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Struggling to turn your floral design talent into a profitable, scalable, and stress-free business? Welcome to The Floral CEO® Podcast—the ultimate audio destination for wedding and event florists, flower-shop owners, and creative entrepreneurs who want to book bigger budgets, price with confidence, and lead like a true CEO.
Hosted by Jeni Becht, award-winning wedding florist, event designer, and floral business coach with 25 + years in the industry, each weekly episode dives into:
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Streamlined systems & smart outsourcing: workflows, templates, and hiring tips that free you from the design bench
CEO mindset & sustainable growth: leadership habits and eco-friendly practices that keep both you and your business flourishing
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Hello Flower friends. On today's episode we're gonna talk about paying yourself. And I love when I get new coaching clients or I get new you know, people in the mastermind or I even just talk, I like to talk about money and it's not something that is very natural as women. And I, I think I've talked about this like a long time ago.
Whenever I talk with my husband about someone I met and about conversations and like, especially if I'm like just really jacked up and energized by this person, I often am like, not. Especially if it's like a wedding professional that I've met and I'm just meeting them. I never just come out and really ask like, how big is your business?
Like what kind of business do you have? And it's really interesting to me 'cause a lot of people that you know from far away that you can look at can com be completely like in your eyes, successful, but could be paying themself shit. And to me, a measure of success is paying yourself because you are working hard, you are doing something that you love, and that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be making money at it.
You deserve to pay yourself. And here are things that I often hear. I am investing everything in the business now and so I can't pay myself. Or you start to really classify, and I've done this, the fringe benefits of owning a business and the things that the business pays for. Commensurate to that. And I actually do go through a exercise every year that I.
Almost figure out like perceived value or that bonus value of owning a business. Because I do believe wholeheartedly that if your business is paying for your car and you have no car expenses, that is a perk that has. Value associated with it. Uh, I actually used to, when I worked and had a job in corporate America and when I was looking at different jobs, I placed monetary value on things like not working Saturdays.
Being not starting until nine o'clock because I, you know, kept telling myself I'm not a morning person. So it had value to me and the like the hours, I would put like a $10,000 value on the not working on Saturdays, I would put a $10,000 value. So like I would. Monetize my perks, uh, in my compensation plan in my head, because I feel like then when I'm looking at job opportunities or job offers.
I could compare my, of course, salary or my, out, out the door or my target, my target revenue. And then I could look at, okay, here's my target that they're saying. Uh, especially 'cause I was always in sales, so there was always like sales goals and income that was commensurate with that. But then there was my.
Like perks or perceived value that I would also look at because if for some reason I'm gonna have to be at work at like eight o'clock versus like nine o'clock, like that to me equated to the perceived value. 'cause I would much rather start work at nine o'clock if I had to, like when, especially when I was, selling cars for many years. You know, I had to like, when I would look at one dealership, they would say that you had to work three nights a week, but then another dealership would be like, you only have to work two. You know? So all of those things weigh, but just because you have perks in your business doesn't mean that you shouldn't be paying yourself.
Your perks are not your only compensation. So perks to me are of course, like if it's paying and you know, and I know the IRS and I am not a tax professional and I am not offering tax advice, but I do know a lot of business owners that their business pays for their vehicle, pays for the gas on it, pays for the insurance on it, pays for their cell phone, pays for their internet, you know, all of those things.
I do think going through an exercise and figuring out what that perceived value that you're getting from those perks is a kind of, almost like a fundamental thing to go through a fundamental exercise, not only for you, but if you have a partner it is easy. For those things to get slid under the rug and not seen by your partner.
'cause they're seeing on your guys', especially if you're married, they're seeing on your joint tax returns, your income. And if you don't step back, like my business paid for my pottery classes, you guys, 'cause I'm making vessels for my business. So it paid for, I think it was $1,200 of pottery classes, which is a valid business expense.
But if I didn't own a business, I would still wanna go to fucking pottery class. But I think it's helpful for me to say, Hey, to my husband. So because he sees one number, there's also my perks, benefits of X, and I think my perks benefits, when I went through it was almost like $35,000. 'cause my business does owe my van.
My business does pay my gas, my business does pay my insurance. My business pays for the insurance on one of our structures, um, because State Farm has a thing that does not cover if any business equipment is in it. And it's a detached structure. My business covers that and so that reduces our household, my business.
