When Sophie Kurylowicz started her Wagga Wagga-based micro flower farm Little Triffids Flowers in 2014, the plan was to offer wholesale blooms to other florists and run a flower subscription service.
Now, she does neither of those things. Over time, her passion pivoted into creating beautiful gift arrangements, designing flowers for weddings and running floral workshops – all in response to both customer demand and recognising what parts of the business she truly enjoyed. It’s a great example of Australia’s regional small business success stories. Here, Sophie shares what she’s learnt along the way and the key tips to growing your business.
Start Slowly When Turning a Hobby Into a Business
I had an office job at the time and I wanted to exercise my creative side a bit more. We’d recently moved from the city to the country, so I suddenly had all this space and a garden that was really productive. I loved gardening and flowers; I was taking bunches from my garden to friends’ places, and then I was being asked by friends for flowers when they were going places.
Initially, it was just going to be growing flowers to sell to other florists and also a flower subscription so people could sign up for monthly flower deliveries. Then, slowly, over time, it developed into what it is now. I use all the flowers that I grow to deliver around Wagga, for weddings and for the workshops we run. Starting slowly was really important for us – [we didn’t want to] throw everything into it at once because things change over time and you might be surprised at what you do and don’t enjoy doing in the business.
Put Processes in Place for All Eventualities
My business was a partnership until late February 2021. My business partner moved about a year and a half before that and we were making it work long-distance, but she had too much on, so the business structure changed to a company. She is a friend and we were very thorough and careful in setting up a partnership agreement when we started, so we had systems for what would happen financially and logistically if someone needed to leave. You hear horror stories about businesses ruining friendships or families but because we did the legwork at the front, it’s been fine because our expectations were on the same page.
Set Business Goals – But Adapt as the Business Changes and Grows
When we started, one of our goals was for me to be working full-time on the business within five years, and we achieved that. Another was to be featured in a magazine, and we were in Country Style, which was so exciting. Some things have changed from our original goals but not because we didn’t achieve them, only because the priorities of the business changed. There were goals about how many wholesale flowers I’d be selling and the number of subscriptions but we cut those parts of the business off and introduced workshops instead, which was something we got more pleasure from and was a better financial move for the business.
Identify Your Niche – But Don’t Stand Still
I had been reading about the idea of locally grown flowers and wanted to offer something that wasn’t on offer already in the region. We were the only micro flower farm when we started, which means we can provide flowers that other florists can’t and that gives us a different aesthetic. But you have to keep refreshing and renewing that over time to make sure you’re ahead of the curve. It’s good for your creativity, too.
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Prioritise Communication
We found a lot of couples were coming to us asking for quotes [for weddings], which we would send within a week, but they were waiting to hear back from other suppliers and still hadn’t heard two weeks later. Providing good, fast and professional communication has been another strategy that sets us apart. It takes extra effort because you’re also on the ground in the farm, in the studio and out delivering, but putting the time into communicating with people – even if it’s just letting them know what date you will get a quote to them – makes them feel validated.
Create a Strong Digital Presence
When we started, we didn’t have a shopfront, so it was super important for us to have a really great website and a really strong social media presence, because that’s how people found us. We directed a good amount of money into trialling different forms of advertising and marketing in that regard, so we’ve had listings in all the different online wedding directories, Google and Yellow Pages, as well as a bit of print. We’ve always been reflecting and trialling and seeing what comes from that.
Know When to Outsource to the Experts
I used to blog, so I was alright at fiddling around in the back end of Wordpress and I had a very strong idea of what aesthetic I wanted for the business. I built the website but in recent times when we switched to having an online shop, I outsourced that work because I was about to throw my computer out the window. I’ve also invested in photographers to capture our business at work. Paying a photographer to come and shoot your business in action – and I’ve got a very aesthetically pleasing business so that helps – will give you good content. I reckon it’s better to have less content that’s really high quality than lots of low-quality content on your socials.
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Invest in Your Branding
I hired a really good graphic designer for the website – I think a lot of people don’t spend enough on their branding; it is very much worth doing to create a strong brand look. We also hired a communications specialist to create a tone of voice guide, which I found really helpful in terms of clarifying our ideas and our message.
Respond to Customer Demand
We started offering flower-arranging workshops around two years after the business started. It was something people kept asking about when they popped out to see the farm, so my then business partner encouraged me to do it. The 10 spots in the first one sold out in 24 hours. So we put on another one on the same weekend. Now I run the flower-arranging workshop twice in spring and twice in autumn, and then I also do the flower-growing one.
Diversify Your Business Offering
When COVID hit, we lost all of our weddings in the space of a week. And then the next week, my gift flower orders tripled. People couldn’t get out to the shops but they still have birthdays and babies, so sending gift flowers went through the roof and that helped a lot.
We also switched a couple of our workshops into an online format. Everyone was getting stuck into their gardens and I had a flower-gardening workshop, so we managed to make that an online offering which was really popular.
Then, when we experienced the second major lockdown in the regions in Spring 2021 and I lost a second season of wedding work, opening a shop in Fitzmaurice St in town was another pivot. Having diversity in my business has helped so much; if I was just a wedding florist, it would have been so difficult.
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Word of Mouth Is Everything
There are certainly things that are trickier in terms of running a regional small business: I can’t just pop to the local floristry supplies superstore, and when I need extras, I have to rely on wholesalers that ship to Wagga and trust that my idea of ‘blush pink’ is the same as their idea of ‘blush pink’. But people are so supportive of local industry and love seeing a local business do well, especially when it's a creative business. The pressure is on, though, because that person knows everyone else in Wagga, so you don’t want to stuff anything up!
The Right Stuff
In regards to equipment and products, I use a laptop, a mouse and a keyboard by Logitech. I bought my Square POS system from Officeworks and I use folders from there for my workshop participant materials. I've had workshop materials printed at Officeworks, too. I buy calligraphy pens for my gift cards, business card holders and postage materials when I am mailing out workshop materials or for dahlia/plant sales.
Each wedding has the paperwork for it attached to a clipboard and the daily and upcoming flower orders are run using a clipboard-and-Post-it-note system (Oh, man, I BURN through Post-it notes!). Every storage tub is labelled using masking tape and a Sharpie, as are my buckets for each wedding. There’s quite a lot when I think about it!
Make Sure You Have a Support Team
It can be hard to stop, and the buck stops with you in every regard in a small business. I find it hard to switch off and if something is not quite right and someone is upset, you take that personally. I have an extremely supportive husband and family which has helped a lot. You need supportive people around you – even if that’s not a business partner, you need cheerleaders who will listen to you debrief every day and encourage you.
