We were lucky to catch up with Trine Dahl Klubien recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Trine Dahl, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

I believe that I provide a floral product that has the highest quality and a quality equal to that of the small handful of high end large floral companies in LA, that I consider my competitors in the business. But the difference is they only cater to and for people with the ability to pay top prices. I have positioned my company in a price level that is more suited to people who want the best but cannot pay an extremely high price. All my designs are made with my love for flowers and providing the best quality each time. Moreover I provide a very personal customer service experience in the sense that I often communicate with every single client/customer and often about a single order/delivery.
So the difference is: my customer doesn’t get lost in a large company’s somewhat anonymous order process, they feel taken care of even if they don’t buy the most expensive design.
I can do this because I do it on my own and am very efficient, fast and create beauty that is detailed and pretty every time. It makes me happy that my customers get so excited about their florals and feeling good about their order. It matters to me.

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

I am a florist originating out of Copenhagen, Denmark where I grew up and originally educated as a graphic designer and later moved on to being an interior stylist and florist. I owned 3 shops in Copenhagen over the span of 20 years before moving to LA and opening Blomst Los Angeles in 2014. My online flower shop with daily delivery. Blomst means flower in Danish and my intention was and still is to bring the Scandinavian sense of design & natural style to America in the floral World, in the beautiful and mesmerizing Hollywood.
I am married to a (famous for hit records in Denmark) Danish musician and singer who is also a retired Disney artist/animator and the creator of “Cars” among others. Our home, where my studio is located, is called “The magical house” by its visitors because of the beautiful woodland landscape it’s surrounded by and its history. It was owned by a Disney artist, Walt Disney’s “right hand” who also created Lady and the tramp (Lady lived in our home) and was visited by Walt Disney himself several times. My studio is a shed outside our home that I transformed into a beautiful flower studio surrounded by nature and birds, skunks, coyotes, rabbits, squirrels and butterflies, almost like a Disney fairytale – so my flowers were bound to become magical and beautiful from the onset. In these magical surroundings in the famous light of Hollywood I am endlessly inspired and create floral designs with my own mix of Scandinavia & Hollywood. Color palettes are the secret to my success and what I am very devoted to and good at: beautiful colors. My customers tell me this all the time and they get attached to their chosen designs (about 180 to choose from on the website) and In particular the designs made in a wooden box, where stems rise up like a little fairytale. (The Molly box). Some of my flower box designs got copied by a large competitor because they were not seen before. I take it as a compliment. My customers love to call me and talk about making one of the offered designs in my online flower shop, and maybe adding a color they love. My gift boxes are getting a lot of praise because I seek out the most lovely products with pretty packaging and I am the only one florist offering Alfred Teas in my gifting.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Honestly I never borrowed a single dollar to start my business. I had a small savings amount to live off and pay my way when I moved to LA. I moved in with my boyfriend now husband and borrowed an old Jeep Cherokee and got a corner in the tool shed, that is now my beautiful flower studio. I started by going to the original flower market and selecting fresh stems and made small bouquets wrapped beautifully (included a water bag in the wrapping) and went to our local farmers market in Montrose where 2 Danish entrepreneurs have an ice cream shop. Outside their shop I sold the flower bouquets and talked about my business Blomst for hours and hours, I handed out business cards with my website on it.
I built my website by adding products to it every time I made some. I created an instagram account and started posting.
I instantly got customers and started delivering day to day flowers from my online flower boutique. I built my own website using my graphic designer and stylist skills. Later on I joined Bloomnation and later on Floom – and my business grew and grew naturally. When I built a buffer of money I invested in products for my gifts baskets – I wanted them for so long but had to wait until I could pay for that extension to the business. It is a slower process doing it my way but very satisfying and healthy.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I work alone and I work hard and I put all I got into my business. I guess there’s a Viking spirit in me and a Scandinavian solidness, also a stubbornness in the sense that I could very very easily use an assistant or a trainee, but I learnt the hard way from being a shop owner in Copenhagen that having employees can be tough. It’s a big responsibility and particularly in Denmark where unions and rules guide and hold business owners to strict laws benefiting the employee. This is all wonderful for society but can quickly be fatal for a small business. One time I had 2 full and 1 part time employee and 3 weddings on a Saturday – and they all called in sick days before: a nightmare. I decided there was only one way to do it: do it myself. So I stayed in the shop for days, and rested on the stone floors for a few hours during the night and kept working and finished the 3 wedding flowers in time.
But I worked alone in my shop for a month during their absence while paying their full salary. I think this experience has made me the hard worker refusing to hire, apart from drivers. I do it all myself.
It’s also my guarantee that everything is perfect from creation to delivery.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blomstla.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trinedahlklubien?igsh=dW53enBxMnE2ZHFr&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/blomstlosangeles?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trine-dahl-klubien-8965155?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/blomst-los-angeles-glendale-4
• Other: Floom
  https://www.floom.com/us/florists/us/los-angeles—-glendale/blomst-los-angeles

Image Credits

All own images shot by me or someone using my camera