Jenny (00:29)
I am getting really real with you today as I share some quite uncomfortable, inconvenient, and maybe some harsh truths with you about becoming a flower farm business owner. And I'm not saying not to become a flower farm business owner. Nothing I say in this episode is meant to be discouraging. I'm just trying to be really truthful and honest about what it really takes to be a successful flower farm business owner.
And I decided to do an episode about this because I was actually coaching inside of my online business program for small scale flower farmers. And one woman asked if it was all going to be worth it. Like she had heard from other flower farmers that she would have to work 60 hour weeks in the beginning and work really hard, long hours for years in order to build a successful and have a profitable flower farm. And she was.
genuinely concerned about this and said, I don't think it would be worth it. And so the answer to her question is different for everyone, but I wanted to do an episode about this because it occurred to me that if this person is asking this question, probably a lot of other people are wondering it too. So I just kind of wanted to address some of the.
misconceptions around starting a business and shed some light on this topic as it's not really talked about that often. I also feel really passionate about this topic. so I'm really excited to talk about it today. A lot of people on Instagram are trying to sell you flower farming courses or give you flower farming advice, and they're going to try to make it seem like flower farming is like this idyllic
beautiful leisurely business idea, like flower farming is a dream. There's fresh blooms and beautiful rolling hills of flowers and you you get the joy of working in nature. And while that is true, like it is true, there's also this whole other reality to it.
But behind the picturesque Instagram posts is a different reality. Flower farming is hard work and starting a flower farm business is a whole different ball game. Farming is amazing. I might like at the risk of sounding contradictory here, I love farming. I love flower farming more than anything in the world. I am beyond thankful and appreciative that this is my career. Like I get to do this as my job.
And I love doing it for a living. I'm obsessed with it. Clearly I have a podcast about it where I talk about it every single week all the time, but it's not all rainbows and butterflies. So if you're a farmer that has been farming for a while and you know this, right? You know that it's hard. Maybe this episode will help validate some of your feelings that you've been having. But if you're somebody who's just kind of starting out, hopefully this episode will be really helpful and getting you adjusted to the reality of.
starting a business, having a business, and being a business owner in the flower farming industry. So.
as I share these inconvenient truths with you. Like this is not popular thing to say. All these things are not popular to say, and I'm not trying to discourage anyone from becoming a flower farmer because I love it, but everyone's business journey is different. so before we dive in here, this is just a really important piece.
If you're kind of half listening, come back to me for this piece of it, okay?
I know I say this all the time, but this, what I talk about today was my experience and what is most people's experience, but not everyone's. All right. So if you're considering turning your passion for flowers into a business or you already have one, but you're feeling like it's way harder than you thought and is taking way longer than you expected. Like here are some truths you need to know before diving in or we'll validate what you are feeling.
So truth number one, time is a big factor. It will probably take longer than you think. No matter what your experience level is, your skills, where you live, your location or opportunities, there is really one universal factor that is true for every single entrepreneur. Achieving your goals is going to take time.
There's no such thing as an overnight success, despite what viral Instagram accounts want you to think. Like if you aren't reaching your goals fast enough, just know that none of us move as fast as we want to in business. Modern business culture is really obsessed with like high speed and quick growth, but in my experience, more and faster isn't always better. It takes time to learn the industry, to build your soil health, to establish perennials, to refine your growing techniques.
to build an audience, like this stuff just literally takes time. You will likely spend a few seasons just experimenting before you find the right mix of flowers, sales outlets, systems, and customers that make your business profitable. So you're gonna just expect.
delays and setbacks, like patience is key here. It's just, it's going to take you longer than you probably think. Right. A lot of flower farmers assume, they kind of assume one or two things that one, they'll be making money in the first year or two. And while that can definitely happen, like the reality for most people is that it's different building infrastructure, improving your soil, like building an audience. You.
might need to reinvest profits for several years before seeing a sustainable income. Right. And on the flip side of things, other people think that if they started a flower farming business, they're never going to make money. They're going to be like seven or 10 years in still struggling. And like, I would say neither of those things are true. It usually falls somewhere in the middle. Okay. it's probably in most likelihood, it's going to take you a few years to like really become truly profitable.
And this is not unique to flower farming, you guys, like really not. This is the case with any business. Most people who start small businesses, like a coffee shop or a mechanic shop or a bakery, like most of them take out huge loans ahead of time to build up the infrastructure they need, start the business, know, hire the people and then open and then hope that they make enough money to pay that back pretty quickly. In other cases, people start small businesses.
continually reinvest their profits without taking out a loan until they make enough profit and they're established enough where they can start paying themselves more. So no matter what scenario you're in, like both scenarios, it's just gonna take time to get established and have consistent cashflow and like it's just gonna take time. And I actually think that this delayed gratification is a skill that not that many people have anymore.
