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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:
Profitable pricing strategies: markup formulas and minimums fine-tuned for weddings & events
Magnetic marketing & local-SEO hacks: social posts, blogs, and Google tricks that attract high-budget couples and planners
High-converting sales funnels: inquiry replies, proposals, and follow-up scripts that turn curious leads into dream clients
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
Jeni pairs real-world success stories with actionable strategies you can implement today, so you’ll spend less time hustling and more time designing breathtaking bouquets, installations, and arrangements.
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Turn your passion for flowers into the six-figure floral business you deserve—one episode at a time.
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Hello flower friends. This is Jen, and I got asked by one of my favorite flower friends how to make a la carte profitable. And that's a really interesting question because fundamentally if you look at it, you know, going how can a, $265 order be profitable? And there of course are ways to do that, but those type of orders are rarely what I get.
And I actually, this is a, a great example. This weekend actually, I had an a la carte flowers order, and it was around like $1,100 total. Simple as shit. Oh my God. It was a bridal bouquet, four bridesmaids, and two boutonnieres and two corsages, and a rolling stop delivery. That's what I call a, the delivery.
I don't do shit other than bring them there. And at a new venue, this really cool distillery in Minneapolis. It was on a Friday, so I also thought, that's... I am trying to minimize my travel up to the Twin Cities. So like, I was like, "That's a reason to go up there that's productive." And then I can plan if I need to do something else, like I can plan around that.
When I was booking this wedding, this wedding was booked two weeks ago, you guys. And I, the one the week before that that one was around a thousand, or actually 1350. And similar, that actually I didn't even drop off anywhere. They came to get it here. How you can make those profitable is literally making them easy and following the right pricing formulas.
So I wanna talk about this weekend's wedding, because I think that this is a great example that the value of a la carte goes beyond just the financial that you're making in that exact transaction. Today, in my Instagram, I got a collaborator invite from the photographer. I do not know this photographer, but the power of collaborative posts is crazy.
I've had over 20,000 views on stuff I have not done in the last couple months, and I think actually more than that, 'cause I just had a really well-known local photographer tag me, and I think that post that just was posted I think I've had 9,500 views on it already. So we're probably at like more like 30.
But this new photographer that I don't know went in and tagged me, uh, or did the collaborative request. I accepted it. And I now am tagged in a venue that I have never been to- It was really beautifully photographed. Look at the photos before you accept the collaborative request, of course. And I got into a new venue to be in their tagged section on their Instagram, as well as I got in front of the coordinator, because I just dropped these flowers off to the coordinator.
The bride was not even there yet. So I've never met this bride I've never had a consultation which I'm gonna go through the process to how this is profitable as you're spending literally no time. And I went in and dropped them off, and, you know, I even kind of joked. Like, I had never met this woman, so, like, I really wanted to meet her and tell her thank you for her business and congratulations.
And, and the coordinator was, like, the coolest person ever. I've in- now I- I've invited her to come down to the farm. I've showed her pictures of the farm, 'cause we w- she said, "Well, where are you from?" I said, "Well, actually I'm, like, an hour away because we moved to a farm near Cannon Falls." And we started talking about that's her dream and she talked about her kiddo, like, loving farm animals and goats, and I'm like, "You should come down.
I got baby goats right now." And then we started... she started showing me around the venue, and then all of a sudden we start... I found out she's, like, a Minnesota Bride member, and, we just started, like, talking about all liv- this stuff. Like, I felt like we're just, like, besties, you know? And then I was talking to her about, like, "God, this would be a really cool place for a styled shoot.
Have you guys done a styled shoot yet?" And, you know, I just explained a little bit, like, about me. She's like, "So what's your deal?" I was like, "Oh, I've been a florist for, like, 30 years, and I'm also a floral educator. I have a florist podcast, and I host workshops that are, like, real fun, collaborative workshops."
And, you know, I just on and on, and we just like... she's like, "Well, if you wanna do a styled shoot here," and, like, my mind is, like, blown because this place, like, just looks crazy speakeasy cool. And then I was like, "Well, are you doing, uh, you know, anything for the Minnesota Bride tour venues?" And I mean, we're, like, just having this amazing conversation.
