bareflowerfarm thanks for the tip I’m going to try some out.
Thank you for doing this video! This year I would like to do (more) farmers' markets and I find watching these kinds of videos very useful to prepare. I've been writing and publishing books independently for the last 5 years and it's been going slower than I hoped with the sales, so this year I would like to do more (I only did one last year). Since we now live about 15 minutes away from where one is organised weekly (we moved recently from Manchester to the countryside in Scotland), I think it's a good idea to go there with my books and also have a few flowers (and maybe mushrooms as well - not this year but in coming years). This year I would like to still focus on selling the books I invested so much time and effort into. I'm planning to grow a couple of sunflowers and stock flowers to have at the booth to attract people with the sight and smell. We'll see how it works.
Thank you again for the video! Take care!
PS: if you ever want to sell some of my books at your market (they could be suitable, especially Miss Camelia and the Hugelkultur Mound because it's about a lady who finds her voice and smile again by being in the wilderness, planting seeds, growing food and sharing it with other beings - although it's a children's book, many adults find it enjoyable and therapeutic), please let me know. Just something to think about.🤗
I'll leave a link below if you care to take a look at the book.
www.amazon.com/dp/B08D4RPJSX
this is so helpful, thanks for sharing this info!
This my first year in flower market with tulips 🌷 from last winter to planting now
Best of luck to you!
Thank you for sharing your experiences with us. This information is very helpful. What app do you use to track your costs and receipts?
I use zoho for the flower farmand have used expensify for my other business. Both work very similarly!
Love what you said at the end...it truly is a labor of love ❤️
As to your issue with field mice, I am learning from others also that it is a “if you store it, they will come” situation.
I went to the Market Growers publication to subscribe and it had a place for a promo code. Is this something difficult for you as a business to set up for your viewers? I already subscribed, but was just curious how that might actually work from your perspective.
I could probably contact them but Lisa Mason Ziegler has a promo code with them that is often featured on her podcast!
Guys please plant things for the native animals. Learn the land your on & give back. They're desperately looking for food.
I never pull "weeds" I nurture them & replant them elsewhere & that helps a lot with animals leaving my plants alone.
Also, flower seed mixes are underrated. Get them from anywhere, separate the seeds & label them. It saved me so much money.
Can you share the insurance recommendation?
Sure! It is campbells - www.campbellriskmanagement.com/
We have a mama dear who has twins every year. the babies are nice to see the big ones not so much
The fawns are cute indeed. They just lay there and look cute lol
I had to laugh at the mouse issue. We also live in the country. My first time starting tomato seeds indoors woke me up. When I came down to water them all of the leaves had been clipped off!😮 I have about a dozen mousetraps strategically placed. Near my seed starting spot and my pantry area as well. Just part of life when you live near fields.
Oh no!! That's good to know that they'll eat the leaves. I had no idea! We have a bucket mousetrap that caught one and we released it a few miles away. Other than that, I think they know to steer clear of the PB and oreos :D
@@bareflowerfarm 😂😂
Thanks for sharing.
“Don’t go overboard buying seeds”…(Umm…too late!😂)
Lol!! It's so hard to resist the temptation, I know!!
Try selling your candles and soap business instead of winding it down. Seems a waste after all that work.
There’s a certain point where running it just isn’t worth it if it doesn’t bring you the joy you seek. That being said I think I am going to rebuild the company by stripping it down to just 1 SKU (shampoo bars). The company was too “manual” and I need to better automate it!
What ap do you use to track receipts?
I use Zoho but would also recommend Expensify!