What’s the business model?

It became very clear when setting upon this adventure that flower farming is no different than a home veggie garden, in that there’s so many different ways to do everything. From seed to harvest, you can find ten different approaches and opinions on the matter. While this can become overwhelming, I actually like the task of putting together my own unique approach to a plant. For me, this is like creating my own little gardening recipe based on my own knowledge and the acquired wisdom of others. Then you wait on the results! If you succeed, you can keep up what you’ve done. If you fail, you then have to wait a year to figure out which ingredient in your recipe wasn’t working properly. Then wait on the results again! Gardeners are just mad scientists with too much patience.

Another thing that became abundantly clear is that flower farming is not just one business. It is at least two, and sometimes three to four businesses. Honing in on a proper business model, like all else in growing plants, is like creating your own unique recipe. The first part of the business model that every flower farm has in common is the actual farm. Growing flowers, or anything for that matter, on a commercial scale is a skilled craft that takes a lot of management. Once the flowers are grown and cut is where the different models come in to play, and picking the right one can make or break the overall business!

When most people hear “flower farm” I think that they imagine a field of sunflowers or tulips, in some sort of “you pick” scenario. This is a very common model of flower farming, and certainly one that cuts out a lot of the work for the farmer. The seeds are sown, and once the flowers are in bloom the field is open for customers to come and pick them. This means the farmer does not have to harvest any flowers, nor spend time making arrangements. The downside here is that there are people in your rows of flowers! A lot of farmers are not keen on the idea of people, ones that know nothing about flower beds, stomping around their fields. Not to mention most flower farms are located on a private property where the farmer likely has a home as well. There are also legalities and insurance to consider when inviting the public on to your property. My husband and I were not sold on this model. Maybe one day, if things could be set up properly to make us comfortable, yet until then we are happy to keep our rows of flowers to us farmers.

The next fairly simple and straightforward model is to sell flowers wholesale. This means either directly to a wholesale distributor or to a florist. Again, this takes some work away from the farmer. While in this model the farmer still needs to harvest and condition the flowers, the arranging is left to others. This can be a great model for those that are really only in it for the growing part. However, the ease of this model does mean that you are paying for it in the way of charging less for your flowers. Wholesale prices are just that. Many farmers can make this work by growing extensive amounts of a specific, usually a specialty, cut flower. This requires a lot of space, as well as farm equipment such as a tractor. While at Hive Five Farm we have the space, we do not have the farming equipment. Nor are we masters at large scale commercial farming. Investing in such large costs and risks right at the onset of our business is not something we are comfortable with. For those reasons we are most likely not going the whole sale route. This doesn’t mean that we would shy away from selling to local florists though!

From here there are an assortment of business models that usually seem to be a mix and match for flower farmers, each finding what works for them. These models all include arranging flowers in some form, and that labor is one of the reasons their flowers cost more! Weddings, events, farmer’s markets, farm stands, and CSA bouquet subscriptions are among the ways that many farmer florists find their niche business model in the cut flower world. These are the business models that interest me the most, as I need a creative outlet! Seeing the completion of the flower growing process is something that I crave. For me, that process is complete once the flowers are arranged in a beautiful way, to be enjoyed before their inevitable death. While I have no official training in floral arranging in any way, I am a wonderful student with pretty great creative and artistic instincts. For these reasons I am very confident in my abilities to create gorgeous bouquets!

While each of these farmer florist models have their own appeal, and would certainly fulfill me creatively, it is not realistic to try and attempt all of them. This is where the unique recipe comes in to play again. I can cultivate the best business model by looking around my area and seeing who my customers could be, and what the market is there. I also need to remember that I’m growing these flowers out of a passion, and that needs to be present in the arranging as well. This business is of course about earning a living, but the idea is to do so in a relaxed and joyful way. If loading up my suburban every weekend to spend a hot full day at a farmers market, either with my children or leaving them behind, is what it takes to be successful in our area then my family and I will likely be unhappy. So honing in on what works for me creatively, and logistically, is where I need to be in my business approach.

So while my husband and I have, at least for now, decided against farmer’s markets, we’ve essentially kept our business approach open to all other outlets. Weddings would probably be the most creatively fulfilling, as it’s taking an entire vision and carrying it out. From my research, however, it seems weddings are about as time consuming for your weekends as markets. The difference here is the payout! A wedding is paid in advance, while at the market you may come home with unsold bouquets. So while we’re not going to advertise for weddings specifically this first growing season, we’d like to keep the business open to events or even some small, low pressure, country chic weddings. So to start out, when it comes to weddings and events we’re keeping an eye out for opportunities to grow a portfolio of amazing floral work. This takes time, but we all have to start somewhere.

As we’re building that section of the business, we decided on a road side farm stand that will also run a CSA bouquet subscription program. This will hopefully create a steady stream of profit while looking out for the larger event work. The farm stand was a surprisingly easy decision to come to. For starters, we have a long driveway that runs over two creeks, each with a tree line. This means our home and private barn and pastures are all shielded from the road. The invasion of privacy that can sometimes come with inviting people to your property for business is mostly negated with the distance and barriers. We also have a very inviting entrance with large poles that each display an American flag, and some entry way farm fencing. Our entrance gives just enough space to fit a small farm stand and a couple of cars, all a half mile away from our home and out sight! The best part- our road is used as a cut through between two major highways, making it a highly trafficked road in a rural area. So, farm stand it is! Another bonus that the universe saw fit to hand us is the fact that the we already have a “farm stand” built. The previous owners of our property had a bonfire area, and built a small platform nearby with a roof, and a quaint little country window, to keep all of their grilling out essentials. It’s been slowly leaning from neglect and the flooding that occurs in that area of the property, but otherwise it’s in great condition. Just a bit of TLC, and moving it up to the road, will make it the sweetest little road side flower stand!

The plan is to market heavily for the road side stand, and more specifically the subscription program. The anxiety of the unknown number of customers, and therefore bouquets and therefore flowers, is a lot of pressure for a first year grower. Flowers, sadly, do not last forever and if you don’t sell them you can’t just bank on the next day- the flowers will eventually die. Not to mention we’re marketing FRESH flowers. So we’ve decided that it would be nice to try and aim for a number of subscriptions, a guaranteed place to sell the flowers. There’s still a bit of logistics to work out, such as pick up times and pricing tiers, and will we offer delivery? However, there’s still a bit of time to work that all out! We’ve honed in on our business model about as precisely as we could at this point in time. As is the theme with most of my conclusions; we could always change our mind and go a different route. If we aren’t finding the customers, or the right customers, or we’re finding that the avenues are closed this way yet open another way, we’ll pivot. Our first year is about going for it and then reflecting. Then repeat, every year. That’s how we’ll build our hive!



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