Nadia Uwase’s ambitions growing up was to be an events’ planner, however, having tried out her longed-for profession, her whim was short-lived due to customers that took her services for granted, as they often failed to pay on time leading to losses. The business collapsed. Through her little savings, she decided to start a Kigali based florist business in 2019, known as “Faria Flowers.” She buys the flowers from different wholesalers in town, and sells them for occasions like burials, graduation, birthdays, weddings, baby and bridal showers, engagements, wedding proposals, condolences gesture, and “get well gesture.” The florist believes that flowers are essential and priceless to the person they are given to, as they show appreciation, expressing love, recalling loved ones, apologizing to the people cherished dearly. Appreciation or love expression flowers Uwase sells flowers to both individuals and businesses. She had a chat with The New Times’ Joan Mbabazi about how to start a florist business, pros and cons, and how one can make profit among other subjects. What does it take to start a floristry business? Before starting this kind of business, you need to understand the distribution chain, from the growers to the buyers. This business also requires florists to be punctual and passionate about the services they offer. It is vital to promote your business both online and offline. Clients’ complaints, work issues should be handled immediately because they could lead one to lose customers. Provide exceptional customer service. Be able to arrange and deliver flowers at events on time. Are there specific skills that florists should have? Ohh yes! They must be able to multi-task, design flowers and arrange them for distribution and sales, good flower photography assists the business in marketing process. A florist should have business management skills, accounting and book keeping skills to manage finances, sales, stock and marketing skills. How can florists attract customers? By picking the right location, for instance, it can be near a bus station, grocery stores, or in places that are crowded. Know your target market and competition. Doing research around is necessary to know the kind of flowers you would sell and at what price. To win clients and boost annual revenue one can consider either offer special promotions, ‘word of mouth’ advertising, post the photos of flowers on social media platforms, and use location tags for easy identification. The kind of flowers for burial Include phone contacts for customers to easily reach you. But most importantly, keep creative. People get bored with the obvious. What are some of the difficulties and risks that floristries face? The flower business is not always rosy as flowers perish within a three day period. At times, clients order and fail to show up, which leads to losses. There is also often lack of variety of flowers and we are limited to good packaging materials. The flower business is seasonal, sometime the customers are many, depending on periods especially on holidays, like valentines, mother’s days, wedding seasons, anniversaries and other functions. Some materials used by farmers to keep flowers looking fresh and growing tall, for example, pesticides in the gardens and chemicals at the shops, are hazardous. They might expose employees, and customers at diverse health risks. Florists should communicate to their clients about the chemicals used on flowers. When it comes to delivering flowers to clients, if florists don’t have delivery services, there is a possibility of losing out on customers. With all the challenges mentioned above, are there any profits in the flower business? You must charge for all flowers, and all services involved, like packaging, gluing, or taping and delivery. You shouldn’t have one supplier for flowers, it is important to do research of prices from different wholesalers, as it would help cut costs before making orders. Sometimes it is better to pay a bit more by buying flowers each week, but not to throw old flowers away yet, because dumping the old ones because you expect a new stock might decrease your profits. When it comes to acquiring better prices from your wholesaler, you must be loyal, pay bills on time, give them feedback on both the goods and bads, order early to give your supplier enough time to order from the grower, thus saving time. Add simple items in your shop so that you don’t only sell flowers, for example, home decoration, candles, sweets, chocolates, to bring in more profits, and include them as well to your website. You can also work with restaurants, hotels, shops, to deliver fresh designs each week, to increase the cash flow.
