Rooted Farmers is offering grants to developing communities of growers.Our team has been working closely with dozens of regional groups across the country who are at various stages of forming or growing a cooperative/collective, and we continue to be inspired by your passion and determination. This grant is designed to assist your group financially using micro-capital awards, and provide mentorship opportunities as you navigate the ins and outs of growing your flower community.Grants range from $500 - $1,500 in a reimbursement-structured funding opportunity.<h2>What is a Collective?</h2>Other names: Cooperative; Floral Hub; Flower ExchangeA selling collaboration among growers; Collectives serve as a floral aggregator with the goal of streamlining relationship management, communications, sales, and logistics operations for both buyers (florists/designers) and sellers (farmers).<h2>Who is this designed for?</h2>Groups of four or more growers who are working to organize and formalize into a collaborative selling group.<h2>When should we apply?</h2><a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/static/assets/Rooted_Farmers_RFA_Floral_Collective_Grant_Opportunity_2024.pdf">Applications are due by March 15, 2024</a><h2>Where do we submit applications?</h2>All applications should be submitted to <a href="mailto:reachout@rootedfarmers.com">reachout@rootedfarmers.com</a>.<h2>How do we find out more?&nbsp;</h2>Review the <a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/static/assets/Rooted_Farmers_RFA_Floral_Collective_Grant_Opportunity_2024.pdf">Request for Applications (RFA)</a> for full eligibility requirements and application submission details, and the <a href="https://rootedfarmers.com/static/assets/Rooted_Farmers_2024_grant_toc.pdf">Grant Terms and Conditions (TOC)</a> for additional requirements information.&nbsp;Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or would like to touch base to discuss the grant further.

Are you working to develop or grow a flower hub or collective in your community?  This post is for you! 

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Grant Opportunity:  Calling all Collectives and Hubs!

Photo credit: Nathan Papes/<a href="https://www.news-leader.com/">Springfield News-Leader</a>We recently caught up with the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/missouriflowerexchange">Missouri Flower Exchange</a> to hear about their inspiring journey of forming the state's first flower collective! What started as casual coffee shop meetings turned into the Missouri Flower Exchange (MFE), a thriving flower collective, that is changing the way florists purchase and interact with local farmers in their area.&nbsp;Recently featured on the front page of the Sunday edition of the <a href="https://www.news-leader.com/">Springfield News-Leader</a>, the collective is gaining well-deserved recognition in their community -- and is continuing to expand, opening a new Columbia branch this year increasing the total number of member farms from 14 to 17.As journalist Greta Cross highlights in the article one remarkable aspect of the collective is their commitment to empowering and supporting women in agriculture.&nbsp;<blockquote>"Each of the 17 flower farms a part of Missouri Flower Exchange are either women-led or include a woman co-owner. While the number of female farmers in the United States is on the rise, the demographic still accounts for less than half of the country's farmers. In 2017, women made up 36% of the country's farm producers, with only 9% of farm owned and operated entirely be women, according to the United States Census of Agriculture."</blockquote>You can learn more about MFE by checking out their <a href="https://missouriflowerexchange.com/">website</a> and keep up with them on their <a href="https://www.instagram.com/missouriflowerexchange/">Instagram</a>.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1708026693/missouri_insta_3_7a17beeba7_497b1a901b.png" alt="missouri_insta_3_7a17beeba7.png"><h1>What is your production season?&nbsp;</h1>We have flowers from mid-March- mid-October. We are hoping to extend that though!<h1>Are you accepting new members?&nbsp;</h1>We will be taking applications for new members starting in September in hopes of solidifying our 2024 season members in November. The best way to get on our potential member email list is to inquire on the website.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1708027026/missouri_2_da7f80c311.png" alt="missouri 2.png"><h1>What are you most proud of this season?&nbsp;</h1>We are so proud of the growth of our farmers. They have all come a LONG way since our inception last spring. We have all learned so much and we are just beaming with pride!*<h1>What’s your collective’s origin story?&nbsp;</h1>We initially began as a group of farmers who wanted to create a community through small coffee shop meetings. We quickly recognized the need for a more organized, streamlined way to supply our florists. Out of pure luck and circumstance, Rooted Farmers was being talked about and offering a grant for newly forming collectives at the exact time we needed it! It was the catalyst for our coffee shop group to expand from “a few ideas” to a whole and complete business.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1708027161/missouri_3_40d2bd9a1a.png" alt="missouri 3.png"><h1>Why is being in a collective valuable?&nbsp;</h1>There was a huge divide between flower growers and floral designers in our area. One of our most significant challenges was the disconnect between the two groups. The florists/designers' time is limited and it is inefficient for them to try and shop from 14+ different farms. By forming our collective, we provided a streamlined way for florists to access a diverse range of flowers while meeting their supply needs. Having the ability to approach florists as a united group of farmers is invaluable. Now, we are able to talk face-to-face with them on a weekly basis as they shop. We can talk with them and gain a deeper understanding of their needs while educating them about the benefits of local product.We LOVE being able to offer a sales outlet for our farms. This year we opened a Columbia Chapter of our collective -- increasing our total number of farms from 14 to 17. It is an efficient way for them to sell no matter the size of their farming operation. Farmers can now specialize in certain crops or change their business model to open up more free time because the collective is handling all of the sales aspects from buyer communication &amp; outreach to order fulfillment!<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1708027278/missouri_4_4deff48abe.png" alt="missouri 4.png">Photo credit: Nathan Papes/<a href="https://www.news-leader.com/">Springfield News-Leader</a><h1>What do you love about Rooted?&nbsp;</h1>EVERYTHING!! (Seriously!)We LOVE Rooted because it is the perfect platform for listing and ordering. It is easy to use and offers wonderful features for both the farmer and the florist. It has been THE REASON this collective has been successful and we cannot say THANK YOU enough!

Missouri's first flower farm collective includes 17 farms in two chapter locations.

