Well, it’s been a tricky start to the month with the American Trade War Tariffs announcement. Hold onto your bootstraps because there’s no denying that tariffs are taxes on American consumers and they’re especially bad for small businesses. 

Understandably, for the last 6 weeks or so, florists have been asking, What should we do about the new tariffs? What are you telling your customers about future price increases?

In fact, it was the first question in my Q&A for Flower Math students, too. So here’s a short behind the scenes look at the answer!

It’s a tough position to be in and at this point, I am NOT making a “big tariff announcement post” from my floral business. This is a brand messaging decision and there are several factors to consider. So first, ask: What do you really need your customers to know right now?

Because if we’re being honest, we don’t fully understand how our businesses will be impacted yet, so we may have to see how much prices increase on the wholesale end in the upcoming weeks to make an informed decision on how much to raise prices.

• What if you raise by 10% this week, and then realize it should be closer to 20%? Will you make another announcement of a larger increase or keep it to 10%?

If you’re a floral designer who already charges on the upper end of the floral markups, you may need to consider whether it’s even an option in your market to raise prices, before announcing any new company tariff policies. This is one reason why these new tariffs are especially harmful to small businesses like ours.

If you’re pricing appropriately to reach your profit goals, there’s still a ceiling on what the market will bear (meaning, there’s a maximum amount that your customers are willing to pay).

• If you happen to work with more affluent clients, they’ll likely feel less effected by the increased prices. Everyone else in the middle or lower income demographic will feel the impacts more acutely.

For any existing orders such as weddings and events, should your clients expect the original price will go up? If so, by how much exactly?

• How will customer receive a 20% increase on their floral budget? Can they afford to pay $600 more when they originally budgeted $3,000?
• Could you revisit your pricing formulas and revise your floral recipes to include fewer stems or less expensive flowers to honor your original pricing?
• Can clients have the option to pay a little bit more to keep the original design “as is” OR can you modify the recipe to swap out certain flowers or make designs a little smaller so you’re attempting to meet in the middle?
• Are there any other business expenses you can cut so that you can make up for the import taxes you’re paying on COGS as well as in your everyday life?

As a floral designer with weddings booked myself, I know that it’s hard to feel uncertain about what to say to your customers and most of us want to feel like we’re “on top of things”, but a thoughtful policy rollout is preferable to a prompt announcement in my opinion here.

Also, I’m not an economist, accountant or a lawyer, but it seems like it’s possible these tariffs could be found illegal or unconstitutional based on the fact that Congress is supposed to set tariff policies. (Several lawsuits are currently underway.)

In lieu of a tariff announcement, if you’re looking for some inspiration on what to say to stay engaged with your social media followers, I post 5 Blog & Social Media Prompts specifically for floral designers in my Patreon community every month. If you’re interested, you can get this month’s prompts and check out several prior months of post ideas when you join as a Marketing Maven for $29 Here.

The intention of creating these prompts for my Marketing Mavens is to make it easier for you to communicate with your customers to make a connection–beyond just following social media trends and talking about tariffs!

And if you have any questions for me, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Keep doing beautiful work. And keep your chin up as things remain unpredictable.

xo. -Alison Ellis

Additional Resources:

Flower Math: The Florist’s Guide To Pricing & Profitability

Wedding Bootcamp! April 27-29. Last Chance To Sign Up!

Business Plan Check-In