Today we’d like to introduce you to LuAnn Dickson.
Hi LuAnn, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I’m a floral designer, entrepreneur, and floral software developer. From 2006 to 2018, I was the owner of Verbena Floral Design, a boutique floral design and retail shop in Austin, Texas. I’ve produced hundreds of weddings, handled thousands of customer orders, and managed so many corporate events I’ve lost track!
When I bought Verbena there was one task that took me longer than everything else: ordering flowers. I was using a piece of paper, pencil, and ruler to create a grid for ordering hundreds of flowers each week for multiple weddings. Not only was this time consuming but error prone and difficult to adapt to changing orders.
Luckily for me, my husband, Drew, is a whiz at Excel. He took that flower ordering grid and turned it into a spreadsheet that saved hours and hours of time and helped avoid the avalanche of errors that occurred with the old method. That spreadsheet served me well over the years, but wasn’t perfect – it relied on formulas that were easy to accidentally overwrite and weren’t always compatible with software updates.
After selling Verbena in 2018 I knew it was time to turn the flower recipe spreadsheet into a software program for florists everywhere. My goal is providing floral design business owners with a program that’s easy to use, reliable, and available at a reasonable cost. I named it EveryStem because you’ve got to account for every stem to be profitable over the long term.
Common Pricing Mistakes I See Florists Make
When I coach florists, there are a few mistakes that pop up again and again—especially when it comes to pricing their work:
Forgetting to include the cost of supplies like mechanics, ribbon, or vases
Quoting a price to the client before calculating costs
Not accounting fully for labor, overhead, or profit
Relying on “what feels right” instead of numbers
That’s exactly why I built EveryStem, to make it easier to price with intention. No more second-guessing. No more spreadsheets. Just clarity.
That is also why I focus on recipe-based pricing. Pricing by recipe isn’t just more accurate! It gives you confidence. When I know exactly what’s in my design, how much it costs, and how it ties into my profit margin, I feel better about sending that quote to a client. It’s not about guessing anymore. It’s about designing with intention.
With EveryStem, you can:
Add your stems, markup, and labor in one place
See your retail price in real time
Spot over-ordering before it happens
Swap ingredients without restarting your math
I love that my career has taken me down a path that enables me to help other small business owners make a healthy living, pour back into their local communities, and save time so they can spend it with their families and friends.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Navigating the needs and wants of many different types of floral design business owners has been one of the most interesting parts of running a niche floral design software company. Wedding florists who work out of a home studio, retail florists working from a large warehouse, and boutique designers who work out of a retail storefront all have different needs, but fundamentally they all need to do two things. 1. Make sure they price for a profit including all their costs and 2. Make sure they build profitable floral orders to minimize waste. Many florists are fearful of pricing too high or too low for a multitude of reasons, and using EveryStem regularly is building their confidence to price fairly and make a healthy profit. I call it striking a balance and it’s been amazing to see the impact it’s having on our members. We’ve had members say things like:
“I love this program and what it’s done to streamline all of my ordering! The rewards have been incredible. Last year was our most profitable year of our 14 years in business because of EveryStem.” -Ashley
“This is the best purchase I’ve made for my business this year! I confess I hate spreadsheets and Iove my pen and paper so I was hesitant. I also love creating my own recipes and I love the challenge of meeting my profit goals. I didn’t think I needed help with that, BUT I did! The tutorials were great. It’s super easy to jump right in and get started. The number one reason I decided to purchase is the price- completely affordable for my small studio business.”- Jennifer
and “It’s already saved me hours of work and has shown me where I was making serious mistakes when placing orders. Terrific product!” -Shelley
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
There is creative opportunity in floral design, but it won’t last long if the person doing the creative work overspends and overfills every single floral design they create. There are so many important elements to learn in floral design creatively, but one is to know how to make something appear to have a high perceived value without spending all the profits on flowers!
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My clients that have been members of EveryStem for years. Since we launced in 2021 they have recommended and referred the program to their flower friends so many times. I rely on word of mouth because when one florist hears that another florist discovered something that changed the game for them and increased their profits without having to drastically change anything else including their design style it really makes an impact and they take that recommendation seriously! Also my husband and my lead developer have made this software what it is today. They’ve spent countless hours in development, testing, and are always diligent about maintaining the software so our active members can rely on it daily in their workflows.
Pricing:
- Monthly membership $24.99
- Annual membership $249.99
- for professional florists only
- unlimited use
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.everystem.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everystem_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EveryStem/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@everystem
