Wildflower Florist and Event Design

Words in [brackets] are blanks you fill in with your own details when you adopt this sample in Supreme Plan AI.

Executive Summary

Wildflower Florist and Event Design is a neighborhood flower shop and event design studio in Tennessee. We make everyday arrangements for birthdays, thank-yous and sympathy, design flowers for weddings and events, and keep restaurants, offices and small businesses supplied with fresh flowers every week. We deliver across town in our own van.

Why this fits. People still send flowers for the moments that matter most, and they want a real person who listens, suggests something that fits the budget and delivers it when promised. A local shop that knows its customers by name wins repeat orders from families, offices and wedding couples, and from the planners and funeral homes that recommend us.

Here is what our numbers show. In Year 1 we plan about 3,000 everyday and walk-in orders, 22 weddings and events and 48 months of weekly business accounts (about four accounts). That brings in sales of $279,560, growing to $657,136 by Year 5 as we build the event and business sides. We expect a small profit of about $2,000 in Year 1 even though the cooler, van and rent are paid before the shop is known, then a profit of about $21,800 in Year 2, a profit of about $62,900 in Year 3 and a profit of about $110,600 by Year 5. Flowers spoil quickly, so waste is built into our costs.

We need $114,000 in total. Of that, $73,000 is startup costs (a walk-in cooler, a used van, display and design fixtures, the lease deposit, a license, signs and a website, the first stock of flowers and insurance), and the rest is cash for the first months. I am putting in $59,000 of my own savings and asking for a $55,000 equipment and working capital loan.

I am Rosa Delgado, the owner and lead designer, with nine years of designing flowers in two shops, including four years as a lead designer who handled weddings. These numbers are estimates based on the assumptions listed at the end of this plan, not promises.

Company Description

Wildflower Florist and Event Design is a small, independently owned flower shop and event design studio in Tennessee, planned as a limited liability company (LLC). We serve homes, offices, restaurants, churches and event venues in our city and the towns around it.

Our mission. To bring beautiful, fresh flowers to the moments that matter, and to do it with warmth, honesty and on time.

What we believe. Flowers are personal. We listen to what a customer wants to say, offer options at several prices and never pressure anyone to spend more. We buy fresh, change water every day, throw out what is past its best and deliver what we promised. For sympathy orders, we are especially careful about timing and wording.

What we offer:
- Everyday arrangements. Birthdays, anniversaries, new babies, get-well and sympathy, for walk-in, phone and online orders.
- Weddings and events. Consultation, bouquets, centerpieces, arches and setup, with a written quote and a deposit.
- Weekly business accounts. Fresh flowers for restaurant tables, office lobbies and front desks, delivered and swapped weekly.
- Local delivery. Same-day delivery in our city for orders placed by early afternoon.

Who we serve. Families, couples planning weddings, funeral homes and churches, restaurants, offices and event planners.

What we do not do. We do not promise a flower variety we cannot get at the right season, take more events on a single day than we can staff or sell old stock as fresh.

How we are run. I am the owner and lead designer. A designer and delivery driver joins me in Year 1, a second in Year 2, and seasonal helpers cover Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and the holidays. A part-time bookkeeper and an accountant keep the books.

Where things stand today. We have a lease offer on a small storefront, quotes for the cooler and a used van, commitments from two local wholesalers and early orders from a wedding planner, a restaurant and a funeral home that said they would try us. (Replace this with where you really are.)

Problem & Opportunity

Many people feel stuck when they need flowers. Grocery store bouquets are cheap but plain. Online order sites send a stranger's idea of a gift, and customers may not get what they saw in the photo. Large delivery companies can add fees. For a wedding, couples may face a long list of vendors, unclear quotes and flowers that do not match what they imagined.

Businesses have a different problem. A restaurant or office wants fresh flowers every week but has no time to order, pick up or replace them.

Flowers are also a hard business to run. They spoil in days, prices change by season and holiday, and demand is very uneven. Valentine's Day and Mother's Day can bring a large share of the year's sales in a few days, and the rest of the year can be quiet. A shop needs extra staff, cooler space and careful ordering to handle the peaks without wasting stock.