This formed so now I have a contact, an additional venue that I could... She actually asked me if I would develop some packages so that during their process, like, it would just be, like, these easy, like, here's flowers for your tables, here's flower whatever" to make it, like, just super easy and super chill.
And I got that off an a la carte flowers order, you guys. Like, I formed a brand-new relationship. I got tagged in a collaborative post from the photographer. I got social proof content, 'cause I took a little video of, you know, the flowers to post- put in my stories that I'm dropping off. You could even, like, take a little video pulling up to the destination and showing this venue, again, providing social proof, and all of that was for, like, an $1,100 order.
But it's still, we need to still back into that being profitable. So let's talk about, like, the money aspect of this. So with that, it was $1,100. That is including sales tax. Sales tax here is around nine point... It was 9.15%. So if we take, let's just say we're at, 'cause I think it was 1,135. We're just gonna say, uh, we're gonna take a $100 off, so $1,000.
In looking, I didn't wanna make a special trip, because that would be two hours of my life to run up there. So I went and had them delivered. I ordered from a wholesaler that they have a overnight route that delivers on Sunday nights into Monday so that I could for sure have everything good to go.
And then I got my cooler ready to go, and like, you know, process everything. And in total, I think my order with delivery, so of course that's more expensive, was 265, I think, if I'm remembering the invoice correctly. So 265, and that's including delivery, which I think my delivery is, like, $35. And so I would have well been, especially if I went and picked it up, I would have well been in the normal, like, around 25%-ish, um, markup.
Then I look at my time commitment and investment in this. And I, of course, followed the typical markup. I'm doing my three times on my fresh flowers. And I have base recipes which help you kind of go in and know when, uh, you're going into, like, an a la carte thing. Like, okay, I'm gonna need this many focal flowers.
I'm gonna need this much of a secondary size bloom. I'm gonna need this many, you know, bunches of greenery, this many bunches of filler, whatever it is. Then, uh, you go in and go, okay, with these base recipes, and let's just say it's a classic green and white wedding. M- maybe you're doing roses and you're doing some, like, spray roses or lisianthus or y- you know, you have scabiosa or something, like, that's kind of a smaller size bloom just to give your bouquet dimension.
Or maybe you go with, like, stock and you've taken the, um, heads off, uh, or the tips off so that it looks, you know, just real kind of, like, more fluffy, um, the actual bloom part of the stock. And maybe you're adding a little filler. I'm not a baby's-breath fan, but you know, you did a little Queen Anne's lace or something like that.
So as long as you're sticking to kind of like a base recipe formula that you can convert into pretty much any color palette. It's also really easy with the planning and ordering of this, uh, because all I know is, like, I'm going to need nine roses for a bridesmaid bouquet, and I'm gonna need at least, like, three stems of some secondary f- bloom, and then three stems of a filler flower.
And then, you know, usually I like to do, like, five stems of greenery so I can get a nice cuff. Then going from there, um, you know, you also need to make sure this process of communication and expectations is abundantly clear. So I have a brochure, and this brochure is part of my process. I clearly... I go in, and when I am talking to someone, you know, I, I'm immediately giving them my brochure that includes my starting at pricing, and that starting and pr- at pricing is basic shit, but I can get them flowers starting at that.
So if they tell me that they need bouquets starting at this, it does not mean that they are going to get amaranthus, anthurium, and calla lilies. That is not going to happen. That is not what the A La Carte Flowers program is built for. It is built for scalable, easy, simple bouquets, uh, like key wedding ingredients.
It does not mean that a client gets to send you their Pinterest board full of garden roses and brown lisianthus and burgundy anthurium and green amaranthus dripping with white calla lilies and burgundy mini cymbs. That is not an a la carte flower order. That is a custom, a premium bloom order, and we do not get custom premium blooms in a a la carte situation.
It's like ordering a dress and going to Target and picking it out versus going into, let's just say, you know, a custom dress company that's going to make it exactly to fit your body. That is full service. That is custom. We don't go to Target and start bossing them around to give us the exact shit that we want.
