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Ep. 82: How to Plan Your Most Profitable Growing Season Yet (Live 2026 Dahlia Planning Workshop Replay)
1.7k Plays15 days ago
Welcome to Season 3 of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast — and to the first episode of 2026.
To kick off the new year, I’m doing something a little different. In this episode, I’m sharing the full replay of a live planning workshop I hosted this past weekend called How to Plan Your Most Profitable Dahlia Season Yet.
Growers joined live from all over the world — Australia, Canada, Germany, France, New Zealand, the UK, and across the U.S. — and the response made it clear this was too valuable to let disappear once the workshop ended.
If you’re growing dahlias or running a flower farm and want 2026 to feel more focused, profitable, and aligned, this episode will help you step out of overwhelm and into clarity.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
In this live workshop replay, we walk step-by-step through how to:
- Reflect on your 2025 growing season — what worked, what didn’t, and what you learned
- Clarify what you want 2026 to look and feel like, both personally and financially
- Build a realistic, actionable plan instead of guessing or reacting mid-season
- Map your year season by season so you’re not scrambling later
- Choose the right revenue streams for your farm and stay laser-focused
While this training was created specifically for dahlia growers, the planning framework applies to all flower farmers who want to grow with intention and profit in mind.
Mentioned in This Episode
- The Profitable Dahlia Summit (March 3–4, 2026)
A 2-day virtual summit focused on real business strategies for dahlia growers — pricing, selling, marketing, tuber sales, farm events, and more.
Grab your ticket here: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.mykajabi.com/profitabledahiliasummit/
There is a free 2026 planning workbook that goes along with this episode. You can download it here and follow along at your own pace: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.myflodesk.com/2026workbook
Your Next Step
If you make it through this entire workshop, I encourage you to choose one action to take next — even a small one.
Whether that’s:
- Tracking your numbers
- Clarifying your revenue goals
- Committing to selling instead of giving your flowers away
Momentum comes from action.
I’d love to hear what your next step is — you can message me on Instagram or leave a review and share what stood out for you.
Let’s Make 2026 Count
2026 has been declared the International Year of the Female Farmer, and I truly believe this can be your most profitable and aligned growing season yet — if you plan for it.
Grab the workbook, pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea, and let’s start planning.
Welcome to Season 3 of The Backyard Bouquet Podcast.
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Introduction and Workshop Overview
00:05:09
Speaker
Thank you so much for joining us for our How to Plan Your Most Profitable Dahlias Season Yet workshop. I'm so excited that you have taken the time to invest in yourself and your business. Today's webinar is not going to be about growing dahlias. It's going to be about the business side of dahlias and looking back on last year and then looking forward to this year so we can set you up for a profitable and a successful season of selling your dahlias. So if you haven't already said hello in the chat, I'd love for you to take a moment if you're joining us live, let us know where you're joining from. And I would also love to know your experience with selling dahlias.
00:05:51
Speaker
like Yesterday we had everything from I'm curious, I'm thinking about selling dahlias to this is my second year or I've done a tuber sale and I'm thinking about selling the blooms to we had someone that had been selling for 10 years yesterday joining us. So everyone is welcome and I'm so grateful you're here regardless of your
Participant Engagement and Experience Sharing
00:06:09
Speaker
experience. I know this is going to be beneficial for you.
00:06:14
Speaker
So how this is going to work is i am going to work, walk you through a workshop and at the very end, we are going to open it up for a Q&A. So please feel free to ask questions, comment in the chat. I have the chat open as we go. And if your question is not relevant to the section we're on, I will come back to it at the very end of today's session. So with that, I am just looking at some of these comments here. um i see first season grower in Australia waiting for blooms. I'm so envious that you're going to be having blooms soon. It is cold. I think it was 32 degrees this morning. i was slipping on black ice. so
00:06:57
Speaker
as I was walking our dogs. Jamie from upstate New York is a hobby grower that started selling cut dahlia bouquets last year and is looking to expand into a small business. I love it.
00:07:08
Speaker
Esther has flourished farmstead in northern New York and has been growing dahlias for three years. ah And then Mary just started a cut flower farm. I'm just scrolling through these real fast.
00:07:20
Speaker
I love this and I'm not going to be able to read all of them out loud, but I will come back and read these after as well. And I'm just so grateful that you are here today. So fun to see this. So we have everything from just starting out. I've seen six years of growing, three years of growing. This is going to be great. Okay, let's get started. I'm going to share my screen with you and we will get started. If someone could I'm going to open up the chat. Will you confirm that you can see my screen here so I know we're good to go
00:07:56
Speaker
Let me make sure I've got the chat open as I'm going. Give me one second here. Okay, yes, you guys can see it. Wonderful. Okay, so we are going to go ahead and get started. You'll want to make sure you have your workbook with you. We may not get through all of this today.
00:08:15
Speaker
What I'm going to be doing is I'm going to be walking you through this, showing you how I answer some of these questions, and you may, i encourage you to... go back and journal through this, look through this. This may take you a couple hours to fully complete on your own. And if you really invest the time into this, you are going to set yourself up for a great year. So let's go ahead and get started here.
Jennifer's Dahlia Journey and Insights
00:08:39
Speaker
So I know some of you may not know me yet. Oops, this is playing. My name is Jennifer Golitzia. I am the flower farmer at the Flowering Farmhouse. I have loved dahlias since I think I was about eight years old. I started growing them in my own garden though in 2014. So that's 11 seasons under my belt now of growing them. I started out with a bag of dahlias from Costco. I know some of you have heard my story before, so I'll condense it today. um But that quickly spread. You can see on this lower picture here where I'm holding the mixed bouquet of dahlias. That was in 2014.
00:09:21
Speaker
My love for dahlias exploded. It was kind of like when you see the advertisements for Lay's potato chips and they say you can't just have one. Well, that was me with dahlias. Anyone else start with a small backyard, just a few, and all of a sudden it quickly grew into something more.
00:09:39
Speaker
In 2019, my dahlias, um, is when I first started selling my dahlias to local florists. And in 2020, I scaled to a quarter acre And I like to highlight and emphasize that we scaled slowly. Nothing about my flower farm has grown quickly other than how fast my dahlias multiply.
00:09:59
Speaker
um Over the years, we scaled up to an acre. We actually lost our least growing space, which turned out to be a huge blessing and forced us to find our own land. So as of this last year, we just wrapped up our first year where we are stewarding 20 acres in the Hood River Valley in Oregon. And we're growing on about one, probably about two acres by the end of 2026. And then we have about five acres in cover crop. So still small scale in terms of the farming world. We grow about 4,000 dahlias.
00:10:32
Speaker
I also host the Backyard Bouquet podcast. If you're joining today, have any of you listened to the podcast? That has been a passion of mine and has given me an opportunity to Meet so many incredible people from around the country.
00:10:48
Speaker
And then two years ago, I started an online community for Dahlia growers called the Dahlia Patch community. I saw a few of our community members here today. I saw Joanne. I'm not sure if anyone else is here, but for my Dahlia Patch community, great to see you guys. Thanks for joining us today.
