We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Adkins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Amanda, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about family businesses.
The Busy Bloom Co has blossomed into such a wonderful family run company, and here’s why it works well for my husband and I and our two kids. Family businesses can really thrive in a flower shop environment since the work we do is deeply personal and hands on… I told the news reporter on Mother’s Day when they did a story about us (a mom delivering flowers on Mother’s Day), that flowers make people feel some kind of way. Flowers are emotional products and are a huge part of a lot of special life moments ranging from weddings to funerals. Having a family run team adds authenticity and compassion you won’t find from those strictly online flower delivery services. Our strong work ethic combined with our passion for florals helps us represent our name and legacy well. Our family bands together during the holiday rush and long hours during peak seasons making our shop have a well-rounded sense of community and comfort, which we think is important when choosing a floral shop as a customer. Our oldest son, this was his first job and being able to provide that for him and teaching him to be a good employee has been so rewarding as parents. Running a family business can be challenging at times, but when you have good, open communication and the same goals in mind…it just blooms!
Amanda, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I made my own bouquet and bridal party bouquets for my wedding about 12 years ago. I did family and friends weddings and events on the side for years following but I never “took it seriously” until I decided to quit my job in corporate healthcare in 2024 and open up a flower shop. My husband and I were sitting at home one day and he told me I should do flowers full time. We started snowballing ideas and then The Busy Bloom Co Bouquet Bar was born! He built an old school flower cart with wheels and an umbrella, and we bee bopped around at markets and events for about 6 months until we found a little shipping container in the trendy Cargo District of Wilmington NC. We officially opened on October 5th with our first retail flower shop. We still do events and rent out our flower bar however our retail shop has a floral selection of teas, local artisans, snacks and gifts as well as fresh, and dried flowers. Our mission is bringing magical, memorable flowers to Wilmington and helping them be accessible to as many people as possible. We pair with local farms to bring you fresh local flowers when in season and are not your average florist! We strive to set ourselves apart with our designs and fresh spin on adding flowers to your life!
Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?
Kind of yes! We have a retail flower shop that has set hours as well as renting out our flower bar for special events. We also do weddings and funerals as well as installations for front desks at hotels and apartment complexes. We are always popping up at markets and offering flower arranging workshops.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
We started just like everyone else at 0 followers but quickly grew to about 2200 in a few short months, we are creatives my husband and I, with a love of photography, videos and audio so we are able to make visually appealing posts and create consistent content being a flower shop and the constant in and out of flowers. We have a Facebook and tik tok and are working towards growing that audience, My advice is to hire out or have a good social media plan and schedule posts in advance freeing up your time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thebusybloomco.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebusybloomco
Image Credits
Lili Summers