Jenny (00:29)
lot of farmers have a spending problem and a planning problem with their money. And I don't mean that in a harsh way. It's just that this is what happens when you are getting a flower farm business off the ground. If you don't know what actually makes money yet, you sometimes end up buying things that feel productive or pretty or necessary, but don't actually move the needle. Hi, my name is Jenny Marks. I have built a multiple six-figure flower farm
growing flowers on less than an acre and I now help other flower farmers stop guessing and actually make money doing this. And this is something I see all the time. Someone who invests first few thousand dollars or honestly people who are years into their flower farm still dumping money back into their flower farm.
But by the end of the season, they're still tired, overwhelmed, and not profitable, or not really much more profitable after spending money on investments in their farm. So today, I'm gonna walk you through exactly how I would spend $5,000 or $10,000 if I was starting over so it actually turns into revenue, not just money you're spending on the business. And as a quick side note,
You may notice my voice is a little bit rough and off today. I have a cold, so I'm a little lower energy than normal, but I'm just gonna power through. As they say, the show must go on, but I apologize for the hoarseness in my voice today.
Now, starting a flower farm business and scaling one, if you're already a few years in, is expensive. There are a lot of expenses associated in this industry. There are a laundry list of tools, equipment, infrastructure, and systems that add up easily to
I mean, depending on the kind of farm, I mean, could be anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000. However, don't be scared off by that because you absolutely do not, and honestly, I don't think should spend all of that upfront to get your business going unless you have like a lot of experience already doing this. So it's something that we need to plan out, right? So I'll let you know.
what I did when I first started my business. I basically created an investment plan by writing down every single thing I needed on the farm. And then I basically ranked them in priority to spend money on them over several years. So for example, some example, flower farm startup expenses obviously include the flower seeds and the land and all.
stuff, you know, your basics, but also a walk-in cooler, absolutely essential. Caterpillar tunnels or high tunnels.
I personally think that if you're growing in a cold climate or in the Northeast, this is an essential tool for farming. Maybe not in like the deep South, but honestly, like I would never ever, ever farm without one. So that was high on my list. ⁓ Seed starting equipment, a tractor or a walk behind tractor, irrigation system.
Row cover frost cloths and hoops for season extension. A backpack sprayer. And this is for applying both fertilizers and doing IPM or integrated pest management stuff. Any fertilizers, compost, amendments or inputs for the soil. Hand tools. So broadfork, wire weeder, shovels, rakes, hose, those kinds of things. And buckets.
and storage spaces. So these were some of the things that were really high on my list when I first started my flower farm and I literally made a list of all of them and I looked up how much each one of them would cost me. And for a lot of this stuff, I looked at used prices and just like rough ideas. like at the time I knew a cooler used was gonna cost me around $3,000 because we're handy DIY people and we could kind of like build it ourselves.
I knew a Caterpillar tunnel was going to cost me used about $1,500. I knew that an irrigation system I couldn't buy used, but we wanted to put in frost free irrigation and basically frost free hydrants in the high tunnels we would have someday. And I knew that was going to cost money. So I just basically went through and made this list and approximately how much money it was going to cost. So I think my list came out to something like $18,000 and obviously.
At the time I did not have $18,000. I was working full time for the government. was making like $27,000 a year. when I started my flower farm, I had already taken the very little retirement savings I had, and I put it towards a down payment on our house and our.
of our land and so like I was broke y'all. I didn't have anything. And so I was like, yeah, this is a lot of money that I'm gonna have to invest in the flower farm. But what are the absolute essentials that I need to start with that I know will make me money right away? So not the nice to haves, not the like pretty things, like not a brand new truck fully wrapped with my new logo that I spent like a $5,000.
thing like branding package for like I didn't do any of that. I was like, what is going to make me money right away?
Jenny (06:15)
Real quick, I made something special for you for being a loyal listener of the podcast. I've spent the last few years analyzing a lot of flower farmers' journeys, including my own, and created a profitable flower farm roadmap. It breaks the business growth into several different stages across five different areas of business, including product, production systems, marketing and sales, operations, and infrastructure. It shows the problems that emerge
at every level, what to focus on and what to ignore to move your business forward. All you do is answer a few quick questions and we will tell you exactly where you're at and what you need to do to grow. It's free, it's fast and it'll probably give you more clarity in five minutes than five more hours of research. So if that sounds helpful to you at all, go to trademarkfarmer.com forward slash roadmap. That's trademarkfarmer.com forward slash roadmap.
You can also grab this link in the show notes.
Jenny (07:16)
And so then I prioritize that list. And so obviously I needed a road to tilt. Like I needed a road to tell her that's all I wanted. And of course you can like do the no-till method or whatever, but for our soil, I needed to, ⁓ aerate it and to tell it to get started. So I bought a
Used rototiller on the side of the road for literally $25. Thank you. Craigslist, which is, you know, Facebook marketplace. I obviously bought seeds and I bought some seed starting supplies and about some hand tools and buckets and sleeves. like the first year that's like all I had. And it was fine. I grew the flowers and I sold some flowers. then the next year, you know,
I had made a little bit of money and I also invested some of my personal money and I bought a used flower cooler also off Craigslist. And I think I paid like, I don't know. I can't even remember now. It was probably like a thousand dollars and it was a crappy like beverage cooler, but it worked for like a year and I outgrew it within a year. ⁓ that second year I invested a couple thousand dollars into use caterpillar tunnels. paid $2,000 for two used tunnels.
