I’m an educator turned flower farmer. I partner with flower farmers to build the business behind the farm.
When I realized that farming was just small business out in the elements, I spent years becoming a small business expert so that I could help get small farms to the next level.
I began my career 20 years ago in Boston, working as a teacher and mentor to teenagers looking for vocational training programs after high school. Wanting to combine my passions, in 2011 I moved to California to enroll at and then work for the UCSC Center for Agroecology, learning how to teach farming to hoards of adults. I used this experience to then run a public community farm for three years, where I really fell in love with flowers. B-Side Farm was born there, in 2014.
In B-Side’s early years I did it all: selling to florists, grocery and wholesale accounts, designing high-end weddings, opening a farm stand, teaching workshops to the public and to flower farmers, delivering CSA bouquets and one-off arrangements all over the Bay Area. My deep experience in farming allowed me to explode with growth fairly quickly. This also caused me to burn out faster than most. I looked around and realized that I was chained to my farm, working day and night, breaking my body. It couldn’t last.
My farm was pulling in multiple six-figures but I could see the iceberg on the horizon. I started looking inside and out of our industry to bolster the business behind my farm. I read agribusiness textbooks and took college business management courses. I was accepted in a Goldman Sachs small business training program at Babson College and was flown to Boston three times over the fall of 2019 to dig into small business growth with entrepreneurs from all different industries, all over the country.
I returned and put all that I had learned into action. I simplified and streamlined my operation. I grew my team and modified my job description to do the work that only I could do. I dropped enterprises that weren’t fueling the fire, and expanded ones that were. In the end, I built a thriving farm that pulled in over $200k in annual revenue on 3/4 acre of land, slept soundly at night, took vacations, and regained my health and my personal life.
I’ve been coaching new and struggling flower farmers for the past five years, in both one-on-one and group settings. During my seven years on the board of the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers I worked with growers all over the country and developed conference programming around business topics. All the while, I was part-time associate faculty in the horticulture department of my local college. When COVID struck and all my courses had to go online, I took my farmer-focused courses online, too.
During the winter of 2022 I launched my Flower Farming For Profit Virtual Retreat and worked closely with 45 farmers as we unpacked every aspect of their business, from sales to goal setting to employee management. This highly-rated course is the basis for my new Masterclass, available in late 2023.
My first book, Flower Farming For Profit (Chelsea Green Publishing, January 2024) is the first business-focused flower farming book, and is the culmination of my years of farming, coaching, and small business education.
Current Work
In addition to running my online courses and coaching flower farmers one-on-one and in groups, I have two other big projects going on.
B-Side Farm
The farm is alive and well. In big news, we moved eleven hours north to the Portland, OR area in late 2022. We’re building the farm anew - with all that entails. While my partner Matt has taken on a lot of my day-to-day farming work while I run Flower Farming For Profit, I’m still wearing my dirty old farming hat at some point most days.
I’m determined to build more financial resources and datasets for our industry. Through a series of grants, I’ve become a researcher in financial benchmarking, cost of production, and risk management. Read more about my research here.