Of course, we can reinvent, come up with different color palettes, different offerings to satisfy those things, but realistically, they're, they're not going to be, like, exactly a designer dress. They're going to be something that's really pretty. I mean, I can wear a Target dress and it's, like, super pretty.
You can buy a dress on Amazon and it's super cute and super pretty. But it is... might not be something that you open Vogue and that's the dress that, that you picked up at Target. That's just not, you know, probably going to happen. It's like ordering on Temu. Are you expecting, couture when you order on Temu?
No. So you need to create the expectation that's not what's going to happen. We are not... We're not Temu, but we're not, like, providing this custom boutique experience either for à la carte prices. So if you have a client that is a budget-driven client or realistically just, like, needs four bouquets, five bouquets, a bride's bouquet, and you know, whatever, uh, okay, I can do that for you.
Here's my à la carte flowers program. You know, here's the color palettes. And I, because I had so many people be like, "I want a pop of blush, I want a pop of burgundy, I want a whatever," I added, like, white and green plus one color so that if they have it, like, they want a little bit of light blue, I can add thistle really easily.
Probably not light blue delphinium 'cause that's not gonna fit in the budget. But you guide the process, and that process needs to be so simple and so crystal clear that somebody going into it really understands what they get. If you have a minimum for a full service, which I definitely would have a minimum for a full service, to me, for me to go and set something up and do all those things, I want a minimum of $3,000 to do that.
And when I'm doing that, I'm, I'm, like, using that as, for me to go and deliver a wedding that I would need some type of setup, what do I feel like the minimum amount of money is needed for it not to suck, and for them to be able to get some of the items that they're needing? And at $3,000, I can do, personal flowers.
I can do maybe something for their arch, and I could do, like, simple bud vase tables or some floating cylinder tables. I can do that for that budget easily But if I know that this person, um, let's just say that they wanted a amaranthus burgundy anthurium, burgundy cymbidiums, and they just wanted bride bouquet and bridesmaid bouquet, but they're okay with me just dropping it off.
Depending on how I felt like the interaction and the complexity c- potentially of that client was, I might even offer to do a customization like that because I do feel like that's pretty. I'd prefer that there not be burgundy anthurium because they're the biggest pain in the ass in the world, um, because they sometimes, like all of a sudden show up red or don't show up at all because they're in such demand right now.
So i- if it was something like maybe they wanted like light blue delphinium in it, or they w- they... I really, really like ranunculus, and I'd really like to try to make sure that they're in there. Okay. Well, we can do some customization. There's just going to be an adjustment to the price per item to accommodate those premium blooms.
We don't need-- I, I personally don't feel like we need to be so rigid in it that we can't make any exceptions, but we wanna have it enough structure that it makes it really easy and it doesn't invite customization in there. It's more like, you know, you find out what they want and it's really not matching, but maybe you like the client's vibe, maybe you like the client's Pinterest board, maybe it's inspiring, maybe it's at a new distillery or venue.
Or maybe you like, you know, they mentioned their coordinator or their photographer and, you know, you've really wanted to work with them. So it's like a situational thing that you're just like: Yeah, that looks like it would be a good fit and I can do some customization. I'll just have to adjust the price, and that's a really easy thing to explain to somebody.
So you can go in, make those customizations, just say, "You know what? I normally don't do customizations for under my full service minimum. But if you're just wanting these items, I'd be willing to make an exception, but I just need to adjust the price to reflect the premium nature of the blooms that you're wanting."
Don't invite something in that obviously is going to be like anxiety-inducing and like you're just gonna be like so stressed out about getting these things. If somebody wanted some really hard to find flower or if somebody wanted calla lily bouquets, probably within the next year- I probably would be like, maybe that's going to happen, but I'm not, I'm, I would not commit anybody a calla lily bouquet right now.
Especially in any type of budget. They are ridiculously expensive right now, and they're anywhere from $5 to $7 to, I, and I've seen them at $11. $100 a bunch they were on Houwlicks for. And I think that's just because everybody's calla lily crazy right now, and when things happen like that, we go through periods of adjustment that things are just going to be bananas.
