Hi all,
Thank you for visiting. I hope that you will keep an eye on my blog and let me know if there is anything that you think would be useful for me to talk about.
Firstly I want to tell you all about myself and my business.
My name is Kate and I have been a florist for eight years. I can't quite believe it has been that long and if I was told all that time ago that I would still be a florist 8 years down the road let a alone own my own business I definitely wouldn't have believed you.
I am often asked how I became a florist as it is a pretty hard business to get into. It's not as though we are taught anything about flowers or plants at school let alone how to arrange them. So unless you have a natural passion and big pot of money that enables you to either grow or buy lots of flowers and do courses how would you know?
I have to admit that I didn't have a passion for flowers, I wasn't a child that spend hours playing in the garden growing seeds and making daisy chains! I sometimes feel bit of a fraud when people come into the shop and talk of their passion and love for everything floral! I do however have a passion for colour, shape and style. At school I every much lent toward art and design. Creating paintings with a lot of texture and depth of colour. Using odd bits and pieces to make marks and sticking thing onto the canvas to bring the painting out and create something that people want to touch, question and enjoy.
I went from school to
UCE to do a foundation course and specialised in textile design which I quite enjoyed, it gave me a better breadth of knowledge of texture and working with unusual materials to create a piece of work that inspires and gets people talking.
I didn't decide to continue with studies and went off traveling about to find the thing that I wanted to do, something that I was good at and hopefully enjoyed.
It wasn't until I ended up in Sydney and my father tried to get me into smart clothes and off to an advertising company that I panicked and flick furiously through the brick that is the Sydney Morning Herald! I had got through, A, B, C, D....stop for a bit of re hydration! E and then finally F and there it was, an advert for FLORIST WANTED. Well, I thought, a florist,
mmm, that sounds like an interesting job and as with most 20 year old girl thought that would make pretty different from everyone else, thinking back to a time at
Marlybone station when I saw a girl working there at a florist looking very cool, interesting and confident! That could be me!
So I went to work. With a little help from my family I got a CV together and went trawling the streets of
Syndey dropping in my CV and trying to explain my enthusiasm and commitment to becoming a florist. (Not having even tried to arrange a flower or even brought I bunch before!) As you might expect I didn't get very far and had to fall back on a bit of waitress experience that I had.
Until one day, while I was sitting by the window of my castle, no, sorry I'm not writing a fairy tale am I!
I was actually sitting on a old bus on the way down to Circular Key and got a phone call from Sally at Buds and Bowers. She needed a junior and wondered if I would like to go down to see her for an interview. Of course I did! Yes, I would be there whenever she wanted me!
So there I was in my interview making the first bouquet of my life. If only I had taken a picture of it, I would love to see it now, in fact I would have a big blown up copy of it on the wall in our workshop room to show my students now just how bad I was when they are worrying about their stems spirally and placement of flowers!
Amazingly Sally gave me a chance. She said I looked like a doing person and with my art background and waitress experience she knew I wasn't scared of getting my hands dirty and had knowledge of how colours worked together. Phew, imagine if she had told me to get lost. What would I be doing now....
So having worked for Buds and Bowers, cleaning buckets and vases, conditioning flowers and the occasional bouquet I though yes, this is fun. A job that is different every day learning something new. Whether it be a new flower, a new style or way of of using flowers to create shapes and design. So I decided it was probably about time I got some 'proper' training.
I ended up back in the UK and
completing Jane Packers career course. Due to having had a small amount of previous experience I picked up all the
techniques quickly and was subsequently offered a job with Jane to work in her Oxford Street concession and then move to Birmingham to help open their concession in
Birmingham's amazing new Bull Ring and
Selfridges development.
I learnt quite a bit about the running of business working in both places. How to deal with London customers who have so much money that advising a nice size bouquet to start from about £400.00, yes that wasn't a slip of finger on the keyboard! £400.00 arrangements were quite normal and nothing to
stutt tt tt tt er over! The £400.00 plus bouquets didn't follow me up to Birmingham but the confidence to not undersell out products
definitely did.
So having worked for Jane Packer for about 3 years I decided I quite fancied trying to work for myself and without thinking too much about it I did it! Keeping my overheads very low and building the business little by little I grew great foundations and relationships with businesses and clients some of which have been with me for four and a half years.
I am extremely proud of having held weekly flower contracts with some great names such as the
Radisson Blu and Harvey Nichols. Both of whom are constantly approached by other florists who want the job. This keeps us on our toes,
changing styles and colour with the seasons and fashions of the time.
What has made my life a lot easier (except the VAT and NI calculations each month!) has been Anni who joined In Bloom three years ago in September. Time has really flown by and we have supported each other through all sorts and built up a great relationship. It's
great to be able to trust someone to look after the business that I have worked so hard and
stressed so much over while I am away or unable to come in. We both have to rely on each other and know that if something needs doing one of us will do it/
remember to do it or whatever. It is worth a lot.
So, that's all for now and should give you a good insight to how In Bloom started and what I am all about.
I want this blog to work for you as well as me! I will be giving tips on running a business as well as lots of tips on flowers, trends whether it be for day to day flowers, commercial flowers or the very
important wedding flowers. (I am getting married next year so this also might
feature heavily! Warning!)
We have a website
http://www.inbloomflowers.co.uk/ that shows all the course and bits and pieces that we do so if you want more info on that then please have a look and/or get in touch!
Bye for now...