Paid rent and all of those things, I just build into a sheet so I can explain the perks or additional value that the business delivered, but that still is not mitigating you paying yourself. If you have listened to my episodes on Profit First, there are formulas that you could develop on, okay, I have X amount of revenue.
And if you guys have heard like the checking account breakdown. So you start out with a bunch of different checking accounts, which to most people is really overwhelming. You have an income account that all of your income comes into that account. It is your dumping ground of income. You have your OPEX account, which is your operating expenses, so anything it costs to run your business, including your Gmail, your internet, your automotive, whatever that comes outta that, your flowers come out of that, your taxes account to make sure that you.
Siphoning off money for sales tax. Some people do it to pay their personal income taxes because in Minnesota it's almost 10%. I like to just siphon that off the top because I'm gonna have to pay it and it's like nine point, uh, one five to 9.85 depending on where the venue is. So I would rather just siphon off 10% to know that I have the money in the account for sales tax.
Then you have your profit account. Most people view paying themself as profit. Those are two different things because you need profit in your business in the long run to make growth, to make big strides in your business to. Make like all of a sudden, like, I need to, right now I wanna build a walk-in cooler.
To me, for me to build a walk-in cooler is probably gonna be a seven to $10,000 deal, it sounds like, because I don't wanna build it myself. That sounds horrible for me. No thank you. So, seven to $10,000 I would need money sitting in the business. And that is not at the expense of not paying myself or at the expense of me not paying one of my responsibilities or borrowing Pete from Peter to pay Paul, which is your deposits, which so many people also live off of.
So I need profit build in my business to make purchases like that. I had enough profit in my business to be able to go buy my van. If I didn't have that profit in my business, I would've had to take a business loan out and I had the profit sitting there to be able to go and purchase the van. Then not only do you have your profit account, then you're going to have your owner's compensation account, so every time we're just gonna use round numbers.
A hundred dollars comes in. You are going to siphon off based on a percentage and formula based on your current expense structure, what your operating expenses normally are at. That will depend if you have a shop. Are paying shop type things if you have employees and expenses you know, if your labor, a lot of shops run at high labor rates because you're having to, to, you know, basically have people there during open hours.
So there's a lot of variables, but. It seems like most people will fall into about 50 ish percent, 55, some 60 if they're really expense heavy or they have a big, you know, payment for rent or whatever based on their location. Hundred dollars 60 of that, let's just say 50 50% of that is siphoned off to the operating expense account to pay your internet, to pay for your flowers, to pay for all those things.
And you know, as long as you were pricing correctly, using pricing formulas that will go in and support this percentage base. You are buying your product after you've priced it within your formulas that you should be able to divvy out, out of the a hundred dollars $50 goes to your operating expense account, then you're gonna take 10% to your taxes account or whatever your percentage is.
Then you're going to take let's leap and say. 5% to your profit account, then you need to look at what's left. So we have, we had our money originally come into our income account. We have siphoned off our taxes account, we've siphoned off our operating expenses, we've siphoned off our profit. Now we have money to pay you.
That is your owner's compensation bucket. You should realistically. Be able to pay yourself at least 10 to 15%, 10 to 15%, if not more. Realistically, you should be able to pay yourself. If you are running a tight chip from an expense structure, you should be able to pay yourself 20 to 22% easily and still have money, half profit.
Still have money. To pay your operating expenses, still have money, to not be using your deposits and living and running your business off a deposit. Still have money to pay your taxes. I actually have an additional account. I have a savings account. I park all of my deposits in my savings account. I then never look at them.
They are just sitting there. And they're sitting there waiting for that wedding. If you have like right now I have a deposit for a silk flower installation, so I am having to use that to buy product. So when I start to use a deposit, let's just say from for candles, that's often why on weddings that are larger, I take a bigger deposit because I know that I am going to be buying product like candles usually.
And I mean, I've had weddings that I've bought a thousand dollars of candles. That's not a little bit of candles. That's up. A lot of candles, so I need to make sure that I have that money. And I didn't use that money because I have met with coaching clients that took money and took payment along the way.
And so this is another reason why I am a fan of taking an initial deposit. And then collecting payment a month out from the wedding. Then Temp Temptation Island. And plus the pain in the ass if you ask me of collecting money along the way. And I know some software's doing do it for you, but it is still something that you have to inevitably check and it is still something that the customer inevitably has to initiate and take care of.
