We recently connected with Erica Holland and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Erica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.
About 3 years ago I purchased a 1 way ticket to Bali to grow my graphic design business and work remotely from a beautiful tropical island paradise. While I was there I absolutely fell in love with the how the Balinese culture used flowers in their day to lives, ceremonies, offerings and decor and realized I had to learn more about it. So one day I contacted a local flower shop asking if they needed any extra help in exchange for teaching me about flowers and arranging. To my luck they said yes and I began helping out at the flower shop sitting on the floor everyday with the local balinese women learning to create arrangements. While working with them I was having so much fun connecting with and playing with the flowers and being able to express myself off the computer screen. I soon realized I was learning some very basic tips and tricks that one ever told me about flower care before and while most people love buying or receiving flowers no one really ever tells how to take care of them properly or even how to arrange them properly in vase once you get them home. After this experience I really wanted to be able to share the joy and happiness I was getting from playing with flowers with others and show them they don’t need to be a florist or super creative. They just need a few basic tips and tricks they can use over and over again to be able to connect with and spread joy with flowers. So low and behold The Roaming Petal was born around Valentines in 2021. Our concept is very different from a traditional flower shop since we don’t have a storefront, but come to you. We are a completely mobile business so we bring our beautiful white flower cart, all the flowers, vases and supplies to your location. Whether it be a home, bar, restaurant, event space, office building etc we set up everything there and then walk you through step by step how to build a centerpiece, bouquet, flower crown and even wreaths for the holiday. The most exciting part is getting spread joy through flowers and seeing peoples light up when the enter the room and then once they complete their arrangements. Being able to bring happiness, fun, and eduction to others all while helping them connect with nature and its true beauty truly drives me and the biggest reason I started The Roaming Petal.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
The Roaming Petal brings flower arranging workshops to people by helping them play with, connect with and learn about flowers and themselves through flower parties and events. Born out of the love for spreading joy to other through flowers we offer a variety of workshops including centerpieces, bouquets, flower crowns, wreaths and even mindful flower meditations and arranging.
We are a completely mobile business who specializes in bring you one of kind flower workshops catered to any color scheme, theme or event. And the best part is we bring everything to you. We bring all the flowers, vases, supplies set everything up and then walk you through step by step how to create a beautiful arrangment all while having fun with flowers and your loved ones!
Our workshops are perfect for bridal showers, birthday parties, corporate events, charities, girls night and more.
Originally a graphic designer by trade I have always loved being creative and sharing beauty with the world. On top of our flower parties I am also a certified floral healer and lead mindful flower arranging meditations and retreats which help guests to really connect with nature and themselves through flowers.
Over the last 2 year we have been so blessed to bring workshops to the community in both partner and private events, but our favorite so far was the first ever Blooms Day in the Grand Central District where all the businesses came together to raise money and give out over 100 bouquets to the community to help spread joy through flowers. It was beautiful to see so many smiling faces so happy to receive free flowers. The event was a huge success and we can’t wait to spread more joy through flowers for Blooms Day in May 2024.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Constantly putting my business out there and partnering with other well known business. When I first started I wanted to focus on bringing flower workshops just to peoples homes. I soon realized after many markets I needed to partner with someone larger than me that had a similar audience to get the word out faster. So I began contacting local businesses in Saint Pete that felt like a good to host an event. I would then do 3 or 4 partner events month using their audiences to build mine. This led to many new leads and a reputation within not only the local business community but also with the clients living here. However, constancy and trial and error were definitely a big factor. Some events would sell out and some would get no sign ups, but it is all a learning experience in what works and what doesn’t to be able to keep growing in the market and connecting with the right people.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
December 2022 was an interesting month for our business. It was only our second holiday season and we were offered a huge opportunity to be a vendor and host wreath making workshops at huge light festival. This is a beautiful holiday wonderland light display that runs everyday from Thanksgiving to News Years Day with thousands of people who attend from all over Florida. After looking at their projections and weighing costs we decided to take the risk and partner with another florist to host wreath workshops there everyday for 1 month. This sounded amazing in so many ways and we were super excited and a little nervous. So we took our numbers and decided we were going to order about half of what we projected our sales to be upfront since the wreaths and supplies were perishable. Well sales did not go as expected. We estimated we would sell about 20-40 day and we were selling about 3-5. Due to the high cost entry to the event, and of ice skating and food drinks people just weren’t willing spend a lot more on the vendors. After 1.5 weeks we decided we needed to make a change so on top dropping our prices we pivoted and starting hosting workshops outside of the light festival and popping up at shops and markets. We still were no where close to getting rid of all the wreaths we had and since we couldn’t save them we again had to figure what to do. While the community was absolutely amazing in helping us to sell as many as we could we decided to take another approach and see where we could donate the extras for the Holidays so they didn’t go waste. Luckily with great community support we were able to donate almost 300 wreaths to spread some holiday cheer. So while we took a risk, lost some money and lots or time and energy it was a great learning experience in our business. It gave us tremendous outreach to the community, it allowed us spread lots of joy through the Holidays and it created a beautiful friendship and partnership amongst 2 florist in the community. While it was stressful trying to figure out how and what we were going to do with all these wreaths it was a great reminder that the small business community of Saint Pete really had our backs and was here to support us even in times of need and one of the reasons I love growing my business here.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theroamingpetal.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theroamingpetal/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRoamingPetal/