Starting a Flower Delivery Subscription Business in Pandemic-Times (And Beyond)
If you type "how to start a small business during a pandemic" into an internet search engine, I'm pretty sure it will laugh out loud in response.
But that's exactly what we did, and we're here to share our experiences in launching a flower delivery subscription service in the middle of a pandemic—our sweetest triumphs, most epic failures, and biggest surprises through it all.
Bouquets can be simple. People love fresh flowers just as they are!
We started our small business, Enduring Blooms, in earnest on March 25, 2020, one week into the pandemic.
While there was some information to be found about how to launch subscription-based small businesses, there was nothing to prepare us for the realities of starting a business built on person-to-person delivery and large celebrations and gatherings during a global catastrophe that forced everyone to keep their distance.
With rose-colored glasses, my husband and I assured each other that the initial two-week lockdown would be enough to get COVID-19 under control. Then, along with the rest of the country and the world, we set our hopeful eyes on the end of summer, surely being the turning point back to normalcy.
By the end of our first season of business, we had realized that life as we knew it would never be quite the same, and we were facing down a new normal none of us had a clear picture of just yet.
Small businesses worldwide face a unique set of challenges no matter when they choose to launch, and we knew we weren't alone in our endeavors during these strange times.
Now, we want to pass on what we've learned from our first season and encourage you to take the leap to start your own flower-fronted small business, no matter what mountains may stand in your way.
Why We Chose a Flower Subscription Business Model
Named a "disruptive industry" by the likes of Forbes Magazine, flower subscription services streamline the process for clientele with a desire to get their flowers straight from the source.
Enduring Blooms is our fresh flower subscription delivery service located just outside of Nashville, Tennessee. The heart of our business lies in our garden, where we grow or forage all of the flowers that we sell.
“Small businesses worldwide face a unique set of challenges no matter when they choose to launch.”
Planting seeds in the dirt and watching them grow and bloom has been such a bright spot of joy in our family, and it only felt natural to want to start a small business around something that brings us joy and fuels our passion and drive.
The dream began unfolding slowly the more we planted and played in the garden and the more I began sharing the flowers we grew with friends and family. I realized that one of the main reasons I grew flowers was to create and express creatively.
I'm constantly falling in love with the various elements of color and structure and flow in floral design, and I find great joy in the personal nature of intentionally making a bouquet or arrangement with someone in mind and then seeing the way they light up when they receive those flowers.
My heart wants to "make it beautiful" for everyone around me, and flowers are a medium I passionately want to use to share joy and beauty with my larger community.
Invest in What Sets You Apart
We used what we had to make deliveries—cup holders!
I saw the way certain flower photography stood out like artwork—their beauty stirring me to want to learn how to elevate Enduring Blooms' photographs to tell the stories of intoxicating scent and nostalgic beauty.
To get me started, I enlisted the help of one of Nashville's best award-winning photographers, Sara Kauss with Lighthouse Photography Studio, to teach me the basics of light and composition.
Her sunny, encouraging disposition and effortless talent were such a gift to me, and I'm so grateful to have invested in her help early on. Other flower farmer friends invest in seasonal packages with photographers, getting pictures on location in their gardens and fields each quarter of the year.
We tried to look at what kind of flower business would suit us best from two different angles:
First, what did we dream of doing?
And second, where were the natural gaps in the Nashville flower market where we could step in and shine?
What were our real goals at Enduring Blooms? Did we want to focus on micro-flower farming to supply local florists? Would we try to enter the market via the ultra-competitive and opulent wedding and event floral design world?
“I’m constantly falling in love with the various elements of color and structure and flow in floral design.”
The gaps in the Nashville flower market weren't noticeable to me at first, but once I sat down with expert logo and branding architect James Muriel, he opened my eyes to see where my dreams and product could truly grow and enhance the thriving Nashville flower scene.
He captured the essence of Enduring Blooms—whimsical, nostalgic cottage garden floral design led by the seasons with a heart for community and embracing beauty every day.
One of our top moves of 2020, looking back, was hiring James to help us narrow in on our true goals, mission, and branding and having his creativity and talent to give us a signature look to tie it all together. We noticed the lack of an ever-changing tour of the Tennessee flower seasons and no garden-to-door flower subscription services. It was our dream to provide both.
Identify the Mission
There is something quite therapeutic about creating something beautiful for another.
Our mission presented itself slowly throughout 2020 as we watched my father, an RN in the ER in Sacramento, California, and countless other frontline workers brave the unknown and serve their communities selflessly throughout the pandemic.
