How Fleur Made a Strong Pivot Forward
I’ve invited Kelly Marie Thompson, owner and operator of Fleur to share her sage advice on creating a successful pivot. With over 20 years of business in the floral industry, she recently launched her online course – The Art of Growing an Extraordinary Floral Business.
2020 will be the year that I reflect upon as my greatest challenge overcome. My company, Fleur, has completed just three, full scale weddings – which, suffice to say, is a little shy of our normal 65-plus.
Now, there are just four months left to wrap up the truly weirdest year in the history of our business and we, like many of you, have paused, pivoted or evolved. No matter what size your company is, you’ve had to make some big decisions on what your next move will be. In the middle of a pandemic (And I say middle, because we need to keep reminding ourselves that we still have a lot of time left), we’ve all had to make some major choices regarding the survival of our companies.
Stepping Into the Pandemic
I’ve owned my company, Fleur, for almost 19 years. We are a special event floral design studio paired with a lifestyle boutique in Chicago. This past January, I launched a floral business course as well. 2019 was an exciting year for me and my floral team. I had spent the better half of the year training my designers to take over the majority of our sales and production for our weddings and I was writing and filming my online course in addition to overseeing operations. In January of 2020, we moved into a new design studio and expanded our retail, giving us a total of 3300 sq. ft – and doubling my rent. I was working on a webinar for the online course and planning a trip to Italy to teach my first workshop abroad, a 5 day floral design retreat. Things looked pretty good, and I was feeling grateful.
Early Decisions Made
When the news of COVID-19 began to spread, I knew that the impact our world would feel would be massive: weekly accounts would cancel, walk in sales would slow if not halt entirely and we saw the changes almost immediately. I put my professional course on hold – I knew I couldn’t help other businesses if I didn’t make sure my business would still be around, come 2021. I also knew that the way we operated would change, which meant that my business model had to change as well.
The beginning weeks were the most difficult – I had to furlough my entire team, we had to shut down our retail and close up the shop entirely. Those were uncertain days with a lot of questions, no answers, and a dozen scenarios of what life might be like when we could open back up. Eventually I was able to bring back some of my employees and shortly after that, we were allowed to offer deliveries and curbside pick up.
As I ran through numbers and potential outcomes, at one point I realized that although not ideal, this wasn’t as difficult as I had imagined. It occurred to me that I had been anticipating potential scenarios since the initial shutdown – and that as small business owners we are always pivoting and evolving our companies. Although I certainly wish these changes were on my terms and not an invisible enemy, options existed were available.
2 Steps Towards Pivoting
First, through email, Zoom, and phone meetings, we made sure all of our weddings were secured for 2021 and our clients knew and trusted that we would be there for them along the way. We let them know we were excited that we had more time to work with them, and by the time their celebrations came around, there would be so much love and joy that all of the current difficulties would be worth it.
Second, we made sure that our retail was restructured in the safest way possible. Nothing was as important as the health of my team and our customers. We installed plexiglass shields around our retail checkout and design stations for when we could unlock our doors and also installed sanitizing stations all over the boutique for customers. We immediately changed our point of sale system and pivoted to online sales – this was a huge challenge that required a lot of time, and we had to do it on a shoestring budget. However, this was the change that was the most necessary for our retail to survive.
We streamlined our online floral offerings and created a Google questionnaire and sent it to our email list. But how could we project what our customers wanted? We asked them through social media and they answered. This information allowed us to know what our customers were able and willing to spend, what they prioritized, and how we could meet their needs. Eventually we were able to allow customers back into the store, but our online orders are now the bulk of our retail sales.
Prepared for Transition
There are two major points that allowed me to make these transitions. A number of years ago I began running my business in a way that it could run without me. I don’t mean that I can move off to some secret island and let the money roll in, but that there were systems ready and my team was prepared in case of any kind of emergency. I firmly believe in systems and team transparency. We were able to quickly create new procedures and train together to implement them.
Second, all small businesses need more than one source of income. The floral color wheel doesn’t need to be reinvented, but remember when we said that weddings would survive any recession? Well, here we are now. The more diverse income your company has, the more padding there is for when a curveball is thrown.
A New Path Forward
Whatever choice you make for your business, whether is it a pause, a pivot or you evolve, make sure that your decision is based on what you love and where your heart is. With that as your guide, create your plan & systems and you will be ready for all the new challenges presented to us. Life and business didn’t stop, it simply changed.
Fleur is a Chicago-based company creating custom floral for special events, paired with a brick and mortar lifestyle boutique. Kelly Marie is committed to education, helping clients formulate systems and train teams in order to meet their business goals. She has been noted as a top florist by Martha Stewart and her work has been featured notably in Vogue, Town and Country, Better Homes and Gardens, and many others. She lives in Chicago with her husband and in her downtime enjoys painting watercolors and studying art history.