A dried flower business plan is a plan for selling a summer all year round. Strawflower, statice, gomphrena, lavender and grasses are grown and harvested from June to September, hung to dry, and kept in bunches, so the barn is full in autumn and the stock has to last until the next harvest. Unlike fresh flowers, nothing has to sell this week, which is what makes the business work, and what makes counting the bunches matter. In the example below, a flower farm in Oklahoma sells dried bouquets, bud vase arrangements, wreaths and single-variety bunches to florists, and ends a year about $23,800 ahead on $78,900 of sales, with every hour paid at $18. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.
The short version
- Describe the farm in a paragraph: the flowers, where they sell, the goals.
- Cost each product from the field up: harvesting and drying time, bought-in accents, arranging, wrap, fees.
- The field's costs are fixed; plan them across the year.
- Bouquets and wreaths earn the most; bunches for florists turn the harvest into cash.
- Count the dried stock by variety, by the bunch, so the harvest lasts until the next one.
- Date each harvest, so the oldest bunches sell first, before they fade.
- TaroStack keeps the dried stock by variety and bunch, each harvest as a lot, and bouquets as recipes. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Cimarron Everlasting Flower Farm, a made-up dried flower farm near Guthrie, Oklahoma, I use in these examples, writes:
Cimarron Everlasting Flower Farm grows strawflower, statice, gomphrena, lavender and ornamental grasses on two acres, dries them in its own shed, and sells bouquets, bud vases and wreaths at markets and online, and single-variety bunches to florists and shops across Oklahoma. Its aim is a harvest that sells out by the next June.
Part 2: what each product costs
| Per unit | Bouquet | Bud vase | Wreath, 14 inch | Bunch for florists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvesting, hanging and drying at $18 an hour | $4.50 (15 min) | $1.50 (5 min) | $6.00 (20 min) | $3.60 (12 min) |
| Bought-in accents, vase or frame | $3.00 | $5.00 | $3.00 | |
| Arranging or making at $18 an hour | $6.00 (20 min) | $3.00 (10 min) | $22.50 (75 min) | |
| Wrap, ribbon, box or sleeve | $1.20 | $0.40 | $3.00 | $0.30 |
| Delivery, its share | $0.30 | |||
| Selling fees: 6% direct, 3% to florists | $2.28 | $1.68 | $5.10 | $0.36 |
| Variable cost | $16.98 | $11.58 | $39.60 | $4.56 |
The flowers themselves cost nothing in the table, because the field, seeds and weeding are paid whatever the harvest brings; they're the fixed costs. How to price handmade work from materials and time is in how to price handmade items.
Part 3: customers and prices
| Product | Price | Variable cost | Contribution | Margin | In October |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dried flower bouquet, direct | $38.00 | $16.98 | $21.02 | 55.3% | 80 |
| Bud vase arrangement | $28.00 | $11.58 | $16.42 | 58.6% | 60 |
| Dried flower wreath, 14 inch | $85.00 | $39.60 | $45.40 | 53.4% | 25 |
| Single-variety bunch to florists and shops | $12.00 | $4.56 | $7.44 | 62.0% | 150 |
In October the bouquets bring $1,682 of the $4,918 of contribution, the wreaths $1,135, the bunches $1,116 and the bud vases $985. A bunch for a florist takes twelve minutes and no arranging, so it earns about $37 an hour on top of the wage, more than any arrangement; florists and shops are the steady way to turn a full barn into cash. Wholesale pricing is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.
Part 4: the year, month by month
Fixed costs are $1,755 every month: field rent, seeds and plugs averaged ($350), field work, weeding and watering, averaged ($800), drying shed power and upkeep ($120), market fees ($200), insurance ($60), the website ($40), ads ($150), and software and card fees ($35). Month 1 is January; this is a year once the field is producing:
| Month | Bouquets | Bud vases | Wreaths | Bunches | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 40 | 30 | 13 | 75 | $4,365 | $727 | $727 |
| Feb | 56 | 42 | 18 | 105 | $6,094 | $1,710 | $2,437 |
| Mar | 48 | 36 | 15 | 90 | $5,187 | $1,196 | $3,632 |
| Apr | 56 | 42 | 18 | 105 | $6,094 | $1,710 | $5,343 |
| May | 64 | 48 | 20 | 120 | $6,916 | $2,179 | $7,522 |
| Jun | 48 | 36 | 15 | 90 | $5,187 | $1,196 | $8,718 |
| Jul | 48 | 36 | 15 | 90 | $5,187 | $1,196 | $9,913 |
| Aug | 56 | 42 | 18 | 105 | $6,094 | $1,710 | $11,623 |
| Sep | 72 | 54 | 23 | 135 | $7,823 | $2,694 | $14,317 |
| Oct | 80 | 60 | 25 | 150 | $8,645 | $3,163 | $17,480 |
| Nov | 80 | 60 | 25 | 150 | $8,645 | $3,163 | $20,643 |
| Dec | 80 | 60 | 25 | 150 | $8,645 | $3,163 | $23,805 |
The year's sales are $78,882 and the profit $23,805, with every hour paid at $18. Autumn and the holidays are the biggest months, with Valentine's Day and Mother's Day bumps in spring. The harvest is in the barn from September, so the stock is highest just as the busy months start. How to plan stock around a season is in seasonal inventory.
Part 5: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Drying racks, dehumidifier and fans | $1,200 |
| Seeds, plugs and bulbs, first season | $900 |
| Drip irrigation and landscape fabric | $1,500 |
| Harvest tools and buckets | $300 |
| Vases, wreath frames and wrap, first stock | $800 |
| Market tent and display | $600 |
| Website and photos | $900 |
| Working cash | $3,000 |
| Total to start | $9,200 |
A new farm's first season is mostly growing, with little to sell until the first harvest is dry. Once the field is producing, the $6,200 spent before working cash is earned back by May of its first full year.
Get the template
Download the dried flower business plan workbook. Four sheets: your bouquets, vases, wreaths and bunches with price, variable cost and October's volume; the year, month by month, with sales, profit and cash, and month 1 set to January; your fixed costs; and your startup budget with working cash. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Thirty varieties and colors hanging in a shed, harvested over four months, bunches of statice from June and from August, bouquets and wreaths made from a dozen of them, and florists ordering by the bunch. A notebook can't say how many bunches of the apricot strawflower are left for December's wreaths, or which bunches are oldest. Keeping stock like this counted is in raw materials inventory example.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the dried stock by variety and bunch, each harvest as a lot, and bouquets as recipes.
Each harvest a lot. Each variety's harvest is received as a lot with its date, and a sell-by date you choose, and counted by the bunch, so the June statice and the August statice stay apart, and the picking list sends the earliest dates first.
Bouquets and wreaths as recipes. A bouquet is a recipe of so many bunches of each variety, a wrap and a ribbon, so making bouquets takes them off stock, with the minutes recorded, and "what could I make right now" says how many wreaths the apricot strawflower on hand allows.
Florists' orders. Each florist's order is a sales order, with one picking list for the week, and the dried stock is counted on a phone in the shed, even with no signal.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Bunches of each variety | Count the racks | Stock by the bunch |
| June statice before August's | Remember to | Each harvest a lot, oldest first |
| Enough for December's wreaths? | Check every color | What could I make right now |
| Counting in the shed | Pen and paper | A phone, even with no signal |
Lots, recipes, counting and sales orders are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.