How to Guide on Selling Flowers for Profit

Selling flowers from your backyard, small acreage, or a cooperative of flower growers may sound like only a beautiful career dream to some, but many today live that dream (you can find their real life stories in Resources below), and the demand for flower growers that are small, local and sustainable is growing rapidly. If you're interested in selling flowers for profit such as locally acclimated, native, organic or sustainably produced, heirloom, vintage, exotic, etc., you'll be tapping into a new trend that's moving away from generic chemically created flowers sold in shops, and towards the nation's move towards green, heirloom, native and locally produced. This ehow article shows you the steps for selling flowers for profit.

Instructions

1. 

   Choose your ultimate goal of how selling flowers will work financially for you. Do you want to start out with a business loan and jump in full time? Do you simply want an extra seasonal part time stream of income and no debt from setting up the flower business? Do you want to start very part time with no financing, but work towards full time income?

2. 

   Choose your niche for selling flowers. Though your plan for growing flowers for profit will be tweaked over time, you need to choose a starting point. Reading over these real life stories will get you started in making sure you've covered every possible niche that works for you: One woman earns income year-round by growing native wildflowers for seed and hand-making flower seed gift cards for corporate gifts. Another grows cutting flowers in her backyard spring through fall and puts out a flower cart on a busy corner street, another specializes in wedding flowers, with a one-acre u-pick bridal flower field, and other fields only she harvests for the bridal flower arrangements she sells to wedding parties, another couple with small acreage prefer live, growing flowers, so have created beautiful flower gardens with no formal training which attracts customers to the farm, then while they're there, she sells them flower starts from her greenhouse and dried flower gifts she's crafted over the winter. Others specialize in specific flowers such as sunflowers and lavender - for which they hold festivals during the blooming season to attract customers to buy their flowers direct at full retail prices. Some, as in the woman in the photo on the left, sell at well-established farmers' markets.

3. 

   Learn how to better produce and harvest the flowers for profit sustainably. Established conventional flower producers are already saturating the market, and sell cheap products from poorly paid workers that you can't compete with. Your flower business needs to reach the organic or eco-friendly market. Assuming you already know how to grow flowers at least somewhat, look for even more improvements in your methods, including those that are eco-friendly. Contact your local cooperative extension agent to see if they have any flower growing or organic gardening workshops available. Some agents even put on local workshops for selling flowers for profit. Go to the ATTRA website to see if they have any free materials on how to grow your chosen flower(s) organically or sustainably, and how to harvest and prepare them for sale. It's one thing to cut flowers for your own kitchen table. But a flower delivery service to local restaurants means you've gotten all the "field heat" out of the flowers, you've slitted their stems properly, and certainly all the bugs are gone! There are tried and proven ways to do this, depending on the season and flower type. The above sources should be able to provide the materials for free.

4. 

   Write up a business plan. When selling flowers for profit, you've entered the business world, not just the "field workers" world. The Resources below leads to a link that quickly explains how to write a business plan customized to your business, for free, with an experienced mentor by your side (for free). When writing up the part about promoting your business, add as many ways as you can as to how your business of selling flowers helps the local economy and the environment. Is it a haven for bees, butterflies and hummingbirds? Do you feed it only with your own eco-friendly homemade compost? Do you allow an occasional discount to senior citizens? Do you deliver to local restaurants so they don't have to buy flowers from distant shipments?

5. 

   Practice first. Before jumping into the business, if you first practice, or "pretend" selling flowers for profit, you'll be surprised at the kinks that will be worked out before your reputation is on the line, and how much more confident you'll be when you start taking customers' money. Set out your first flower cart and tell your friends, neighbors, and family they can each come choose and take a free bouquet, then ask for feedback. Note which ones went first and which were left behind. Offer a one day free flower u-cut for the first 10 callers who make an appointment. Have a wedding shop give away one free wedding flower arrangement workshop that you'll offer.

6. Once you're selling flowers for profit as a business, keep your original business plan on your computer, and check and re-tweak it as you gain experience and follow the new trends that will show up down the road.

Tips & Warnings

• Author disclaims liability and offers article for educational purposes only. Parents are responsible for any activities involving their children. Author's articles are registered with the national copyright office and protected with Copyscape

Resources

• Woman who sells flower seeds from backyard
• Couple who sell live flowers and attract customers with flower gardens
• Selling flowers from backyard to small acreage
• Links, profiles and how-tos on backyard to small acreage for-profit farms including flower farms
• Making a custom business plan for selling flowers for profit