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

Pickinq, appreciate you joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Picklinq is a local wholesale flower outlet. We are made of a diverse team of 17 growers. We range in age, work experience, years of farming and farm size. This dynamic group of growers are able to work unison to offer a wide range of quality seasonal flowers. All of the flowers from Picklinq are cut and placed in water often only 24 hours before the product is purchased. We are unique in our ability to quickly transport flowers by van to our store front with our greatest trip being 4 hours and the shortest 100 yards. Where differ from traditional wholesale flower outlets where flowers flown in from around the world often being cut weeks before arrival. We are able to offer our flowers through an online shopping experience, advanced requests and in person shopping.

Pickinq, 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?

Picklinq collective was started by Stephen Workman of Mountain Man Flowers and Jessie Westover of Hidden Creek Farm. They met at a garden club and began discussing the struggles of selling flowers by the Zinnias. They soon joined forces to create Picklinq in an effort to create a link between growers and florists. However, they understood where local farms were missing the mark with local florists, volume, variety and time. No one farm in Utah was large enough to produce every color and variety of flower that could be needed at any one time. More importantly they understood that florists do not have the time to shop every farm each week. And the pricing and bunches size had become so varied that florists were often confused by what they would be receiving. By bringing a group of 17 farms together they could then solve the issue of volume and variety. By selling as one group the pricing and bunch sizes were now standardized eliminating the confusion for customers. They were also able to solve the issue of time by offering two different shopping locations on three different days. By setting a standard of shopping days and times florists were now able to schedule in a stop for local flowers. The goal of Picklinq was to link local flowers to floral professionals in Utah. In our first season we found we were reaching our goal. Growers would tell us they made more in the first month with Picklinq then they had made the previous 2 years of farming. Florists were so happy to finally have ease of access to local flowers that they were shifting into using more local product for events.

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

Understanding the needs of our customers. For us that means talking to them about what is working for them and not working for them. These conversations cover days and hours we are open to pricing and bunch count. It is one thing to think you know what someone wants but it is game changing when you take the time to be vulnerable and hear where you are falling short. We heard our florists loud and clean that we needed to offer a variety, volume and quality product. We are now in our second year and have come a long way in our volume but we know we haven’t arrived yet. We continue to hear perspectives on our pricing and bunch count. We are always working to stay competitive. Through our ability to hear our customer and shift when needed we have built the reputation of being the place to shop for local flowers.

Any advice for managing a team?

Flower farmers are really flower geeks who tend to have endless flower talk that the average person could care less about. Understanding that about our team guided us to provide opportunities for our growers to network with each other. Our culture is one of genuine care for each other. Yes, we ask advice on growing flowers and hear honest tips and feedback about our product. But we also care about lives outside of flowers. When we created Picklinq we wanted to help growers find a balance between farming and the rest of what life offers. Farming can be a lot of lonely work. But our growers know on market day when they drop off their beautiful flowers they have a social outlet to “geek” out about flowers. Connecting in person is very important to keeping our spirits high when the work gets hard.

We utilize SLACK as a way to keep the lines of communication open. Through our SLACK channels we organize group orders, ask growing questions, applaud the group on a job well done or send personal DM’s with ways to improve. Stephen and Jessie both understand the struggles of being a grower and often send messages which help the team feel seen in moments of struggle. Quick and clear communication is key to managing a diverse group of individuals who are spread across the state.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.picklinq.com
• Instagram: @picklinq
• Other: flowers.picklinq.com (See our weekly flower inventory)