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Collective Feature: Missouri Flower Exchange

“What are buyers looking for?” is one of the questions most frequently asked of the Rooted Team. Growers want to make informed crop planning decisions, hone their marketing strategies, and have data-driven discussions with buyers. These are prudent approaches, though in the absence of aggregated and easily-digestible data, they are historically difficult given the lack of transparency and aggregated market data available in the specialty cut flower industry.&nbsp;That’s where we come in! Because of the unique way that growers sell product through Rooted’s software, our team can slice and dice market data from across the country and share some helpful insights with you. Analyzing Rooted’s year-end reports can help to validate mainstays and uncover new opportunities.&nbsp;Before going any further – we strongly recommend that you read our<a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/blog/data-and-analytics-a-crash-course"> Data &amp; Analytics: A Crash Course</a> post. This will give you some necessary context for how to interpret these results and apply them to your business.A few things to keep in mind before we dig in:&nbsp;Approach each data point as a piece of a puzzle – not the complete picture. If you examine any one layer of these data independently, you will draw different conclusions than you would by combining them. We encourage you to pair this discussion of quantitative data with your own research – including qualitative information from your local markets – to help you approach the year ahead.&nbsp;Remember, you know your market best! Always talk with your buyers about what they’d like to see more of – our data may provide you an opportunity to educate your audience, but ultimately, collecting direct feedback from your buyers is a critical input.<h1>Let’s dig in! What did we see in 2022?&nbsp;</h1><h2>A quick snapshot of some exciting findings for farmers:&nbsp;</h2>Local staples continue to anchor the local flowers market as top sellers. These are the go-to favorites that are either hard to ship or have a more ethereal shelf life, like dahlias, zinnias and cosmos.&nbsp;Highest-growth products fall into the filler and foliage categories. More buyers are seeking out non-focal flowers from local growers! Items that outperformed include products like yarrow, euphorbia, statice, nigella, goldenrod, and grasses.&nbsp;Brighter colors like yellow and red are picking up steam. These colors fall outside of the long-standing traditional soft and neutral “wedding colors.” Increases in sales to more conventional florists, retail florists, and brick and mortar shops could help account for some of this growth.&nbsp;<h1>Top-Selling Colors&nbsp;</h1>Rankings based on stem count across all sellersWhite&nbsp;Green&nbsp;Pink&nbsp;<h1>Highest-Growth Colors&nbsp;</h1>Growth compared with 2021Yellow/gold&nbsp;Cream&nbsp;Red&nbsp;<h1>Color Takeaways&nbsp;</h1>Buyers want your foliage! While white continues to be in high demand, green was a close second. Buyers are increasingly looking for local alternatives for foliage products, and they are willing to experiment a bit; think creatively: do you have perennials that you may not be offering? Woodies that work well to provide structure? Responsible foraging opportunities? Try offering some samples to grow your weekly offerings!&nbsp;<h1>Top-Selling Flowers&nbsp;</h1>Based on stem counts, by genus&nbsp;In 2022, we saw thousands of unique cultivars sold on Rooted! Our top performers included the following genera:&nbsp;Dahlia&nbsp;Zinnia&nbsp;Celosia&nbsp;Cosmos&nbsp;Ranunculus&nbsp;Antirrhinum&nbsp;Eustoma&nbsp;Paeonia&nbsp;Gomphrena&nbsp;Tulipa&nbsp;<h1>High-Growth Products:&nbsp;</h1>We were excited to see strong growth from many unsung heroes in 2022! The below genera were among our highest-growth products sold:&nbsp;Elaeagnus&nbsp;Ornamental grasses&nbsp;Artemisia&nbsp;Achillea&nbsp;Eustoma&nbsp;Chrysanthemums&nbsp;Solidago&nbsp;<h1>Product Takeaways&nbsp;</h1>Outside of dahlias and zinnias, we saw relatively low concentration among the top selling genera – meaning that growers saw success selling a wide range of floral product throughout the year. Buyers exhibited increased openness to working with specialty cuts that fell far outside of the local staples, with specialty filler and foliage products gaining momentum over the course of the seasons.&nbsp;<h1>Conclusions&nbsp;</h1>Pretty exciting, right? We hope that you find these insights helpful in preparing you to talk with your buyers and think about the season ahead. Maybe you will approach your crop plan with more emphasis on color rather than cultivars, or perhaps you felt inspired to broaden your buyers' awareness around the flowers you grow, or empowered to talk about your blooms from a florist’s or designer’s point of view! We at Rooted Farmers are especially excited about the growth and awareness of local flowers in recent years. Local flowers are where the party is at, and what you do as a grower has a positive impact in your community and beyond!&nbsp;Here are some other resources to help you continue to increase awareness, sales, and continue to bridge the gap between grower and end user:&nbsp;Learn more about how [Rooted Pro, our robust Data &amp; Analytics package](https://www.rootedfarmers.com/pricing) can help you level up your growing game.Read our <a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/blog/data-and-analytics-a-crash-course">Data &amp; Analytics: A Crash Course</a> post for more context around how we put these data to work.&nbsp;Read our <a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/blog/how-to-use-sales-data-to-crop-plan">Sales Data &amp; Crop Planning: A How-To</a> article to learn more about how we reflect and set goals for the season ahead.&nbsp;Learn from [<a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/blog/designer-feature-carbon-and-co">Designer Rachel Fletcher at Carbon &amp; Co</a>] to as she shares her insights on working with local product.&nbsp;Building new buyer relationships? Check out our <a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/blog/how-to-build-new-relationships-with-wholesale-buyers">7 Tips for How to Build New Relationships with Wholesale Buyers</a>Check out our article about <a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/blog/photographing-flowers-wholesale-photos">Photographing Flowers for Wholesale</a> to learn the nuances of product photography.

The Rooted team shares some insights and trends in a 2022 Year in Review.

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The Results Are In:  2022 Year in Review!

