We were lucky to catch up with Kerbi Howat recently and have shared our conversation below.
Kerbi, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us a story about a time you failed?
Earlier this year (2022), I closed one of my retail locations. It wasn’t earning enough revenue to be sustainable and I was ready to off-load it. When the time came, it was an easy decision; though I definitely had big hopes and dreams when I opened it 2.5 years prior.
If I had a crystal ball in 2019, I wouldn’t have made the decision to open my second retail location. Of course, we had no idea what was in store in 2020 and I thought it felt like the right move. I found an old 1950’s gas station and spent a month remodeling it myself with the help of my family. It was gorgeous, with floor to ceiling glass garage doors. It was a perfect location for a plant shop.
Just 4 months after we opened the new location, we had to shut down for two months due to COVID regulations. I don’t think that was the sole reason that getting the store to launch was difficult, but it definitely put a big damper on the first few months when we were trying to get established. The two years that followed felt like I was continually dragging the store uphill.
In the wake of the closure, I decided to spend the rest of the year refining the business and answering these questions: Who is our customer? What is our value? How are we different? How can we create the best possible experience for our customer? How can we strengthen our foundation? So, what started out as a difficult year is ending as a really successful one. The business, our retail location, our services and our staff are stronger than ever.
Kerbi, 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 started Flora nearly 7 years ago in 2016 after deciding that I needed a career change. A friend (former business partner Kate Holl) was in a similar place in life and we decided to partner together on a pop-up plant shop. We drove a tear drop trailer around Nashville, setting up at local businesses to sell indoor plants. The response was really positive and we saw a need in the market, so we moved into our brick and mortar location in East Nashville one year later.
The main part of the business is the plant shop. We sell high quality indoor plants, plant wares and a small selection of home goods. In addition to our top quality products, we are known for our customer experience. Potting is a complimentary service we offer with purchase, so we’ll pot your new plants in your planters for you. We also provide thorough care instructions on our care cards and leave the door open for troubleshooting and questions in the future.
We also offer a couple services, Plant Rentals and Plant Design. We rent our entire inventory for short-term events like weddings, which is both sustainable and more affordable than purchasing. And we will design and install plants in residential and commercial spaces, using our plant expertise as the backbone to an elevated space.
Everything we do at Flora is done with care. We are thoughtful about the products we carry, the customer experience, our sustainability as a business, how our staff are treated, and the culture we’ve created. We’re always trying to improve and be at the top of our industry– not just for revenue but also for who we are.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I’ll set the stage: It’s March 2020. Nashville just had a tornado come through the city, which fortunately didn’t damage our building (like it did many others), but still slowed the local economy. Then the world starts to shut down due to the pandemic. I’m three months pregnant and I also have a two year old and no childcare. I have two retail locations, one of which just opened four months prior, and now they are required to close for a two-month shutdown. I have no idea what is going to happen but I’m terrified this is going to take my business down.
In response to the shutdown, I decided to move all of the inventory to temporarily operate out of just one location, and offer online ordering of plants for curbside pick up and delivery. By the time the stores reopened two months later, we were able to successfully continue forward through the pandemic.
That experience really defined who I am as a leader because there was no roadmap. I had to make decisions about things that hadn’t ever happened before, create policy around ever-changing science, help my staff feel safe working with the public, and find ways to keep earning revenue to survive.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Get to know your team. Get to know who they are as individuals, what their passions are, what they are good at and what they don’t like. Try to reconcile these details with their job description. Understand that they have lives outside of work. Want what is best for them. Sometimes, wanting what is best for them isn’t to the benefit of the company. But an employee who feels cared for and listened to is an employee who is going to stay longer and do their best.
As a small business, our pay isn’t the most competitive and our benefits package isn’t the most robust. But employee satisfaction carries a lot of weight.
Contact Info:
- Website: floraplantshop.com
- Instagram: @floraplantshop
- Facebook: Facebook.com/floraplantshop