00:11:05
Speaker
Oh, thank you guys for the love on the podcast. Jessica said you've had some amazing guests. Wait until you see my lineup this year. We are really going global. And I have some amazing interviews lined up with some top Dahlia growers and top flower farmers in the yeah UK, Australia, New Zealand. It's going to be a really fun season. So um with that, let's go ahead and dive into this workshop here.
00:11:31
Speaker
Let's see here. Okay, so here's what we can expect from today. Today we are going to reflect on the 2025 season first. I believe it's important to look back to see where we've been in order to see where we're going in the future. So after our reflection, we're going to work on envisioning what we want 2026 to look and feel like.
00:11:54
Speaker
And then we're going to build a plan for 2026 to help you map out your 2026. And then we are going to talk about next steps from there.
Business Strategy and Planning for Success
00:12:06
Speaker
So let's see here. I did something where it's playing instead of letting me scroll through them. The first thing I want to talk about, why is planning important? And i was a business major. I went to the University of Portland in my senior year. My advisor loved Peter Drucker. He was always referencing Peter Drucker, who is a business manager.
00:12:28
Speaker
guru. And there are so many wonderful quotes that i love to reference from Peter Drucker. And the first one that I'm going to share with you today is the best way to predict your future is to create it.
00:12:40
Speaker
And so that's what we're going to do today. We are going to help you create your future for 2026.
00:12:50
Speaker
Sorry, it's not letting me scroll through these. So i'm going to pause as I go through each slide here. um i would love to know if you're for those of you who are joining us today, have you ever done any planning before? Is this your first time planning for your business? Is this something you do every year? i would love to know. So comment in the chat. If you're here live with us, let me know what's your experience with planning.
00:13:12
Speaker
Karen said first year, lots of you are saying first time. I appreciate your honesty. This is something that I have been doing for years now. I have joined several masterminds as my business has grown. And the one thing that all my masterminds have always done is they always start with planning out the year.
00:13:31
Speaker
And I have gained so much from it and I love our Dahlia community so much that this is something that I wanted to do to give back to our community. So I hope that you will find this as valuable as I have found in the past. This is my first year. Yesterday was my first time. This is my first year leading a review and planning workshop like this. So thank you for being here.
00:13:54
Speaker
So I'm a quotes person, so you're going to get a few quotes from me today. And the next one is from John Dewey. It says, we do not learn from experience. We learn from reflecting on experience. So we're going to start with our workbook here. If you have your workbook in front of you, we're going to go ahead and start on the very first page.
00:14:15
Speaker
And the first thing we're gonna talk about be and before we look at this slide, I'm gonna stop sharing my screen for a second and I'm gonna walk you through um this reflection, is the very first section, you may not have all of this information with you today, I am going to encourage you after today's workshop, spend some time this weekend or this next week, finding the answers to all of these questions on this first page and really taking time to know your numbers from last year. So in this first section, the first question that I want you to reflect on is what date did you plant your dahlias?
00:14:54
Speaker
I don't know about you, but for me, a lot of my date remembering comes from my phone. Anyone else have 30,000 pictures of their flowers on their camera and five pictures of themselves from the last year? i see other people raising their hands as well.
00:15:10
Speaker
For me, I often have to go back and look at my camera on my phone to know when I did certain things throughout the year. Over the years, I've gotten better at taking notes and also recording this information, but if you're getting started,
00:15:25
Speaker
looking at your phone can
Evaluating Business Metrics and Profitability
00:15:26
Speaker
be a great way. So we want to know first, when did you plant your dahlias? For me, normally I plant around Mother's Day this year because we were starting on a new field and our irrigation was still going in. I didn't start planting till almost June. So it's really good to know these numbers for some of the parts we're going to be working through coming up.
00:15:47
Speaker
The next question is, how many dahlias did you grow last year? And it's okay. None of these are judging. This is just all to look at the facts right now. The next question is, when did your harvest begin? And as we're going, if you're live with us today, if you want to share in the comments, You can totally share these with us. So how many dahlias did you grow? I'd love to know for those on the call. Yesterday, i had someone that joined us that was growing 17,000 plants. And then I had others that were growing 10 plants but hoping to scale up. So we are all on different levels and we're not comparing ourselves to anyone else. We are only looking at our fields.
00:16:27
Speaker
Let's see here. Hannah said, I'm a planner in my full-time job. I bet you are so organized with this. Mary Ellen said, I put dates and info in my phone calendar, but I've also kept a gardening journal for the past five years. It's so helpful to look back.
00:16:43
Speaker
I love that. A gardening journal is such a great way to be able to look back on all of this. Also, I keep a journal and I try and go back quarterly and then annually also as well.
00:16:55
Speaker
Okay, the next question is when did you begin harvesting your dahlias? And so this is one where the phone often comes in handy for people. You usually take that first picture, that first bloom that you're able to cut. And then roughly how many stems did you cut? If you're not already growing for profit, you may not know this number. And this is a number that I would encourage you to track for 2026.
00:17:20
Speaker
how many stems, not per plant in this question. If you know per plant, that's amazing. But for this question is how many stems did you cut for your entire season?
00:17:30
Speaker
The next question is, when was your season ending frost? So often this is also another one of those. And that frost is usually your frost mess if you are in a colder zone where you have a season ending frost.
00:17:45
Speaker
And if you don't, what was the last date that you stopped harvesting your dahlias? And then how long did it take you to dig your dahlias?
00:17:56
Speaker
um I'm embarrassed to admit this. Well, I'm not really embarrassed, but I am still digging my dahlias. Normally my dahlias are all dug before Thanksgiving. We have been dealing with some outside circumstances with our new field that has made it hard. I've had a few help things, so I am still finishing digging my dahlias, but I like to know this information because it's going to help plan for the following year.
00:18:19
Speaker
Is there anyone else here that is still digging dahlias or is it just me? but looks like it might just be me, which is totally fine. And I know some people leave their dahlias in the ground depending on where they are.
00:18:31
Speaker
And then if you finished digging and you have already divided, how many dahlias do you have? I like to track how many dahlias did I plant,
00:18:42
Speaker
How many was I able to dig up? So did I lose any during the season? And then after I've ah dug them up, how many do I have after they've been divided? And I track that down to the variety. So let's say I'm looking at Cornell bronze. If I planted 100, do I all of a sudden have 500 tubers? I want to know how many on average I'm getting per variety.
00:19:05
Speaker
um I see a few other people in the chat are still um digging and almost done also. and Stacy said, 746 tubers in storage need to check on them. That's a great reminder.
00:19:17
Speaker
Checking on them is so important. And then the next question on this first page is how much time did you invest in your Dahlia business in 2025? Again, if you're just starting out, if you don't know these numbers, that's okay. This is a challenge for you to start tracking these numbers in 2026. But if you're going to make this a profitable, profitable business, you're going to want to know how much time you're putting into it. Because if you make $10,000 on a side hobby and you think that's great, but then you do the numbers and you realize that you're making less than $5 an hour after your time is factored in and your expenses, you might say, hmm, I want a different side hustle and I'm going to just garden on the side. Or I need to reevaluate and find a better way to do this so that I am paying myself for my time if you're trying to grow for profit, which I think everyone who's on this call today is trying to grow for profit. Am I right?
