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

Hi Lisa, thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I love being a business owner, I have worked for myself for over 15yrs within the floral industry after working for other companies for roughly 17yrs. There is nothing more satisfying and nerve wracking than knowing I am the only person that can make or break this company. I have a great group of people that work for the Rosy Posy and have been with me since the company started. They support me and my business completely and quite often go over and above anything I ask of them. That gives me great feel good feels knowing that I am a fair and kind employer. Being a Mom and retired Military Wife I am all about family values. Family comes first, we always get the job done even though sometimes we may have to juggle a little LOL. There have been times over the past couple of years when I thought it would just be easier to work for someone else, especially during Covid and the post pandemic world we are living in. We shutdown completely as did most of the event industry and then when we came back to work it was slow and we were honoring contracts that were sometimes 2 and 3 years old due to rescheduling. Pricing had doubled, sometimes. more than doubled therefore we were pretty much working for nothing, the business was losing money hand over fist. I contemplated selling, just closing the doors and filing bankruptcy, I was struggling to see a way forward. My husband, my best champion, just kept lifting me up and kept telling me to “stick with it, things will get better”. He was right!! The last quarter of 2022 things started to turn around, we restructured a little internally and now we are looking forward to a very busy and prosperous 2023.

Lisa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born in the UK and walked into my first flower shop when I was 15. I worked Saturdays, Tuesdays and Fridays after school until just before my 17th birthday, this is when I finished school. After I graduated I was offered a full time position with the company and I jumped on it. I wasn’t interested in college at all so this was a great solution for me. After about a year I asked my employer for a pay raise and they said the only way to get that would be to get my qualification’s this meant college :( so I joined Leeds School of Art and Technology on a day release program. This meant every Tuesday I would get on the train with all the product I needed and go to school LOL, some weeks it was quite the site I can assure you. I completed my Florist Certification and then went on to master in European Wedding Design. I was in love!!! This was the dream job, I got to create, be dirty, and make people happy LOL. As I got older I knew I wanted to own my own business so I went back to school at 24 and got an accounting degree to help me manage my business finances.

I was married at 28 to a US Navy Chief who was stationed but a few miles from where I was living at the time, hence my move to the states. We have 3 beautiful daughters and have lived in some of the most beautiful places in America, Monterey CA, SanFrancisco CA, Alexandria VA, Hawaii HI and back to VA for my husbands twilight tour. Whilst living in HI I opened my first brick and mortar store on Kaneohe Marine Corps Base it was awesome, I got to learn the art of Ikebana and Tropical Flower design. It was just amazing, so very different from anything I have ever done before.

Once we came back stateside I was a little lost and not sure what to do with myself so I went to work for a local flower company and although I loved what I was doing it was hard, I felt like I had personally taken a step back in my personal growth. After about 9 months I left and started my own wedding floral business, over time my business has grown into this amazing company, I started working in my spare room, expanded into the basement and now currently we have a 2400 sqft studio. Later this year we are opening a retail shop as well as moving the studio closer to home. My brand is known within my area and has a great reputation as a wedding florist. We are slowly moving into the corporate event industry which is a whole different ballgame. I have been so fortunate to have met some wonderful people on this journey many whom I can call friends, I feel blessed that I am where I am.

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

I truly believe my accent LOL! Everyone loves a British accent. It certainly opened some of those initial doors for me, but once people got to know me and work alongside me and got a sense of who I am as a person, my work ethic and honesty have truly got me to where I am today. I have literally lived on food stamps, I know what it’s like to be hungry I will never be there again.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I literally started my first business with a personal credit card with a limit of $5,000.00. You may laugh but seriously this is where I started, I signed a contract with Teleflora and FTD and used their buyer program to start the business and paid that off as we went along month by month. It was tough at first but we did it and here we are. Looking back I cannot believe I did that, I wouldn’t advise anyone to do this today, it was a crazy leap of faith!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.therosyposy.com
• Instagram: therosyposy
• Facebook: The Rosy Posy Floral Design and Event Studio

Image Credits
Middleburg Barn KPC and Co Glasgow Farm Blue Valley Winery Ritz Carlton Georgetown