The poster (a few of) you have been waiting for! In all seriousness, I’ve been working on this concept for a number of years now. It began the first year I built my first farm stand and wanted to give customers a glimpse behind the scenes of the farm, and some transparency about why my prices may have been higher than they they would have expected.

The sign generated so much healthy conversation that I adapted it over the years, working on different iterations, refining the numbers base on my P&L statement, those of other farmers who let me peek at their financials, and refining the category headings to best express the questions my customers had (rather than using headings my accountant would have used).

What I love about this concept is that it shows customers what goes into flower farming, without complaining about how much work it is, or how high my expenses are. It’s neutral and in fact positive - making customers excited to learn exactly what they’re supporting. I recommend that you laminate or frame this poster and put it up anywhere your customers will see it.

A note about the percentages: all businesses are, of course, different. If you’re a small, new farmer who doesn’t know your numbers, I’d stand behind these as a pretty good guess of what yours might look like. If you do, and yours differ from this, I’d suggest that the basic idea holds. Perhaps you have low land costs but soaring admin costs, or vice versa. Perhaps you profit 50% but haven’t invested anything back into the business, or conversely invest it all, not paying yourself anything (which is what I’m calling ‘profit’ for these purposes). This is an approximation, and more to the point, a conversation starter. I’ve loved talking to hundreds of farmers about it over instagram since I first started posting about it. Most farmers who reach out about it, by the way, do so and say that they’re so far removed from their numbers that this encourages them to dig in. I love that!