00:20:15
Speaker
Do I see some hands? Oh, yes, I see some hands raised. And then the last question on this top part is, did you pay yourself in 2025? And if so, how much? I'm not asking you to share these numbers with anyone. This is for your self-reflection. And at the top of this first page, I wrote ah quote from John Maxwell, and it says, reflective reflection. thinking turns experience into insight and that's exactly what we're going to do with this information so on the bottom part this is an area where you may or may not have these numbers in front of you if you don't i encourage you to fill this in later someone asked are these questions written somewhere for us to see yes i'm going to share this link again you should have gotten
00:21:02
Speaker
a workbook link sent to you. The link is right here. You can grab this workbook and so you can print it out. There's about
Identifying Revenue Streams and Business Reflection
00:21:09
Speaker
20 pages in total, including a calendar at the back of it. So this is for you to keep. Hopefully you will be using this again in 2026 to look back on and reflect.
00:21:21
Speaker
So the bottom part, if you printed out my original one from a few days ago, i have I forgot to put expenses on it. If you have the latest version, you'll see that it says revenue on one side and expenses on the other. So the first side is breaking down how you made money off of your dahlias this year.
00:21:40
Speaker
And then the next side is expenses. And this is a very broad general overview. of how much money you spend. How much money did you spend on tubers? I often hear, oh my gosh, I don't want my spouse or my significant other to see how much money I spent on tubers this year, or people online sharing videos of trying to disguise their boxes of tubers coming in the mail. How much money did you spend on those tubers?
00:22:06
Speaker
How much money did you spend on your amendments, irrigation, growing supplies, harvest supplies, marketing, and website? If you're going to make this a business, These are numbers that you need to know and you need to track. And then on the revenue side, did you make money selling tubers or cuttings? Did you make money through a CSA or a subscription, a farm stand, florists, weddings and events, or other areas? So that is something that if you don't have those numbers handy, go back and fill those in.
00:22:37
Speaker
And now with this information, I want to do some reflecting with you. And so i'm going to share my screen again here. And if someone could give me a thumbs up or say they can see my screen, that would be super helpful for those of you who are live.
00:22:57
Speaker
Can you see the screen? if Thumbs up or um yes. Thank you, Joanne. I appreciate that. Okay. So the first reflection question is what brought you joy last year? And this is so important because when we enjoy what we're doing, we will give more energy and we will give more efficiency to that as well. So this doesn't have to be a super hard question. Just whatever comes to your mind first, what brought you joy? For me, I was really surprised. I was not expecting to find so much joy in and having people come to my farm. And I really loved having a new farm where I got to have people come and I was able to interact with them.
00:23:41
Speaker
And then the next question is what added stress in 2025 for you? So was there something that you weren't anticipating that became stressful?
00:23:57
Speaker
For me, i had several things. I mean, you could probably put a whole list here, but what are those top one to three things that created stress for your year? For me, we were constantly battling coyotes that were chewing holes in my irrigation. i was not expecting our cover crop that I thought was terminated to come back. We had clover. They created a nightmare, which is why we're still digging our dahlias. They created this web over the tubers. So because I track my numbers, I know how long in the past it took me to dig my dahlias per dahlia. And now it's taking me four times as much time because it is that much harder to get the tubers lifted out of the ground through that clover.
00:24:39
Speaker
So what added stress in your 2025?
00:24:45
Speaker
And if you don't, if I'm going too fast and you don't have time to answer all of these right now, that's totally okay. I encourage you to spend some time on your Sunday morning while you're drinking your coffee or tea to really think about these questions and journal on them. I used to always kind of balk at the idea of journaling. And over the last few years, I have become one who really loves to journal and it really helps me to understand where I've been and where I'm going and what's important for myself and my family and my business.
00:25:18
Speaker
And so the next question is what took more time than you expected? Maybe that was delivering CSA bouquets. Maybe it was dealing with weeds on your farm. Maybe it was training employees, depending on the size of your farm. Maybe it was building a webpage for your tuber sales or shipping your tubers.
00:25:40
Speaker
um Anyone have a first time tuber sale this year? and absolutely amazed at how much time and effort goes into the back end of building a website. um Growing flowers is so different than the technical side of the business.
00:25:55
Speaker
Jess said we had rain all of August and the powdery mildew after that was untreatable. The foliage was trashed for the fall. I'm so sorry to hear that, Jess. Powdery mildew is one that can be hard to control.
00:26:07
Speaker
um Okay, so I'm sure for Jess, hers was dealing with the fungus. So when we are looking back on these, these are things that you can look at for 2026 so that you can get a head start on these things. So looking at what can I do to prevent the weeds or the powdery mildew or to be better prepared for dealing with your employees.
00:26:29
Speaker
um It allows you to reflect on that now before we're fully in the season. And so you can come into it with a game plan, which we're going to talk about.
00:26:40
Speaker
Okay, the next question is, what would you like to eliminate, simplify, or delegate this year? So did you do something in your business or offer something that didn't bring you joy, that really drained your energy, that it's time to let go of? Or maybe when you're looking at those expenses, you're saying, okay, that took way more money than I thought it was going to. So maybe this year i'm going to simplify and not do that.
00:27:10
Speaker
One thing I heard yesterday during this workshop, I couldn't believe how many people said 2026 the year they simplify. Anyone on today's call that 2026 is a year about simplifying and making things easier?
00:27:24
Speaker
i see a lot of hands going up. So I think that this is a really important question to spend some time on and think about. What can you simplify? What can you eliminate or delegate for my business?
00:27:37
Speaker
I have delegated some of my website and that has been so helpful. It was more affordable than I thought when I looked at my time and how much time it was taking me to do versus the cost of hiring a local mom. I found a mom at my daughter's school. who's able to help me.
00:27:55
Speaker
And because it's what she does day and night for her business, she can do it so much more efficiently than I can.
Vision and Planning for 2026 Dahlia Season
00:28:01
Speaker
And in that same amount of time, i can go make money selling my flowers.
00:28:06
Speaker
Rachel said, a million percent 2025 was the year I simplified and it will continue this year. I love it. Fran said she wants to add a watering system. So I love that you guys are reflecting on these questions.
00:28:20
Speaker
And remember John Dewey, i love this quote, he said, we do not learn from experience, we learn from reflecting on that experience. So you really have to take time to reflect back on that experience to understand what it is you wanna change or continue or simplify or eliminate. Okay.
00:28:42
Speaker
I hope you guys are finding this helpful. I'm loving the comments. Thank you guys for engaging in the chat today. um Okay, so this next part, I'm just making sure my screen is paused here, is we are going to envision our 2026. And I love asking myself, and I want you to ask yourself this also, what do you want this year to be like?