Numbers don’t lie! But they don’t always tell the full story, either. Let’s look at a few different ways to dissect sales data in order to try to get a (more) complete picture.&nbsp;Our team tends to approach sales analyses by looking at these data from a few different angles and then triangulate to draw out some conclusions. Examples of a few of those angles might include:&nbsp;Performance by flower&nbsp;Performance by color&nbsp;Performance by seasonPerformance by category&nbsp;We start with this approach because examining only one of the above – taking a narrower lens – might lead to blind spots in the data, and ultimately less-informed decisions.&nbsp;Example: If you were to look only at performance by flower, you might see that dahlias were your top-selling crop. This might lead you to plant more dahlias… but if you were to consider your sales by flower, and then look at your sales by color, you might see that green was your number two selling color – that might suggest an opportunity in foliage that you may have missed had you only looked at top-selling genera or cultivars.From there, we’d slice it a bit further; we would look at all of these analyses in a few different ways to try to get a fuller picture:<h1>&nbsp;1. Performance by absolute rankings&nbsp;</h1>These can help give you a sense of the highest-demand products, colors, etc.&nbsp;Example: take a look at <a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/dashboard/analytics/sales/flowers?profile=PB1Y20Paoa6OsUrCpyMy&amp;count=10&amp;tab=genus&amp;dates=2021-01-01%7E2022-12-28">your own flower analytics</a> in your Rooted account!&nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1708033237/stats1_92f92e97df.png" alt="stats1.png"><h1>2. Performance as a percentage of total sales&nbsp;</h1>This can help you tell how important those rankings are.&nbsp;Example: If your top ten flowers only represent 15% of sales, then your conclusions will likely be different than if those same ten flowers represented 70% of all sales.&nbsp;<h1>3. Performance considering Year-Over-Year (YOY) growth&nbsp;</h1>This is key in trying to identify trends or growth opportunities as you’re looking at the year ahead.&nbsp;Example: If your sales doubled from one year to the next, but a particular item or color went up by 5x, then we would say that item/color outperformed or outpaced, other segments or products. Similarly, if your sales doubled from one year to the next but one crop only increased slightly, then we would consider that to be underperforming. Note: if you experienced crop failures or diminished inventory, that can also drive apparent underperformance.&nbsp;Next, we encourage you to look at your own individual sales analytics on Rooted and compare your data to the broader trends. Where do your sales look similar? Where are there differences, or gaps? Are there opportunities that you may be missing that seem to be taking off in other parts of the country? Read our Year in Review post for more on this.&nbsp;Whether you are outperforming or underperforming on any of these metrics or lists, the next step is always to ask “why?” Why is this doing well for me? Why is this not selling? We always like to reflect on our own, and then approach some of our trusted buyers to have an open discussion in the off-season to collect feedback.&nbsp;<h1>A few takeaways:&nbsp;</h1>Assess your own sales! Use the methods above to start sifting through your data.&nbsp;Consider creating a year-end buyer survey. There are a number of free and low-cost tools for administering these, including <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/mp/free-survey-templates/">Survey Monkey</a>, <a href="https://www.qualtrics.com/free-account/">Qualtrics</a>, <a href="https://www.jotform.com/how-to-create-a-survey/">Jotform</a>, <a href="https://www.google.com/forms/about/">Google Forms</a>, and others. A few questions you might ask your buyers: product they liked and didn’t like (and why!), what they wish they had more of, what color palettes they may be working with in the season ahead, etc.Looking for more data and analytics? Upgrade to <a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/pricing">Rooted Farmers Pro:</a> which includes robust analytics, buyer segmentation, pricing transparency and more.

The Rooted team looks at different ways to dissect sales data in order to get a (more) complete picture.

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Data & Analytics:  A Crash Course

You’ve worked hard to prepare your soil properly, given your seeds and seedlings all the love and care they need to grow, and researched proper post-harvest handling. You know how to grow beautiful, unique product and want to sell your flowers to wholesale buyers but… you are unsure about how to initiate those relationships.Understanding your customer and their needs is a critical component to your long-term success as a grower and your business. We’ve outlined seven tips below to help you start off on the right foot and lay the foundation to build trust with your buyers.<h4>Bonus: <a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/assets/Rooted_Farmers_Guide_for_Florists_Sourcing_Local_Trifold_Brochure.pdf">Download our printable tri-fold brochure</a></h4>Highlight the benefits of sourcing local and how to get started with shopping online with Rooted. Drop it off when you bring samples along with your business card and any other marketing materials!<h3>1. Start Slow</h3>Start by selecting a few florists/designers/wholesale buyers in your area. Invest your time and energy into these relationships and really nurture them. Gathering feedback early and often from a small number of buyers will help inform what you decide to grow, how you harvest, your messaging, and how you approach future relationships. Often, your earliest adopters will be your biggest cheerleaders and will serve as a reference. Keep tending to these relationships as your farm grows and you service more customers.<h3>2. Communicate Clearly</h3>Do you offer delivery and/or pickup? What are your delivery days and time frame for dropping off? What day of the week do you publish your availability? What is your process for accepting advance orders and requests? What is your delivery fee? Do you accept checks, cash, and/or credit cards? Making sure you’ve outlined answers to these questions in advance is important to set clear expectations. Your buyers will appreciate having clear guidelines on how to shop from you.When meeting with a designer, it is helpful to bring this information on a printout along with your logo and contact information so they can put it somewhere visible and reference it in the future. Have this information easy to find on your website/social media too.Be sure the schedule you outline is something you can maintain throughout the season. Maintaining a consistent schedule and regular communication from you will go a long way in building trust with your buyers and ensuring they see you as a reliable source for their flower needs. If your customers always know when they will hear from you and what to expect, their confidence in your workflow and product will grow.<h3>3. Choose Your Visit Time Wisely</h3>Florists and event designers are busy and, just like you, trying to run a business! Keep in mind the weekly schedule of a florist – especially designers who are event-focused. Try to contact your prospective customers before you show up at their place of business. Find out from them what the best times are to come in and speak to them. Usually, the beginning of the week (e.g., Monday or Tuesday) is better than the middle or end of the week when they are preparing for weekend events.<h3>4. Bring Samples</h3>Show them what you’re working with! Often, the florists or event designers you are approaching has never worked with local product. Remember it is going to take time for them to understand the differences between imports and local product. Think about the person you are visiting. Are they a wedding or event florist? Bring flowers in palettes you have seen them use on their website or social media. Are they a daily florist? Bring varieties that are long-lasting in the cooler. Show them that you have done your research and understand their needs. Add in extra product to showcase different varieties that may be entirely new to them - it will go a long way to build goodwill.<h3>5. Be Conscious of Their Time</h3>Do not expect to have an hour-long meeting with your prospective customer. Have an elevator pitch ready outlining where you are located, handing them your samples and print out with your ordering and delivery information, any specialties you have (growing woodies, perennials, greenery), how long your season should last, and offer to have them come to your farm if you are comfortable showing people around. Expect this meeting to last around 10 minutes (or less.) A short meeting is okay! You have plenty of time to make an impression while valuing their time.Remember to choose a day and time to visit that is likely low traffic and low intensity for them - a Friday afternoon would likely conflict with their design schedules, so be sure to consider their quieter windows (e.g. Tuesday mornings!).<h3>6. Solicit Feedback!</h3>After you bring samples, be sure to check in about a week later. Ask specific questions to really dig into their needs. What’s their experience buying local? Are there specific varieties or colors they are seeking? Do they prefer stems with a lot of movement or more solid ones? Do they have a stem length preference?Asking specific questions will show your customers that you value their input. Feedback is a gift! Be open to hearing what they need outside of what you have brought them and also understand it may take time for them to adjust to working with your product. Show you have listened by bringing varieties that take into consideration their answers. Your openness will lead to a blossoming relationship!<h3>7. Be Patient! (Relationship Building Takes Time)</h3>After you have delivered samples and asked for feedback, be sure to send them a handwritten note thanking them for taking the time to chat with you. Mention that you are looking forward to staying connected throughout the season. Subscribe to their newsletter (if they have one) and/or start following them on social media and engage with their content. Remember it often takes more than one visit for them to start ordering product from you!

