How Much Money Do Flower Farmers Make?
How much money do flower farmers make?
What a loaded question!
It’s a tough one to answer, because honestly, there is not one singular number. The short answer is: whatever they want to make. But in reality, there is much more to consider.
How the farm is managed determines how much money the flower farmer makes.
We’ve all wondered the following:
How much money can I make from flower farming?
Is all this hard work going to be worth my time and effort?
Can I actually make a living doing this?
If you asked me how much teachers made, I’d be able to give you a guesstimate of somewhere between $40,000-$80,000/year, depending on how long the teacher in question has been teaching, where they are teaching, and other factors. Similarly, if you asked me how much Aeronautical engineers make, I’d guess upwards of $80,000-$110,000+/year, depending on how much schooling the engineer has and where he/she works. These are “common” career paths in which many people decide to work for other businesses or entities, so common salaries are pretty easy to figure out.
Flower farming is not a common career path, therefore the financials around flower farming are not common either.
If you work for an established flower farm as a farm worker, you’ll likely earn somewhere between minimum wage and $18.00/hour. If you are a farm manager or a key employee, you may earn more depending on how much responsibility you have, how long you’ve worked there, the location of the farm, and the size of the farm you work for.
Many farmers opt for farm ownership and entrepreneurship instead of working for someone else. Being a business owner allows you to earn more and be in control of your own paycheck. Although starting a business can require years of zero pay, incurring big financial risks, and years of working long hours- within good time, a farm owner will be able to earn a reasonable salary if they are good at business.
There are also business size differences to take into account: large greenhouse growers vs. large field growers vs small, diversified growers. Each of these businesses are WORLDS apart in terms of business scale, strategy, and makeup. Their profit margins and gross revenues would look very different if you compared them side by side.
For the sake of this discussion, I think it would make most sense to folks if we consider smaller, more diversified farms that grow on 5 acres or less.
In my experience, I have heard countless figures that range from basically making nothing to making hundreds of thousands of dollars on a small farm of 5 acres or less. On one acre alone you can earn anywhere from $20,000 - $400,000+(gross revenue), depending on what you grow, how you grow it, and how you market your business. Obviously, the more time a farm has been in existence and the more business sense the owner has, the more money the farm (and farmer) has potential to make.
When first starting out, manyfarmers don’t pay themselves anything while the business is getting established. A farm costs a lot of money to get started, there are endless expenses such as:
· Land (mortgages ain’t cheap) - 1+ acres with a home costs anywhere from $75,000 to $500k to…unlimited!
· Tractors and farm vehicles (also ain’t cheap) - Used tractors can be found cheaply, new ones start at $10k (but more realistically around $30k+). A delivery vehicle usually is needed, can be used or new.
· Implements - Plows, harrows or disks, spring-tooth harrows, mulch-layers, much-lifters, etc. Each can cost you anywhere from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand.
· Soil amendments - manure, compost, or any other amendments that will be needed to improve soil health. Can cost you anywhere from nothing to tens of thousands.
· Season Extension infrastructure - a propagation greenhouse, hoop-houses, caterpillar tunnels. If you have a short season or farm in the north, you’ll likely want to utilize these. Cost: anywhere from $3k - $50k/each.
· Work flow infrastructure (a barn or studio to process flowers). Can cost anywhere from $20k-150k+
· Websites and marketing expenses
· Liability, vehicle, workers compensation insurances
· I could go on and on and on…
You get the point. Depending on how the owner handles these start up costs, within a few years (anywhere from 1-8 years), a small farm growing biointensively on 1 acre should be able to turn a profit. They also should be able to fairly easily earn at least $100,000 in gross revenue…as long as they use critical business skills to manage and market their business. It’s totally possible to earn between $100-200,000 gross revenue growing flowers on 1 acre.
How much you earn in gross revenue (aka total earnings) depends on many factors such as:
· What outlets you sell your flowers through (are you getting a high price for ‘em?)
· If you have an effective marketing strategy
· The types of flowers you are growing and selling (are they high value, or nah?)
· Your location
· And more.
The profit from that revenue is dependent on the management of your finances, but anywhere between a 20%-60% margin is common. The more money you spend, the less profit you’ll earn. Factors that determine your profit margin are:
· How well you stick to your expense budget (don’t spend money on stuff you don’t need)
· The amount of outside labor you hire
· How efficiently you grow flowers: do you farm with traditional row-crop spacing or do you farm biointensively? (read up on LEAN farming or take our on-farm workshop to do this!)
· The supplies, materials, equipment, fuel, etc. needed to market and sell your flowers
· Your marketing strategy (are you marketing with paid ads or organic reach?)
· And more.
Based on this example, a 1 acre farm can easily earn $100-200,000 with a 30-60% profit margin, earning anywhere between $30,000-$100,000+ in profit. The profit is determined by YOU and how well you manage your farm.
Whatever is earned in profit can either be re-invested back into the farm or paid to the owner as a salary* (*depending on business structure, but most LLC’s and sole props operate this way).
Every business is unique and has a different financial situation based on its location, target market, growing techniques, marketing, and overall management.
Value-added services such as floristry work making mixed bouquets, weddings, workshops, and misc. income from selling tuber or seed stock can greatly contribute to a farm’s bottom line even though they aren’t earning the money directly from producing a flower crop.
Is it nearly impossible to give a set figure such as “a flower farmer earns $30,000/acre” based on these considerations. Flower farming profit per acre cannot be easily calculated because every business is unique and is financially managed differently.
That being said, if you start a flower farm business (or any business), the world is your oyster! You can make plans to earn as much or as little as you would like. If your goal is to pay yourself something like multiple 6 figures from your small farm, it is totally possible, but it just may take you quite some time and effort to reach that goal. If you want to pay yourself $30-70k/year after the initial establishment phase (of 3-8 years on average), it’s very common to do so.
Another consideration is what size business best suits your own unique personality and strengths. For me, personally, I don’t have much interest in running a farm that earns millions of dollars in revenues, mainly because I do not want to manage a large team of people. I prefer working with a small, intimate team- which puts constraints on how much I can grow with such a small number of laborers. But perhaps you would thrive if you managed a team of 30 harvesters! In general, the larger the farm, the more labor is required, and the smaller the profit margin is. Again, each business is different.
Additionally, I want to mention that FARMING is different that FLORISTRY (in my opinion). If you consider yourself a “farmer-florist,” and design weddings every weekend of the season, you need to realize that most of the money you earn will likely be from your floristry work - NOT from farming flowers. This is an important distinction because the rules of agriculture do not apply to florists. Floristry is NOT farming, although you can certainly supplement your floristry business by growing your own flowers.
I understand that this article perhaps did not give you exactly what you were searching for: a nice, concise number wrapped up in a bow, however- to give you something like that would be totally misleading and dishonest. The potential to earn a living from flower farming is very possible, as it is possible to earn a living from just about ANYTHING in today’s world. But the profit you earn will come from hard work and personal and professional growth.
Learning key business skills such as managing finances, determining profitable products, marketing, and sales will go a long way towards paying yourself a decent salary as a flower farmer.
For me, it’s the best job in the world and I love what I get to do every day. It is not all about the money, nor should it be for anyone wishing to pursue a meaningful vales-based career, however- life is whatever you make it.
If you’d like to learn how to manage your finances to ensure profits and how to market and sell cut flowers, check out one of our upcoming workshops.
I’m curious to know if you agree with what I said or if you think differently? Let me know what you think about my assessment by commenting below.