00:29:06
Speaker
How do you want it to look? How do you want it to feel? When we get clarity on those, that makes all the difference in the world because then you really can say,
00:29:16
Speaker
I no longer want to spend all my time waiting. I no longer want to spend all my time driving in the car. I want to feel x or I want to feel at peace. I want to feel nourished. My word of the year this year is nourish. I want to feel like my farm is nourished. I want to feel like my family is nourished. I want to feel like my customers are nourished. I want to feel like my community is nourished. I want to feel like my business, my farm is nourished and I want to feel like I feel nourished. So for this first question, um looking ahead to this year, and I know it's already the second week of January,
00:29:58
Speaker
if anyone's saying you're behind Don't listen to them. You are not. You are just where you're supposed to be. And you are taking such a great step forward with your business and yourself by investing in this time and planning.
00:30:12
Speaker
So how do you want 2026 to look and feel? And this is one that you may want to come back and spend some more time journaling on to get really clear. I like to write down all the things I want to see happen for the year.
00:30:25
Speaker
And then I like to look and say, OK, what is this telling me? Is there a word that I'm getting from all of this? Or is there a phrase? And that was how I came up with nourish. So if you're willing to share in the comments today, if you're here live, I'd love to know. Caitlin said she wants to feel confident. That is a wonderful word. um Rachel says quality over quantity. Robin says peace. These are all fabulous. Thank you guys for sharing these. Esther says flourishing. That's another wonderful word.
00:30:58
Speaker
Another thing I do is I create a vision board. Anyone else create a vision board? And I put my word on my vision board so that I can see it every day. And I hang my vision board somewhere that I can actually see it. But then i find pictures that look nourishing or that stand out to me and maybe a picture full of my field looking healthy with flowers.
00:31:18
Speaker
um Those are all wonderful words. I wanted to share um this quote from Brendan Burchard. So I am in Brendan Burchard's Mastermind. And one of his quotes that he said was, But we all know that the seeds of greatness grow faster in the hearts of those doing work they love than in the bitter hearts of those enslaved by work they despise.
00:31:41
Speaker
And that as a farmer and a gardener stood out to me so much that when we sow seeds, where we really love something, they're going to flourish. So for those of you that want to feel that flourishing or that peace or that bloomingness this year, when you put those seeds down with intention to match what you want the year to feel like, it's going to make all the difference in the world.
00:32:06
Speaker
Joanna said, I want to feel blooming, strong, free, abundant in community with amazing women building our garden. I love that. And has everyone seen that the United Nations is calling 2026 the International Year of the Female Farmer? which I think is amazing. We have incredible male and female farmers in this industry, but I know the flower industry is probably more heavily weighed by females than other parts of the farming world. And I think it's such an amazing time to be a flower farmer, or to be growing your Dahlia business this year, especially in the year of the international ah female farmer.
00:32:46
Speaker
um i see Karen says yes to the female farmer. I second flourish. It's going to be a great year. Also, um if you had a hard year in 2025, if you follow the Chinese calendar, they said 2025 was the year of the snake, about shedding things that are hard. Next month in February kicks off the year of the fire horse. So it's going to be a year of momentum, of speed. So by getting so clear in January about what you want for 2026, you're setting yourself up for a great year.
00:33:18
Speaker
Okay, let's continue on here. And thank you for sharing all of your words with me and phrases. Okay, so we just answered, how do you want 2026 to look and feel?
00:33:31
Speaker
This is something I really want you to spend some time on and get really clear after today's call. So the next part on your worksheet on page three, so we're on page three of the worksheet right now, is um it asks, what is your 2026 revenue goal?
00:33:52
Speaker
If you were selling last year and on the first page, you already have your revenue calculated for 2025, maybe you want to keep the same number, maybe you want to increase by 20 or 10%, whatever that number is, put that there. If you're just starting out, give yourself a goal.
00:34:09
Speaker
And for everyone, I encourage you to also have a stretch goal. So what is the goal that you really want to hit? And then what is your stretch goal? You don't have to share this in the chat. This is just for you, for your own information. So when you do this again in 2020, or excuse me, in 2027, you can look back and see how you did in comparison to your goal.
00:34:31
Speaker
The next part on page three is identifying sales outlets that you either currently sell to or that you would like to sell to in 2026. So are you selling or are you going to sell bouquets? Are you going sell them through a CSA, a subscription, a farm stand? Maybe you're going to have a you pick on your farm or in your yard. Do you do tuber and seed sales?
00:34:57
Speaker
Are you selling to florists in your area? Are you selling wedding and event florals? And one thing that I learned early on is that there's two types of florists. There are florists who have everyday orders where they need certain colors. They're more of colors that are going out in everyday bouquets, birthday bouquets, funeral work.
00:35:18
Speaker
Or do you have florists who are doing weddings where they need certain high-end, fully open flowers that are in the blushes and the whites? So identifying what kind of florists are in your area is super helpful. And then there's also workshops and events. Are you going to teach people how to plant their dahlias, how to arrange with their dahlias, how to dig and divide their dahlias? Are you going to have events on your farm? And then a longer term strategy is hybridizing. And I know that's becoming really popular. I'm curious for those of you on today's call, are you growing dahlias from seed? Have you been hybridizing?
00:35:54
Speaker
For me on my sales outlets here, I have ah bouquets. We have a CSA and we also are selling through our farm stand. We have a tuber sale.
00:36:04
Speaker
ah We wholesale to florists in our area. We have wedding and everyday florists. And this year we're going to add in workshops. And I have been hybridizing for the last four years. This will be my fifth year.
00:36:17
Speaker
And our goal is to release our first varieties in 2027. I saw a lot of hands go up there. Julia says, yes, just starting to grow from seeds. And Joanna says, i selling on the market in my garden, CSA and events.
Scheduling and Time Management
00:36:31
Speaker
Mary Ellen says, I grew one from seed from Floret's book, and it has been growing well for the last three years. I call it Floret baby. I love it. and So these are all great ways to sell your flowers. And we're going to kind of narrow this down on the Next page, but before we move on to the next page, the next question is, what time do you need to block off on your schedule?
00:36:59
Speaker
And so I know a lot of people will not, it will skip this piece. And for me, i have learned over the years that making sure I identify what is important to myself, my family, it comes before everything else. And that helps me avoid burnout in my business. So things that I put on here, these are my non-negotiables.
00:37:22
Speaker
And I didn't do this when I started my business, but I do now. And that is why in your planner, you have a calendar at the back. And I really encourage you to spend some time with it this month and get at least your non-negotiables on here. And so your non-negotiables are, are you going to take time with your family? We make sure we go somewhere every fall and every winter. For me, leaving for a week in the summer is a little bit hard. We typically will do a three or a four day trip. We're planning to do something for spring break this year because our daughter is in fifth grade and we've never done anything for spring break.
00:37:57
Speaker
ah So what are your non-negotiables? Put those on page three where it says time to block off. Write those down. And then what are important dates? These could be your last frost. What dates you're going to have your CSA start?
00:38:14
Speaker
And then what boundaries do you need to create around your time and energy? Is there a certain day of the week that you're going to promise yourself? I am not going to go to the farm. I'm not going to go out of my garden. This is time with my family or time with my friends.
00:38:30
Speaker
I am definitely guilty of it. I know in the past, if I am not careful with my time, seven o'clock at night can quickly roll around. i can forget about dinner. i can forget about everything else.