I think delayed gratification, which is, know, the ability to resist an immediate reward in favor of some like larger, more meaningful reward is, you know, something that's hard for people to do. So if you can do that, you're going to be better in the longterm.
This is about patience, self-control, and long-term thinking. Truth number two is that it requires hard work and sacrifice. Now this may sound obvious to some of you, but it also might be a shock to others. know, growing flowers, it's not just about the pretty bouquets. It is about usually some long days in the field, hauling heavy buckets of water around.
planting on your hands and knees, weeding and harvesting. And oftentimes you will have to do these things in extreme weather. So hopefully you probably know that already, but like I've harvested flowers in freezing conditions, downpouring rains, extreme heat waves and everything in between. like, obviously we try to avoid that whenever possible, but it's not always possible. So in the beginning,
When you are starting a business, you know, it's, it's going to take hard work and sacrifice. You'll likely have to make significant sacrifices, whether it's your sleep or your social life or financial stability. Like every decision you make in life comes with trade-offs and you need to be prepared for the reality of that. So I've talked about it before on the podcast, but when I started my business, I had a full-time job working for the government. I did not have a sugar daddy to take care of me.
or like a rich uncle to borrow money from. If you do, that's awesome. I'm happy for you. Wasn't the case for me. Isn't the case for most people. I had to pay my bills and my mortgage, like while I got my flower farm off the ground. So I went to my full-time job and I worked early mornings, late nights, every weekend. It was hard, but it was worth it. Cause after a few years I had built...
A fairly successful flower farm and I built a profitable flower farm without ever going into debt. So I was able to quit that job and farm full time. Like I now get to be my own boss. work outside doing what I love. And obviously that comes with its own challenges too. But the point I'm trying to make here is that that time delay and hard work and sacrifices were worth it for me. It was not easy. Like it's now been years and years later and my boss.
that I had at the time at my government job, who actually became one my very good friends and also happens to be into flower farming. Like if you're listening, Hey, grace. But she told me during that time when I was working my far farm and the full time government job, she was like, I, I felt bad for you because I felt like you had these huge bags under your eyes and you always looked exhausted and just seemed like you were like burnt out all the time and overwhelmed. And it's like.
Because I was like, that's just the reality of that season of my life. But for me, like it was worth it. people have a lot hesitations when they hear that it's going to require extra long days, hard work, sacrifices and trade-offs. But I really just think that when you start a business, those early years,
I like going back to college. Like for example, one of my good friends who's been a high school teacher for the past 12 years really wants a change. She's not happy with her job. She wants to go back to college or school to be a nurse. So she understands that if she does that, she's going to have to make significant sacrifices in terms of time and hard work, like probably not having that much of an income for a few years, leaning on her husband for support both.
personally and financially, but she's doing that knowing that the end result will be worth it for her. She will eventually have a career she is passionate about. In her case, will earn more money. She will enjoy her lifestyle. She'll have better work-life balance or whatever. She'll like her life better, you know. So people make sacrifices in terms of time and hard work and trade-offs all the time.
But usually it's in that sort of context, like not starting their own business. So basically if you're starting your own business, you're going to have to put in your tuition one way or another.
Those first few years is just like a massive learning opportunity. All right. Truth number three, you will probably suck at first. Sorry, sorry, but it's the truth. There is a very steep learning curve. Like, and that's not a reason to not do it. Even if you have a green thumb, like flower farming at a business scale is a completely different challenge. You will probably kill a lot of plants at first. Like.
We all did, we all do. It's just the way it is. You're gonna fail a lot. And it's okay to suck at first. Like everyone sucks at things they've never done before. Like when I was younger, know, much younger, feels like a different lifetime ago, I really got into fitness.
