CSA vs. Subs

We all know when the lock down hit, March 16, 2020 the day before my son turned 11 years old. I heard grumblings of a possible shut down among our friends weeks before and headlines were beginning to ramp up fear. Just two months prior I was blissfully sowing thousands of seeds in our basement eager and excited for my first year producing flowers for sale to customers. I had four full seasons of growing flowers under my belt and ready to make some money.

And then…obviously, we all know what happened. I was rapidly shifting gears from growing flowers to a full time job of home schooling my middle schooler, while also figuring out all the fundamentals of building and running a business. It was a shit show.

What I had a lot of was time, so I like to think of 2020 as a second “trial year” to continue building the foundation of my business. I took time to continue my education and signed up for just about every course I could jam into my already full schedule (I’m a glutton for punishment). One of those course was Jennie Love’s Flower Subscription webinar. It was invaluable and began my understanding of the similarities and differences between CSA Shares and Subscriptions. Without spilling too much, out of respect for her fully paid course, let’s chat about those two models.

When you think of a CSA, what immediately comes to mind? Farm investment, right? You are investing in a farm early on in the season when cash flow is low and the bills and payroll still need to be paid. In turn, when the crops are thriving your investment returns and you receive your bounty of the farm’s product. With an investment or a share there comes risk and reward. You risk the crop not producing at all or your bounty being unfulfilled until later months in the season when the farm is pumping out crops. The reward is negotiable, the value is different among each investor. Some investors just want their money to go towards the daily workings of the farm and could really care less on the actual product delivery, while others expect a return on their investment and want the farm’s bounty. As a share holder, you are taking a risk in the farms return but you can usually expect to pay lower share costs-that’s usually how you can snag those fresh bouquets directly from the farm for $20.

Now, what do you think of when you hear the word subscription? Netflix. 24-Hour Fitness. The New York Times. You are paying a monthly or yearly amount to have a product guaranteed. No matter what, Netflix, 24-Hour Fitness and The New York Times delivers your product or service. With a subscription there is little room (or patience) for error and if there is error the subscriber expects to be compensated. There is more of an expectation from the subscriber putting higher responsibility on the company. This added responsibility comes with a higher price tag.

So how does this apply to flowers? Well, do you want your product guaranteed or are you willing to risk not getting exactly what you want?

I’ve always treated our CSA share as a subscription even without the coined title and compensation. My first year in business, during 2020, our spring CSA share was sold out and I was tickled pink. But when the time came to begin providing flowers to our CSA share holders (or investors), the ranunculus were slow to grow from the cold spring we had, we had a complete failure of our filler flowers like Larkspur and Orlaya due to late planting, and our native bird habitat devoured the first signs of green making our crop yields lower than expected. While I covered my bases with contracts after each CSA Share purchase what I lacked was the ability and confidence to hold to my contract and push those spring share holder delivers into the summer when I knew we’d have more flowers and more temperate weather.

What I did instead was drive hours down to Sacramento to purchase flowers from various farms. Farmers all over the country couldn’t sell their flowers fast enough because of the lack of help due to the new Covid restrictions, employees getting sick, weddings and events being cancelled, and the ever mounting fear of human contact. So, each week in May I’d pack a blanket, water and snacks, dress in wool socks and a down jacket, and drive to pick up my order. It was exhausting, deflating and my body hurt.

I should have implemented what I had learned right away. I should have stuck to my contract but for some reason it just felt wrong with everything else going on in the world. Ultimately, I wanted flowers to be in your homes no matter the cost. I severely lost money-I didn’t make a dime and in most cases paid the share holder to have flowers! Lesson learned.

The following year I dissected everything I did wrong the previous year and took each of them as learning experience but ones I couldn’t continue doing if I wanted to stay in business. I knew without a shadow of doubt I wanted to deliver fresh, local flowers to our customers no matter what. I also was running into the dilemma of providing a bouquet that I really wanted to create because it was aesthetically pleasing vs. one that was more similar to the bouquets you can find at a grocery store. So I began implementing everything I learned in Jennie Love’s course to shift our CSA Share model to a Subscription model.

The lower price tag on the CSA Shares was keeping me confined and wouldn’t allow wiggle room to create bouquets that I absolutely loved and was proud of. I needed to differentiate the Petals and Pages brand and wanted to include luxurious flowers like dahlias, lisianthus, agrostemma, lilac, and sweet peas. While I love grocery store bouquets and still provide them to our Coop, I wanted our Subscribers to get the creme of the crop (literally). So I raised the prices and set out to make our bouquets beautiful and bountiful so our customers could really get a sense of what we grew!

Overall it worked much better and Petals and Pages finally started turning a profit!

Since 2021, I continue to find ways to become more efficient and to provide better quality flowers to our communities. I still love the subscription model and will continue to offer this for years to come.

What do you think? Do you prefer a guarantee on your purchases or are you willing to take risks? Do you want those gorgeous dahlias or are you more simple and love the chamomile filled bouquet?