Your Value From the Start
What value do you place on your inputs at work?
A significant part of running a financially sustainable business is understanding your value.
When someone asks me for a favor or help, I have to weigh the situation against the needs of my business. And my business needs me. My staff need me to by working for our team, too. And not "giving up” my resources at every turn.
How would you feel if you were paying someone to help you do a certain job or task on your farm or in your design studio. Randomly, they stop doing that job (which still must be done that day) and instead give a free farm tour to a visitor that showed up and asked to “just look around.” While I’m sure the guest would appreciate the gesture, you’re stuck paying for a task to be done twice now. Of course that would frustrate you. So WHY do so many farmers do this to themselves?
Think of this situation the next time someone asks to “pick your brain” or “just look around your place.” They are asking for this service because you have something of VALUE to them. Either it will bring them joy, or insight, or save them time when attempting to do something similar. —Perhaps all of the above.
The tricky things is, so many people — both in our industry and amongst the public think that asking for these kinds of favors is no big deal. They’ve probably never taken the time to consider their own value or expertise —which we all have, no matter how young or old our company is. Even if you’re just beginning in flower farming - YOU HAVE VALUE. Your experience is new, raw, and unfiltered. And, it is influenced by the life or career experiences you bring to it.
So how do you determine what your hourly rate might be? If someone is asking me to pull away from my typical workflow, I consider what would be the most profitable use of my time if I wasn’t being pulled away. I don’t think about my actual hourly rate. I think of the best case scenario— what might I be able to do in that hour? Maybe I could earn a wedding proposal for $6k or $10k or more. Maybe I could make 30 wholesale wrapped flower bunches for a sale earning me $375. If I spent an hour on marketing for The Tulip Workshop, maybe that would result in a couple of online course sales.
So why is it SO HARD to suggest that your time and energy and knowledge are worth something? And what happens when you give free tours and consultations?
First, I think we feel some guilt about providing for services that don’t include a physical product or a planned knowledge set. It can feel different when we’re asked to “think on our feet.” But the time spent is no less and no less valuable than if you had planned for it or assembled a physical product for sale.
It can be really hard to communicate your value on the spot, too. This is why you may want to consider setting up some paid time as a service for your business. When you find yourself in this kind of situation, you can politely decline: “I’m sorry I’m not able to help you with this right now” or “I think this conversation merits some careful thought. I’d love to talk with you more about it.” or “I don’t think we can adequately address your concerns here on this chat. Have a look at my appointment scheduler, I set some time aside to help clients with questions like these.” And redirect the guest/visitor/inquiry to look into the appointments you’ve set aside for this specific purpose.
When we fail to recognize our worth in this way, we may be communicating that we are unprofessional. We’re definitely devaluing our knowledge. And we’re actually PAYING the person we’re assisting. We’re both providing a service (tour/answers to lengthy questions) and PAYING them the value of the time we would otherwise be putting into our companies. It can be a very unbalanced transaction.
When I do go out of my way to help/assist/consult/share my knowledge or time with others for free, I do so feeling like the transaction is fair. Maybe I know my heart will be warmed by the effort. Maybe I suspect that the investment will come full circle later on. Maybe I know that the effort will lead to an outcome that supports our growth or a larger sale. I don’t want to suggest that you should NEVER give your time away or put it toward a cause you believe in. Trust me- we do PLENTY of that here. And it feels really good.
But giving free tours, sharing free advice and giving away free flowers doesn’t pay the bills. And it makes it really difficult to pay the bills later. If you start your small business on an “I’m just learning and giving flowers away model” you’ll have to re-train your customers to VALUE your product AND PAY for it later and you’ll also be shorting yourself lessons in covering your costs with your gross income. How will you grow from your “trial” season to “really doing it” if you’ve earned nothing to help you make that jump.