After a 2019 accident found us spending a week in the hospital ourselves, we knew the incredible gift it was to receive care from doctors and nurses and hospital workers, and that was in times when visitors were allowed and welcomed. The more time we spent watching on the sidelines as healthcare workers laid it all on the line to care for their neighbors, the more we wanted to do anything we could to share joy and beauty with them in gratitude for all they've done.
“We believe in the sense-awakening and healing powers of fresh, fragrant, nostalgic blossoms.”
We committed to a “one bought, one given” philosophy with an emphasis on giving to frontline medical professionals as well as those living in isolation in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
We believe in the sense-awakening and healing powers of fresh, fragrant, nostalgic blossoms, especially in our elderly community. After watching our own grandparents live out their last years in care facilities, it became a joy to bring flowers to seniors in nursing homes all around Nashville once we were given the all-clear this past spring to begin doing so.
The (Not So) Easy Part
Compared to digging in the dirt and navigating new health and safety protocols, creating our website through a major DIY website builder sounded easy enough but proved to be a big hurdle that involved many layers of customer service.
Because we bought our domain through one company and decided to build our own website through another, it involved a lot more steps. Basically, even though we did everything right, some servers from one company didn't transfer the information over to the other company, and it took at least five phone calls with high-level technical support staff to launch our website.
“Instagram and our website became our business cards and signature. ”
That cost us almost a month of streamlined selling through enduringblooms.com. Looking back, one of our biggest takeaways as a flower subscription service is to make purchasing subscriptions as easy as possible.
While we were able to build our initial customer base through word of mouth, cash, and Venmo, having a space to send potential clients to pick what option best suits their needs and then purchasing it then and there is a game-changer.
Having a website became a necessity as a point of commerce. In 2020 we saw a real doing-away with using cash for transactions, and our website was clutch in securing contactless payments for extra peace of mind.
Instagram and our website became our business cards and signature. But word of mouth remained our number one seller, even in pandemic times. There is nothing like one satisfied and misty-eyed client's post about her flowers to help acquire new business.
Garden-fresh cottage perennial favorites, fragrant focal flowers, and intricate, delicate blooms that are far too fragile to ship across the country but can be hand-delivered to your front door with intention and love? They speak for themselves.
In the Garden
This budding anemone made it into a sweet bouquet for a well-deserving recipient.
Growing flowers can be a full-time job in and of itself, even on a micro-scale, so adding in the arranging and delivery services was a challenge we faced head-on.
We had to get smart quick with scheduling subscriptions on rotating days and weeks so as not to tap the garden too much at one time.
We also had to get smart with succession planting, which is planting out flowers every 2-4 weeks to ensure a steady stream of blooms. The last thing we wanted to do was have to turn down clients, but because of the size of our garden and our lack of succession planting, that was a reality we faced.
We earned quickly which flowers thrive in our humid, grow zone 7 gardens (here's looking at you anemones, larkspur, Queen Anne's lace, cosmos, zinnias, chrysanthemums, Princess Charlene de Monaco, and Heritage Roses), and relied heavily on our top performers.
“Designing for subscriptions using 100% seasonal home-grown blooms means that creating never feels stale. ”
We continue to streamline flower choices every season and still love how a flower becomes our new favorite each season. Designing for subscriptions using 100% seasonal home-grown blooms means that creating never feels stale.
Embracing and celebrating the nuance and bounty of seasonal flowers is the whole reason we chose a subscription business model for Enduring Blooms.
Stay Flexible
Our dream started with the vision of face-to-face conversations, and no mind paid to the brushing of a hand during delivery. No one could have expected the about-face in health and safety protocols and lack of large and small gatherings, and we scrambled to decide what to do.
Should we just throw our hands up and say, "better luck next year"? Should we pivot to selling to florists where we knew we'd have a steady buyer but lack the creativity and intentionality of arranging subscriptions?
“Fresh, simple, beautiful flowers are really just as life-giving on the kitchen counter as they are in a special occasion bouquet.”
The first week of Enduring Blooms' existence, we made our very first two clients' bouquets and then got right to work sewing masks. Suddenly, there seemed to be so many bigger things to worry about than flowers.
But very quickly into everyone's staying at home, there was a collective realization that fresh, simple, beautiful flowers are really just as life-giving on the kitchen counter as they are in a special occasion bouquet, sometimes even more so.
And as our clients increased, so did our feeling of purpose. We were proud of the pesticide-free, hand-sown, hand-picked, hand-arranged, hand-delivered approach we were able to provide, even though we now hand-delivered, en mask, by ringing the doorbell and walking away quickly with a happy wave on our way back to the car.
The reality of 2020 looked nothing like our dream, but it was so much sweeter and richer than we could have imagined.