00:38:42
Speaker
And I can still be out in the field surrounded by my dahlias because I love what I do so much. Anyone else relate where you lose track of all time when you're out with your dahlias, time just disappears. I see some hands going up. So thank you for helping me feel like I'm not alone there.
00:38:58
Speaker
I see Joanne says me. Esther says yes, me too. And I see lots of hands popping up. So being really aware of your time actually gives you freedom to do more. So the more I plan out my schedule, the more freedom I have. Rachel says she leaves Sundays free of event work. I am starting to plan a day where I have to have at least one day for office work, for administrative work with my business in the summer. at This time of year, it's about five days a week in the office and also trying to juggle seed starting and dividing dahlias. But what are your non-negotiables? So how I use my calendar is the first things that go in here are
00:39:39
Speaker
Family birthdays, time off. What are those important non-negotiables that you can't miss that are so important to you that are going to create boundaries around your business? And then I put in, when am I going to start planting my dahlias? And I like to look back to that first page. When did they start blooming?
00:39:57
Speaker
So by knowing when they started blooming, I can plan for when I'm going to be able to start selling flowers to my florist or when can I start a CSA or ascript subscription. For me, we are on what's called farmer's irrigation in our area. Our water shuts off October 1st. So after October 1st, it's hit or miss of whether I'm going to need water to keep my plants going if we don't get rain that season. So my hard shut off for my flowers this year is October 1st.
00:40:26
Speaker
Even if we don't have a frost by then, my season is ending then, and I am going to start preparing to dig my dahlias because I need to know that they're up next year by Thanksgiving. And for me, that's super important because on my schedule, one of my goals for 2026 was to start doing more public speaking.
00:40:45
Speaker
And I am speaking in Australia at the first ever Flower Summit. So those of you in Australia, it be so fun to see you there at the Flower Summit. It's November It's here. It's November 23rd and 24th in Newcastle, Australia. And so I know that I have to have my dahlias out of the ground by a certain date. And I put those non-negotiables into my calendar right away.
00:41:13
Speaker
um So I encourage you to use that calendar or if you have another calendar, I have a huge wall-sized calendar so I don't miss it every day. Okay, so...
00:41:23
Speaker
Let's move on to page four of our worksheet here. and this is building your foundation for your 2026 season.
00:41:36
Speaker
And i want to i forgot to share the quote. I know it's on your worksheet, but ah Carl Jung says, your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.
00:41:47
Speaker
Who looks outside dreams, who looks inside awakens. So I hope you're starting to see some ahas here and getting some clarity of what you want your 2026 to look and feel like, especially knowing how 2025 actually ah felt or actually was So um let's talk about building a foundation for 2026.
00:42:13
Speaker
And I think I already shared this quote with you, but I really like it by Peter Drucker. The best way to predict your future is to create it. So let's create your future. So we're going to do ah go through a few questions here. Again, if you need more time than what we have right now, I really encourage you to journal about this.
00:42:33
Speaker
I would love to hear from you after this session. If you want to send me an email, message me on Instagram and tell me what you're going to do with these things so I can cheer you on and encourage you.
00:42:45
Speaker
So the first question for you to think about is what connections do you already have? This could be people or platforms that will help you sell or gain visibility. So depending on what you want to do with your 2026, are you scaling? Are you starting out?
00:43:04
Speaker
Who and what do you need to grow your business this year? Are there courses you need to take? Do you need to learn how to set up a website? Do you need to find a community, a group in a group of people in your community to help you get the word out about your new CSA? Or if you're growing into a new market,
00:43:26
Speaker
What are those things that you need to add this year? So for me, this last year, we started with a farm stand, a temporary farm stand on our farm, and we want to grow that this next year. So I need to be more involved in my local community. When I started out, I started by just wholesaling my flowers and I had a small CSA. So I didn't need a huge visibility in my community because my florist already knew who I was.
Choosing Sales Channels and Overcoming Challenges
00:43:54
Speaker
Now that I want people to come to my farm, I need to start showing it more in our local Facebook groups. I need to make sure that I am contributing to my community so that people know and see the flowering farmhouse in the gorge.
00:44:09
Speaker
So think about that for your area and what you want to do. The next question that goes along with this is what sales channels or revenue streams will you focus on this year?
00:44:21
Speaker
So we went on the last page and I had you write out the sales outlets that are available to you or that you are currently utilizing. What I want to challenge you with is to pick one or two channels this year. If you are already up and established and you're crushing it with your current markets, you can add in another revenue stream if you're prepared to do so. But if you're just starting out, I don't want you to say, I'm going to sell to my florist. I'm going to have a CSA. I'm going to go to the farmer's market. I'm going to do a tuber sale. You're going to scatter yourself too thin.
00:44:57
Speaker
Through my mastermind with Brendan Burchard, he is co-owner of Growth Day or Growth, which is their online coaching business with Ethan Willis. And I had the opportunity to meet him in October. He recommended that I read the book Essentialism this year that talks, it's really about simplicity and really scaling back to get really good at fewer things so that you can really um serve your audience and also be present for your family. So by choosing one or two things that you're going to focus on this year, you're going to see more success than trying to do five things. When you choose one or two, you can get really good at them versus doing five things half-heartedly.
00:45:40
Speaker
So I would love to know what are those one or two things that you're going to choose to focus on this year. If you're willing to willing to share it in the chat in your live, I'd love to see or know what those are going to be. So my new thing this year is we're trying to scale are our our presence on site. So we're trying to grow our roadside farm stand. Esther says my roadside stand. So I love it. So once you're clear, then you can really build out a plan of how you're going to get people.
00:46:08
Speaker
um Rachel said, can you repeat the book name and author, please? ah I don't have the author's name on hand, but the book name is Essentialism. ah Mary Ellen says a roadside flower cart and a possible CSA. Those can go really well together, especially if your CSA picks up at your roadside stand. Jessica is going to start selling to florists.
00:46:30
Speaker
Stacy is going to continue with her farmer's market and florists and increase direct to customer with pop ups and custom party orders. I love it. OK, let's move on to the next question here.
00:46:44
Speaker
The next one is. What is one thing you need to make those channels work? So what is one thing right now, instead of trying to choose five things, What is one thing going back to that simplicity? What is one thing that you need? So if you're going to start a roadside flower cart, what do you need for me? That is working with our county.
00:47:06
Speaker
i want to have a permanent roadside stand, so I have to get a farm stand permit, which is a very complicated process for me because we're on a highway. So I have to have a road survey done. I have to have permits done for our stand to go up. If you're going to start selling to florists, how do you make those connections? What do you need to do and what can you do now?
00:47:26
Speaker
Caitlin says a website for tuber sales. So one thing that Caitlin might want to do is to purchase a domain or purchase a site so that she can start selling those tubers. Mary Ellen said she's also working with her county and is finishing building her cart. It's almost done. That is awesome.
00:47:45
Speaker
Okay, so we're going to move on to the next page and we're still working on building our foundations for 2026 here. And so I wanted to share a quote with you guys from Fabian Fredrickson. The day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit.
