We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ines Garstecki. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ines below.

Hi Ines, thanks for joining us today. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

This is not my first client, but the first event planner I got connected to. I belonged to a business networking group to help start my business. One of the members had a gift basket company and had just gotten a large order from that said event planner and wanted to send her Thank You flowers. She told me a little bit about her style and sense of esthetics and told me that this would be a great person to work with. I made her flowers double the size than what she paid for, made them extra special with some time-consuming details and it all paid off. The florist the event planner and used so far had just gotten married and was pregnant and didn’t want to do flowers anymore. She was actively looking for a new florist and my arrangement came just in time. She loved my flowers and gave me my first big event job. We have been working together ever since (for 17 years now) and she has been one of my biggest supporters in the growth of my business.

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

I’m from originally from Germany where I had studied Marketing and Advertising. I came to the US from some extended studies and some initial work experience, but quickly realized that the corporate world is not for me and that I had enough entrepreneurial spirit to start my own business. Though no formal training whatsoever I decided to start a flower business since I always liked flowers and also had a father who was a flower breeder and developed new color combinations of carnations and chrysanthemums. As children, me and my 2 brothers spent a good amount of time playing in my father’s greenhouses or coming along to deliver flowers to flower stores. So I took some classes for flower design and sales and just started with simple subscription-based handtied bouquets. My clients liked what I provided from the getgo and so I got asked to provide flowers for weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, was connected to event planners and some high-profile clients I was lucky to get to work for. I never wanted to have a flower store, but was always drawn to the event world and found my focus very quickly in event floral design. Apart from some larger weekly house accounts, we mostly handle all kinds of events – anything from baby showers, mitzvahs, milestone birthdays, weddings, and large galas. We recently also were asked to provide set flowers for TV shows such as Hacks, Westworld and a new Apple TV show called Palm Royal which will start airing this summer or fall. I love the challenge of putting large event productions together. There is always some amount of adrenaline rush involved in the process. And it’s always a nice reward to see a successful event setup done with a happy bride (or event planner).
When working with brides and event clients, I try to listen to the small details they point out of what they like and what not, what their vision is and design their flowers according to their input. Listening and asking the right questions is what made me hit the mark again and again.
This year is actually my 20ies anniversary and I think I can pad myself on the shoulder for having created a successful business in a foreign country.

Let’s talk M&A – we’d love to hear your about your experience with buying businesses.

I used to be part owner of another flower business that I bought together with a friend. The previous owner had built up an amazing client list of celebrities, socialites and members of the entertainment business – something that would be near to impossible to create on our own or would take many years to achieve. The purchasing price of $136k roughly a third of the yearly revenue. We were quite naive back then and had no experience with pricing out a business purchase. Today I know most flower businesses are sold based on their yearly profit, not their revenue. It was a great learning experience though….mainly to take over a very well established business and get a crash course of some of the business practices that made that business successful. Super valuable. However, one thing to note….we lost about 20% of her clients since the business was based around her and not her brand. Those 20% didn’t trust the business’s new owners and left. She had warned us of this though. We finance the business partly with a business loan from my existing Flowermaid business, partly private cash and partly a personal loan my business partner took out.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

My German values and European sense of style. I think those two things were always the two biggest selling points with my clients and event planners I worked with over the years. I show up on time, I stick to my word, I’m reliable, respectful, maintain a good level of humility and I’m easy to work with. If I can I ALWAYS make things work for my clients and like to give them a ‘YES’ instead of a ‘No, sorry.’ I also had the luck to get connected to one of the wealthiest families in LA, the Pritzkers, and had the pleasure to do their house and event flowers for 13 years. That also helped to open a lot of doors.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.flowermaid.com
• Instagram: @flowermaidLA
• Facebook: /flowermaidLA
• Other: [email protected] 310-770-3422

Image Credits
First 4 pics: @clayaustinphotography 5=6 pic: HBO 7: me