Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alejandra Manjarres. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Alejandra, thanks for joining us today. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?

With the pandemic I believe all business have faced unexpected challenges. For us while the pandemic brought on lots of growth opportunities it also presented several unforeseen problems that at times left me feeling helpless. The top 3 biggest disrupters have been: -Hiring new employees
-Effect of Global warming throwing off flower production
-Strikes in South America

As far as the difficulty hiring new employees, this is something the news has been reporting on for months. Everyone is looking for workers but there aren’t many available candidates. From sales to drivers we have spent the majority of the past couple years expanding our team, with the scarcity in available candidates we have had to get creative in our hiring incentives to attract new employees.

Flower production has also been severely disrupted. I am answering these questions toward the end of June and our partners in Colombia are still waiting for “summer to begin”. For the most part, the agriculture specialist at the farms can work with the changing seasons and adjust the crops accordingly. However, this year Colombia in particular has seen a long “winter”. While it’s not technically winter, the cold / cloudy weather persist which doesn’t allow for the roses and hydrangeas to grow. The months of June- August we typically see an overproduction of flowers causing prices to significantly drop. This year prices are higher than what we are used to seeing on big holidays like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day and we have clients calling up to a month in advance trying to reserve plots on the farms to ensure they have the amount of hydrangeas / roses they need for an event. The one thing you don’t ever want to do is turn away a customer, so what do you do when the flowers are just not coming out? We turned to the other side of the world, exploring options of importing flowers from Holland and Africa. While customers still prefer the flowers coming out of South America (cost & quality) when the market tightens up the way we have seen it’s great to be able to offer another option.

We are currently in the middle of a strike in Quito, Ecuador that for the past 15-days has shut down all major roads leading to the airports. Roses are one of the main exports of Ecuador and with this latest strike it’s been estimated that millions of dollars have been lost in flowers that have not been shipped just in the past 2-weeks! The effects of these strikes last way past the time people are out there protesting. It’s not just the flowers that are being lost because they don’t ship, it’s the disruption in the very delicate production cycle of the crops. If there aren’t employees out on the fields keeping up with the maintenance of the flowers, that crop gets ruined and it will take months before it’s able to get back to normal production. This particular strike has turned extremely violent. Most of the farms we work with out of Quito have had to shut down and are working just with skeleton crews to try to maintain the current production. Protestors have turned to breaking into the farms and kidnapping the workers forcing them to participate in their protest. We had a farm tell us one of their drivers was taken while on the way to the airport and the ransom? $20 USD. This is an extremely difficult and sad situation.

Alejandra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born in beautiful Barranquilla, Colombia but was raised in Miami. I am the oldest of 3-sisters, very competitive specially about sport (go Dolphins!), and have a passion for helping people grow. My mom Monica started the company when I was in high school and I would always help her after school. She is truly an impressive women, I remember her picking me up from school in an SUV filled with flower boxes and having to go to the airport to get the export permits for what was shipping to the Caribbean. She was a one man show for a couple years and never complained, she always put God first and kept moving forward. She has been an amazing mentor and role model. I fully got involved with ACA once I graduated college, it’s been an exciting and incredibly fulfilling ride. ACA Trading is a flower import company, we focus on importing flowers from all over the world and shipping them out to wholesalers, florist, and designers. Our customer service and quality of flowers is unmatched. We serve some of the most demanding customers in the industry and thrive on exceeding their expectations week after week. Flower companies you can find hundreds of them driving up and down Miami but we love to make personal connections with our clients and truly be their right hand when it comes to flower needs.
I primarily work with designers and one of the most rewarding parts is seeing their business grow and evolve. I have worked with many clients who start designing events as a side business and now are some of the biggest luxury designers out there! Some of the best calls I have gotten is when they call to tell me they have quit their 9-5 job to fully pursue their passion for designing events. As I mentioned at ACA we like to become friends with our clients, we work around their schedule so we can be reached at anytime and this is very convenient for those customers having to balance another job. The best advice my mom has passed down to me has been “if they grow, we grow”. It’s normal to get caught up in your own business but when you are able to break through that and be more than “just where they get their flowers”, you build a loyalty and trust that is difficult to break.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Referrals, not in the traditional way they teach you in sales class but just truly providing a great experience to your customers. People want to do business with people they like, it’s as simple as that. Think of all the times you have gone to purchase something and you are faced with sales people that are annoyed, frustrated, or make you feel like you are a burden. I don’t know about you but I seem to run into this a lot. One thing that is a must for everyone on our team is that we need to provide a great and friendly experience. 99% of our sales are done over the phone or by email so something as simple as having a good attitude when you pick up the phone can go a long way. Even when dealing with challenging customers, being able to stay calm, make the customer feel like you are listening and like you are on their side trying to find a solution defuses the situation 9 out of 10 times. What does all of this do in return? Gets you many referrals! It’s unfortunate but good customer service is hard to come by so when someone finds it, they want to tell their friends and colleagues about it.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

Making employees feel ownership of the company. When you see the company you work for as just another job it’s very easy to become complacent, “if the company fails who cares just get another job”. As a business owner you don’t have that luxury, the company is an extension of you. So treating employees like they are part of the team, showing them that if the company grows they will grow is key. Brand loyalty is often talked about in the business / customer relationship but one thing the pandemic has taught us is that the business / employee relationship is just as important. Employees are hard to find, great employees even harder so as a business owner making sure your employees feel valued and appreciated is crucial for the long term success of your business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.acaflowers.com
• Instagram: @ACAFlowers
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandra-manjarres-032649103/