7 tips to help you lay the foundation for lasting relationships 

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How to Build New Relationships with Wholesale Buyers

Flowers mark every major milestone in our lives – from birthdays to wedding days, and condolences to I-love-you’s. They symbolize spring, renewal, and affection, and they are unmatched in the grounding promises of hope that they bring to these occasions, however ephemeral they may be.&nbsp;The tradition of gifting flowers dates back thousands of years and is seen across cultures: woven into Greek mythology, prevalent among Confucianists in ancient China, abundant throughout the Renaissance period, and beyond. We carry these traditions forward with us today in our own culture, but with Valentine’s Day just around the corner, those imported roses may just be the heart-shaped elephant in the room.&nbsp;The <a href="https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2019/2/12/18220984/valentines-day-flowers-roses-environmental-effects">climate impact of imported flowers has been well documented</a>. We all strive to do better, but how do we continue to honor these traditions of gifting flowers while taking into consideration our carbon footprint?&nbsp;That’s where we come in! We’ve curated a list to help you choose a gift that supports small farms and small businesses from across the country to green up your Valentine’s Day. Whether it’s a gift for your loved one, a Galentine or Palentine, or for yourself (in the words of the great Amy Poehler and Alan Yang, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSjM5B3QNlw">Treat. Yo. Self</a>!)<h1>1. Ask your florist to source local!</h1>Yes, local flowers in February! It can be weather-dependent, especially for our northern friends, but thanks to increasing demand for local products (yay!), farmers are finding it more feasible to grow early-production crops in greenhouses! Some amazing local flowers your florist may be able to get: poppies, ranunculus, anemones, tulips, daffodils, hyacinths.&nbsp;Here are a few regions where you can find some local blooms: -&nbsp;<ul><li><a href="https://www.utahflowermarket.com/">Utah Flower Market</a>, Salt Lake City, UT&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://ironmeadowsflowerfarm.com/">Iron Meadows Flower Farm</a>, Central Illinois</li><li><a href="https://www.brynhillflowerfarm.com/">Brynhill Flower Farm</a>, Pittsburgh, PA</li><li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/localcolorflowers/">Local Color Flowers</a>, Baltimore, MD</li></ul><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:100%;"><img style="aspect-ratio:2000/1600;" src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1707163388/DDD_6_D366_1_f497445bac.jpg" alt="DDD6D366- (1).jpg" width="2000" height="1600"></figure><h1>2. Consider Dried!</h1>What better way to convey everlasting love than a literal everlasting bouquet or arrangement? Dried flowers have come a long way since your grandmother’s potpourri! They are a trendy way to bring some long-lasting blooms into your spaces to bridge the gap between fresh, and local availability.&nbsp;Check out some of these options:&nbsp;Send a botanical love letter with these dried bouquets from <a href="https://rushingblooms.myshopify.com/products/love-letter">Rushing Blooms Floral Studio</a><a href="http://www.fielddaycreative.co/shop">Field Day Creative and Vessel + Stem</a> team up for this collab of dried bouquets and pressed flowers&nbsp;Floral jewelry + cuffs – talk with your local farmer about how to source these dried floral adornments!&nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1708029425/val_1_3888d0cd36.png" alt="val 1.png">Photo Credits: Images courtesy left to right; top to bottom Field Day Creative, Rushing Blooms Floral Studio, Calhoun Flower Farm, Rushing Blooms Floral Studio.&nbsp;<h1>3. Bouquet Shares&nbsp;</h1>Why give for one day when you can bring flowers into their home for a whole season?! Bouquet subscriptions, CSAs, and flower shares are the gift that keeps on giving. Farms and designers offer options to fit all budgets, and it’s a fun surprise to see what you’ll get each week. It is also a great way to learn about new flowers and seasonality, and you’ll know your share is the freshest of the fresh for long-lasting blooms.<a href="https://www.mollyoliverflowers.com/seasonalflowerproject">Molly Oliver Flowers</a>, Brooklyn, NY<a href="https://www.instagram.com/loulou_blooms/">Lou Lou Blooms</a>, Youngstown, OH&nbsp;<a href="https://www.prospecthillfarm.net/shop">Prospect Hill Farm</a>, Richmond, VA&nbsp;<a href="https://www.petalsinkfloral.com/buyflowers">Petals, Ink./Grassdale</a>, Austin, TX&nbsp;<a href="https://www.themonkeyflowergroup.com/shop-1">Monkey Flower Group</a>, Napa, CA<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1708029430/val_2_2f59f4e021.png" alt="val 2.png">&nbsp;Photo Credits: Images courtesy left to right; top to bottom Monkey Flower Group, Prospect Hill, Molly Oliver, Lou Lou Blooms, Petals, Ink.&nbsp;<h1>4. Floral Art&nbsp;</h1>Farms, local makers, and seasoned professional artists take inspiration from local flowers, and Valentine’s day is a great reason to support makers and small businesses. From pressed flowers to botanically dyed ribbons to floral-inspired ceramics to prints, here are a few options:Floral prints by <a href="https://www.blackwellbotanicals.com/">Blackwell Botanicals</a>Floral fossils and plaster art by <a href="https://www.ronnicole.com/">Ron Nicole</a>Botanically dyed silks and ribbons by <a href="https://www.silkandwillow.com/collections/plant-dyed-silk-ribbon/jewel-tones">Silk and Willow</a>Floral prints and posters by <a href="https://wallbaby.com/us/collections/thomas-mcgrath">TJ McGrath</a>&nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1708029213/val_3_ab44c63a9e.png" alt="val 3.png">Photo Credits: Images courtesy left to right; top to bottom Silk and Willow, Blackwell Botanicals, Ron Nicole, Silk and Willow, TJ McGrath.&nbsp;<h1>5. Floral Books&nbsp;</h1>Bookworms, farmers, and flower lovers unite! Here are some of our favorite beginner and experienced DIY designer-friendly books, and loaded with stunning photography!&nbsp;Christin Geall's <a href="https://www.cultivatedbychristin.com/book">Cultivated: The Elements of Floral Style</a> covers all aspects of floral design, including how to choose flowers to grow or arrange, selecting tools and vessels, balancing color and form, and photographing arrangements&nbsp;<a href="https://www.chroniclebooks.com/products/color-me-floral">Color Me Floral: Stunning Monochromatic Arrangements for Every Season</a> by Kiana Underwood highlights techniques for creating gorgeous single-color arrangements using seasonal elements, dramatic textures, and vibrant colors.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/243477/the-flower-workshop-by-ariella-chezar-with-julie-michaels/">The Flower Workshop</a> by Ariella Chezar details her philosophy on everything from texture and color to foliage and containers, sharing her approach to living and working with flowers, with an eye toward fresh, local, wild, seasonally influenced floral design.&nbsp;<a href="https://susanmcleary.com/flowers-for-all">Flowers for All: Modern Floral Arrangements for Beauty, Joy, and Mindfulness Every Da</a>y by Susan McCleary abandons the hard-to-find botanicals in favor of creating stunning, joyful floral displays using just a few elements.&nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1708029482/val_4_70738abad3.png" alt="val 4.png">&nbsp;<h1>6. Botanical Products&nbsp;</h1>Self-care is love! Botanical products for home, face, and body are great small giftable items – soothing lavender bath bombs, healing calendula salves, invigorating handmade soaps, and protective lip balms to name a few! Check out these small-batch offerings from a couple of our favorite farms:&nbsp;New Mexico's <a href="https://calhoun-flower-farms.myshopify.com/">Calhoun Flower Farm</a> boasts a beautiful collection of hand-made botanical soaps, bath bombs, candles, and more!&nbsp;Maine's <a href="https://freshpickinsfarm.com/pages/products">Fresh Pickins</a> creates a variety of organic whole-body products; hand made, cultivated and foraged in Maine.&nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1708029481/val_5_aadd21a54f.png" alt="val 5.png">Photo Credits: Top left and bottom middle and right images courtesy of Calhoun Flower Farm; Top middle, bottom left images courtesy of Fresh Pickins

