Flower Farm Viability Quiz

Quiz Questions

• 1.
  How long have you been growing and selling flowers?

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  • A.
    This will be my first season!
  • B.
    I've got 1 - 2 seasons under my belt.
  • C.
    3 - 5 seasons.
  • D.
    6 - 8 seasons
  • E.
    9 + seasons (hey fellow old-timer!)
• 2.
  How much land will you have under cultivation this season?

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  • A.
    1/4 acre or less
  • B.
    1/2 acre
  • C.
    1 - 2 acres
  • D.
    3 + acres
• 3.
  How solid is your customer base?

  • A.
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    I'm struggling with sales and marketing, and really need to find more customers.
  • B.
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    I'm not quite there with enough customers, but I'm building towards it.
  • C.
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    I've built a good customer base, that's not my issue when it comes to fine-tuning my farm.
• 4.
  Do you have an email newsletter?

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  • A.
    I may have some emails of past customers and farm supporters, but I don't use any email program to reach out to them.
  • B.
    Technically, yes, I have one (using Mailchimp or some other service), but I'm not at all active with it.
  • C.
    I have one and am in touch with my customers regularly but don't actively build the list.
  • D.
    Yup! I have one, I build the audience regularly, and I'm active in sending out emails.
• 5.
  Have you refined the list of the main crops you grow each season?

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  • A.
    I'm in the phase of just trying a little bit of everything.
  • B.
    I've honed in on the major crops that make sense for my farm, but am still dialing it in.
  • C.
    I've carefully taken stock of the demand for my flowers and my crop list pretty well reflects my customers' requests.
  • D.
    My crop list not only reflects my customers' requests, but also what works best for our farm and what we grow efficiently and profitably. A well-oiled machine, we are!
• 6.
  What does your crop planning process look like?

  • A.
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    It's messy, and I need help.
  • B.
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    It's vague, but is based on notes from last year and seems to get the job done.
  • C.
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    It's comprehensive, and involves looking at last season's notes, and building a plan and planting schedule, either on paper or the computer.
  • D.
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    It's almost effortless at this point because it's so dialed in and I have no need to perfect it further.
• 7.
  Have you done any kind of cost of production study or enterprise budget, to show you which crops are making you money, and which are losing you money?

  • A.
    No, I haven't even thought about that yet. Why?
  • B.
    No, but I know I should!
  • C.
    Yes, I've dabbled.
• 8.
  Do you have job descriptions and written SOP's for your farm?

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  • A.
    Nope - nothing is written down, we're just winging it.
  • B.
    It's all in my head and I could easily explain most of our farm processes to a new worker.
  • C.
    I've started to do some of this, either writing out my own job and main responsibilities or that of my team.
  • D.
    Yes, we've got some version of a farm manual with all of the main job descriptions, tasks, and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP's).
• 9.
  Is your farm fully insured?

  • A.
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    Hmm...no?
  • B.
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    I'm not entirely confident that I'm fully covered.
  • C.
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    Yes, I've looked into everything I need, from car insurance to workers comp to general liability insurance, and I have everything I need.
• 10.
  Do you track or account for your time on the farm? In other words, do you know how much time you spend working and where those hours are spent?

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  • A.
    Nope, I'm everywhere, all the time, and couldn't accurately describe a day in the life or make a plan for the week where we stick quite closely to the schedule.
  • B.
    Somewhat.
  • C.
    Yes, I pretty must know what percentage of my time (and/or my team's time) goes to which activities, and we plan accordingly.
  • D.
    Yes, and we have rates that we periodically check - for instance, everyone on the team knows how long it should take to plant a bed of lisianthus or harvest ten bunches of ranunculus.
• 11.
  What kind of bookkeeping do you do?