For a new owner, the hard parts are the cost of the cooler and van, building a base of regular customers and event clients and controlling waste. The first months are often slow while the shop builds a name.

We want to be clear about what we know and do not know. Flowers are a real, steady need, and a good local shop earns loyal customers. We do not know how fast the event side will build, so our plan assumes only a very small profit in Year 1 and cash to cover a slower start. We will use current local numbers on weddings and competing shops in our final plan and will not overstate them.

Products & Services

Wildflower Florist and Event Design will give customers fresh flowers, honest advice and delivery they can count on.

How it works, step by step:
1. Listen. A customer visits, calls or orders online. We ask who the flowers are for, the occasion, the budget and the colors.
2. Offer choices. We suggest two or three options at different prices and explain what is in season.
3. Design. Flowers are cut and arranged by hand, conditioned in clean water and checked for quality.
4. Quote and deposit for events. Wedding and event customers get a written quote, a timeline and a deposit schedule.
5. Deliver. Our driver delivers in a careful van, and the recipient gets the flowers at the promised time with a card.
6. Confirm. The sender gets a text or photo that the flowers arrived.
7. Weekly accounts. For restaurants and offices, we swap a fresh arrangement every week and invoice monthly.
8. Learn. We track what sold, what spoiled and which events came from which referral, and we order accordingly.

Why this approach is strong. Customers value honest advice and flowers that look like the ones they chose. A reliable delivery and a photo of the finished arrangement bring them back.

Market Analysis

Who we serve: families, couples planning weddings, funeral homes and churches, restaurants, offices and event planners in our city and the towns around it.

Our primary group is individuals and families who buy flowers a few times a year for gifts, holidays and sympathy. Our secondary group is wedding couples, event venues and businesses that buy on a schedule. We will use the most recent local numbers on weddings, households and competing shops in our final plan.

How we sized our plan. We plan about 3,000 everyday orders, 22 weddings and events and 48 months of weekly business accounts in Year 1, growing to 5,600, 56 and 192 by Year 5. Our Year 1 prices are about $72 per everyday order, $2,300 per event and $270 per account each month, rising about 3% a year.

Demand data. Early orders from a wedding planner, a restaurant and a funeral home cover part of the first months. We do not count on any one customer. Wedding work is busiest in spring and fall, and holidays bring large peaks.

We do not take every job. We decline events that fall on a day we are already full, last-minute orders that cannot be made well and requests for a flower that is out of season and will not look right.

Competitive Landscape

Other choices for customers, and what makes us different.

- Grocery store floral departments. They are cheap and convenient. We offer custom design and local delivery.
- Online order sites and big delivery companies. They are easy but impersonal. We offer a real florist who makes what the customer picked.
- Other independent florists. Some are excellent. We compete on service, flexibility and weekly business accounts.
- Wedding and event designers who only do large jobs. They may be pricey for a small event. We offer smaller, more affordable packages.
- Farmers markets and flower farms. They sell beautiful flowers. We offer design, delivery and a steady supply.

What makes us different.
- Honest advice and options at several prices.
- Same-day local delivery with a confirmation photo.
- Weekly accounts for restaurants and offices.
- Event packages that fit smaller budgets.

What we do not claim. We are new. Larger shops have more space and bigger budgets. We plan to earn our reputation one bouquet at a time.

Marketing & Sales Strategy

How we will reach customers.

Event planners, venues and funeral homes. We will visit wedding planners, venues, churches and funeral homes, bring a small sample arrangement and a price sheet and ask to be on their preferred vendor lists.

Restaurants and offices. We will offer a free first week of a weekly arrangement to restaurants, hotels and offices and a simple monthly invoice.

Online. A website with photos and online ordering, a Google business listing, reviews and social media showing weekly designs. We will also show at one or two local wedding shows a year.

Holidays and referrals. We will take pre-orders for Valentine's Day and Mother's Day, offer a discount for early orders and reward customers who refer a friend.

Pricing. About $72 per everyday order, $2,300 per event and $270 per business account each month in Year 1, with written quotes for events.

Operations Plan

How the business will run.

