Goal Setting for the Flower Farmer
I can’t think of a better time than January to huddle by a cozy fire and begin goal setting for the upcoming flower season!
As I have mentioned in other posts I didn’t use to be a fan of winter. In fact, I hadn’t become a fan of winter until a few years into this flower farming gig when all of a sudden: it clicked that I had the time and a better mental state to be able to reflect, think… dream in winter.
During the active growing and selling season, as our business grew, time and mental space were the first things to dissipate. For a majority of the year, the luxury of truly envisioning what I would like Sierra Flower Farm’s growth to be isn’t attainable. In all honesty, it’s problem solving, working and filling orders. Not to mention, growing flowers take time. Growing is not a process you can rush, therefore you need to know what you are going to be growing and accomplishing well ahead of the active growing/selling season, otherwise you will find yourself behind. This takes removing a hobbyist mentality where you impulsively snag a packet of zinnias to grow with your tomato plants in June. Come June, you most likely are tucking in your last planned succession of zinnias that you had mapped out months prior, not throwing the first round in.
Spare moments will be eaten up by making hay while the sun shines (quite literally). Flower farming, at least in our climate, is highly seasonal and we need to push ourselves to the max while we have the product to do so.
I have truly come to appreciate all seasons throughout the year but nothing fills my cup more than dreaming and anticipating of the possibilities of the upcoming season.
It allows you to step outside of the everyday grind and look at your flower farming business with fresh eyes and even perhaps from an outside perspective without the glaze of exhaustion.
Flower Farming is your hero’s journey
Sometimes I wonder if I overuse the term “journey” but to be honest, I’m not sure there exists a much better word to use. I tend to think of Lord of the Rings where Frodo and Sam are heading down the rugged dirt path embarking on a journey filled with uncertainty, excitement and adventure. Sam and Frodo had some pretty significant challenges and difficulties along with conquering so much with moments of beauty and calmness laced in, ultimately they persevered and completed their task. It was messy, they made poor choices at times but they continued on and didn’t let up. This is what I think when I say the “journey of flower farming” because sometimes there are epic challenges but ultimately the results are worth it. This is your flower farming journey. Embrace it and mold it to what you would like it to eventually become but also don’t be surprised when you are faced with mountains to climb.
Having goals is important. To know what you want from your flower farming business (and life) allows you to make plans of action to attain those goals. Flower farming can be a dream job, but without proper planning for your upcoming season you can find yourself discouraged and burnt out real quick. Flower farming can also become a money pit. Putting the carriage before the horse isn’t going to get you too far. Simply throwing seeds into the ground and figuring out how you’re going to move those blooms can later bite you in the butt, especially if you are not in a situation where you can just throw money at this passion without consequence. If you were in that position, you’d probably keep growing cut flowers as a hobby because running a business is an unyielding amount of work.
When you want to start a flower farming business, vision boarding is a great place to begin!
It allows you to dream big, and explore what is drawing you personally to this endeavor. Yes, many folks begin their journey at the start of a new year, but for a flower farmer it truly makes sense. Winter, is typically for most of us, a quieter time of year. Where we get to sit with our piles of seed catalogs, spreadsheets and hopes of what our cut flower fields will bring. Come late winter to early spring, you will already be into your season! Seeds will be sown, crops actively growing and even being tucked into the ground. Once January hits, we are looking at less than three months until the spring solstice- trust me it goes fast! If you have tulips and other spring beauties already tucked away in the ground, actively making sales is just around the corner. Once the holiday season has come and gone there are only a few weeks of quietness before the season begins to start ramping up.
So, let’s take advantage of these next couple weeks!
The Importance of Setting Goals
Goal setting is going to give you a road map of what you want your flower farm to become. Aimlessly going at it is not an approach I recommend. How can you measure your successes and growth without any kind of metric? Once you have your goals you will then begin to research and assign yourself tasks to make sure you are setting yourself up for a successful season. This is essentially the beginning steps of having a business plan. Begin the process of creating a business plan by setting goals relevant to the upcoming season, three years out and five years out. Go into your flower farming business with intent and purpose.
