How Floral Designer Sophie Felts Pivoted Her Business to Help with Covid-19 Relief
We have been continually inspired by the resilience of the floral industry as flower businesses across the globe have taken hits. Floral entrepreneurs are pausing to rethink on how to keep loving the world through flowers. Because we’ve been so encouraged by story after story of flower pros pushing through, we’re sharing one with you in hopes that you, too, will find great pride in the impact the floral industry is making on the world. We asked Sophie Felts of Sophie Felts Floral Design a few questions about her journey and how she’s been able to serve her community.
How was the flower drive idea born?
Over the past two and a half months, I have had many difficult failures and some small victories—and I am guessing we may only be seeing the tip of this iceberg. I continue to be inspired by many business owners who are gracefully navigating the challenges of this pandemic in so many different ways. I expect that, although I am on one path now, I will continue to learn and pivot.
I grew up in a family business. My parents taught us that businesses have a responsibility to their communities. Good companies exist in part to make their community stronger, healthier, and better. The first and potentially most important part of that is taking care of your people. Of course, providing good jobs allows people to feed their families, but my parents always took this a step further. When an employee was diagnosed with a type of rare cancer, the company worked to connect him with the best doctors in the country. When an employee struggled with addiction, she was given paid time off, and her manager personally spent hours with her insurance company to ensure that everything was taken care of.
I have learned that to take care of your people, your business needs to stay profitable. Staying profitable and taking extreme care of your people is hard. I think in some cases, this in itself can be an example of what it means to be a business that gives back.
After the first few years of my own business, I started to feel that I was ready to take on a greater social responsibility. My team and I worked to define our values. Our final value became:
Give Back—We believe businesses have a responsibility to their communities and their people. We are on a mission to become a cutting-edge small business employer.
We started to think through ways to use our resources and talents to give back to our community. Our studio is located on my family's tree farm, and so we decided to host a 5K run, Breeze through the Trees. We hosted the race twice, and over the two years we were able to raise $30K, which was donated to a local nonprofit organization, Red Wiggler Farm. We also met Brittany from Petals for Hope. Her mission is to take the thousands of flowers that generally end up in the trash after events and redirect them from into the hands of those who need hope. We have donated financially to her organization and have her team collect flowers at the end of almost all of our events.
At the beginning of March, our business came to a screeching halt. At first, I was a bit paralyzed. Erica and I spent hours analyzing our numbers and running different scenarios. What would we need to do to survive the rest of the year with the potential of ZERO income?
We realized that we needed to take swift and decisive action. We decided the best way forward for us was temporary layoffs for most of our team and slashing every bit of overhead possible. This was gut-wrenching. We worked closely with each of our employees, getting creative in figuring out how we could support each of them, committing to stay in touch and to do everything in our power to stay in business so that we would have a place for them to come back to. That took the wind out of my sails for a few weeks.
But slowly, our skeleton crew has started to find energy again. We just launched REFINED, a floral collection for intimate gatherings. And now felt like a good time to focus back on that last value of ours: Giving back.
Since a 5K race doesn't seem like a good idea right now, the flower drive idea was born.
What is the flower drive?
The Flower Drive is raising funds for COVID-19 relief. When customers purchase a $35 bouquet of locally-grown flowers, every penny is donated. The bouquets first became available for pick up June 11 at our studio in Laytonsville, Maryland. Out-of-towners had the opportunity to choose to have their bouquet gifted to a healthcare worker. All flowers were purchased from local farms, so the Flower Drive also supports the floral industry.
What Words would You use to describe why you are doing the Flower Drive?
Compassion, kindness, love, necessity, responsibility, commitment to our community, service
How do the Logistics of the Flower Drive work? What skills and resources are needed?
We were able to secure a private donation to cover the cost of the flowers, which allows us to donate 100% of our proceeds. Our team has been working around the clock to get the word out there. This is crucial. Actively posting on Instagram and Facebook, sending weekly newsletter updates, as well as word-of-mouth marketing have all been successful tactics.
Offering unique incentives, such as giveaways, also encourage donations. We've reached out to just about every news source in our area with a press release. Here is an article that Washingtonian published. We have a steep donation goal, so we're trying to cast our net as wide as possible. It's also essential to create a streamlined website page that makes it easy for people to donate.
Photographer: Charlotte McGehee
How has the Flower Drive impacted the community?
So many in our community are truly suffering right now. Our goal is to donate a total of $10,000 to The Greater Washington Community Foundation COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund through our Flower Drive. This organization is efficiently and effectively getting help and resources to those who are being hit the hardest by the pandemic. Our donation will benefit communities of color, low-income workers, persons experiencing homelessness, at-risk youth, the LGBTQ community, survivors of domestic violence, and more.
Don’t forget that even in the midst of hardship, you can make a difference. We believe in you and the magic you’re making. Lift, Love, and Lead.