Setup (the 3 to 4 months before opening). We will form the LLC, get an EIN, open a business bank account, sign the lease, get the city business license and sales tax registration, install the cooler, buy and equip the van, set up the point-of-sale and ordering system, sign with two flower wholesalers and train helpers.

The shop. A leased storefront of about 800 to 1,000 square feet with a design area, a walk-in cooler and a counter. Rent is $27,600 a year in Year 1.

Staffing. In Year 1: I serve as owner and lead designer. A designer and delivery driver joins me, paid $29,000 a year, and a second joins in Year 2. Seasonal helpers, about half of a full-time person in Year 1 and one to one and a half later, cover the holiday peaks, paid $24,000 a year per full-time equivalent.

Costs. Flowers, greens, vases, ribbon and waste are about $31 per everyday order, $1,050 per event and $120 per business account each month in Year 1, or about 44% of sales. Delivery van fuel and maintenance are about $4,200 a year, insurance about $2,800, marketing and wedding show booths about $8,400 and card processing and ordering network fees about $4,800.

Quality. We buy fresh stock several times a week, clean buckets and coolers daily, label the arrival date and use older stock first. We track what we throw away.

Payments. Everyday customers pay at the time of order. Event customers pay a deposit and the balance before the event. Business accounts pay monthly, so about $19,569 is owed to us at the end of Year 1.

Insurance. We carry general liability, commercial auto for the van, property and workers' compensation.

Management & Organization

The people who will run Wildflower Florist and Event Design.

Rosa Delgado, owner and lead designer. Nine years of designing flowers in two shops, including four years as a lead designer who handled weddings, bought flowers from wholesalers and trained helpers. She leads design, buying, sales and finance. (Replace this paragraph with your own background.)

Designer and delivery driver (from Year 1). Makes arrangements and delivers around town. A second joins in Year 2.

Seasonal helpers (from Year 1). Part-time help for Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, holidays and busy wedding weekends.

Outside advisors. A bookkeeper, an accountant, an attorney, an insurance broker, a wedding planner and a free mentor from SCORE or the Small Business Development Center.

Staff pay in this plan is a full year per person: owner and lead designer $40,000, designer and delivery driver $29,000 and seasonal helper $24,000 per full-time equivalent. Replace them with the pay you can offer where you live.

Milestones Narrative

Our goals and when we plan to reach them.
- Before opening (3 to 4 months ahead): sign the lease, get the city business license and sales tax registration, install the cooler, equip the van, sign two flower wholesalers and book at least 5 event consultations or business accounts.
- Year 1: about 3,000 everyday orders, about 22 events and four weekly business accounts; $279,560 in sales and a profit of about $2,000.
- Year 2: a second designer, about 34 events and eight weekly accounts; $403,884 in sales and a profit of about $21,800.
- Year 3: about 44 events, about 11 weekly accounts and the first strong profit; $504,159 in sales and a profit of about $62,900.
- Year 4: a new delivery van and about 51 events; $586,879 in sales and a profit of about $83,400.
- Year 5: about 56 events and 16 weekly accounts; $657,136 in sales and a profit of about $110,600.
Growth depends on winning and keeping customers, so treat the later years as goals, not promises.

What we check every week: orders and deliveries, event inquiries, flower waste, orders for holidays, labor hours and cash in the bank.

Funding Request

How much we need and how we will use it. Total we are raising: $114,000.

How we got that number. The Funding Need Calculator in this plan adds up three things:
- Startup costs of $73,000, listed item by item in the Startup Costs section: $13,500 for walk-in flower cooler; $19,500 for delivery van, used; $8,000 for design tables, shelving, display fixtures and counter; $3,200 for point-of-sale system, tablet and printer; $4,300 for hand tools, buckets, vases and design supplies; $5,400 for lease deposit and first month of rent; $600 for business license and sales tax registration; $3,000 for attorney and accountant: lease review, LLC, books; $6,200 for sign, branding, photos and a website with online ordering; $5,500 for opening flower, greenery and ribbon stock; $3,800 for insurance down payment and grand opening.
- The cash the business uses before it breaks even, about $0. Sales cover the daily costs of the shop once it is open, so the cash we need before break even is mostly the cooler, van and rent, which are counted in the startup costs.
- A cash cushion of about $34,800: three months of Year 1 operating costs.
- Together, the cash used before break even and the cushion come to about $34,800, and the three pieces add up to about $107,800, rounded up to the nearest $500: $108,000.
We are raising $6,000 more than that, $114,000 in all, to cover a slow first season and the cost of a second designer in Year 2. With this funding, the lowest year-end cash balance is about $59,400, at the end of Year 1.