00:48:05
Speaker
Be patient and stay the course. And I thought that was perfect before diving into this next question here. So last year with our new field, we hired a soil agronomist and she said to me, she said, trust the process and stay the course.
00:48:23
Speaker
And let me tell you, there's been so many times that that has been so hard to do. so That is your challenge is to remember that the day you plant the seed is not the day you're going to see that success. You have to keep going forward. And that is why we plan so that we have something to refer back to, to keep us on track so that we are clear on what we want to do. So i want to know what obstacles or challenges could get in the way. And you don't have to share these with us in the chat, but think about what obstacles and challenges will get in the way And how will you plan for them? Years ago, I learned it's not a matter of if something's going to go wrong in the growing season. It's a matter of when. So being prepared makes all the difference in the world. Caitlin said she just purchased her domain today, actually, for her website. Congratulations, Caitlin. I love that you are taking action and doing that first step. That is
Goal Mapping and Efficient Planning
00:49:18
Speaker
amazing. And Robin said the book is Essentialism by Greg McCowan. Yes, that is exactly the book I read. Thank you. I'm actually going to go back and read it for a second time. in 2026. It's on my book list for this year. And my daughter likes me to always clarify when I say I read a book, I listened on audio, because it's so easy to put on some headphones while I'm out in the field and listen to a book a week. So um thank you for sharing that Robin. Okay, next part of our planning here is
00:49:52
Speaker
mapping out your 2026 so that you can have a profitable Dahlia season. So the first thing I want you to think about is what are three goals for the year? So based on everything you've written down, how you want this year to feel,
00:50:07
Speaker
um what you're going to focus on. What are your goals for this year? Is it establishing a roadside stand? Is it having a successful tuber sale where you make $5,000? What is your goals for this year?
00:50:24
Speaker
If you're willing to share any of your goals, I'd love for you to put them right here. My goals this year were to expand my online education with the community, the floral community. So I'm hosting webinars like this throughout the year. Stay tuned for some more. I'm putting on, I'm the host of the Profitable Dahlia Summit. I think some of you who are on today have already said yes to joining us in March, and I'll be sharing a little bit more about that coming up here in today's training. So write down your top three goals. If you need to think about this, that's
00:51:02
Speaker
totally okay too um fran is has a goal of building an exchange with her neighbors for tubers jessica says she can't wait for the summit we are looking forward to having you join us jessica it's going to be amazing we have over 10 speakers over two days and i was talking with julio from the flower hat just this morning and we were trying to calculate how many seasons of experience there's going to be at that summit with our speakers. And we came up with over 100 different seasons because every year you have new challenges, new lessons that you learn. And so between our speakers, we have over 100 seasons of experience at this summit, which I thought was pretty awesome.
00:51:43
Speaker
OK, Robin said she's going to be offering a CSA in addition to her farm stand. um So let's work on mapping this out now. So once you have your goals, what I like to do is I like to break my season down and or my my year by season and then key tasks and what sales I'm going to focus on this year. Now, because we're limited on time, we're going to keep this very broad. If you want to drill this down, you can totally take this even further than what we're doing in today's session. But
00:52:15
Speaker
This will help you get a very broad overview of what you want your year to look like. Now we have quite a global audience joining us today, which is amazing. If you're in the Southern hemisphere, you might want to start with a different part of the year because your seasons are different where most of us in the Northern hemisphere Our dahlias are put to bed right now, so your tasks are going to look very different in each. um Well, I guess they won't look different in each season, but it's going to be a different order. So I know that it's spring going into summer in the southern hemisphere where we're in the winter counting our days till spring arrives here.
00:52:53
Speaker
So. For example, in the winter, what are some key tasks that you might be doing right now? If you are having a tuber sale, you might be dividing your tubers, getting them labeled, building a website. And then on the sales focus, you might be focused on driving your signups for your tuber sale online. You might be building an email list. If you're having a CSA, your sales focus might be getting ready to start telling people about that.
00:53:21
Speaker
CSA subscriptions. In the spring, you're getting ready to plant your dahlias. Are you bringing in compost? When are you buying your supplies? Summertime, we're obviously focused on our dahlias. You're harvesting, you are selling your dahlias, keeping up with weeds, fertilizing.
00:53:42
Speaker
I'm just trying to give a few examples for each of these. Obviously, you could probably have a hundred different tasks in each of these sections, but also try and put your key items on here and then you can go back and drill it down.
00:53:57
Speaker
And then in the fall, you're planning to dig your dahlias again. And most of us know that dahlia season really is a fall flower. Dahlias truly hit their peak in the fall. So a lot of your harvesting is that September to October, especially if you're in the Pacific Northwest. And then by looking at your sales focuses now, if you start planning for how you're going to sell your dahlias, now you're not going to be scrambling with where to sell them when they come into bloom. So Dale Carnegie said, an hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing.
00:54:35
Speaker
And i love that. So instead of spending 10 hours driving around this summer, trying to find a way to sell those hundred dahlias you just cut, if you have a plan now and you have pre-sold them, you're going to save yourself so much time this summer.
00:54:52
Speaker
Okay, let me go on. We're flipping to the next page. We are into next steps. And so Martin Luther King Jr. said, you don't have to see the whole staircase. You just have to take the first step.
00:55:08
Speaker
And so that's what I want you to do today. What decisions or actions can you take today to make sure that 2026 is successful for you and your Dahlia business?
00:55:20
Speaker
So if you're willing to share in the comments, I'd love for you to say, one thing that you're going to do, maybe it's a takeaway. Maybe you're going to spend some time this weekend and you're going to journal and fill out your calendar.
Profitable Dahlia Summit Introduction
00:55:34
Speaker
Maybe you are going to buy that domain name and get ready for your tuber sale.
00:55:40
Speaker
Maybe it's going to be finishing digging those dahlias or dividing. Karen just said she's going to create a vision board. I love it. Vision boards give me so much clarity. I create my vision board and then I do my planning like this.
00:55:54
Speaker
And I go from there. Stacy said education summit with you and finish watching flower farming for profit summit. I love it. Investing in yourself is an incredible step that you can take right here. So you may want to spend some time. I encourage you to journal on this. Um,
00:56:13
Speaker
Let's here. Hannah's going to make a Google form to make tracking seed starting and harvesting easier. Awesome. Finding just one thing to do. And then after you get that, you can take the next step. Joanna said she's going to buy some more tubers. I think we all um have done that as well. Anyone else?
00:56:32
Speaker
Guilty of saying I'm not buying any more tubers this year and have already started on the tuber wars. um There's been so many great varieties. It's so hard sometimes to have that self-constraint. Mary Ellen said she's going to update her calendar and journal some thoughts for making her dream a reality.
00:56:48
Speaker
I love that. I'm so proud of you guys for these decisions and actions. ah The universe loves action. So when you take that first step, you are putting things in motion and you are setting yourself up to have a wonderful year. So I want you to know I am proud of you for doing that and so grateful that you are taking the time.
00:57:10
Speaker
So again, Martin Luther King Jr. said, you don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. And that has made such a difference for me. And I hope you will remember that this year too, especially as you're starting your business or scaling your business, it can be really daunting to think about how am I gonna get from here to here?