We’ve curated a list to help you choose a gift that supports small farms and small businesses to green up your Valentine’s Day!

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6 Ways to Green Up Your Valentine’s Purchase

&nbsp;A magic bullet for crop planning? Yes, please! We are here for the flower nerds and aspiring flower nerds.Deciding what to grow for the upcoming season involves a multitude of factors: growing climate, growing space, market demands, sales channels, target customer, and more. Trying to work through all of these manually would be overwhelming - not to mention time-consuming. It usually results in a review of scribbled notes from the season and best guesses, followed by some impulse buying of those seeds we just can’t resist…There’s an easier way, though! With Rooted, you can now use detailed insights into your sales to guide future decisions. Let’s take a look at a few objective ways to approach crop-planning for next season.<h3>1. Consider the source (of your sales)</h3>Review your sales by buyer; consider who your best customers were, and who your best sales channels were (e.g. wholesale versus retail). Set goals for the coming season, and consider how your crop plan should adjust given the preferences of these buyers and/or channels.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1643992316/sales_summary_dashboard_analytics_2022_02_04_10_58_50_4c55492c3d.png" alt="sales summary-dashboard-analytics 2022-02-04-10_58_50.png" width="1476" height="1535"><h3>2. Consider your sales by flower type</h3>Review your sales over the season (or over a portion of the season) to discover which flowers sold best. Within each genus, review detailed statistics of each variety - dollars sold, percentage of sales, stem counts, and more! What can you learn from these statistics? Are there varieties you should increase production on, or would eliminate all together?<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1643992608/Microsoft_Teams_image_42_f1e8e35026.png" alt="MicrosoftTeams-image (42).png" width="1268" height="1321"><h3>3. Consider your sales by color</h3>Review your sales by color; explore how the popularity of different colors changes over the course of your growing season, and explore how this might impact your seed selection for next year. Are there times within your cycle that you should increase production of blush varieties? Are there color families that you are surprised are doing as well as they are? Or colors you should push more for next year?<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1643992608/Microsoft_Teams_image_40_a0e0fae7f7.png" alt="MicrosoftTeams-image (40).png" width="1528" height="1587"><h3>4. Explore your seasonal fluctuations</h3>Review your weekly or monthly sales trends over the course of your season to help allocate labor resources and plan for peak production and sales weeks. Consider what your sales curve looks like (i.e. when you start selling, when you hit those peaks, and when you taper down, and explore ways to smooth your revenue in those dips).Planning ahead for next year using simple, intuitive tools will help you scale your business intelligently - and take the guesswork out of planning next time around! But don’t forget to continue to include a few of those impulse buys…<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1643992608/Microsoft_Teams_image_41_2411888b20.png" alt="MicrosoftTeams-image (41).png" width="1233" height="703">

Resource and crop plan for future weeks and seasons by using detailed insights into your flower sales!

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Sales Data & Crop Planning:  A How-To

Flowers often mark some of life’s most noteworthy moments - both large and small. A new baby, weddings, holidays, or an expression of love and care. What you may not realize when you pick up a bouquet at the grocery store or order flowers to be delivered to a friend is the larger impact of your purchase. Here are just a few of our favorite reasons for supporting the local flowers movement.<h3>1. Food for your soul!</h3>Local blooms are specialty blooms: heirloom, sentimental, and unique with endless colors, forms, and varieties that you simply can’t find in your grocery store. There is a certain intangible magical beauty local flowers provide. Moreover, these blooms are fragrant!Imported flowers are cultivated for durability to ensure they transport well and as a result, often the fragrance is bred out (and sometimes replaced with perfume – yuck!). Enjoy sweet-smelling peonies, neon zinnias, or Instagram favorite Café au Lait dahlias.<h3>2. Quality</h3>Flowers bought locally can last up to two weeks! You can also readily find specialty varieties unavailable from import channels.Most locally grown flowers are picked from the field within 24-36 hours of landing on your table, and are handled with care by your local farmers and designers. Their imported counterparts, on the other hand, are shipped dehydrated in a cardboard box, arriving to you at the tail end of their bloom life.<h3>3. You’re supporting your community!</h3>Small farms are proud to be growing for you. As <a href="https://lovenfreshflowers.com/">Love ‘n Fresh Flowers</a>, farmer-florist, Jennie Love aptly notes, “Since it’s not easy work, being a farmer, these people typically have unusually large hearts and spirited ideals. They wouldn’t endure a perpetual backache and sore hands, nor the freezing cold and blistering heat, if they didn’t love the land they are stewarding or the flowers they are growing.” You’re helping these local, small-scale flower farmers (most of whom are predominately women) stay in business.<h3>4. You ❤️ happy bees + insects</h3>Small farms are working to build healthy biomes for their crops, and they do so through sustainable practices that keep the ecosystem healthy, encourage biodiversity, and the pollination of nearby crops. Happy flowers = happy pollinators!<h3>5. You ❤️ our planet!</h3>Those pretty flowers at the grocery store sadly have a storied journey. It’s a staggering statistic: approximately 80% of flowers sold in the U.S. are imported from outside the country. Take a closer look at the label on the sleeve of flowers at the grocery store and you’ll often see ‘Grown in Columbia or Ecuador.’According to a 2018 <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/business/wp/2018/02/10/feature/colombia-rose-trade-industry-valentines-day/?noredirect=on&amp;utm_term=.5763872e0c63">Washington Post article</a>, Columbia alone shipped more than 4 billion flowers to the US. In the 3 weeks leading up to Valentine’s Daily 30 cargo jets make the trip daily from Columbia to Miami. The <a href="https://theicct.org/blog/staff/yes-your-mother-loves-flowers-maybe-not-cost-flying-them">International Council on Clean Transportation</a> estimates that those 3 weeks alone equates to 114 million liters of fuel burned and 360,000 metric tons of CO2 emitted. “To put this number into context, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gas-equivalencies-calculator">EPA</a>), a forest larger than the area of Houston (1,624 km2) would be needed to sequester that amount of carbon.”This doesn’t even factor in the next leg of the trip when the flowers have to be transported on a truck from Miami or Los Angeles to their next destination. So next time you go to purchase that bouquet in February, think about purchasing a CSA from your local farm instead.Want to dig in more? We highly suggest reading Jennie Love’s ‘<a href="https://lovenfreshflowers.com/buy-local-flowers/">Manifesto for a Better Bouquet</a>.’