But that's why I always tread lightly that, you know what, that's actually gonna happen or not gonna happen. And if I see something start to be really trendy, I'm just really good about making vague promises, but promising that I'm going to meet the value in what I'm making for them. Because I feel like if you deliver the value, even if you had to change a few things, it's still gonna be beautiful.
It's still gonna be something that they're really excited to hold on their wedding day Another thing that I think is really important is also giving these a la carte brides... Like, I don't want all a la carte brides to be, like, booking last minute. So if I do have, let's say I already have a weekend that I have a $5,000 or $7,000 wedding, then I'm looking at this other weekend, or this weekend, like I got the inquiry, and somebody is wanting, like, a very similar color palette.
I would very easily, if I already know I have that color palette that weekend, I would do like, "Hey, you want a $1,500, and you wanted me to customize a few things." As long as I'm charging the correct markups to make that fit into the equation, that I'm making the same percentages, then who cares? I- it's pretty easy because I'm already getting the stuff for the other wedding.
And you guys, you don't know, when we were going through, like, citrus dreams, like, I did so many citrus weddings, it's kind of crazy, and I was having, like, an a la carte and then a full service citrus inspired wedding. Oh, God, I think it happened, like, six different weekends in one year that I was able to, like, piggyback a $1,500, uh, little order.
And I was like, "Oh, perfect, I'm already getting that color palette, so it's not like I'm gonna be, you know, using five stems of this bunch and not being able to use it anywhere else." Let's talk a little bit about if we do have lower and a bride bouquet and a boutonniere. I rarely get those orders, but if I do especially in the past when I lived close to a Trader Joe's, I would literally run to a Trader Joe's.
And I would maybe buy one bunch of roses from my wholesaler, and then I would buy, you know, like, three different small bunches so that I got a secondary size bloom, I got a filler flower, and then I got a greenery. You could buy a whole bunch of greenery probably pretty easily just at the wholesaler as well, but, like some seeded eucalyptus from Trader Joe's or something like that.
Or even if you have a grocery store, like we have Cub Foods, which is a grocery cha- chain, and they carry market bunches especially at the one near me now that we live kind of in the, the country. They have, like, sections color chunked off, and they carry, different roses, different fillers, greens, all that.
So I could easily run to Cub and probably pull off a bridal bouquet right now. You might pay a little bit more, obviously, because you're paying the tax. Um, I don't wanna go through the process of giving Trader Joe's, uh, my sales tax number and shit because it's just a mess. But also, uh, I have had feedback from other florists in the past that Trader Joe's is using flowers as a loss leader to get people to come in and buy groceries.
And they're doing that for retail consumption. So if you are coming in and almost trying to buy flowers from a wholesale perspective, they sometimes will have a problem with that. I have actually heard of florists getting banned for coming in there and buying, like, buckets of peonies, their whole bucket of calla lilies, their whole bucket of proteas, or whatever it is.
And so I don't like to make a spectacle of myself if I'm grabbing a few things. And if somebody asks, I'm just like, they're like, "Oh, what are these for?" "I'm just putting together some flower arrangements." Because that's true. That's what I'm doing with them. I just don't wanna invite even having a discussion in.
But that's what I would do if it is a lower budget. I might grab that, grab another thing, make it super easy, simple, something that I'm also excited about and that I have the chance to maybe even capture, you know, some flat lay bouquet photos. I love taking flat lay bouquet photos. I think it's really, can be really beautiful, and it's great for social proof again.
It's great for just having you know, some Instagram content in general. Because if you don't have a big portfolio, if you could even get, like, five a la carte weddings, that is really easily five things that you can do to have content. You could get photographs of those bouquets, and that could be absolutely beautiful.
I want a la carte flowers to not be something that you're looking at it and like, "I don't know how I'm gonna make money." Especially if you live on daily orders. I had one of the girls in the mastermind, when we were discussing her minimum, she had a pretty high minimum. But she had- didn't have a ton of wedding experience.
And I feel like experience m- gives you confidence. So if you start getting that experience, you're, getting on the bike, and you're riding a little bit, that is also worth so much. So not only is you're making money, you're getting social proof, you're getting experience. But also you're gaining confidence.