00:57:29
Speaker
But remember, you're here to here, It might look like a flat area for a while and then a really steep climb and then it might flatten out again. Or it might look like climbing a ladder. But everyone's is going to look different, but just you have to take that first step.
00:57:46
Speaker
Okay, so... That leads me to some of you have said that you are going to invest in yourself this year, and I absolutely love that. And if that is the case, I would love to invite you to join us at the Profitable Dahlia Summit, which is a two-day virtual event taking place March 3rd through fourth And right now, through this Sunday, January 11th, we are offering early bird access for $49 for live access or $149 for all access to the summit. We're going to have over 10 live sessions that are led by real Dahlia farmers. And at these sessions, you'll learn how to price your Dahlias, sell your Dahlias, market them and profit from your Dahlias.
00:58:34
Speaker
These are all going to be presented live And if you cannot make the live, they will be recorded and all access participants will, those that purchase an all access ticket will receive replays as well as bonuses from our speakers that I'm going to tell you about in a minute. And everyone who joins the summit starting January 12th, we have a private Facebook group for the summit. And it's going to be amazing as well. I see some of you saying, I hope I can join. We would love to have you join us.
00:59:07
Speaker
And I'm going to tell you a little bit more about it here, and then we're going to go into our Q&A. So I wanted to tell you about some of the sessions that are going to take place at the summit. We will be having a session on selling to florists and event designers. ah So that's going to be Heather Kane from Petal Pink Flowers is going to talk about how she sells.
00:59:28
Speaker
To Floris Marin Mathis from the Farmhouse Flower Farm. Many of you have probably shopped her incredible tuber sale. She's going to talk about hosting your first tuber sale.
00:59:39
Speaker
There's going to be a session on setting up your CSA subscriptions. excuse me Profit tracking and pricing strategies from Jenny Marks of Trademark Flower Farmer. Selling through a farm stand, growing perfect dahlias for weddings, Giulio Freitas of The Flower Hat is going to be talking about how he successfully and strategically grows certain dahlias for his weddings and events, which has become a huge part of his dahlia business.
01:00:07
Speaker
ah Shannon and Lindsay from the Dirt on Flowers are going to speak about diversifying your income with farm events. And there's going to be so many more amazing so chats as well. um I'm going to just give you guys the link here real fast. um I'm dropping this in the chat.
01:00:25
Speaker
For those of you, I saw that a few people needed to hop off. If you want to join the summit, I just shared a link in the chat with you um for our tickets so that you can take advantage of the early bird pricing that is ending on Sunday. So you can purchase an early bird ticket through Sunday. Tickets will be for sale all the way up through the event.
01:00:47
Speaker
However, prices will go up. So right now, the early bird live access ticket is $49. That will go up to $99 on Monday, which is still an amazing value for 10 sessions.
01:01:02
Speaker
And then the all access ticket is currently $149. That will go up to um again and that's 10 live sessions we also have a q and a panel that will be featuring camille sellick melissa stewart and julio freitas and we may have a few more panelists joining us as well and at this summit you are going to walk away with clear strategies to grow your dahlia and income confidence to price your offers we have
01:01:35
Speaker
ah Charlotte Smith joining us to talk about mindset and how you can go from giving away your dahlias to changing that mindset to being able to charge what your dahlias and you are worth. Sales techniques that feel natural, a supportive community to grow with you, and a roadmap to make 2026 your most profitable season yet. So I want to challenge you if today's session, if you got even a little bit out of today, imagine what 10 times this would do. So 10 times the information with 10 sessions. This is going to be an amazing event. Mary Ellen just said, oh my gosh, I need to sign up for this. We would love to have you join us.
01:02:13
Speaker
The link is right here in the chat. And so here is a list showing you all of our amazing speakers that are going to be joining us. And this is going to be the first. There's been so many summits this year, which is amazing. I think it's so important. We spend $45 for a newly released Dahlia Tuber. Anyone else can raise their hand and say they've spent $45 on a dalia Tuber.
01:02:39
Speaker
I see lots of hands going up. If you're willing to spend $45, are you willing to spend $49 $149 to invest in yourself? Imagine what you could turn that into with the knowledge that you'll gain in these sessions.
01:02:54
Speaker
So um I'm going to stop sharing here and... um Rachel said, do you know what time the sessions are on the third and fourth? That is a great question. Our sessions are going to start at 8 a.m. m Pacific Standard Time, and it's going to run till about four o'clock in the afternoon Pacific Standard Time both days. We have a very full lineup, but if you're unable to attend those, I encourage you to get the all access pass, which will give you lifetime recordings to all of the sessions.
01:03:26
Speaker
So at this point, We've been here for an hour. I'm so grateful that you've joined me. I want to open it up for any questions that you maybe have about the summit or about planning out your year. I hope you have gotten some valuable information from today. If you're here live, I would love if you would share with me in the comments, one thing that you're taking away from today's session and what you are going to implement.
01:03:55
Speaker
Let's see here. I've got some questions coming in. Rachel said, thank you for sharing your time and your knowledge. Thank you for being here. These are things that light me up and I... um love um getting to share this with you.
01:04:12
Speaker
ah Dahlia patch members, Joanne asked as a member of the Dahlia patch, do I have access or do I need to purchase? If you are currently part of the Dahlia patch community, you have free live access and there was a link sent out so you can send me a message to upgrade if you would like the replays as well.
Participant Reflections and Q&A
01:04:29
Speaker
And then
01:04:32
Speaker
Mary Ellen said, thank you so much for all this helpful info. I have to jump off for another meeting, but I can't wait to join the summit. um
01:04:42
Speaker
Sabica, hope I'm saying your name right, says you've awakened me to my purpose again. i was feeling overwhelmed with the digging and dividing. I'm so glad to hear that. Sometimes when life feels so overwhelming, just taking a few minutes to really reflect and then make a plan makes all the difference in the world. So I'm so glad you found that helpful.
01:05:02
Speaker
um Amy said, I appreciate the structure of this workshop. I have a lot to reflect on and excited to spend time envisioning and planning for 2026. Oh, Amy, you're so welcome. Thank you for being here. um I think when we get excited about things, it makes us more willing to do the work and feeling like we can take that next step. Leah said to be brave and have confidence to actually sell some dahlias rather than just give them away. This has been so helpful. Thank you for your time. Thanks for being here, Leah. I can't wait to see you being successful this year.
01:05:33
Speaker
Robin said, this was so helpful. Thank you. My biggest takeaway is to start tracking my Dahlia numbers. Tuber is planted, dug, divided, sold, etc. I've been shooting from the hip the past few years. Thank you for sharing that. I think so many people do shoot from the hip. And when you really get clear on your numbers, it's really eye opening.
01:05:53
Speaker
And it really starts to show you what opportunities and changes are necessary for your business. So um if there's any other questions, if anyone wants to come on and ask a question, you're welcome to raise your hand. I'll stay for a few minutes here um or you can ask them in the chat as well.
