We recently connected with Dawn Adams and have shared our conversation below.

Dawn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The biggest challenge to profitability is the public’s perception that we “play with flowers all day” and “charge ridiculous prices”.

Our job begins well before we even touch a flower stem. We must do all the backend work of a regular business, attract a constant stream of new clients, conduct consultations, provide detailed proposals, beautiful mood boards, hours of communication. on-site visits, design to each client’s individual vision, order flowers with our vast knowledge of seasonality and color palette combinations. Only THEN, and only then does the REAL work begin. Sourcing from our wholesaler (additions and substitutions to our orders), vase and hard good sourcing, heavy lifting of large buckets, hours of flower processing, assembly of mechanics for individual designs, the actual floral design of each individual item which takes years of skill development and innovation to stay up with current trends, storage and hydration in large walk in coolers, constant shop clean up, transport to venue, onsite set up and design for installations such as wedding arches, elevated florals, etc., clean up on-site, returning for the strike/pick up of rental items. Not to mention all the logistics and staffing required. And we are dealing with a high end perishable product so time is of the essence…we only have 3 to 5 days to complete all of our jobs. We give up our weekends, work hard all week, take Monday off and start all over again on Tuesday.

And all of the above is exactly why we charge what we do. It is a lot of hard work, a lot of preparation, and a lot of client interaction. It also why we love what we do!

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

Our family started out in the flower growing industry and the design portion came naturally, as our friends and family requested our flowers at the their weddings and other important life events.

We are now a mother-daughter team and we are self taught. We are constantly learning new skills by studying the work of great designers we admire, but are mostly influenced by nature itself, hence our name, The Nature of Things.

Our studio provides floral design for daily delivered orders local to Riverside and San Clemente and wedding and event florals throughout Southern California…and beyond! We’ve done weddings in Colorado, Oregon, Texas, and this year will be traveling to Cambria.

The designs that we produce tend to have a very natural, yet stylized vibe and we love the unexpected surprise of something like natural pheasant feathers, geodes, or even vintage elements thrown in. Our vessels are also unique and run the spectrum from a very earthy, organic feel to very modern and we pair them with unusual and unexpected flowers and botanical materials. Fragrance is a big part of the experience, so that is also often a focus. We have a website with many choices on offer, but most of our return clients choose the “designer’s choice” option which allows us to use what we find especially beautiful and fresh at the flower market each day. This artistic freedom allows us to create one-of-a-kind designs for each of our client’s tastes and specifications. However, ordering from our website works for us too!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I started the business on a shoestring after the florist I was working for decided to close his doors. I began working out of someone else’s store front and attracted clients through their custom invitation business. After 2 years, I had enough money saved to open my own store front.

We made our name in town with our very natural style incorporating remarkable and unusual elements. We were added to our city’s historic hotel and other venues and were able to book weddings and events in town, as well as in the local beach cities.

My daughter, Mandy, joined the business during the COVID shut down. All our weddings were either canceled or postponed, so we survived by doing daily delivered orders and unfortunately a lot of memorials. We love working together and complement each other very well, as she is good a design, but especially logistics and cost control (her nickname is the Iron Hand).

The economy is suffering right now and it is a real struggle, but we are still doing daily delivered orders, weddings, and events and have expanded our advertising into more lucrative markets such as Los Angeles and Orange County, as well as San Diego.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I have had to learn to follow my daughter’s lead in being better about controlling costs and working within a strict costing budget.

She has much better control with that aspect of the business as I did in the 10 years before she joined the business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.natureofthings.net
• Instagram: thenatureofthings
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheNatureofThingsFineFlowers/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-adams-1853a67a/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-nature-of-things-riverside-2?osq=the+nature+of+things
• TikTok: @thenatureofthingsflowers

Image Credits
Jenn and Pawel Photography – profile photo Dawn Adams – floral photo