You're getting your word out there, your name out there. You're spreading the word to whomever is going to listen. From a vendor standpoint, from dropping off and having a chance to introduce yourself to a new venue, having your... a chance to introduce yourself to a new photographer, new hair and makeup artist.
Like, I don't know, like, who you will run into that day, but you guys, the amount of people that I run into that I... when I drop off flowers is crazy. And that's how I've built so many relationships, because I am always like, "Hi, I'm Jenny from Green Goddess Floral," and like, "What company are you with? I just absolutely love what you did.
It's so beautiful here." Or, "I love your venue. I just, I've never been here before, and I've always wanted to. It's so stunning here." Just try to build relationships when you're out doing these little, itty-bitty orders. It is gonna go a long, long way. You can make this into so much more than just the $750 that I made.
That $750 that I made from this order is so much bigger because I made a really great venue contact, I got a ton of views on Instagram, I got invited into a collaborator post. I had an excuse to go up to the cities. I went to the wholesaler afterwards. I stopped at and got some stuff for my kiddos.
Um, I picked up my husband lobster mac at Smack Shack. I went and got a 15-minute little massage at the little massage kiosk at the mall when I was picking up his mac and cheese. I got to have a mushroom burger from Shake Shack. Like, I got to make a really fun little trip out of it for me as well, which is also fun because otherwise I'm here on the farm.
Other than running to CrossFit, I'm here on the farm or I'm with the kids. I want to also have a little bit of fun, and it's fun to, when I don't have a huge wedding set up and then I wanna get in and out and just get my wedding set up done, just to, I don't know, twaddle around a little bit and have fun.
So make these fun because they can be. So much fun, you guys. I want you to look at the possibilities, especially we don't have that many months left in this year. It's kind of crazy, but there's not that many months left. So if you are looking to seize new opportunity to make bigger, more badass things happen to your business, it's time...
I- it... Literally the time is now for you to start thinking of how is next year going to be different? How is next year I'm actually going to make my goals? Because if you can't, can't get to your goals and you keep s- doing the same stuff, like the... How do we expect different results if we're not changing anything, if we're not thinking out of the box, if we're not going beyond and making ourself a little uncomfortable?
I really appreciate you listening to the podcast. It means a lot. I actually am one of those people... Because you guys, I've almost hit 400 episodes. Think about that. Consistent AF I am. I every week do two episodes and have for years, and this is the same thing, that consistency, that building, like doing a couple a la cartes here, doing a couple a la cartes there.
You're just building, and then you're gonna have 100 a la cartes under your belt. Then that's gonna give you 250 weddings under your belt, and then that's gonna... It just keeps building And I want big things for you. If you are looking for extra support, like literally this past week, I have supported two of the Floral CEO Mastermind girls on this exact thing.
We have dove into, one, your minimum and how we can make a la carte flowers profitable. I've also gone in and we've just talked about, like, how to do a la carte flowers without crazy. Like, how can we simplify it? This is the most supportive, hands-on mastermind out there, and literally my mission in this group, and in general, but especially in this group, like we're together a lot, and I want you to make as much money as possible with the least amount if just even just getting rid of overwhelm.
I want you to feel like the confident, badass CEO that you, I know is in there. And we just gotta figure out how to sometimes rearrange, change our thinking, change our process, have somebody look at it like myself that has been there, done that, and built a multi six-figure business while being able to get my kids off the bus every day, while being able to live the life that I live, live off the grid, do weddings that are fulfilling and joyful and fun and profitable, and also whilst taking care of myself and really just enjoying my life.
And so many of us are running around with this, like kind of Eeyore mentality chasing us, and it just doesn't need to be like that. We can actually build a business that we love. We can actually build a business that feels really good. It doesn't need to be you're done and busted and feel like shit. And if you're doing that, like that's the only way because it's like some badge of honor that we need to be stressed out and need to be like just basically tore up 'cause that's what success means.
That means that we're working hard. And I just don't identify with that anymore, and I hope that you don't either. Thank you so much for listening, flower friend, and you have an amazing flower-filled day.