I used to have my own nutrition consulting business. was like a personal trainer and CrossFit coach. And when I first started doing that, when I first started lifting weights and fitness, like I sucked at it. I sucked at lifting weights. I tore my right trap trying to do this like crazy weight lifting stuff. And, but then over time, like I learned and I got better and I practiced and I like came, got pretty good at it. And I'm not going to say really good, but I was like, I would say above average. Okay. But good enough where I could do.
coaching and get paid for it and help other people do it. And so it's like, anytime you start something new, you're going to suck at it at first. And that's okay. Just accept that you're going to kill a lot of plants and you're going to make mistakes. And that's all a part of it. Right? Again, you're putting in your tuition, you're learning a lot and you're growing and eventually you'll get it and you'll get good at it. Truth number four is that a lot of things will be out of your control.
and you have to accept it. Nature is unpredictable. Mother nature is not a great person to work with, like worst coworker ever. And you just can't control everything. Working with living things, it's just like, it's just the way it is. Most flowers are not programmable. Like you can't plant them and tell them exactly when to bloom. All right, well some flowers you can do that with, but like lilies and tulips, but most of them you can't.
Every single year is different. have years where you have early frosts, heat waves, drought, too much water, pests, disease. Like this is all unpredictable stuff. And you have to learn to get comfortable working within those unpredictable parameters. No matter how well you plan, there's always going to be factors that are just beyond your control that like will directly impact your business and your income. And that's hard.
for a lot of people, especially if you're a type A person like me, who likes to have everything planned to a T. But like over time, like I've really gotten comfortable with this. So successful flower farmers learn to adapt and pivot and basically just accept losses and things that are, things are gonna happen that are not in your control. This is just part of the game. So resilience and perseverance is essential here.
along with just accepting things that you can't control. Inconvenient truth number six is that marketing matters as much as learning to grow flowers. Being an excellent grower doesn't guarantee success. Selling what you grow is just as important, if not, in my opinion, more important. I say this all the time, but you could have the most beautiful flowers in the world.
But if you don't have the skills to manage your business effectively, like have good financial management, sell them, market them, you're going nowhere fast, right? So learning to manage the business operations, build a brand, create a loyal customer base, and setting the right prices, all this business management stuff is crucial to make a living from Flower Farms.
And a lot of flower farmers struggle with this because they don't prioritize learning the business side of things or marketing, which is why I am here and why this podcast exists. Like side note, I really, so I started teaching this stuff years ago. I just had a blog where I wrote about it. Like, I don't know, a long time ago, started doing workshops and then this podcast and then the business courses, because I felt like
There wasn't any good information on this and that flower farmers deserved better. They were suffering because they didn't know this stuff and they weren't putting it into practice and they needed this information to thrive. Like I was truly unhappy with the options out there. So I decided to just teach it myself because this is the truth. You have to learn how to run a business just as much as you need to learn how to grow quality flowers. Moving on to
Inconvenient harsh truth number seven is that the physical labor that comes with flower farming is no joke. Flower farming is demanding on your body. There's long hours on your feet, lots of repetitive movements, heavy lifting, exposure to the elements, like lots of time in the sun. It can be challenging if you're not used to that.
So prioritizing things like proper ergonomics and efficient systems are really essential for long-term sustainability. And so I love the physical aspect of farming, or at least like most of it. There's some backbreaking stuff that we try to really avoid and mechanize so we can avoid that backbreaking labor of like digging up Dalia tubers or physically flipping beds and stuff like that.
but I love being physical for the most part, but like I grew up farming and so I feel like that's like ingrained in me a little bit. I grew up throwing hay every summer, like hauling heavy pumpkins every fall. My parents were hay and pumpkin farmers. You know, I milked cows. was super active kid who always did physical labor on farms. So like, I love it. But if, you know, a lot of people don't come from that background can really struggle with this. So
understanding that you really have to take care of yourself and take care of your the long haul and order for this to be a sustainable career for you. Moving on to truth. Number eight, you'll need to shift your mindset from an employee mindset to a CEO mindset.
So if you've always worked for somebody else, you might unknowingly sort of have like this employee mindset. You might be used to structures and maybe not like directly being told to do all the time, like maybe yes, maybe not, but having very clear expectations around what's expected of you, like around your roles and your responsibilities. And so if you've never owned a business before,
And all of a sudden you get thrown into being CEO and you're in charge of everything. Like you're in charge of your time, your life, maybe other people's time in lives. If maybe not lives, but other people's time, if you have employees and stuff, which you probably will at some point, like it can be a lot. It's, it's definitely like a big mindset shift. So it's truly a time where you become a hundred percent responsible for yourself and everything in your life. Like there's no more bosses.
or employers to lean on for support. So you need to have self motivation and self accountability because no one's going to do the work for you and you got to do it yourself. And so my dad was actually really funny when I quit my government job to work on the farm full time. He was like, he kind of laughed and he was like, man, I think you're kind of crazy because I don't think I could ever work for myself. I would just lay around watching TV, eating bonbons all day and like,
have not having the boss crack the whip at me and he was joking and my dad is a very self motivated hardworking man. But I think that's true for a lot of people when they don't have somebody kind of like leaning over their shoulder all the time. It's easy to get lost in like the everyday minutia kind of things and not really prioritize and working on tasks that are really moving the needle for the business and doing the things you have to do as a CEO, like learning business skills to move your business forward.