01:06:11
Speaker
Jenna said, I was inspired to learn that it is the international year of the female farmer. The planning tips and tools are so valuable. It is such an awesome year. um i want to recognize the male farmers in our industry also. But as a female, I think it's so exciting to have a year that is actually acknowledging that we are a minority in the industry, but especially with flower farmers, we are definitely making our presence known.
01:06:37
Speaker
um Brianne said, I have to jump, but this was great support for my upcoming first flower selling season in 26. Thank you for the download and wise information. Cheers and blessings. Thank you so much. Good luck to you this year. um Jessica said, do you plan on doing farmer's markets this year? Would love to visit your farm stand in Hood River. Jessica, right now I'm not planning to sign up for the Hood River Farmers Market. Maybe if they have some openings, we might do some pop-ups, but we are really hoping to bring people out to our farm this year and we would love to have you visit us.
01:07:08
Speaker
ah Alicia said, is there a specific scale of farm that the summit is geared to? That is a wonderful question. The summit is going to cover a wide range of topics.
01:07:19
Speaker
So whether you are just starting out, things like the mindset talks are going to be super helpful. And then anyone who's looking to scale, if you look at the list of our topics and our speakers, you will see that there's a wide range. And so I'm guessing that most Dahlia growers are not doing everything that's being covered at the summit. We've tried to really do a broad overview of different ways you can sell your dahlias so that if you're already selling your tubers or if you're already having a CSA, it's going to give you ways to monetize your dahlias in another outlet as well. So you're going to walk away with 10 amazing sessions that are really going to open up. So whether you're selling
01:08:00
Speaker
50 dahlias and you're looking to do your first or you're growing 50 dahlias and you're looking to do your first CSA or you have 5000 dahlias and you are looking to add another outlet to making money from your dahlias, you're going to get value from the summit. So many people pay 100 $200 just to attend a one hour session and you're getting 10 sessions plus a live Q&A panel. And I forgot to tell you about some of the bonuses. So if you purchase an all-access pass for the two days that also gives you the replays, you will also get bonuses from our speakers. Here are some of the bonuses that have already been provided by our speakers, and these will be available once the event goes live.
01:08:45
Speaker
Heather has Heather's favorite dahlias to grow for florists. There's a download of Beyond Tubers' Nine Ways to Increase Dahlia Revenue on Your Farm, Marketing and Mindset Skills to Build a Profitable Dahlia Farm, a free expense tracking template, discovering your superpowers, a complete guide to the best dahlias for cut flower production, a Dahlia You Pick Checklist, Dahlia Workshop Checklist, and these are all bonuses if you sign up for the all-access ticket. which I'll put in the chat again, the link for that here. And let's see, are there any other questions? I see there's still a lot of you on the chat. So if you would like to come on, you can raise your hand or if you wanna submit a question in the chat,
01:09:36
Speaker
And just a reminder, if you did not already print out your worksheet, you can download
Conclusion and Encouragement
01:09:42
Speaker
that. um You will have that in your email. Also, if you had to jump off or you want to go back and rewatch this, I will be sending out a replay of the webinar so you can go back and review any part of this.
01:09:58
Speaker
All right. oh let's hear. Jess says, I'm looking forward to finding out how to price a CSA. I'm thinking small numbers for my first year. That is great. Jess, just a little bit of advice ah right now is one, when you know how much it costs to do business, that's going to determine part of what you're going to price your CSA.
01:10:17
Speaker
But also, you don't want to undervalue your flowers. So I'll tell you, my first year, I think I charged $25 bouquet. And I now charge $35 a bouquet, but comparing, you want to make sure you're not comparing apples to oranges because my $25 bouquets were actually stuffed full of dahlias. I didn't know how important growing filler flowers were. So I was probably giving a tremendous value on dahlias, but at the same time, my arrangement didn't have the presentation that it does now. because my dahlias really stand out. So making sure you know what does it cost you to grow those and what is your time worth? You wanna also um add those in.
01:11:02
Speaker
So yes, we are gonna have a great session on that at the summit. Hannah said thank you. Okay, it looks like, oh, Karen says, how should I upgrade my $49 summit to the All Pass? Karen, if you send me an email, I can give you the link to upgrade. So let me drop my email in the chat here. um
01:11:27
Speaker
And then you can upgrade it through that. if you just send me an email, I'll send you the link. We would love to have you join us for the All Access. And Jess said my, oh, let's see, it's moving so fast to chat. My cut flower varieties are increasing for bouquet quality or variety. Thanks again. And Julie said, thanks so much for your time. Lots to think about this month. Ready to dig in Awesome. I love it. Stacey said any tips to get more efficient with growing and before hiring someone only have hubby helping some.
01:11:57
Speaker
Sometimes you have to hire before you're ready and other times you want to make sure. and when I say before you're ready, that's a fine line because you don't want to put yourself in a bad financial position. But when you find that you can't keep up with all the tasks and the orders are still piling in, that's often when you can start by hiring someone maybe part time. Maybe you can find a high schooler or you might be amazed if you post in a local Facebook group. I have had people when I was starting out that were willing to trade flowers for a time for helping. And that was one of the best things was I had one person help me in exchange for a weekly CSA bouquet.
01:12:35
Speaker
And they loved learning how to grow the flowers and being with the flowers. And I was able to give them a bouquet. Now I'm at a position where I can pay someone to come and help me. um But there's ways that you can get creative with that. And I think um finding a gardener who wants to help, who maybe, be especially ah for me at the time, that person that I was able to hire or to trade with, they did not have a growing space that year. So they were so excited to spend time with flowers. They were able to learn how to harvest flowers, learn about growing them. And in exchange, they got we had agreed upon a bouquet.
01:13:16
Speaker
And of course, they ended up getting to take home so many more flowers than that. And then when you're ready to start paying someone, what I started out by doing is I started putting that money aside and I put aside money for about four months. And when I had four months saved up of what I was going to pay that person, I then felt comfortable paying someone and knowing that I could continue that going. So I hope that's helpful. um Stacey says, thanks so much. Okay. I know that's ah that could be a whole conversation in and of itself, but I hope that's helpful. Leah said, thank you so much. This has been great and can't wait to get planning now.
01:13:53
Speaker
I'm so glad if you're still on ah or re-listening and you want to send me an email or message me on Instagram, I would love to hear um what your takeaways are, especially if you have a word or a phrase of the year.
01:14:08
Speaker
And do I have another question? I thought I saw a hand come up. Are there any other questions before we hop off today? I'll drop the link one more time if you're still on and you want to join us at the summit and you haven't already done so. We would be so honored to have you join us for even more training. March is such a great time to really dive into these topics before the season is in full swing.
01:14:34
Speaker
And i just want to say thank you for taking the time to invest in yourself. There's so many people that just go into this and wing it every year. And for you to be here and saying that you are making the commitment to plan is already setting yourself up for such a great start to the year. And I want you to know that I am here. If you want to reach out, I love hearing from you. So thank you for joining us today. i hope that this is an amazing start to your 2026 and know that I am cheering for you. And this is just such a wonderful community. I love the flower community. And thanks for being here. And I hope we will see you at the Profitable Dahlia Summit, March 3rd through 4th. Have a wonderful day and weekend, everyone.