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

Alright, Celestine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Going back to the beginning – how did you come up with the idea in the first place?

Euflora was born on my apartment balcony in Point Loma. It started as a humble hobby where I created succulent arrangements for friends using inherited materials from a previous web design client, Zadie’s Succulents. After sharing the idea with friends, my buddy Joe suggested I reach out to his friend’s wife who also had a succulent business in Pacific Beach by the name of Sweet Digs. Little did I know that this interaction would change everything. (Fun fact: my partner Clarisse, more on her below, gifted me stickers and stamps of the Euflora logo I created way back then, that we still use today. We love a serendipitous full circle moment!)

I met Lindsay of Sweet Digs during covid. We realized we were neighbors, had similar interests and immediately hit it off. She had to close her PB studio because of the pandemic and as a web designer, I offered to help her pivot and move her business online. She then asked me if I would be interested in helping her with her business, learning the ropes of shipping, managing vendor relationships, hosting workshops and installing florals at events and weddings. Excited, I of course said yes and was up to the challenge!

A year or so later she asked if I’d have any interest in taking over by acquiring the business. At this point I knew the full potential of Sweet Digs but knew I couldn’t do it alone. I asked my good friend, now business partner, Clarisse and her then-boyfriend PJ if they would be interested in investing and going into business together. I prepared a 12-page business plan improving what was currently working, refining what wasn’t and a lofty goal to reach major retailers like Michaels, Target, Blick and more. They signed and we were officially in business.

Choosing the right business partner wasn’t a tough decision. I knew that if there was anyone I would do this crazy venture with, it was Clarisse. She and I have many overlapping skills in digital marketing and graphic design, and also complementary skills that paired well together. We both bring in ideas, and she often focuses on logistics and operations, and I focus on acquisition and business development. Together I knew we could do some amazing and cool things with Euflora.

We knew from the beginning that we would make it our own, and so the concept of Euflora was fully fleshed out for the first time. We started with succulent arrangements, shipping wholesale plants, and eventually grew into creating custom plant walls, DIY kits, plant installations and styling for residential clients. It is a reflection of our love of nature and design, and has truly grown so much in the 2.5 years since we’ve started.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Clarisse and I are both designers.

I’m a freelance web designer/digital marketer/product designer and have been in business for myself full-time for 6 years.

Clarisse is a graphic designer with strong roots in packaging, print, digital and merchandise.

We are both creative and have always had that shared love for design, crafting and aesthetics.

We bring the best of our arsenal of skills into Euflora and have managed to bootstrap our branding, web presence, packaging and more using the combination of our skills.

We are also both Filipino and let our heritage inspire us, weaving our culture into how we do business and show up for our communities.

We are also quite passionate about sustainability and nature conservation. We strive to be as eco-friendly as possible in our materials, way of doing business, shipping emissions, and more. We are proud members of 1% for the planet.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Euflora is not our full time business yet but every year we are striving to get better and better to reach that goal. Our biggest milestone to date is reaching our first 6-figure revenue mark. I think accomplishing that really showed us what we are capable of and having that as social proof that the concept works has been the most rewarding. We certainly don’t want to rest on our laurels, but we do want to acknowledge the growth we’ve had so far. We’re very grateful and even more fired up than ever! Eventually we’d love to not only provide a sustainable living for ourselves but for members of our community as well. Whether that’s through inspiration, representation or employment – if we can do it, so can other people.

If you have multiple revenue streams in your business, would you mind opening up about what those streams are and how they fit together?

We do have several revenue streams that all feed into the same bottom line. We specifically built the business this way to avoid vulnerabilities and foster anti-fragility. We have a b2b component where we ship our products nationwide and to Canada at wholesale. But we also do d2c by selling our products at retail on our website and Sea Hive Mini in Mission Valley. We participate in markets (currently experimenting on doing this year round) and pop-ups. We are regularly hired for corporate team building workshops. We also entertain weddings and event styling especially during peak seasons. And of course we provide custom plant styling, event installations and our very popular moss walls to both corporate and residential clients. The different “arms” of the business keep us busy and it allows for us to focus on different types of services depending on the season (i.e. events and workshops in the summer, custom moss art all year round, and seasonal offerings during the holidays, etc.)

Contact Info:

• Website: shopeuflora.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/shopeuflora
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/euflora/

Image Credits
Seasonal Photos (succulent ornament) by Lets Frolic Together