MadeForTheTask
Find the person
Somebody doing the job on their own, long enough that how it is priced lives in their head instead of in a book.
What this shop is
Built by people who have actually done the job.
For the freelancer, the do-it-yourselfer, the self helper. Different work, same position. There is nobody behind them. No ops team, no software budget, no assistant.
We find people doing one of those jobs, ask them what they actually need, and if we can build a digital thing that helps, we build it.
We built the first version of this wrong. She read it and told us so, and we threw it out.
Out now
Florist and event floral costing
Format
One file, opens in your browser
Price
$19.99, one time, no subscription
Built with
A self-employed freelance florist with over forty years in the floral industry
01 How we work
Three steps. We do not skip the third.
Described by the person who does the work, instead of designed by somebody imagining the work. That is the whole difference, and these three steps are what produce it.
Ask what they need
Not what should you charge. What do you actually do, in what order, and what do people get wrong.
Build exactly that
Then take it back to them, to use on a real job, before anyone can buy it.
It will not always be a trade and it will not always be a spreadsheet. Journals, ledgers, purchase orders, whatever the job turns out to need. The rule does not move. The person has actually done the job. If it is digital and people are asking for it, we find out whether we can build it.
02 What the asking looks like
We built the first version wrong, and she told us so.
We reasoned it out instead of asking. It priced a job the way a costing tool prices a factory part. Labor split into consultation, prep, arranging and delivery, each with its own hourly rate. Overhead by the hour. Mileage. A target gross margin. All of it itemized on the page your client reads.
We asked a self-employed freelance florist with over forty years in the floral industry how she prices events. She read that first version and said, near enough, that almost none of that is how flowers are priced. So it went in the bin and got rebuilt on what she described.
The first version was reasoned, not reported. Asking is what fixed it.
03 Out now, for florists
One job, two sides. That is the whole argument.
The Florist Quote Builder. Nothing was ever built for this job, so it is not a faster version of something else. One file that opens in your browser, and the part that matters is what happens when your client asks for a price.
Your side
The event quote
Pick what they are having and read the price. Arrangements, one-offs, rentals, delivery, setup, card processing, the total. Down the side, three questions answered in order: what is on this quote, what your client pays and when, and what you keep after the flowers, the crew and the card fee.
Three questions answered down the side, and your client never sees any of it
Your client's side
The page you send
The same job with the cost side left behind. Your wholesale prices, your markups and what you paid stay on your side of the file. Your shop name and details at the top, your terms at the bottom. Print it or save it as a PDF.
Six ways to lay that page out. Same job, same prices, one click
Six ways to send the same job
- Letter. The balanced sheet. Everything in the order your client reads it.
- Proposal. Arrangements lead and the money closes the page.
- Statement. Tight and tabular, for a planner who wants it on one page.
- Card. What is due, first and large. For a small order.
- Plate. Reads like a menu. Names in front, a rule out to the price.
- Schedule. Each section totalled in the margin, so your client sees where it went.
One click, and not a color change
Every style carries the identical figures. What changes is what your client's eye hits first.
Pick one and use it for everything, or use the Proposal for a wedding and the Card for a Tuesday delivery. Nothing has to be decided up front.
A booking payment and a security deposit are two different things, and the quote keeps them apart. One reserves the date. The other is held against rented items and comes back when they do. Do not take either? Zero it out and it stops appearing.
It opens on a worked example so you can see it running. Type straight over it when you are ready, or delete the rows.
04 Every number in it is yours
The shape of it came from her. The numbers are all yours.
Set once, on Settings
- What you pay one person, per hour. What it costs you to have one pair of hands on site.
- Your default markup on a flower. Every flower starts there, and you change the ones that are different.
- Fresh stem loss and hard goods loss, as two separate numbers. Blown, broken, bent, unusable, and breakage on vases and foam.
- Your card rate, or zero if you do not want it on the quote. It comes out of the price rather than out of you.
- Your terms and your security deposit line, in your own words. Anything a client needs to have been told.
- How long a quote is good for, printed under your client's name. Or zero, and the line goes.
- Your local price, and your prices per vehicle for the zips that cost more. Local also covers any zip not on the list.
Set per line, everywhere else
- Your flowers. Your vendor, what you buy it by, how many come in one, and what you paid. Every row carries its own markup and overrides your default.
- Your rentals. What you charge for the use of the thing, and what you hold on it, in two columns.
- Your arrangements. A recipe is what goes in and how many, out of your own library. An arrangement can hold another arrangement, so a whole groom party goes on the quote as one line.
- Every job. Who you are paying to be there, how long they are there, and what you pay each. Nobody on site? Put zero.
Only take deposits and never charge rent for the item? Put zero in the rental column.
Flower Library
One row of the file, live
Type over the sample. Same arithmetic the row in the file runs. Nothing is saved and nothing is sent anywhere.
Fresh stem loss starts at 10%, the way the file ships. Type over it.
Rose - standard
Cost each
$1.40
Cost after loss
$1.56
Your price
Your markup fills this in
Your number, not ours.
That is one row. The file holds your whole library, every arrangement you build out of it, and the job you are quoting.
On labor
There is no labor line. Prep, arranging and overhead are all carried by the markup on the flower. The flower is the only thing marked up, and it absorbs everything.
Everything you do to a flower is paid for by that number. Conditioning, arranging, your time, the cooler. There is no separate labor charge anywhere in the file, so setup is a handful of numbers instead of a page of them.
05 What is in the file
Laid out in the order the job happens.
The first three happen once. Everything after that is every job.
- SettingsYour shop, your markup, your loss, your fees, your terms. You do this once.
- Flower libraryWhat you buy and what you pay. This is the real work, and it is yours forever once it is in.
- ArrangementsBuild each recipe once, out of your own library. It prices itself, and it reprices when your costs move.
- RentalsAnything you lend out. What the use costs, and what you hold on it.
- Quote a jobPick arrangements and how many of each, add rentals, delivery and the crew.
- Send itPick one of the six styles, print it or save it as a PDF.
- Shop for itThe buying list writes itself, with your loss allowance on top and rounded up to how you actually buy.
One file, and it stays yours
Nothing installs and it cannot reach the internet, so nothing you type leaves your computer. Your library and your quotes are saved as ordinary files you can open in a spreadsheet any time.
- 1file
- 6quote styles
- 2loss rates
- 0installs
- 0accounts
- 0subscriptions
06 Where to get it
Nineteen ninety-nine, once.
This is a file you own. It does not ask you again next January.
Setting it up is the work. Your own wholesale prices and your own stem counts go in first, and that part takes a sitting. After that, quoting is fast.
Want to see the arithmetic before you spend anything? Price a stem up above. That is one row of the flower library, working. The file holds as many as you keep.
$19.99
One time. No subscription.
- One file, opens in your browser
- Nothing installs. No account
- It cannot reach the internet
- Ships with a worked example you type over