The floral Insta-world was taken by storm as the 2019 Mayesh Design Star, Shean Strong, shared his experience with being asked to work his magic on an event in three days for free. In this series of insta-stories, Shean recognized a very strong principle that florists can easily forget: you are worth more than "social media exposure."
In many ways, the promise of social media exposure is very similar to the promise of exposure via a styled shoots; it's the hope of being published in a certain magazine or being handed extra paying clients down the road. But it's really just a hope, and an expensive hope at that. It has zero real value to it. The money put into the hope of solid exposure is better spent on a new computer for your business, client gifts, or a conference.
Plus, consider the fact that, as a florist, your end product is perishable. Doing events or shoots for "exposure" means that your are giving away product (read: giving away money) and your time (read: giving away more money). As Melanie Osorio reminded the Instagram world in response to Shean's story, "Exposure doesn't pay (your) bills."
As a business owner, you have one core principle that has to drive every decision: you have to be profitable. In order to be profitable, you have to know your worth and you have to be willing to price what you're worth. You need to be willing to set your markups in such a way that you consistently price for a profit and refuse to accept any payment that is less than that, even for events and shoots that offer the hope of a big payoff later.
Want to figure out what your markups should be so you can price what you're worth? Use our free markup calculator!
You need to know that you are worth it.
You are worth the extra markup that you're going to invest in educational purposes and the additional labor fee you're charging for the client who wants a chunk of your time every day from the time they sign the contract to the time they say "I do." You are worth the higher rate on rental items you spent years tracking down to build out a perfect collection.
You. Are. Worth. It.
When you know your worth, you begin to command a level of respect from others and gain the confidence to turn down offers that may tempt you to do something that is less than what you're worth.
Know your worth and stand firm.
As a floral community, let's make a concerted effort to know your worth and price your worth, rather than giving away product for the hope of growing your business through a very quick spotlight. When each person does that, it will benefit everyone.
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Want to learn more about markups and pricing what you're worth? We would love to help you learn how to best price out your events and rentals!
