We recently connected with Rilie Creollo and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Rilie , thanks for joining us today. One of the most important things we can do as business owners is ensure that our customers feel appreciated. What’s something you’ve done or seen a business owner do to help a customer feel valued?

Our lovely customers are the structure to our business. The key to long term customer relationships is keeping them REAL! A real relationship with them is the easiest way to show them gratitude for becoming part of your life! I interact with my lovelies daily through social media and while I’m out in the community. A greeting smile, a warm hug and an ear just to listen really make the best customer appreciation.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Rilie Creollo, I dove into this industry as a small child working under her grandmother’s feet. She not only taught me how to run a wonderful business but to keep exciting things happening!
She started teaching me how to create flower arrangement and from that knowledge I’ve practiced and watched highly respected florist do their thing to create my own way of building.
We provide daily grab and go bouquets, balloon art, event decorating, wedding parties, and celebration of life arrangements. I fun way we have stayed busy I’d starting our monthly flower subscription, Hosting private floral classes, and bringing bouquet bars to grand openings of other small businesses and events around the SEK area.
My creating personality arrangements and making sure we stay away from cookie cutter bouquets has kept us thriving! When it comes to unique, we are here to nail that design!
I am so proud of my small business! We are standing strong with only 5 employees, don’t let that number fool you! There is a BIG support system behind my team! My husband and grandparents have been there for me every step into turning over this 43 year old business ran by sweet Georgia Brown, to a new chapter for myself and my 2 girls to run! We have big shoes to kill but with her guidance and love we can make anything happen!
We LOVE all the crazy, fun, unique inspirations and encourage all of our potential clients, fans, followers to keep it UNIQUE with Sunshine Boutique. 18 E Wall Street Fort Scott, KS. 66701

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built my audience on social media slowly.
I’m super shy and at first I honestly thought posting my floral work was bragging on myself and I didn’t want to seem like that’s my goal.
I’m here to say I should have NEVER listened to myself!
Do it BIG! BRAG on YOU! They absolutely love seeing all the fun and even not fun things that happen behind the scenes of a business. Sometimes just posting unopened boxes of flowers and doing a quick mystery bouquet sale will blow your mind on the amount of interaction!
A key thing to remember about social media is that it is a full time job in itself. Set yourself time back every morning for a new post, every afternoon to check posts and messages, and every evening interacting with customers and other businesses. This activity keeps your post up and being seen! The more you interact, the more everyone sees you!
Another goal i keep for myself is to like or comment on our fellow florist pages! We are not alone and they all need love too! I know it makes your day to get kindslness so we should spread it too!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I decided to take this business over the year Covid hit.
I remodeled while we were “shut down” that’s in quotations because we DID NOT close our doors!
We are a small business and couldn’t afford to close! We delivered fresh ground coffee (we’ve never delivered at this point) to our community to keep us afloat! With that we brought in my flowers full time and started delivering them too. We reshaped our shop, added new things like clothing (didn’t have in the past) and modified our target customers to meet a wider range of incomes!
It was terrifying but the first year was so wonderful we doubled income from the previous year!
I did grow a little too much in that first year because my space was bigger and I needed more employees to cover area so we switched locations with a sister business and I couldn’t be more happy! Both of my sisters own business in the same building and it all connects in the back so we all get to see each other and the kiddos. My heart is full! My customers are happy! My family is involved and I’m so thankful and blessed!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sunshineboutique18.com
• Instagram: @designerfloralsbyrilie
• Facebook: @riliecreollo @sunshineboutique_fsVIP @sunshineboutiquefs
• Other: Tiktok: @riliesunshinebout