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  • A.
    None! (Sue me).
  • B.
    I keep basic track of some things on paper or a spreadsheet, but wouldn't say it accurately reflects my business in a way that would allow me to generate reports or make top-level strategic decisions.
  • C.
    I use Quickbooks, either managing my books alone or with help from a bookkeeper, and we're generally up to date.
  • D.
    I use some other software or system, either managing my books alone or with help from a bookkeeper, and we're generally up to date.
• 12.
  How do you keep records of what you plant, how much, and how much you harvest?

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  • A.
    I don't really keep track of this information yet.
  • B.
    I have various notes for parts of this, but it's not complete or easy to access.
  • C.
    I have my own system to capture a lot of this, but it could be improved to make it more streamlined and to make better use of the data.
  • D.
    I have my own system and am confident that I capture all of my planting and harvesting data. This means I can tell you when we plant a crop, and how much we harvested off of that bed or section.
• 13.
  Can you describe what you want your farm to look like in 3 and 5 years?

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  • A.
    Not really - a have some general ideas, though!
  • B.
    Sure - I've got a clear vision in my head.
  • C.
    Sure - but we really plan year by year, with specific goals and plans for the coming season, rather than 3 or 5 years out.
  • D.
    Yes, I've got a business plan or a 3-or 5- year plan written out in some capacity.
• 14.
  How have you invested in yourself as a business owner? Pick all that apply.

  • A.
    I've taken online courses through The Gardener's Workshop.
  • B.
    I've taken the Floret online workshop.
  • C.
    I've taken classes from YOU (Lennie, B-Side Farm / Flower Farming For Profit.
  • D.
    I've taken other flower-industry specific classes.
  • E.
    I've taken other small business courses.
  • F.
    I'm old school (and proud of it), and turn to books for my information!
  • G.
    I haven't really taken any of these steps beyond learning how to grow flowers - the business side of things is new to me.
  • H.
    I'm an ASCFG member! (Hi! We're family!)
• 15.
  What are your biggest areas of interest right now when it comes to flower farming business education? Pick your top 2 or 3.

  • A.
    Hiring and managing a team
  • B.
    Learning crop cost of production
  • C.
    Sales and marketing
  • D.
    Farm efficiency
  • E.
    Bookkeeping
  • F.
    Record Keeping

Quiz Outcomes

• 1.
  Your farm business is...well, you should be teaching the rest of us! It's stellar!