Why local flowers are fresher, more fragrant, and good for your community!

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Top 5 Reasons to Buy Local Flowers

We’ve all seen them from our favorite social media handles: the armloads of flowers, tossed nonchalantly over someone’s shoulder as she casually stands in a sundress, with a perfect sunset in the distance.But is that the best way to sell product to your wholesale buyers? There is an important difference between a photo that may see high engagement on an influencer’s social media account, and a photo that will sell your flowers to your intended designer audience.Purchasing flowers online is a visual experience for the buyer, so it is important not to overlook the value of a quality image. We will revisit social media photos in another post, but here are a few things for you to think about as you snap images for florists and designers…<h3>Lighting</h3>Lighting is central to a quality photo. Natural light from the outdoors will almost always produce a superior image from an amateur photographer (most of us!) compared with the hues available from artificial yellow or fluorescent indoor lights. Having said that, not all natural light is created equal.Watch out for… too much sun! When photographers think about natural light (sunlight), they often distinguish between direct and indirect sunlight. If the light is direct (rather than indirect or ambient) it can produce unintended shadows that interfere with your image. Direct sunlight can also cause over-exposure or can cause lighter color tones to become washed out, making it difficult for your designers to tell the true colors of the product they are ordering.Consider… seeking out a shady spot with ample indirect (ambient) sunlight to snap your images. This allows you to bring out the true colors of your blooms (rather than adding unintended yellow hues from indoor light) without risking patchy shadows or washing out your lighter varieties. Experiment also with how product looks at different times of day – morning or evening light is often much softer and more forgiving than mid-afternoon overhead light.<h3>Backdrop</h3>A shot of your field can be a lovely image for social media, but it may not be what your florists and wholesale buyers are looking for to help them make a decision about a given product.Watch out for… cluttered or distracting backdrops. Pay attention to the background in your photos, and keep in mind the desired point of focus for your intended audience. Help your designers envision the product that they would receive (and how they might be able to use it in their design work!) by allowing their eyes to focus only on the item you are selling, rather than the background in the image.Consider… seeking out a solid backdrop to help your audience focus on the flowers you are trying to sell, and tune out the background “noise” of a field image. A few examples:<ul><li>An exterior wall of a house</li><li>A barn or greenhouse door</li><li>A few pieces of scrap wood lined up</li><li>Or a more portable surface, like a chalkboard</li></ul>If you are selling an item like Bachelor’s Buttons, consider how much easier it would be for your designers if they are able to see what they are getting. A group of tangled plants shot from above with a rainbow of other varieties in the background and grass in the foreground is much less convincing than a couple of cut and processed bunches of Centaurea against a solid backdrop where they are able to focus on the details of the delicate bloom itself.<h3>Framing / Perspective</h3>Framing a photo means to think about the point or area of the photo that you would like the viewer’s eye to focus on, and to consider how you are allowing that to happen.Watch out for… where you are standing in relation to the product you are photographing. Background plays an important role here, but so does the physical position of the photographer. If you are taking a shot from overhead, your designers may not be able to discern what the foliage of a stem looks like, or what it may look like once it is processed. Similarly, if you are taking a photo of a variety like poppies, an overhead photo likely would not convey the movement in their stems.Consider… taking photos from straight on, angling your product toward the camera or phone to allow the viewer to focus on the bloom you are photographing. Also, features like a hand around the bunch you are shooting can help to provide scale to the item, which can be helpful if a designer has not worked with an item or has not previously ordered it from your farm. And finally, don’t forget to FOCUS your shot! Blurry images make it close to impossible for designers to decipher what they are ordering.<h3>Representation</h3>And finally, consider how accurately your photo represents the product you are trying to sell. This can refer to the appearance of the flower color (or mix of colors) in your photo, the scale of the bloom size, or the scale of the stem length.Below, you will find two images of Cerinthe – neither of which has been edited from the original shot. The first is a field image shot in early morning, with dew on the foliage and a sunrise in the distance, backlighting the subject of the image; the second image is a grouping of five stems cut, processed, and held against the shaded side of a shed.Note how much easier it is to tell the true colors of the foliage, to pick out the beautiful blue-violet highlights at the ends, and to see the movement in the stems in the second image. Although the first might be a whimsical image for social media, if a designer had purchased Cerinthe for the first time based on the first image, they might be expecting a gray foliage for their design work, rather than the bright green with blue-violet highlights that is delivered to them.<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1625698069/photography_1_072b0a45aa.jpg" alt="photography-1.jpg" width="2352" height="1568"> <img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1625698069/photography_2_950deda67b.jpg" alt="photography-2.jpg" width="2352" height="1568">In summary, remember to consider the following when taking photos of your blooms:<ul><li>Lighting</li><li>Backdrop</li><li>Positioning</li><li>Representativeness of photos to the true product</li></ul>By considering the photographic elements listed above, you will best position your product for sale to wholesale buyers.