So more work. More work and the potential of you using it. 'cause I have had clients. Tell me that they have spent that budget, they've spent all of that money other than like 30% of it to buy flowers. So they are terrified of spending beyond that 30% because they don't have it. That is why I just don't even dip in the honey honeypot, and I've had the opposite where I've had people completely paying themself.
Off of their deposits because they got bills to pay and so they are taking money from their deposits to pay themself and maybe there is a sweet middle ground for you to run your business in. I just do not choose. I would rather hustle doing whatever, trying to find more weddings than or an event, or do a popup or do something, then use my deposits.
I actually. I don't think I've ever used my deposits, and maybe that is because I've ramped up my business in a way that I've just, I've, you know, had a good job in corporate and then when I transitioned, I, you know, I still had a cushion and all those things. I just never have had to use that, and I know that that is coming from a spot of privilege.
I know that everybody can't do that. But one of the nice things about Profit First is you know you need to run your business in this expense structure and running your business in this expense structure, prioritizing you, paying yourself, helps you stop making impulse buys. If you are, let's just say a event florist, an accent decor's book of porn comes out.
I call it the book of porn. 'cause like literally makes you want to buy tons of these things. You are just like trying you, I literally have to stop and say start talking myself down that I'm don't need to buy these things and go find customers for them because that's what I did. I like. Before I, I operated in, I borrowed money from paying myself to buy inventory.
Now I have a rule that unless it's for a workshop and then I'm not buying a million of them, like I need a client to be buying these things for me to acquire them. That is just a rule, and it's for a workshop. I'm literally doing it because I'm supporting the workshop and having it be super kick ass.
And, um, like I just ordered two things from CV linens 'cause I'm gonna do a private one-on-one. I'm actually planning two of them this year that we're basically going to do a mini workshop together. That from start to finish we are executing, um, we're going through the vision and planning process and helping plan it out.
Then we're going and actually making all this shit. Then we're going and having an amazing style shoot. And bringing somebody through that experience so that you can do that on your own. And it's just you and me doing it. And I have two themes. I'm super excited. One's gonna be chromed out and so the new Chrome kind of, uh.
Trend right now. I'm just so in love with it, paired with merlott and then yellow and black. And I know it sounds like Bumblebee, but it is going to be sexy. It's gonna be like I ordered these drum centerpiece from CV linens that I'm so excited to put together. It's gonna have orchids and lemons and. Back in black, like, chairs and table settings and just, it's gonna be yummy.
And I'm so excited. I'm going to be announcing all of the workshops for this year, the three, um, main workshops, and then the two private workshops very soon. So I, I made that purchase. It wasn't a big purchase, but that does not take away. From paying me that is out of profit. Profit in the business helped fund that.
It doesn't make me not be able to pay myself. So go through this exercise, try to actually figure out what percentages you have, and I know it. I have talked to people and they can't even fathom. Having any more QuickBooks to do or any more FreshBooks or whatever accounting, or, they can't even fathom having more than one checking account.
And as someone who is neurodivergent, like I am a DD as fuck, sometimes you guys like I, I like, was so paralyzed by QuickBooks, but I also know how to leverage. Resources, and that's what my accounting people are for. If this is not your strong suit, it doesn't mean that it's optional. It just means that you need different people to help position and support you.
It doesn't mean that it's just optional for you to even do it. Um, which I used as a strategy for years. Like I'm just opting out of things that make my brain hurt because I literally felt like I just had this analogy, like I feel like. I'm butter. That's not enough on burnt toast that I'm just scraping.
And you know that sound you hear when you're scraping burnt toast and you don't have enough butter? It's just, it doesn't feel good. Like I used to treat accounting. I used to treat money. I used to treat like paying myself, talking about money. But then I have the opposite end of my husband, and every time I don't think I finished that story because of being a DHD.
Men just talk about money, like they will go to a meetup where a bunch of dudes are getting together. And they just comfortably like, so how big is your business? Oh, cool. That's cool. Yeah, I'm just starting out and you know, it's real, like I just got a couple paying clients or like, they'll just like, it's like a big penis measuring contest where they're like, yeah, my business hit like a million.
I'm going to seed round funding. I'd never heard. The words seed round funding, until I've heard about a bunch of dudes being together and completely being even more dude astic talking about money, and us as women just for some reason it just never feels really good. And that's why anybody that works with me, I'm talking about money because I wanna change the narrative.
We deserve to make more money just because we love what we do. Doesn't diminish what we should be paying ourself. We make art, which most artists have this perception of because I'm doing something I love. I, I'm getting paid enough. I work my ass off you guys. I literally work my ass off. I work my ass off as a mother.
