We caught up with the brilliant and insightful C Scott Stevanus a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

C Scott, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

There is not one single biggest challenge to profitability in the floral business. There are actually a few factors that represent the problem. We’ll start with the external factors – wire services, grocery stores, and product availability. Wire services overcharge customers. By the time it trickles down to the florist, we receive about half of the money, but are expected to fill to full value. It’s an impossibility to provide all of the flowers in the picture for the price that we receive. Plus, on top of that, they take an additional commission that can be upwards of 30%. 90% of the floral products used in the United States are not grown here, so shipping and fuel costs create additional expenses to import them. The supply chain is this – farmer, broker, wholesaler, and finally the florist. At this point everyone has added a small fee to each bloom. Natural disasters, wars, as well as inclement weather all play a factor in availability and cost of each flower. If there is a mudslide in Ecuador, for example, roads could be impassable, so getting product to the airport is nearly impossible. But also, flower freight is least urgent item at that time. Cargo holds are filled with emergency supplies and food first. Grocery chains use florals during the holidays as loss leaders, meaning they will sell the product for less than they pay for it because they are expecting you to buy other items as well. Buying in the quantities in which they are buying, small businesses cannot compete, however, the grade quality of the flowers is typically lower than the higher grade flowers sold in a conventional floral shop. As you have noticed going through the grocery store, their roses are typically always full-blown open or past what a florist would consider sellable for longevity purposes. Most people who buy the flowers in the grocery store are not looking for quality as much as quantity or price, which is fine because you get what you pay for. Also, typically flowers are placed in a cooler or in an aisle with no designer to tend to them. For the most part it is impossible to find a dedicated floral designer that can create a custom piece on demand. Most of the time it is someone from the produce department stocking the product with no innate knowledge of caretaking. Internal issues include a couple of problems stemming from mismanagement of pricing to overstuffing of flowers by floral designers in the shop. Buying the best product at the best price is the most important thing, as is controlling costs per stem going into an arrangement. There have been studies that indicate placing one extra stem of flower in an arrangement over the year can cost upwards of $150,000 loss of profit. Imagine that with 3 designers working for you! Proper mark-ups are so important to keeping the bottom line fiscally healthy. Flower prices fluctuate weekly depending on availability as well as other factors. Holiday prices can triple wholesale costs. That is why at Valentine’s Day, for instance, roses typically go up because the demand is higher and the farmers charge more money based on this knowledge. It’s very simple supply and demand.

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?