So there's also this piece of having somewhat unpredictable, uneven income. Generally, in most cases, when you work for somebody else and you have a job, you pretty much just get a paycheck every week,
no matter how hard you work or how lazy you are. And okay, I know that varies a lot from job to job, but like in my experience, if I didn't work that hard in my government job, like I got paid the same, didn't really matter. That will not fly when you own your own business. You're really in charge of the revenue and the income that you bring in and you get to make that decision. Like you get to decide how much money you make, how much it is, how little it is, and that's truly all it is.
You might not have this super steady paycheck, like super steady cashflow. and it might take some time to get used to that and figure out how to manage that. And I can help you do that too, flower farming is traditionally a seasonal business and depending on your climate, where you are or how you run your business, there's a lot of things you can do to earn money during the off season. You can grow flowers, sell them all year. You could also do things like.
have deli tuber sales or forced tulips or sell your CSAs in the winter. Like there's a bunch of things you can do, but to have more predictable cashflow, but chances are at first it's going to take a little bit. and your cashflow might be like a little all over the place. So as a business owner, you have to carefully manage that. And again, that's something I can help you do. That's what I teach in my courses, but you know, your flower farm.
also doesn't pause for like long weekend breaks or family vacations or when tragic things happen in your life. With a job, you can kind of put that on hold, but not really with a business. Like the flowers don't stop blooming just because you want to go away for a long weekend. Like they still probably need to be harvested at some point. Okay. And that was not a great example because we generally don't harvest flowers on the weekend, but
The whole point I'm trying to make here is it's harder to walk away from your business when you own it rather than when you just have a job. And I will say that at some point, like at some point in your business ownership, you should reach a point where you can step away from the business pretty easily if you learn how to manage your business properly and you have good systems and a good team and place. Okay. I feel like I'm there in my business right now.
Like I can pretty easily step away from the farm at pretty much any point in the, and things will be taken care of, but that was not the case for me for a long time. so it just takes time as well. So mostly what this comes down to is just making a big mindset shift from that employee mindset to CEO mindset and looking at things in a way where you can put systems into place to make things run smoothly.
and to have all those check boxes marked.
Moving on to our pent ultimate truth, which means second to last. Not sure why I just said that, just popped into my brain. But anyways, truth number nine is that work-life balance might be a consistent struggle. So I think that this is something that you'll kind of always be like playing around with like a little bit. So generally,
in the beginning when you're getting your business started and getting it off the ground, you're probably not gonna have that much balance. Like in most people's cases, not everyone's case, but most people's scenarios, you're just gonna be working a lot more and there's gonna be less of that work-life balance. Hopefully, through the things that I can teach you, you can start off better than other people.
by learning how to run your business effectively and putting boundaries in place and putting systems in place. Like that's gonna help you a lot to have more of that work-life balance. But in general, when you're starting off, like you're gonna be working a lot to get it off the ground. I also gonna throw in here, like it's not the case for everyone. I know flower farmers who have gone through my courses or have like started their businesses with previous.
experience, knowing exactly what they wanted to do, knowing exactly who their customers were going to be. And they got started and like really blew up fast without having a ton of that work life imbalance. so it's cool to see my students getting those results and seeing other flower farmers do that. But in a lot of cases, like that work life balance is going to be a little off kilter at first. And also flower farming is generally seasonal. Like those peak months can be kind of intense.
If you are not careful, the farm will consume your life, making it really hard for you to find time for yourself and your family. Like there will never be nothing to do on a farm. Never ever, ever has there been nothing to do on a farm.
So it's important to set boundaries in place, especially after a while. Like when my business was pretty established, I was working full time. I had to set some boundaries for myself to create that work life balance for myself. And I think this is something I want to talk about more in future podcast episodes, like how to create work life balance and setting some of those boundaries in place. But you know, it just took me a little while to figure that out.
And I also just think that there's going to be seasons in your life where you have more work life balance and less work life balance. Like there have been times in my life where I had zero work life balance and I just worked all the time. And then there've been other times in my life when I felt like I had really good balance. And then I had a family that I had a kid. And now I feel like my entire life is either work or being a mom, which I love being a mom. It's, the best thing ever, but I don't have any time for myself. And so I think that
This is just like a part of life is that this work-life balance thing is like always gonna be a work in progress. Like you're always gonna be tweaking it as you move through your life and seasons in your business and seasons in your life. like, I think that's just kind of the way life is, you know? I don't know, this is just how it is.
