It is 2024 and I am only just starting to look into the world of blogging. It is all new to me and with a little guidance from a fellow Florist I think I am ready to start on my first blog. I was searching the corners of my brain for ideas on what to write about and how to start so I thought what the best place to start, at the beginning, the beginning s of New leaf Floristry .
So, here we go, this is the start of my story, of my flowery road I am on now, the run my own business road, complete with bumps and all.
I have always worked for Florists shops making beautiful tributes, gifts and weddings as an employee, which gave me the many years experience I can boast now but it wasn’t until I met my fiancé that he suggested I open my own business, work for myself like he said “I won’t know until I tried”. This is not who I am, I don’t take chances, I don’t like gambling and find it hard to take risks unless it’s a sure thing then of course that isn’t a risk. It took a while but in June 2021 I took that leap and opened New leaf floristry in my home studio (my shed) in Gosport
When I opened New Leaf, I had £300 maximum and an Amazon voucher to get my basic stock. I started getting my Facebook page built before I left PAYE employment and set that live the day I left my secure, sure thing Job. It was a very exciting but yet a nerve racking day, not knowing your income from 1 day to the next, still scares me to the core today.
Looking at the modern world it became clear right from the start that I needed a website to help get seen. Great! how could I possibly hire someone to do this without having any spare money, luckily a family member had built basic websites using the WIX application and built my first couple of pages, my main page and my about page. She showed me how to do this and off I went to create a masterpiece or so I thought! I was so far outside of my comfort zone with this technical stuff and at times I was literally in tears, frustrated and feeling like I had bitten off more than I could chew and was ready to jack it all in. The final straw came when I set my website to live by sheer accident and now had a half made website with a weird domain out there for the world to see, looking awful and so unprofessional. Off I went back to my family member once again with my tail between my legs, tears falling down my face for this mess to be sorted. She sorted my domain, gave me another how to guide and this time I left feeling a little more confident, enough that I started making my extra pages in addition to what had been set up for me. Finally I was done, I followed WIX direction for SEO settings on my main, about me, galleries and contact pages and pressed that button PUBLISH. I done it, I had just done the 1 thing I was the most proud of, not setting up my business nope, I was so proud I had built my website myself, I did it, me, this techno phobic Mum of 2 teens, I made this happen, I was truly happy with myself.
I have since redesigned every page, set up online shops, learnt more about SEO and its importance for your website to be seen, set up 2 more websites for other companies but yet I have still so much to learn, websites can be a complex to get your head around but I never regret tackling this myself, I can update it, add products and promotions and don’t need to spend any money hiring someone to do it for me.
I worked with my partner in his business during that summer in 2021 but his business is hard work, back breaking and wasn’t for me. I went back to PAYE work part time, heck it only be for 6 months right? just while I get me name out there, how wrong was I! It is now June 2024, 3 years completed, year 4 just started and yes you guessed it, I am still working part time, juggling the florist with a retail (non flowery) Job with now realistic goal of achieving full time status in the Florist by the end of year 5, hopefully. But you know, if it doesn’t happen, so be it as long as I continue to be in profit, love what I do and produce the most amazing gifts, tributes and wedding flowers for my customers and they are happy, that’s all I can ask for while I wait and watch New leaf florist grow.
So if you take anything away from this its follow your dreams but don’t rush perfection and don’t expect it to happen overnight, it will come when its ready as long as your prepared to nurture it, try every angle and every so often take a little risk oh and don’t forget to keep accounts, trust the figures!
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