“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change”
I am a florist
I love flowers
I love creating beautiful things with flowers
These statements are the “root” of my business. They are the “seed” it has all started from. I had no real business plan when I started in how exactly my life would pan out. I had no five year goals or written documents. I loved flowers. I wanted to work with flowers. Let’s just take it from there....
But my floral business has taken a number of changes of direction along the way. And not always of my choosing.
Although I’ve always loved flowers and had a pipe dream of being a florist, it was just a lucky chance that got me in. My main career path was as a Marketing professional for a number of companies in London and France but an amazing opportunity came up when I was living in London fifteen years ago that saw me go from almost zero experience to having my own business on the King Road, Chelsea. It was a steep learning curve but with the uber rich and famous as my customers it wasn’t hard to succeed. I mainly sold loose flowers, a few last minute weddings at the Chelsea Registry Office across the road. Some commissions for Keihls and Heals department store and the Manila Blanik Store. Add a sprinkling of Russian oligarchs and some top A listers (Bob Geldof, Mark Owen, Tara Palmer Tompkinson, Felicity Kendal to name drop a few) and I had myself a decent florist business. I often worked 7 days a week, three of which started at 3 am to visit the flower market. But I learnt loads - sometimes the hard way - but it was an amazing grounding.
Then twelve years ago we moved to North Devon and the concept of a luxury florist to the rich and famous wasn’t really going to work! No offence but it is a different environment!
I went back to the “real world” of Marketing but missed my flowers.
It was the chance reading of an article in a Sunday paper that got my mind whirring again. I read about flower farms and people sowing and selling British flowers. I loved the idea and read everything I could about it. We had the land, we had the polytunnel, I loved flowers - I just needed to persuade the husband this was a viable business idea (not having a husband previously meant I never had to justify my actions but now it seemed a husband was as bad as a business manager!)
I sowed, I grew, I failed, I grew again. Friends asked me to do their wedding flowers and bit by bit there was another “seedling” of a business. Fast forward three years and I have really “branched” out.
You’ll need to read my previous blog to see where the florist business was in 2019 and how far it had “grown”
But then 2020 came along and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that the current plan is starting to “wilt”.
My crystal ball was not performing as it should when I decided to open a florist shop in Bideford in March. I’d always worked from a workshop at home but after a very successful pop up Christmas shop in Bideford (see another previous blog!) the time seemed right to go High Street full time! My little blue flower shop opened its doors on the 7 March....... and then closed them again two weeks later on the 22 March (at least I saw Mother’s Day!)
I had around 40 weddings on the books for this year - with enquiries still coming in and then…..
Lockdown.
So, no shop and of course no weddings for the foreseeable. Was this another attack of the aphids on my flourishing floral business ideas?
Initially I turned my back on it and went back to being a full time mum and “teacher” ( oh and catering manager - who knew two boys could eat so much!) but I found myself reading so many heart lifting stories of businesses that had adapted to today’s environment and changed the way they worked, their product offering, their way of working. From Dyson hoovers to ventilators, Tarquins Gin to hand sanitiser, the local pub doing home meal deliveries - it seemed that the best business owners were standing up, brushing themselves down and thinking “right, what next?” They weren't sitting in their pjs watching Joe Wicks, they weren’t scrolling mindlessly through pointless Facebook posts, they weren’t justifying buying more wine as “essential”. They were looking at new business opportunities.
Overnight it seemed the world went online. There were videos, podcasts and tutorials galore. Could I be part of that? My tech skills are rather limited, resources low and I don’t have the confidence to appear on camera for all to see. I wrote a blog (yes another one for you to read!) on creating your own Easter centrepiece. Give it a go - it doesn’t just have to be for Easter! I feel static image tutorials may be limited as flower arranging is such a visual and creative pastime. So although I have a few more in draft, I’m not sure it’s the right path for me at the moment.
The turning point was that my fabulous supplier had too adapted and could courier flowers to me. As a big commercial grower of British flowers they had the stock and the means of transporting it.
The BFA (British Florists Association) had consulted the Government and confirmed that florists could still operate using online means and practise safe delivery methods. I set up new payment systems so I can take money via secure links in texts and emails and looked at the safest delivery practises.
The result: Hand tied bouquets of beautiful British blooms delivered on Fridays across North Devon. No plastic is used, obviously great for the environment, but delivering them straight from water meant they were safe to handle.
Ideal for birthdays, anniversary day, miss you days and thank you days. In these tough times we all need a bit of cheering up and it’s a three way thing. The sender feels happy they can send some joy, I’m happy to be back with my beloved flowers and the recipient? Well, the smile on their face says it all.
I’m also doing more funeral work, not that I didn’t before, but it was hard to fit in around all the weddings. I actually enjoy funeral work. It can be very therapeutic, very creative, and you are doing something that again is made with love and brings joy. I speak with the families and learn about the one they have lost. There is often a story behind the flowers that are used; the husband who had no idea of colour and would wear clashing clothes - reflected in a bright and bold casket spray. The grandmother that loved the primroses in the hedgerows and now has them in her wreath. And it’s not the sad, topical deaths that we hear the daily statistics about. It’s very much the “tide comes in, tide goes out” funerals which just reminds us that life, and death, goes on regardless and there is something strangely comforting about that.
I am a florist
I love flowers
I love creating beautiful things with flowers.