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Photographing Flowers: Wholesale Photos

The most critical step with regard to your expenses is to track them somehow. We can’t stress this enough. Save your receipts, emailed invoices, etc. and keep logs of any payroll expenses. Consider this a must-do. There are often tax benefits to writing off certain expenses, so if you do nothing else, make sure that you’re able to walk into a local tax preparer’s office at year end with your shoe box full of farm receipts.&nbsp; Recall our earlier Income Statement 101 lesson: an income statement is simply a picture of money coming in and going out, broken down by category. Each section of the income statement represents either money coming in (revenue section), or money going out (cost of sales or operating expenses sections).&nbsp;&nbsp;There are two different types of expenses on an income statement:&nbsp;&nbsp;Cost of SalesThis is the cost of actually producing flower stem. Because this cost increases as you sell more stems, it is often referred to as a ‘variable cost.’&nbsp;&nbsp;Operating Expenses&nbsp;These are expenses related to running your farm that cannot be attributed directly to production of a specific item. Operating expenses are often referred to as OPEX for short, but can also be called ‘overhead’ or ‘fixed costs.’ Imagine that instead of selling flowers, you are selling baked goods. Your bakery would consider the flour, sugar and other ingredients – as well as any time spent making the baked goods – to be part of your cost of sales. However, any expenses related to the oven, kitchen, or the labor to clean these areas and utensils would go into your operating expenses. While these are necessary expenses to run your business, you would not be able to specify how much cleaning labor was required for each cookie or muffin to be made, so that labor would be considered overhead, or a fixed cost, and it would be counted among your operating expenses.&nbsp;Helpful Hint:Be sure to always record your expenses as negative numbers so that you can clearly tell when looking at your income statement which numbers are positive (revenue) and which are negative (cost). (Note: the accounting method for showing negative numbers is to use parentheses, rather than minus signs).<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1718739016/cost_of_sales_ex_7a937739fc505595d5ac30533e43f9f1_fa97a5c90c_f3ca1d1e67.png" alt="cost_of_sales_ex_7a937739fc505595d5ac30533e43f9f1_fa97a5c90c.png">&nbsp;Operating Expenses:Operating expenses are costs that exist for your farm whether or not you sell any flowers. Marketing expenses, memberships, insurance, equipment and maintenance expenses all fall into this category. Any labor that cannot be directly attributed to a specific production-related activity should also be included in your operating expenses.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1718739165/operating_expenses_ex_d2d5b53549f4640b54f4dcc3ac6feb60_c7909763b1_cd4cca009c.png" alt="operating_expenses_ex_d2d5b53549f4640b54f4dcc3ac6feb60_c7909763b1.png">Operating Profit:&nbsp;&nbsp;Operating profit is the amount of money you have left over after you have paid out all of your farm’s expenses, including yourself.&nbsp; This is important, so we’ll say it again for the folks in the back: paying yourself should be considered a necessary expense of a self-sustaining farming operation. If you are looking to your farm to be a source of income for your household, it is essential that you are also paying yourself along the way. Your accountant can advise you on the mechanics of accomplishing that (they vary depending on the type of legal entity you are running), but considering your salary in your annual expenditures is critical.&nbsp;I Have my Income Statement… So Now What?Great question! Now comes the fun part – decision time. If you are operating at a profit – great work! (We would encourage you to go back and take a look at all of your expenses and ensure that they encompass all of your activities, just to be sure. Also, make sure you have labor numbers that you are comfortable with, both for yourself and your staff).&nbsp; If you are operating at a loss, then the question becomes: how does my farm become more profitable, and thus self-sustaining?&nbsp; There are two options for any business to increase profit:&nbsp;&nbsp;1. Increase revenue (sell more things!)&nbsp;&nbsp;2. Decrease expenses (spend less money!)&nbsp;&nbsp;Of course, there are also infinite combinations of these, but the best way to make those decisions is to see the whole picture. Outlining all of your sales channels and their respective performance, and identifying all of your expenses along the way, is the best way for you to very quickly spot any unnecessary expenses, or spot opportunities in various sales channels that could help you to focus your energy and resources most effectively.

Cost of Sales, Operating Expenses and Profit

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Farm Finances: Dig Into Expenses

As a reminder from our last post, the first step toward building a sustainable farming operation – outside of growing, of course – is to understand its finances. The basic questions that you want to be able to answer for your farm are:&nbsp;How much money is coming in, and from where? How much money is being spent, and on what? In an income statement, the answers to these questions are broken out by category: revenue and expenses, and within each of these are a number of sub-categories, (the accounting term for these are ‘line items’). In this post, we’re breaking down revenue.&nbsp;Revenue Streams&nbsp;The categories for money coming into our farm are called revenue streams, or sales channels. You can see in the example below that our imaginary flower farm has a number of active sales channels, each split out separately.&nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1718812994/revenue_chart_ex_3aa990323f77b332d4e4dea47cb8bf85_17a6a2d7d1_d64e1a25ef.png" alt="revenue_chart_ex_3aa990323f77b332d4e4dea47cb8bf85_17a6a2d7d1.png">&nbsp;It is important to track each of these categories, or sales channels, separately. This allows you to reflect on where you’re seeing the most success, and to use that to inform other decisions – like prioritizing how and when to spend money to support and invest in each of these revenue streams.&nbsp;Revenue: Adding Sales Channels&nbsp;Just like building a healthy investment portfolio, diversifying your farming operation helps to mitigate risk. Farmers know this well: if you grow only one color of one crop, your farm is more vulnerable to changes in fashion trends, pests or disease, and you risk not being able to generate income as a result of factors outside of your control. But, if you diversify – add more colors to your offerings, or spread out your production among a number of different crops – you reduce the risk that a single event or pest could wipe out all of your income for the year.&nbsp;The same principle holds true for increasing the number of sales channels beyond cut flowers. Incorporating different revenue streams into your operation can also help to smooth revenue throughout the year. Instead of all of your sales happening between June and September, you can spread out the time span over which the money is coming in. But be sure not to take on too much, too quickly!&nbsp;In the chart below, the bright blue line represents cut flowers. If you sold cut flowers only from April – October – then that would be the only season that you could generate income.&nbsp;The dotted line represents what happens to your total farm income by adding other revenue streams spread out across the year – your farm is able to continue producing some income year-round.&nbsp;<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/djd5ioypi/image/upload/v1718812994/revenue_chart_ex_3aa990323f77b332d4e4dea47cb8bf85_17a6a2d7d1_d64e1a25ef.png" alt="revenue_chart_ex_3aa990323f77b332d4e4dea47cb8bf85_17a6a2d7d1.png">Smoothing revenue over the course of the year can help in a number of areas, including your ability to pay expenses, keep employees on staff, and pay yourself with more consistency.&nbsp;I Have my Sales Channels Organized… Now What?&nbsp;Decision time! There are a number of different paths you can take now that you have all of your sales organized. It is possible that you could see relatively low sales numbers in one of these channels, and decide that it means you should not invest as much time/energy/money in that category.&nbsp;But it is also possible that you will see relatively low sales in a channel but feel that there is a meaningful opportunity there and decide that it requires more of your time/energy/money. The key is ensuring that you are making an informed decision. Of course, there is a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg dynamic involved here (i.e., if you don’t invest in different channels up front, you probably won’t see sales in those channels), but once you have the information in front of you, and you are able to combine it with your understanding of your customers or your markets, many of these decisions become meaningfully easier.&nbsp;As an example of one of these decisions, if you are seeing a pattern over a couple of years where you are planting three 50’ beds exclusively for dried product, and you’re only selling $300 of dried product or wreaths using that material over the course of the year, then that line item should stand out to you as something that requires some attention. Depending on your market, you might consider exploring other sales outlets for that dried product to increase those sales, or changing over some portion of those beds to a crop that generates more money for your farm.&nbsp;Check out the next article in the series <a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/blog/farm-finances-dig-into-expenses">here</a>!