Where the money comes from:
- My own money: $59,000.
- Equipment and working capital loan: $55,000.

Kind of funding we are looking for. An equipment and working capital loan from a lender that finances small retail businesses, backed by my own savings and the cooler and van as collateral.

How we will pay it back. We expect a profit of about $2,000 in Year 1, a profit of about $21,800 in Year 2, a profit of about $62,900 in Year 3, a profit of about $83,400 in Year 4 and a profit of about $110,600 in Year 5. With this funding, the business has money in the bank at the end of every year of the plan. Our loan is the equipment and working capital loan at 11.5% over 7 years, about $956 a month. That payment is already included in our cash flow. We chose these as cautious planning rates; ask the lender for the real rates, which may be lower or higher.

What we are offering the lender: the cooler and van as collateral and my personal guarantee.

A smaller first step, if needed. If we cannot raise the full amount right away, we can start smaller and grow into this plan:
- Phase 1: open with a smaller storefront, a used cooler and no van for the first months, using a delivery service for deliveries, which lowers startup costs and the loan.
- Phase 2: once everyday orders and events are steady, add the van, the second designer and weekly business accounts and follow this plan.
To plan the smaller start, make a copy of this plan (use Duplicate) and lower the numbers to match.

All numbers in this plan are estimates. We will update them as real results come in.

Appendix Notes

Documents to attach before you send this plan:

- Your resume and a personal financial statement (a list of what you own and what you owe; lenders usually provide a form).
- Business registration papers and your EIN (your business tax number from the IRS, free at irs.gov).
- The lease or a letter of intent from the landlord.
- Quotes for the cooler, the van and the point-of-sale system.
- Your city business license and sales tax registration.
- Photos of your designs and a sample event quote.
- Letters of interest from event planners, restaurants or funeral homes.
If you don't have any of this yet, no worries - let's continue.

The assumptions behind our numbers (change them in the Financials section to match your own):
- Everyday Arrangements and Walk-In Orders (per order): about $72 in Year 1, rising to $81.04; about $31 in direct costs, rising to $35.57; about 3,000 in Year 1, growing to 5,600.
- Weddings and Events (per event): about $2,300 in Year 1, rising to $2,589; about $1,050 in direct costs, rising to $1,205; about 22 in Year 1, growing to 56.
- Weekly Business and Restaurant Accounts (per month): about $270 in Year 1, rising to $304; about $120 in direct costs, rising to $138; about 48 in Year 1, growing to 192.
- Weekly business accounts are counted by month: about 48 account-months in Year 1 is about four accounts for twelve months, rising to 192 account-months by Year 5, or 16 accounts. Prices rise about 3% a year.
- The delivery van is replaced in Year 4, which is why equipment spending rises to $22,000 that year.
- Pay (a full year, per person): owner and lead designer $40,000; designer and delivery driver $29,000; seasonal helpers (full-time equivalents) $24,000.
- Other yearly costs in Year 1: rent $27,600, utilities $3,600, delivery van fuel and maintenance $4,200, insurance $2,800, marketing and wedding show booths $8,400, card processing and ordering network fees $4,800, accounting and legal $3,200, payroll taxes $3,600. These grow between 3% and 12% a year.
- Startup equipment and later purchases ($48,500 in Year 1, then $2,500, $3,000, $22,000 and $2,500) are spread evenly over five years in the plan's books.
- Customers and payers pay about 26 days after service, so at the end of Year 1 about $19,569 is still owed to us. Income tax at 21%.
- Every dollar amount is an estimate. Replace them with your own quotes and research.

Startup Costs