But first, let’s dream big for a second.
Vision Boarding
You are probably familiar with the idea of vision boarding but just in case I will take a quick dive into the concept because really, your vision board is the first step of setting goals. This is where you can sit with your heart and mind’s desires, which is also why it’s called a “dream board." It is the beginning process of developing your flower farming business but really, it is good to do this annually. 365 days is a lot of experiences, lessons, and growth. Your dream may evolve or completely change during that time.
What exactly is a vision board?
A vision board doesn’t have to be a physical board though it typically is. It could be fun to be like a big kid with glue sticks and cut outs of glossy magazine photos to make a giant collage and if you tend to be a person who rushes through tasks: this approach will slow you down which could be exactly what you need! A vision board is gathering images, quotes, words: anything that speaks to you. Inspires you. Is relevant to the visual representative of your dream that you would like to see come to fruition. This post is focusing on your flower farming business but your vision board can go beyond that or you could make multiple. Vision Boarding is really getting all the swirls of ideas and thoughts in your mind and putting it physically before your eyeballs. As mentioned, you can make a literal board with cut outs or a cork board with goodies pinned up. You can also create a digital board. One of the easiest ways I would say would be Pinterest boards and pinning the photos and articles that inspire you, but creating one on Canva is great too! There are ways to go more artsy such as drawing or painting. You could go more professional with a power point presentation: what ever works best for your brain and your heart! This is a very personal process to you. Creating a Vision Board is to give yourself the time and permission to reflect, dream, hope and plan.
What you want from your flower farming business can seem clustered and chaotic in your mind. Putting it to paper or formatted digitally can allow you to get it all out to begin seeing it more clearly lessening confusion and anxiety. Vision Boarding is a starting point to take that dream and making it more tangible.
Once you have your Vision board created, then it’s time to start setting goals to begin taking action to make your dream a reality.
Creating Goals
Now, when it comes to goals you can go as broad or specific as you want. I think this will depend on your individual personality and where you are at in your flower farming journey.
I think of goal setting kind of like the various necessary plant nutrients. You have your macro nutrients, micro nutrients and the trace minerals. What can I say, when you farm you see things like a farmer at times! Hang in there with me for just a minute, I’m not totally crazy.
“I don't focus on what I'm up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.”
- Venus Williams
MACRO (OVERALL) GOALS: THE “WHAT”
The macro nutrients are the big (overall) goals. You can even define them as the broader goals. The overall goal is what you are looking to accomplish.
Example:
Selling 30 Bouquets a week
This is just a simple example for the purpose of this post. Perhaps your overall goal is to be able to leave your corporate job and flower farm full time. Maybe you want to be able to stay home with your kids and you see flower farming as a way to do just that. Or, let’s say you’re in your third year flower farming and you are hankering to start taking on larger weddings. Your overall goal can be financial, emotional- you know what you want and need out of flower farming. The Overall Goal will give you your main direction and driving force for the entire season and even seasons to come. What are your top goals for the season, for the next few years, and your ultimate goal? You can have one… or you can have multiple, whatever strikes your fancy. Keep these fairly broad to better simplify your main goals and vision for your flower farm.
“Exercise to stimulate, not to annihilate. The world wasn't formed in a day, and neither were we. Set small goals and build upon them.”
- Lee Haney
MICRO (SUPPORTING) GOALS: “THE HOW”
Once you have your macro (overall) goals laid out, then you have the micro (supporting goals) to focus on. The supporting goals is how you are going to attain that overall goal. What do you need to make this happen? Continuing with our scenario…
Example:
Selling 30 bouquets a week > through a weekly farmer’s market
Or, maybe you’d rather sell those 30 bouquets through a bouquet subscription, perhaps a u-pick patch, how are you going to sell those thirty bouquets?
