Episode 62: Over Coffee - Pricing Your Products with Erin Shackelford and Jesalyn Pettigrew

Learn how to price your products and services with advice from four small business owners - Erin Shackelford, Jesalyn Pettigrew, Quynh Nguyen, and Jessie Chui, in the paper flower, floral arranging, and flower farming industries. 

Does your stomach tie up in knots at the thought of pricing your products or services? A quick search will show that paper flowers come with all sorts of price tags attached. How do other paper florists come up with those price points? Are you charging too much or too little?

^{Camas Design}

“I looked back on what I had done that summer, thinking I had done great for that first year…But when I looked at my profit margin, I realized it was not a sustainable business model.” - Erin Shackelford

Paper florists aren’t the only ones to struggle with this problem. Small business owners of all kinds lose sleep over the pricing question. That’s why on our Season 3 premier of Papertalk we took on this important topic and chatted with two women outside of the paper flower industry.

Jesalyn Pettigrew is a flower farmer and owner of Mossy Gate Flower Farm, and Erin Shackelford is a floral designer and owner of Camas Designs. They both pivoted to the world of fresh flowers after careers in other industries, so setting prices was new and unknown territory. Sound familiar? It definitely rang true for us! 

^{Mossy Gate Flower Farm}

“Overtime I’ve had to decide where it was that I want my business and then ask my competitors point blank, and then also try it out with customers.” - Jesalyn Pettigrew

Here’s what you’ll learn when you listen to our conversation: 

• Which factors you should consider when setting your prices
• How to stick to your price point
• Navigating different prices for different kinds of customers (wholesale, commercial, designers, etc)
• How we’ve balanced building our brands versus making a profit

Whether you’re new to the game or have been in business for years, pricing is something you need to constantly consider. As Quynh said, “No matter how long you’ve been in business, how you’re pivoting, how you’re changing what you are to where you want to be, you have to think about the price in the future. You always have to set your expectation: what do I want to accomplish this year?”

^{Zinnia's from Jesalyn Pettigrew's Mossy Gate Flower Farm}

^{Bridal bouquet by Erin Shackelford (Photo credit: Karissa Roe Photography)}

The best news is that this is only the beginning of the conversation. We’ll have more in depth discussion with Jesalyn and Erin on October 17 with our Paper X Talk about pricing. And we want to hear from you! What do you struggle with? What do you want discussed? Tell us in the comments, and listen now to get a head start on pricing.