Steps toward building a sustainable farming operation.

Farm Finances: Let's Talk Revenue (Sales!)

<h2>Revenue streams. Variable costs. Operating profit.</h2>If these terms have you cringing as if you’ve just spotted a swarm of Japanese beetles on your favorite David Austin roses, well then, we’ve got your back.We also have a couple of great resources at the end of this series, including a downloadable income statement template to help illustrate the examples in these articles, as well as a printable glossary of terms that you can save to your desktop, post in your office, or keep in your notebook for a quick reference guide.We can confidently assume that none of us got into farming because we love managing our finances. In fact, it’s likely that the polar opposite is true. You’re comfortable in the dirt, talking to the bees is your happy place, and you’d sooner be caught speed-walking laps in the midday sun around your field than whiling away the hours building financial statements.For better or worse, a farm is a business. In order for it to survive for any length of time, we need to be aware of where our money is coming from, and where it is going to. Whether you are a back yard micro farm, or a multi-acre scaled operation, you can use that information to help take guesswork out of the equation and prioritize important decisions within your business.<h2>First Steps</h2>The first step toward building a sustainable farming operation – outside of growing, of course – is to understand its finances. The basic questions that you want to be able to answer for your farm are:How much money is coming in, and from where? How much money is being spent, and on what? In an income statement, the answers to these questions are broken out by category: revenue and expenses. We’re going to dig into each of these categories separately in this series, and also talk about what to do with all of this information once you have it.<a href="https://www.rootedfarmers.com/blog/farm-finances-let-s-talk-revenue-sales">Check out the next article in the series here!</a>

Revenue streams. Variable costs. Operating profit.

Farm Finances: An Introduction

You dread making (and watching!) videos of yourself – we know. Same. But video content on social media allows your audience – your customers – to connect with you, your values, and your business in personal ways that beautiful photos of your flowers cannot.That personal connection, combined with your stunning blooms, is going to help motivate them to buy your product and support your business, so it’s important not to overlook it as one of the tools in your marketing toolbelt.For those of us who may be less comfortable in front of the camera, this is easier said than done. So, we asked an expert to weigh in with some tips for novice farmers who are looking to use video content on Instagram and other social media platforms to grow their businesses.Darren Chiappetta is a producer for NBC Sports and the Olympic Channel; he has produced some of these networks’ most name-drop-worthy shows, and has worked with professionals and amateurs alike to produce compelling video content for these networks. Here’s what Darren had to say:<h3>As Much As You’re Selling Your Company, You’re Selling Yourself</h3>In order to draw in casual customers, try to create content that is visually compelling and showcases your product, but just as importantly, attempt to make it interesting on a human level.Be personable – people watching on social media want to feel like you’re engaging with them individually and that you’re confident in what you’re promoting. How else can you explain the fact that Kim Kardashian and her sisters are able to sell perfume, fashion, and whatever else they sell so successfully on Instagram and other social media platforms (seriously, I’d love to know)! You ARE your brand, and if you have confidence in both yourself and your product, show it.<h3>Use Your Environment</h3>If you’re not especially comfortable on camera, feel free to use your environment to take off some of the pressure. Maybe take your dog on a tour of some of your farm or showcase products with you, or have your 3-year old son ask you questions about what you’re selling. This can help to humanize the presentation and make you (and your product) more relatable.<h3>Your Content Doesn’t Need To Be Perfect!</h3>You want things to look clean and somewhat “professional,” but don’t get too caught up in that – most phones shoot sufficiently high-resolution footage for the internet, and as long as you’re not all blurry or out of frame, it’s probably good enough. Similarly, rather than scripting exactly what you want to say, maybe have a couple of bullet points about your company that you’d like to hit that you address during your video. Or maybe not. Again, your personality is what’s going to help sell your product, and you don’t want to be so concerned about saying everything you wrote down that you come off as reciting a script. Just relax and say what feels natural.<h3>Shorter is Better</h3>If the goal of your content is to drive traffic to your website, Facebook page, etc, where all the details and showcasing of your business can be found… get ‘em there quickly. That ties back in with selling yourself – if I find YOU interesting, I’m more likely to find your business interesting, no matter what it is. Let me know why I should care about both as efficiently as possible and then tell me the link to what your business is really all about is in your bio.With that said, there are also times where you may want to do a longer post that’s catered more towards industry insiders – that’s fine too. Just be cognizant of the fact that the people that already like your product are (hopefully) also already buying it. It’s all about trying to convince someone who’s on the fence about you and your business that you’re the person they should choose.<h3>When Making a Video, Have Fun!</h3>Again, this is a recurring theme – if you’re having a good time, it can help put potential customers at ease, and the more they like you, the more likely they are to look at you as a potential business partner.Some of you may be reading this and saying, “but what about my product? All of this is about selling myself.” Marketing your product on social media starts with marketing yourself, but it is critical to remember that your product must be able to stand on its own as well. All of the tips above operate under the assumption that your product is a quality one and that you have full confidence in it. Without that, your customers will not keep coming back for more – no matter how fantastic your video content is! So, make sure your product is on point, and then go out there and sell yourself and your flowers with confidence!

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