“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
- Abraham Lincoln
TRACE MINERALS (KEY STEPS): “MAKING IT HAPPEN”
Lastly, you need all those trace minerals, the key steps and tasks that actually make headway in accomplishing the supporting and overall goals.
Example:
Selling 30 Bouquets a week > through a weekly farmer’s market > steps I need to take….
Research local farmer’s markets
Reach out to market managers
Crop plan for intended farmer’s market to be able to have enough product for a minimum 30 bouquets weekly
Get proper permits/insurance/licensure
Set up necessary business structure, Bank account, etc
Design and invest in needed equipment for booth
etc.
The key steps is where you are going to start feeling like “oh man, this is actually happening!” because you are officially making it happen. This is where you may find yourself getting out of your comfort zone in some respects, while thriving in others. The great part about the task, is that it is a bunch of smaller details that add up and sometimes rather quickly! This is where you can begin to start feel accomplished!
Just like in fertilizing a plant, the macro nutrients are nothing with out the micro nutrients and trace minerals who support the overall nutrients to make the plant healthy and thriving. Sure, supporting goals and tasks aren’t the “big bang for your buck” type but together, they make achieving the overall goal possible and manageable.
Breaking down the overall goal into supporting ones then listing the key steps allows you to move through the motions without missing a step and catching you off guard. The good news is, your goal setting for a first year flower farm will be filled with a lot of one time tasks.
My favorite way to set goals and tasks is actually through an app we discovered a couple years ago called ASANA, which is a free (unless you want additional features) web based app/smartphone app that I use to keep my orders, tasks and ideas all listed out. ASANA keeps me organized and is always within hand’s reach when Graham and I do a brain storming session. It also allows him to see what’s going on any given day as his time is split between his accounting job and the farm. It even allows us to setup employees limited access and give them assigned tasks as well. If you are the type of personality that likes to use technology, ASANA will definitely be a good fit for you! Being able to map out the flow of your overall goals, supporting goals and then taking those and adding sub tasks. The nice thing about the program having smartphone support is if you have a quick thought you can just add it in on the spot so you don’t forget, because when you’re out in the field tired… you will forget. I find ASANA an invaluable tool to help me not lose my mind. Update: ASANA is great but the last year, we have actually been utilizing Notion. Notion takes a little more time to set up but if you want to have ultimate control over your created projects, calendars and tasks it’s worth the extra effort!
If you are a pencil and paper person, we also have a printable goals worksheet at the end of this blog post to get you started. There are also great planners revolved around goal setting. Quite a few options (and many more I am sure) for you to choose from that works best for you.
If looking at the goals seem too big and broad, I recommend breaking it down into business versus growing goals to help it be more manageable for yourself.
It’s okay if you don’t hit all your goals!
Goals mainly help you to aim in the right direction. Sure, some tasks will need to be done in order to progress but don’t get down if you don’t hit every goal you set for yourself or your flower farming business. There will be times when due to unforeseen circumstances, things will not work out or will have to be placed on the back burner. Sometimes the amount of hopes and dreams we have in the winter months do not add up to the realities of the season. It is still worth goal setting and dreaming to help us better focus and be in good spirits as we head into the growing season. It will give you an idea of how to prioritize to accomplish your overall goals and vision. Stay positive and keep growing.
We hope you found this post helpful and encouraging, and if you haven’t already taken the time to create a vision board for your upcoming season and set related goals; well, we hope that we have officially motivated you to do just that!
Next week, we are going to take a deep dive into crop planning, yay! Don’t forget, we have exclusive tips and content just for our flower farming newsletter subscribers (be sure you are signing up to the correct one since we confusingly have two newsletters and I don’t think you want to buy our bouquet subscriptions…). To learn more, scroll down! If you’re already signed up, you should have already gotten this week’s email!
Come dream with us! And as always, we are excited to help you hand blooms soon!
Jessica & Graham