Live Q&A: Pricing Stems, CSA Growth, and Simple Marketing (SFFF75)
Ever wish you could raise your hand at market and ask a flower farmer how to grow sales without growing burnout? This week I pulled back the curtain with a recorded live Q&A where we talked about smart investments, pricing, crop planning, and the marketing moves that actually move the needle. I started my farm with almost nothing, so my advice always begins with what will give you traction fast and help you stay in business long enough to love it.
The truth is simple. Profitable flower farms are built on knowing your numbers, matching your offers to real demand, and repeating what works. You do not need a giant footprint or endless time. You need clarity on costs, a clear sales channel, and a repeatable marketing rhythm that brings customers back again and again.
Where To Invest First On A Small Flower Farm
Start with your biggest constraint to growth. If you cannot produce reliably, invest in infrastructure that fixes that bottleneck. For me, a used greenhouse frame off Craigslist plus new plastic transformed seed starting quality and volume. Better seedlings meant more stems to sell and fewer headaches.
If production is fine but revenue is not, direct some of that profit into marketing. The right spend depends on your outlet. A farmers market grower may prioritize an email system and a simple landing page while a wholesaler may focus on consistent availability lists and relationships. Investments should reduce friction and increase either output or sales.
Quick checks before you spend:
Will this purchase remove a weekly bottleneck or create more of them
Can I tie this cost to a clear increase in stems or sales within one season
If you’re ready to take the guesswork out of flower farming and finally build a business that pays you what you deserve, my Six Figure Flower Farming Course was created for you. Inside, I walk you through every system I use to run a profitable, sustainable farm—from understanding your costs and pricing for profit to creating marketing funnels that actually work. You’ll get step-by-step lessons, spreadsheets, and real-world strategies to help you grow faster and smarter. Enrollment opens November 4–13, 2025, and this is the last time to join for lifetime access before we move to a new model. Learn more and save your spot at trademarkfarmer.com/enroll
Find Your Niche And Price For Profit
Test different outlets, then choose the one that is both easy to sell and clearly profitable. Add up every expense that touches that outlet. Labor to harvest and build, sleeves and bands, market fees, tolls and fuel, point of sale fees, and the hours you stand under the tent. Compare those totals to revenue and let the data pick your focus.
Pricing begins with costs. If a tulip stem truly costs you two dollars to grow, the price must be higher than that or you are paying customers to take flowers home. Costs look different for different systems. Fast trench planting with bulk bulbs and simple handling lowers labor per stem. Meticulous hand planting with extra inputs raises it. Track your own reality and set prices that protect your margin.
Tools that help:
Crop expense record sheet to log labor, inputs, and overhead for a single crop
Weekly sales record by crop to see which flowers and outlets create profit
Crop Planning That Starts With Sales
Garden thinking starts with what you want to grow. Business thinking starts with what you need to sell. Project revenue by outlet first, then back into stems and plants. If April requires one hundred bunches of tulips at ten stems each, you need about one thousand saleable stems plus a small buffer for losses.
Do the same math for zinnias, ranunculus, lisianthus, and every core crop. When you plan from sales, you buy the right amount of seed and bulbs, you free up cash, and you stop composting profit. Overproduction feels abundant, but it quietly drains time, money, and energy you need for marketing and rest.
Simple sequence:
Set monthly sales targets by outlet
Convert targets into bunch counts and stems
Translate stems into plant counts and bed feet
Marketing In Small Towns And Big Results
You can sell flowers from anywhere. If your local population is small, borrow audiences. Partner with businesses your ideal customer already visits. Coffee shops, wine bars, higher traffic farm stands, and destination ice cream shops have foot traffic and the right buyer. Offer display flowers, a pick up point, and cross promotion. One yes can unlock your first ten subscriptions.
Track where customers come from. Add a simple question in checkout and use that data to double down. My farm casts a wide net at a strong market, collects emails, and uses limited time bonuses to convert buyers into CSA members. A private farm tour ticket for early renewals, a short video library of care and arranging, and a small market gift card create urgency and real value.
Do this every week:
Spend at least four focused hours on marketing tasks
Grow your email list and send two helpful emails each month
Systems, Scaling, And Sanity
If time is tight, slow growth is not a weakness. It is a strategy. Use constraints to choose the one outlet that pays best and build systems around it. Document simple steps for harvest, packing, market setup, and money handling so a trained team member can run the register while you manage the business. The goal is not to be busy. The goal is to be profitable and present for your life.
When you are ready to scale, add volume where demand already exists. Keep your offer clear, your bonuses time bound, and your capacity honest. It is easier and cheaper to keep a customer than to find a new one, so take care of your subscribers and they will take care of your farm.
Listen To The Full Q&A
If you want the full walk through with examples, stories, and my step by step reasoning, tune in to Episode 75 of the Six Figure Flower Farming Podcast. You will hear exactly how I think about investments, niche, pricing, crop planning from sales, and marketing that feels doable on a real farm schedule. Listen now and start building a profitable flower business you truly love.