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  Congratulations, friend! By completing this quiz, you've gained insight into the health of your farm business. According to your responses, your business is stellar. I mean it. You probably knew it already. But if you're wondering what that means, keep reading...You're no stranger to growing crops and you've built great systems to propel your business forward. The question for you now is, how do you further refine? How can you further automate, delegate, systematize and hone in on your farm's particular strengths to make your life even easier and more fulfilling, and your customers even more satisfied?This work is hard, but nothing compared to what you've already done. Continuing to fine-tuning all these back-end systems now will set you up for the long haul. “You can't measure what you can't manage” 5 Tips to Help You Work ON The Business, Rather Than IN The Business. Read On, Friend...1. Upgrade Your Record Keeping This SeasonHere's one metric that 99% of flower farmers I've spoken to leave out of their record keeping: waste (or shrink). The first step is to make sure you're already keeping track of your planting dates and amounts for each crop. The next step up is tracking your yield data so that you know how many stems come out of an average sunflower or ranunculus bed on your farm. That's where I'd start if you're new to detailed record-keeping. The final step, the champion level, is to track how much of each bed or section of crop goes to waste, and why. I'll recommend some quick and dirty ways to do this in my upcoming Flower Farm Year In Review webinar (you can sign up to be notified about that here). 2. Invest In Time TrackingTo get better in touch with where your time is actually spent on the farm, first take a guess at where the bulk of your time goes. I love making quick and easy pie charts in Google sheets (but I know we don't all share the same views on what's fun). This should show your main farm activities: weeding, planting, harvesting, looking for tools (!), and so on. Then, take one day a month and write down all your activities on an hour-by-hour schedule (what you actually did, not what you planned to do). Have your team do the same. Then, you guessed it, compare. Did your guess match your reality? How can you close the gap, or get more realistic about what actually occurs on your farm?3. Go Through Your Crop List With A Fine-Tooth CombSome crops are making you money, and some are losing you money. You know this. Is this the year to finally learn who's who? I recommend starting with your heavy hitters - the crops you grow a lot of. If you're brand new to this, I'd recommend trying just two at a time. If you know me, you know I'm partial to a program called Know Your Cost To Grow, and I explain a simplified (but not as accurate) system for doing this at home in my upcoming book. I highly recommend Richard Wiswall's book, and you can also check out this old webinar I recorded with the farmers who joined me in a grant study of crop Cost of Production. 4. Give More To Your Current CustomersIt's easy to forget about your current customers while trying to grow your farm's reach. What can you do to make sure that each customer who has bought from you even one time, is encouraged to stay in your orbit and buy from you again? I love walking through the Customer Journey and thinking about the process as someone goes from a stranger to a one-off customer to a lifetime ambassador. How can you nurture your customers at each step along the journey and make sure they're moving right along?5. Systematize Your MarketingYour customers need to be hearing from you more, and you need to be speaking to them directly. A+ email marketing should include a welcome flow as well as specific journeys depending on the customer's actions. You can set this all up in Mailchimp or whatever service provider you choose. Learning this back-end work takes time, but it's so worthwhile. Your lifelong CSA customer needs different content than your first time farmers' market customer, and there are ways to do all of this without spending all your time at it! "Who's the Human Behind This Business Know-How" - I'm Glad You AskedHey there, I'm Lennie Larkin 👋 I teach ambitious flower farmers how to fine-tune their farms into profitable machines by implementing small business strategies. Because it isn't easy to keep at this farming path while worrying how it's all going to come together. That said, you have every reason to get started, friend! Whether you're just getting started or are struggling to refine your farm, I've got a course that'll set you up for success, so you can earn a living doing what you love!Boost Your Business With These 3 Free Resources1. Sign Up For My Upcoming Year In Review Webinar I've been putting the finishing touches on this free live class coming un in late December, and have beta tested it with my coaching groups. I can't wait to help you look back over your season with a strategic mindset. 2.Listen to me on the Growing For Market podcast. Chatting with Andrew was a blast and we covered some great farm business topics. 3.Watch this Accounting For Farmers webinar from Julia Shanks If you're looking to grow your knowledge of managerial accounting principles, this is a great place to start and is the first in a series of webinars you can access. P.S. Expect to See Me in Your Inbox With More Helpful Farm Business Tips!
• 2.
  Your farm business is... strong, but it could be stronger!