I was trained by three lovely women who all had their expertise – one in fresh flowers, one in silk flowers and the other in dried flowers. A fourth woman, who was a Ikebana artist, made me understand the importance of art and the placement of flowers. A true designer can make just a few flowers look good and not require tons of flowers and greenery. I am a believer in “you can’t teach talent, but you can teach techniques.: It’s up to the artist or creative individual to find their own way and put their personal stamp on it. I was blessed with the innate ability to see what the arrangement is going to look like before I even start it, just by selecting the flowers. I think another issue that is facing the floral industry is the lack of floral designers or the enthusiasm to become part of the floral industry. Contrary to popular belief, this business is very hard and stressful on the mind and body. You need to love what you’re doing because the lack of appreciation for your skillset, as everyone believes that anyone can put flowers in a vase and call themselves a designer. This attitude from the public as well as business owners has created a serious void in talented floral designers nationwide. I have taught college level floral design courses, trying to re-invigorate the floral industry. For 11.5 years I taught in the Washington, D.C. area training and mentoring students that had completed my three courses. Many went on to open their own shops and many I hired to work for me at my shop until they had the experience and confidence to go out on their own. I am very proud of all of my students who did open their own company and are successful. Upon joining 12th Street Florist, we went from a struggling business to a company that is on its way to its past glory. Being a post-Covid Downtown Cleveland florist has a common situation like most cities. People are working from home, so being surrounded by semi-empty high rise office buildings means that our clientele has been significantly reduced. Our solution to this was using my knowledge of events and weddings to compensate for the lack of previous walk-in business and clients. By increasing our minimum delivery order and increasing our delivery charges as well as adding to our wedding and events business, the business seems to have a much healthier bottom line. I believe bringing my style from Washington, D.C. to Cleveland has refreshed the interest in flowers. By using unusual flowers and containers and creating lush, compact looks, our shop is set apart from other wire service pedestrian designs. I also believe by getting rid of the wire service that we had, we were able to order less varieties of flowers that were being wasted by lack of orders. Ordering unique and interesting flowers introduces our customers to florals and greenery that had previously not been used in our shop and creates a desire to return weekly to walk through our cooler and see our new offerings and designs.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Before arriving at 12th Street Florist, social media was a blank slate, and because of the owner’s age he failed to see the significance or opportunity with social media. We started out by rebranding the entire business, from the website to the logo to the business cards to the social media. We started an Instagram account and posted daily. We connected with other businesses. We marketed in bridal magazines by creating content and doing their fashion shows. We also cross-marketed to country clubs, hotels, event planners and websites with ads and articles. We sent out floral promotions to heads of catering departments or decision makers to try to garner business and introduce the new 12th Street Florist. When posting reels or stories to Instagram it’s important to have great pictures with solid backgrounds to avoid any noise or distractions from the product you are trying to promote. We chose a solid green background that makes our colors pop and stand out. We do not have people or sites from the shop in the photographs. When most people see the dark green background, they automatically know that it’s from our shop. Now with the advent of AI we are able to create virtual backgrounds and stories for a more interesting look. AI is an emerging technology that I believe can enhance a photograph, but should not be relied on to create the foreground or creative focus. I would say that for an emerging flower shop, the most important thing is to document your work with photographs. Even every day flower arrangements should be photographed. We provide a picture to each of our clients and ask for reviews to keep us in the upper echelon of Google. It is also important to keep your Google listing current and accurate. Don’t be afraid to ask for reviews, especially if you know the client was happy. Make sure to create a linktree to make it easier to post reviews and to get to your social media and website.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I initially started my career as an electrician. I worked in a sign shop and although it was a little creative, I wanted more. I was about to start formal training for neon glass work, so I had to have a good grasp of color theory. I learned to love color, which I never really thought about until then, and realized how color affects moods and invokes feelings. I was asked to help with colors for a wedding from my receptionist at work. At that time in the floral business, the 80’s, silk flowers were all the rage. I initially learned by doing silk and dried flowers first, and then slowly migrating to fresh flowers. I ended up creating the wedding for my receptionist’s daughter in all silk. Most of the company was invited to the wedding, so they all saw my work. After that, each week I would get an order from someone at work wanting a silk flower arrangement for their home. It got to the point where I would spend my whole check on Friday at the silk flower shop to resell on Monday. After a few months the flower shop where I bought flowers offered me a part-time job. I hesitantly accepted, as I didn’t feel that I had the experience they needed. It proved not to be the case. I flourished with the ability to not have budgets when I was creating flowers and my appetite for design grew larger. I eventually took a full-time floral position, leaving the electrical field. As silks started to lose their appeal I was forced to work with fresh flowers. At first, again I was hesitant. I didn’t like the idea of change, but I knew the trend of silks was coming to an end and if I wanted to stay in the floral business I needed to change as well. I think that is the most important thing in this industry as people’s tastes change, you must change with it or you will not exist. Most mom and pop shops that were unwilling to embrace the social media era are now sadly out of business. As a business owner it is important to recognize trends and anticipate challenges to your industry if you want to not only survive but thrive. Mentoring is a good way to get ideas and clarity from previous owners in the business, such as things that worked or didn’t work for them, to avoid the pitfalls. The SBA offers mentorship programs in all industries and as no one knows everything, it is a great tool and free service provided for businesses. Most of the mentors are retired, but still want to feel valid and appreciated for their knowledge. I hope one day I can become a retired mentor and share my knowledge of almost four decades of flower shop design and management.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.12thstreetflorist.com
• Instagram: @12thstreetflorist
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/12th-street-florist-cleveland-2

Image Credits
All images provided by C Scott Stevanus