We picked them up from a farm that was taking them down, brought them to our farm and put them up here. I also invested a little bit of money in row covers and irrigation. Then the following year, I bought a walk behind tractor also used for like $200. Um, actually I think it was $300, but anyways, you see where I'm going with this, even though there is this huge list of investments to make a flower farm, you know, work smoothly and sustainably.
It's for most people, not something that you can do all at once, all in one time. And so my recommendation is for you to do this sort of investment planning to make that list, figure out exactly what you need to start making money right away on your flower farm and go and do that. Now, the other piece of this is that I didn't have a lot of money when I started my flower farm, but I did have a lot of time. Like, yes, I worked a full time job, but
At the time I didn't have a family. mean, I had my husband, but we both loved working. And so I spent a lot of time chasing down sales, learning marketing on social media, growing my email list. And when it's like, you can either grow your business by investing your money or your time. And so in the beginning, you're probably going to be spending a lot of time instead of just buying.
things and buying solutions. And that's okay. That's how most people start. Right. And obviously I'm talking to people who are kind of in my situation that I was when I first started. But you want to minimize your costs as much as possible in the beginning. I run this on farm workshop when we used to do farm tours and stuff at our farm a lot. And every time we have people on the farm and I'm showing them around, I feel like I say it a thousand times that our farm was built
On Craigslist and Facebook marketplace, because you don't need to worry about it looking pretty or perfect or professional at first. Like to me, I never did that and it served me really, really well. Like my first greenhouse we bought used for $500 on Craigslist. Our first several coolers we bought used off Craigslist. Um, just this year, this is my 11th year in business. think, is it? Yeah. Something like that.
And this year I bought a brand new walk-in cooler. I've never done that before. Okay. And this is how I've been able to be profitable the whole time because I didn't care how it looked. I cared how it functioned what the return on investment was. So that's kind of how I approach investments and what I would spend my first $5,000, $10,000 on if I was starting over. And here are some core ideas around the decisions that you make.
when you're looking at spending money on your farm.
The first thing is most people spend money to feel like a farmer or they spend money because they like flowers, but they don't spend it to be profitable. So a lot of purchases are based on identity, not return on investment. So it's really tempting to buy things that make your farm look official and professional, like.
really beautiful branding and a really fancy logo and a wrapped delivery truck, like a brand new delivery vehicle, really nice tools, really pretty infrastructure, like a brand new studio or barn. But the thing is those things don't automatically make you money. And a lot of times farmers first profits or the first money that they make disappears into things that feel productive, but don't actually lead to sales.
So if you are trying to scale your flower farm or you're just getting started, when you think about buying something, think or ask yourself, will this directly help me sell flowers in the next 60 to 90 days? And if the answer is no, it's probably not an indication of something that you should buy right now. You want to prioritize anything that is tied to production or sales.
not aesthetics, not just things that like look pretty, right?
So like I said, my first cooler, my first greenhouse, our first working area was my garage. Like none of these things were pretty. Some of them weren't even really that functional, but it got us through it. And it got us to a place where we were very profitable, where it was easy for me to be able to drop $20,000 a year on investments into the farm without actually hurting like my pay or the actual farm viability. So always think about
When you spend money on something, what the return on investment is going to be, if it's going to save you time, if it's going to make you more money, if it's going to make sales easier, that kind of stuff. Now, next thing is, ⁓ thinking about your first dollars or whatever dollars you're making going towards revenue generating crops, because not all flowers are created equal when it comes to making money. If you spend money on crops that are hard to sell are low margin or they take forever to produce.
you're delaying your ability to get cash back into the business. Like your first investments in the farm need to turn into revenue quickly. So I focused, well actually I was not very focused when I started my business. This is a mistake I made, but I obviously grew things like zinnias and sunflowers that were kind of like no brainers, like anybody could grow. They're not hard to grow, but I would have those flowers.
And then I made the mistake of growing all these other fancy things that nobody cared about and nobody wanted. Like for my customers, they didn't care about flowering tobacco. They didn't want it. And it also got covered in aphids. So it was a waste of my time and money. So you want to grow crops that fit your sales outlets and things that your customers want.
In most cases, if you're selling direct to consumer through retail outfit outlets, like a farm stand or a farmer's market, you're probably going to want to grow flowers that are like focal flowers. Think zinnias sunflowers.
Delias peonies, ⁓ that are bright, vibrant colors that demand a lot of attention. If you are selling to event for us or designers, or you're doing weddings yourself, you're probably going to be growing a lot more whites and blushes and those trendy wedding colors. So thinking very carefully about your crop selection before you invest money into growing crops that.
may not sell well through your sales outlet mix. You know, keep it simple, don't try to grow everything.