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  Congratulations, friend! By completing this quiz, you've gained insight into the health of your farm business. According to your responses, your business is strong, but it could be stronger. If you're wondering what that means, keep reading...You're no stranger to growing crops and you've built some great systems to propel your business forward. Now it's time to come back around to the things you don't have in place, and to fine-tune. How can you further automate, delegate, systematize and hone in on your farm's particular strengths?This work is hard, but gaining some control over your farm, marketing and finances is so fulfilling. Fine-tuning all these back-end systems now will save you so many years of frustration and make sure your flower farm sticks around for the long haul. “You can't measure what you can't manage” 3 Tips to Help You Work ON The Business, Rather Than IN The Business. Read On, Friend...1. Upgrade Your Record Keeping This SeasonHere's one metric that 99% of flower farmers I've spoken to leave out of their record keeping: waste (or shrink). The first step is to make sure you're already keeping track of your planting dates and amounts for each crop. The next step up is tracking your yield data so that you know how many stems come out of an average sunflower or ranunculus bed on your farm. That's where I'd start if you're new to detailed record-keeping. The final step, the champion level, is to track how much of each bed or section of crop goes to waste, and why. I'll recommend some quick and dirty ways to do this in my upcoming Flower Farm Year In Review webinar (you can sign up to be notified about that here). 2. Invest In Time TrackingTo get better in touch with where your time is actually spent on the farm, first take a guess at where the bulk of your time goes. I love making quick and easy pie charts in Google sheets (but I know we don't all share the same views on what's fun). This should show your main farm activities: weeding, planting, harvesting, looking for tools (!), and so on. Then, take one day a month and write down all your activities on an hour-by-hour schedule (what you actually did, not what you planned to do). Have your team do the same. Then, you guessed it, compare. Did your guess match your reality? How can you close the gap, or get more realistic about what actually occurs on your farm?3. Go Through Your Crop List With A Fine-Tooth CombSome crops are making you money, and some are losing you money. You know this. Is this the year to finally learn who's who? I recommend starting with your heavy hitters - the crops you grow a lot of. If you're brand new to this, I'd recommend trying just two at a time. If you know me, you know I'm partial to a program called Know Your Cost To Grow, and I explain a simplified (but not as accurate) system for doing this at home in my upcoming book. I highly recommend Richard Wiswall's book, and you can also check out this old webinar I recorded with the farmers who joined me in a grant study of crop Cost of Production. 4. Give More To Your Current CustomersIt's easy to forget about your current customers while trying to grow your farm's reach. What can you do to make sure that each customer who has bought from you even one time, is encouraged to stay in your orbit and buy from you again? I love walking through the Customer Journey and thinking about the process as someone goes from a stranger to a one-off customer to a lifetime ambassador. How can you nurture your customers at each step along the journey and make sure they're moving right along?5. Systematize Your MarketingYour customers need to be hearing from you more, and you need to be speaking to them directly. A+ email marketing should include a welcome flow as well as specific journeys depending on the customer's actions. You can set this all up in Mailchimp or whatever service provider you choose. Learning this back-end work takes time, but it's so worthwhile. Your lifelong CSA customer needs different content than your first time farmers' market customer, and there are ways to do all of this without spending all your time at it! "Who's the Human Behind This Business Know-How" - I'm Glad You AskedHey there, I'm Lennie Larkin 👋 I wrote the book on flower farming business strategy and built Flower Farming For Profit to teach ambitious flower farmers (just like you) how to turn their passion for flowers into profitable farms by implementing smart business strategies. Because it isn't easy to keep at this farming path while worrying how it's all going to come together. That said, you're well on your way, friend! As you work to refine your farm, I'll be over here working on more resources to accelerate your journey. I'd love to help you out in any way I can while you keep working at earning a handsome living doing what you love!Boost Your Business With These 3 Free Resources1. Sign Up For My Upcoming Year In Review Webinar I've been putting the finishing touches on this free live class coming un in late December, and have beta tested it with my coaching groups. I can't wait to help you look back over your season with a strategic mindset. 2.Listen to me on the Growing For Market podcast. Chatting with Andrew was a blast and we covered some great farm business topics. 3.Watch this Accounting For Farmers webinar from Julia Shanks If you're looking to grow your knowledge of managerial accounting principles, this is a great place to start and is the first in a series of webinars you can access. P.S. Expect to See Me in Your Inbox With More Helpful Farm Business Tips!
• 3.
  Your farm business is...off to a great start, with lot of great room for refinement!