And then finally, this is not so much a harsh truth, but my final truth to share with you is that despite the challenges, it can be really incredibly amazing and rewarding. So while flower farming is tough, it's also one of the most fulfilling careers for those who love working outside with nature,
you know, creating beauty, doing physical labor, and connecting with their community. The key to success is really like resilience, perseverance, smart business decisions, and the ability to learn and adapt. Like I said before, I love flower farming. It's the most rewarding vocation I could ever think of for me. And so all these truths that I just mentioned,
None of these are reasons to not pursue a career in flower farming. In fact, these are the things that make it so rewarding and fulfilling. I've never done anything in my life that has been easy, that's felt rewarding or fulfilling. Like that's not how it works. You know that. Nothing in your life that has been incredibly rewarding or fulfilling has been a breeze, right?
If you're having like a special celebration of some kind and you're having like your best friends over and you love cooking, let's just say this, an example, like if you go grab pizza and ice cream from the grocery store and serve it at this like special celebration, like it's probably not going to feel that rewarding and fulfilling versus if you sit down and you plan out the most perfect five course meal and you research all the recipes and you go buy like the
perfect ingredients and you spend all this time cooking it and you serve it to your friends on this like beautiful table. And then your friends who come to the celebration are floored at how beautiful and delicious it is. And they just comment to you about how incredible the meal is and the time and the atmosphere and yada yada like that is going to feel so much more rewarding and fulfilling than if you just like got pizza.
And I'm not, by the way, I'm the person who serves pizza every time people come over, but this is a great analogy, right? Just like farming, life's most fulfilling rewards don't come easy. They take time and effort and persistence and perseverance and hard work. So imagine standing at the base of a tall mountain, looking up at the peak. Like if you could instantly teleport to the top.
You might enjoy the view for a moment, but it wouldn't feel nearly as satisfying as if you climbed it yourself. Like if you could snap your fingers and have instant flowers without all the work, they really wouldn't carry the same sense of pride and accomplishment. The struggle is what makes the beauty so rewarding. So none of these harsh or inconvenient truths, whatever we want to call them, that I shared with you today are meant to be discouraging,
or get you down or anything like that. I really am not trying to be like that. It's just simply to talk about the truth of what's generally required when you're growing or scaling a business. So you need to be prepared. My intention with this episode is to prepare you for this or to at least validate your feelings that if you've been doing this for a while and it feels really hard, it's hard for everyone. It really is. It's hard for all of us.
And so finally, just one last bonus tip I want to leave you with here is that I don't want you to compare yourself to other people. Comparison is truly the thief of joy. And I have a really hard time doing this. I am, I know I'm overly hard on myself and I'm overly sensitive and I have a hard time not comparing myself to other people. So don't think I have like this all figured out too, cause I don't, but
You don't know someone else's story. You don't know what's going on behind the scenes. If someone else that like maybe started around the same time of you or even if they didn't and they seemingly look so successful from the outside or on Instagram, just remember there are so many things under the surface and you have no idea what's going on. Social media is just a highlight reel and even like in real life, you don't know what's going on, okay?
I recently toured a very big, very famous farm on Instagram. I'm not going to say who it is, but behind the scenes, this farm was not really making any money. Like the owner was not paying themselves. It's just like, it just goes to show you that what you see is not always reality. And so this is why I am sharing these.
truths with you because they really are truths for most people. Okay. So to wrap up here, if you are willing to embrace these hard truths, you're going to be much better prepared to build a flower farm that thrives. Knowing and understanding this is just going to help you immensely if you can just accept it. So hopefully y'all don't hate me for just trying to keep it real. I don't sugar coat things. I don't try to be discouraging, but like, I'm not ever going to lie to you.
or try to be misleading. So that's it for today. Thank you for joining me for another episode of the Six Figure Flower Farming Podcast. If you enjoyed this podcast, got any value out of it at all, I would really appreciate if you could just leave a quick positive review for us on Spotify or Apple or wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. Those reviews are super helpful to help other flower farmers
find this information that they need. So if you can help me on my mission and helping everyone grow a profitable and sustainable flower farm, I would appreciate it so much. And if you've already left a review, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I really appreciate it. So that's it for today. Happy farming. I'll see you next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.
