Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in floristry but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Olek Zapala, CEO of Flower Co., located in Toronto, ON, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
We are a direct farm-to-consumer florist as well as a B2B floral service that connects local florists and event planners with top-quality farms in Latin America. Our e-commerce store has a loyal base of customers looking for last-minute gift-giving options and flower delivery in Toronto and Southern Ontario. By the end of 2022, we will expand our service to offer flower delivery in Montreal and look forward to continuing to grow our brand loyalty with direct farm-to-consumer service in the near future.
Our main difference is that our local florists design unique arrangements with fresh-cut flowers that are available for same-day delivery. We are also recognized for making all kinds of personalized arrangements, events, and weddings. We have a wide selection of flowers on-demand that allows us to be the solution that our customers are looking for.
Our clients are people who are looking for unique gifts and floral arrangements with fast delivery (even on the same day) without sacrificing quality and freshness. They trust us and like to support and recommend small and medium-sized local businesses. Our customers are flower lovers who are looking to surprise their loved ones or treat themselves with rarely seen blooms and premium floral designs that last for days or even weeks. They like to send special flowers from sustainable farms in Colombia or Ecuador as well as support local Canadian farms through our service. We highly value them and constantly offer exclusive benefits for our community. We strive to provide exceptional customer service and a freshness and happiness guarantee.
Tell us about yourself
At the age of 18, a few years after immigrating to Canada, I opened a family flower shop. I separated from the business a week before my 30th birthday to pursue a new challenge. Within six months, Flower Co. was born and began to generate its first sales. Shortly after, I decided to start importing flowers directly from Latin America to offer the best quality in the market to consumers as well as to supply other florists and event planners in Ontario with the best quality flowers for their business.
In 2019 I bought my co-founder with the determination to build a major gift-giving e-commerce brand in North America. We are currently working towards perfection in our service of flower delivery in Toronto and Southern Ontario, as well as expanding our operations to new markets in the coming years, starting with flower delivery in Montreal.
To overcome the day-to-day challenges in the company, it motivates me to see the business model that we have created, the impact that it generates, and the vision of growth that we can achieve. I am proud to have had the initiative to start my own independent business from my family and how far it has come. I am excited to see that there is still a long way to go, and we have the ambition and experience to achieve more milestones.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
We've built technology that allows us to manage the flower buying process at the farm level, market flowers locally, and manage operations with an efficient technology-based delivery service that handles more orders than any other online florist in Toronto. This, coupled with an exceptional team, has allowed us to become a legitimate e-commerce business in the Canadian market and drives us to expand the service to more markets. We have certainly come far, but I firmly believe that our greatest achievements lie ahead. Flower delivery in Toronto has been a first stage that has allowed us to build strong foundations and tools in a very demanding market to continue growing exponentially. The next step is to install our flower delivery operations in Montreal and conquer that market as we did with Toronto and continue to expand. It is a great achievement after almost ten years in the market to see our ambitious growth plans come true while our clients trust our service and our quality differential.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Raising capital in the flower delivery niche is challenging. It's a service with a highly perishable product, so it's important to seek the maximum possible efficiency, which can become a great challenge during the most important seasonal peaks, such as Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. It's important to ensure that the business model can be efficient not only on a day-to-day basis but also on holidays in order to drive growth and survive in the market. We have certainly been through many ups and downs that have helped us improve and grow, but we feel like we have finally figured it out and are on our way to building something very special for both ourselves and our clients and really hope to take off in the near future by scaling our operations into new markets. Although it has been an achievement to perfect operations, it is now a challenge to expand the business to new markets with the necessary capital to do so. At the end of this year, we will offer flower delivery in Montreal, following our growth strategy.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
Find passion and pride in what you do. If you've decided to dedicate your life to a business, it's much easier to do it when you're doing something you love. In my case, since I was little, I have worked in the flower industry, and I grew up loving what I did. My second tip is to focus on sales and avoid distractions so you can be the most efficient version of yourself. One thing you can't get back is time so you need to know how to prioritize what's most important to you and your business. My third and final piece of advice would be to never hang your head when things get tough. There will always be challenges on the way to success; believe in your ability and understand that persistence is worth it, then you will see and enjoy the outcomes of your effort.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://flowercompany.ca/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TorontoFlowerCompany/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/torontoflowerco/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TorontoFlowerCo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/toronto-flower-company/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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