  Image Source

  Congratulations, friend! By completing this quiz, you've gained insight into the health of your farm business. According to your responses, your business is well on its way, with room for refinement. If you're wondering what that means, keep reading...Your farm is off to a great start. You're trying out new crops and enterprises, learning how to make adjustments as needed, and fine-tuning here and there. This is the best way to strengthen your farm and I'd recommend diving even deeper into this kind of analysis to note what's working (and do more of it) and what's not (and try to refine the system, or leave it behind all together). This work is hard, but it's so fulfilling if you can wrangle the farm to work for you rather than feeling like you're shooting in the dark and racing the clock all the time. Starting to put all these back-end systems in place now will save you so many years of burnout (trust me, I live through it all). “You can't measure what you can't manage” 3 Tips to Help You Work ON The Business, Rather Than IN The Business. Read On, Friend...1. Make Record Keeping A Priority This SeasonIt's easy to be overwhelmed with record keeping. You may think you should be keeping track of every little thing, so you throw your notebook at the wall in a fit, and end up keeping track of nothing. Here's what I recomend: start out by making sure to track your planting dates, crops, harvest dates, and - this is the tricky bit - your yield data. How many stems did you harvest off of each crop? You'll thank me later!2. Start To Track & Write Down What You DoTo get better in touch with where your time is actually spent on the farm, first take a guess at where the bulk of your time goes. I love making quick and easy pie charts in Google sheets (but I know we don't all share the same views on what's fun). This should show your main farm activities: weeding, planting, harvesting, looking for tools (!), and so on. Then, take one day a month and write down all your activities on an hour-by-hour schedule (what you actually did, not what you planned to do). Have your team do the same. Then, you guessed it, compare. Did your guess match your reality? How can you close the gap, or get more realistic about what actually occurs on your farm?3. Be Critical of Your Crop SelectionSome crops are making you money, and some are losing you money. While you work on learning which crops will earn their keep on your farm, I recommend starting to really dig into the heavy hitters - the crops you grow a lot of. If you're brand new to this, I'd recommend trying just two at a time. If you know me, you know I'm partial to a program called Know Your Cost To Grow, and I explain a simplified (but not as accurate) system for doing this at home in my upcoming book. I highly recommend Richard Wiswall's book, and you can also check out this old webinar I recorded with the farmers who joined me in a grant study of crop Cost of Production. 4. Give More To Your Current CustomersIt's easy to forget about your current customers while trying to grow your farm's reach. What can you do to make sure that each customer who has bought from you even one time, is encouraged to stay in your orbit and buy from you again? I love walking through the Customer Journey and thinking about the process as someone goes from a stranger to a one-off customer to a lifetime ambassador. How can you nurture your customers at each step along the journey and make sure they're moving right along?5. Systematize Your MarketingYour customers need to be hearing from you more, and you need to be speaking to them directly. A+ email marketing should include a welcome flow as well as specific journeys depending on the customer's actions. You can set this all up in Mailchimp or whatever service provider you choose. Learning this back-end work takes time, but it's so worthwhile. Your lifelong CSA customer needs different content than your first time farmers' market customer, and there are ways to do all of this without spending all your time at it! "Who's the Human Behind This Business Know-How" - I'm Glad You AskedHey there, I'm Lennie Larkin 👋 I wrote the book on flower farming business strategy and built Flower Farming For Profit to teach ambitious flower farmers (just like you) how to turn their passion for flower into profitable farms by implementing small business strategy. Because it isn't easy to keep at this farming path while worrying how it's all going to come together. That said, you have every reason to get started, friend! Whether you're just getting started or are struggling to refine your farm, I've got a course that'll set you up for success, so you can earn a living doing what you love!Boost Your Business With These 3 Free Resources1. Watch my recorded webinar - Keys To Success With A Farmstand. This is a class I used to run and I'm happy to give you this recording for free. My farm stand is my pride and joy and I have hopes that you can build something you love just as much. 2. Listen to me on the Dirt on Flowers podcast. Chatting with Shannon and Lyndsay was a blast and we covered some great farm business topics. 3. Read my article on how to sell more flowers through the 'Network Effect'. This short read will give you some out-of-the-box thinking on selling to groups of customer ones, rather than individual ones!4. Sign Up For My Upcoming Year In Review Webinar I've been putting the finishing touches on this free live class coming un in late December, and have beta tested it with my coaching groups. I can't wait to help you look back over your season with a strategic mindset. P.S. Expect to See Me in Your Inbox With More Helpful Farm Business Tips!