I work my ass off as the person who runs the show for my business. The person who is showing up for you guys, the person showing up for consults, for my my coaching clients, for everybody, like I am showing up in a big way and I deserve. To make money for it because that means that I am not snuggling my children, or I'm not snuggling Petya, my mini cow, which I snuck a, a snuggle in earlier when I went out to feed her.
Because I'm doing that, I can't do something else that would bring me joy. And that work that energy deserves to make money. And I hope you believe, and I really want you to just like, even just think and sit in that, do I really believe that I deserve to make money? Do I deserve that? I deserve to make a, a good amount of money?
I'm like, what is that to you? What is a good amount of money? Like, what do you want to make? Because what I hear most people make is they say, I wanna make a hundred thousand. And I'm like, what does that mean? Does that mean your business or does that mean you, because those are two different numbers. Is that your gross sales or what you're paying yourself?
Because your gross sales and your net sales are two different numbers than what you're actually paying yourself. And what we often run hand in hand is that your net sales is what you're paying yourself. We need to build a strategy. If you have not. Read the book Profit First. I really would. I'm gonna put the link in the show notes.
I want you to read that and I know sometimes like if, especially if you're 88 D, like it's just hard to fricking read. I actually like listening to him in Audible. His name is Mike Mitz. Thousands of businesses do this. Sometimes you just need a roadmap. You guys, you need a roadmap, and that's what I'm trying to lay out here.
Fundamental principles of what you should be paying yourself, because it's probably not enough. If I met with you, would I tell you, 'cause I'm about as honest of a coach as it gets, because as you told me, your numbers, what I think that you're paying yourself fairly, would I be like, you're crushing it way to go?
Because if you were, I would tell you. If not like, do I need to hide under my coat when I hear the numbers? Because I'm like, oh my God, it's like making me come unglued because you're undervaluing yourself. And I also see when somebody's undervaluing themself, they're often charging, so those often go hand in hand.
So if you are frustrated. With what you're paying yourself or your loved one is frustrated. Is it because you've really built in no margin to actually make money? Because I know for years I just thought it was exciting that people were hiring me and I was cheap as hell and I didn't care because I felt validation that people chose me and booked me.
I have lost three clients in the last week and a half. Because there was a cheaper florist, and I could have been sad about that, but I'm also happy. I like one of the brides, like I did have a little crazy on my radar, but I loved her vision. It was like burgundy Ethereum, which those always make me nervous when I have a bride that wants those because they're such a pain in the ass.
And then it was like green amaranthus. Vintage hydrangeas, willy vibey at a new venue that I would love to do a wedding, but I, I always send an email when somebody says they go in a different direction and I ask for clarification, like, Hey, you know what? I'm so bummed that, um, you didn't move forward with booking us.
I'd love to understand because as a small business owner and somebody who really cares about providing a good experience for my clients. Can you share with me why you went into a different direction? She proceeded to reply and tell me that she had met with seven florists and she picked the cheapest one.
Like I dodged that bullet because I'm glad I'm not the cheapest one. I had another one say that somebody was half my price. There is somebody in my market. Completely undervaluing themself. And I could be sad and I could be angry that there's somebody not pricing correctly, but. I just know that that opens up for a better opportunity with somebody who values my work, who doesn't value the race to the bottom, that inevitably is not going to pay themself, and inevitably probably not gonna be a florist for very long because they're not gonna make any money doing it.
You can't work for free forever. It just isn't possible. So whatcha paying yourself? Is it enough? And if you're really curious, I would love for you for one, we're gonna be talking about money in January and the floral CEO Mastermind. I would love for you to join because we're gonna map out money. We're gonna map out your financial goals.
You're gonna hear other women talking about money because it's that important or. I will put a link to a business breakthrough session in the show notes. In this, we literally dive into doing some like initial planning and really kinda map out where you wanna be in 2026, because having a plan is half the battle.
If you're just free balling into 2026 with no plan, no strategy, but you're expecting different results, let me tell you, it's not gonna happen. You need a plan, you need a strategy. You need to be able to actually have data to go in to the new year with a different frame of mind. And sometimes you just need a little kick in the pants to move into the right direction.
And I would love to be that person because I feel like accountability and having a person with a different perspective has completely changed my life. And I know it can do the same for you. So thank you so much for listening, flower Friend. And you have an amazing flower filled day.