And another point I want to make is that infrastructure should follow proof, not lead it. What I mean by that is that you don't need a $30,000 setup to make $10,000. Like big purchases, like high tunnels, coolers, delivery vans, pole barns, like they're great, but only when your sales justify them. And that might be like a controversial take, but.
buying infrastructure too early can tie up cash and it can really increase pressure without guaranteed return. So I started with just bare minimum viable setup. Like I said, used equipment, DIY solutions. We even had like temporary setups for a lot of things. And we upgraded only after we were consistently selling out of flowers every single week. And when
the revenue was there when we had proven our sales are, I guess, like our business model.
Like I obviously highly recommend everyone in the Northeast or like a cooler climate and even maybe in not cooler climates to invest in high tunnels because they, especially in the Northeast here where we are, it gives you so much opportunity to extend your season and that will increase your sales. And it also creates a higher quality product. A lot of time, like field grown lisianthus and high tunnel grown lisianthus are two completely different things in my opinion.
So yes, I think that those things are amazing and there are programs out there where you can get funding for them. There's one called the USDA NRCS equip program. The government loves their acronyms, but it's United States department of agriculture, natural resource conservation service. And equip is just the name of the program. It's environmental. What is it? It's environmental quality incentives program.
You can go to your local FSA or farm service agency office, just Google it. It'll come up. There's usually one in most counties, ⁓ to see if you can qualify for that. But, you know, you can look at funding opportunities to get that stuff paid for or help paying for it. But I wouldn't invest in that unless like you have proven demand and you know, people are going to buy your flowers. ⁓ just my opinion. And finally, the last point I want to make here.
With my dying voice, I apologize. ⁓ Is that the best investment might not be physical at all. The highest ROI purchase might not even be something that you can touch because early on a lot of mistakes you may come from not knowing what to focus on. It's not usually from lack of effort and a small investment in learning and education can save you thousands.
in wasted spending and wasted mistakes. And I say this as someone who has spent a lot of money on my own self and my own education. I haven't invested in so many courses and coaching and books
And just learning associations and memberships and that kind of stuff. Learning from other people who have done this before me so they can speed up the rate of my success. Because the reality is you can learn all this stuff on your own over a 10 year period of trial and error, but you can become successful so much faster by investing in education. It's a shortcut. Like it is crazy how fast it's changed my life. Like recently I was in a room.
with other entrepreneurs who were earning insane amounts of money that I, I honestly like can't even fathom, Like making $250 million a year. And you know what? I upleveled my business really quickly once I was in that room, because well, not only did I see it was possible, but
They showed me what to fix and focus on in my business to make it better. And I honestly think it would have taken me 15 years to learn it when I just paid someone a lot of money and they sped that up for me. So, I think it's a great investment. have never lost money on investing in myself and my own education. you know, just education helps you make those better decisions, which is a better use of every future dollar of yours.
So let's wrap up this episode because I honestly don't think my voice can take much more. Sorry. you take nothing else from this episode, take this when you're spending money within your flower farm and especially your first 5,000, $10,000, spend it on things that help you grow flowers. People will buy and spend it on ways to actually sell them quickly.
where you will get a return on investment. And of course, it's always a risk. There's always a risk when you spend money, but like pretty much guaranteed or high, high, likelihood that you will get a return on your investment. So here's a simple thing that you can do today. Write down every expense you're planning for this season. And if you want to be like me, plan it out for the next three to five years. Write it all down and next to each item ask, how much is this gonna cost?
And will this help make me money in the next 90 days? And if not, consider putting a pause in it or just thinking long and hard about that investment in your farm. This one filter alone can save you thousands because I cannot tell you the amount of flower farmers I've talked to who have spent, I'm not joking, hundreds of thousands of dollars on things like new barns or ⁓ fancy branding or just things that like
They literally don't move the needle at this level that they're at right now. So if this episode helped you think a little bit differently about your investments or how you're spending money on your farm, I would love it if you just took a minute to leave a review on Apple podcasts or on Spotify. It helps more farmers find the show
and helps everybody grow a more profitable and sustainable business.
Jenny (22:08)
Real quick, I made something special for you for being a loyal listener of the podcast. I've spent the last few years analyzing a lot of flower farmers' journeys, including my own, and created a profitable flower farm roadmap. It breaks the business growth into several different stages across five different areas of business, including product, production systems, marketing and sales, operations, and infrastructure. It shows the problems that emerge
at every level, what to focus on and what to ignore to move your business forward. All you do is answer a few quick questions and we will tell you exactly where you're at and what you need to do to grow. It's free, it's fast and it'll probably give you more clarity in five minutes than five more hours of research. So if that sounds helpful to you at all, go to trademarkfarmer.com forward slash roadmap. That's trademarkfarmer.com forward slash roadmap.
You can also grab this link in the show notes.
Jenny (23:09)
So thanks for listening to another episode of the six figure flower farming podcast. Don't forget, we publish new episodes every Monday. So I'll see you next week. Same time, same place. Bye for now.
