'Challenging at the best of times ...' - Small Business Callout: 'The Real Florist' by Renee Williams

one thing is clear. You want to hear from more businesses beyond Sydney, from across the country, and especially those that are doing it tough. That's why my team and I are launching the Small Business call Out. The Small Business call Out, which will be under the Mentor channel, will talk to business owners all over the country every single week, no matter where you are. We want to hear from you. What's working, what's not working, What do

you need from the government to actually succeed? What other things can you enlighten us about what it's like being in the small business community. This is your as to make your voice count. We want to hear from all industries, from those struggling, from those who feel overlooked, or those who have something to say but haven't had the platform to say it. I'm going to continue hosting the Mental podcast, but the Small Business call Out will be uploaded between episodes.

So let's get into this week's edition of the new Small Business call Out. What is the name of your business and in simple terms, what does your business do?

and then it just kept growing from there. We went from my kitchen to our garage and cleared everything out of the garage and then we built a website and it's been gangbusters since then.

growing up, that's what I knew and I loved. I would wag school, you know, chuck asiki so that I could stay home with my dad and help him go and do his deliveries and water the plants and you know, replant the seedlings. And I just loved that environment growing up. So when it comes to studying my own family, I wanted to be able to do that with them and have them work by my side. And being that I had this apprenticeship under my belt and this skill set

that was just kept continuously going. So I was just doing my friend's weddings on the weekends, and from that then you know, the next bridesmaid would contact me and asks me to do there, and it just kept going and going to the point where I was doing thirty weddings on a weekend as a year as my side hustle, and I thought, this probably isn't so much of a

side hustle anymore. This is a full fledged business and I can really provide something to the people that I love that they're looking for, which is such an amazing experience. I was working, as I said, a couple of other jobs and I was looking to start moving on from weddings.

I was getting a lot of people calling me to do everyday kind of deliveries for them, and so I was startying to I was like, I really need a website for people to be able to touch base that way, because I can't keep answering my phone when I'm at work at my other job and we're having that conversation around. I was working with a friend and I was like,

you know, what do I do? How do I go about promoting that that's what I want to be able to do is to provide real flowers for real people that I know without offending them and saying sorry, I can't it to my phone. I'll have to call you

back at six o'clock when I finish my shift. Anyway, my little girl was there with me at the time, and she was four years old, and I was saying, I want to make real flowers for the real people that I love every day, not just when they're getting married, which is beautiful in itself, but the demand is growing.

And she said, Mammy, you were a real florist and I said yeah, Darlan, And she's like, but a real one and I was like, yeah, I'm a real florest And then from that conversation then I was like, the real florest encapitulates everything that I do, right, I want to be able to make real flowers for real people. Buy a real florist, and I am a real qualified florist, and that's exactly what we're going to do. So it all just kind of built from there and we just

kept growing, it growing, which has been amazing. However, I was doing that and the website was going really well, and I quit my other three jobs to be able to do this full time, and then COVID hit and you know that changed everything. Weddings and events stopped, but the demand for Florestry increased because there was a need for connection. And florestry really is an emotional conveying conveyor, right, What we do is we convey other people's emotions at

a time of need. So that increased, and so luckily enough, I had not long built the website, and we went from doing you know, one or two deliveries a day to doing twenty or thirty a day from my garage. And I was hiring all of my friends to come and do deliveries for me so that because they all weren't working, so that I could get all of that connection out to people. And it was it was crazy.

And so for me here I just happened to I'd walked into the space that we have the real florest Aubringing now the Cafe Florist, and it used to be a cafe and I loved it, and I walked in and I just said, I love that space. Would make the most beautiful cafe florist. And wouldn't florishry and a cafe go so well together? Because it's that memory recall and that sensory smell. You walk into a florist and you remember those smells the same thing as when you

walk into a cafe. So I was like, why don't we do both and put them together and just start this little three month pop up shop. And it's been five years and we're still here.

deal with. But at the same time, that's you know, the dream, right is to be able to build what you love into something that you can do every day. I think the most routing part is the connection to our community, being that it's a cafe people walk in every day to get their coffee on their way to work, and then they you know, grab some flowers for the girl that's having a birthday in the office, or for you know, someone who's had a baby or family member

that they love. So we get to literally speak to community people every single day in what we do, and we get to provide that connection for them. So it really has been just such an amazing experience. And then I got to set that up so it worked around

my family. So you know, my kids are a really integral part of what I do here, and my customers know them by first name, and you know, they'll go up the road to the other shops down the road and do a little drawing on the sidewalk with chalk for them, or you know, take them a coffee and drop it off to their office for them, or So being able to design my business around my not only my skill set, but my community and my family has been just so rewarding.

we almost tripled our workload for about three years. It was a backlog of weddings and a events that weren't able to happen during COVID, and so we're kind of through all of that backlog now and we're back to pre COVID trading. I believe with the added struggle of increased costs of everything that we do. So to be honest with you, I think we're doing much better again in the last day three to four months than what

we were, say, six months ago. Unfortunately, I had a team here of amazing staff, but the you know, the rising cost of living and expenses in this economic time that we're in or went up and trade went down at the same time. So because that discretionary spend was people were holding tight on their money. They weren't doing it right. So we really had to change the structure

of the business. Unfortunately, having to let a couple of our full timers go to try and content contend with how difficult running a business in this economic time is. So we did all that. We changed the structure of the business and now it's running much smoother, which is wonderful, but it was quite a difficult time to try and get through.

So that was a really integral change in our business to kind of try and make sure that our cost of goods wasn't too high. But you know, in the flores street industry and any industry, the cost of goods is just extronomical and it's quite hard to deal with. The other things is like the spikes and demand are quite hard to deal with when you have reduced, like myself reduced my staffing to try and deal with that, because again everything rate rised, so the cost of wages

went up, super went up, insurance went up. All of those things soared at the same time as sales declined. So having to try and deal with all that is very, very difficult. When your profit margins in a small business can be quite minimal and then the price of everything else goes up. How do you deal with that in a very efficient manner. It is a hard thing to deal with, I think for myself though, I have dealt with a fair few quite large challenges in my business.

So as I said before, I was a florist, I was working three other jobs, and I don't have a business background. I just I have a skill set like most small business people do. And so the advice I was given by my amazing accountants who are wonderful, was you need insurance. You need to get all the right people on your bus to help support you open this business and open a legitimate business. So that's what we did.

And so I contacted an insurance company, to an insurance broker to try and help me navigate that particular part of running a business, which is difficult on its own. And when I did so, they came and seen me and went over all the difference of different sets of insurance that I was going to need, which was mind boggling. And I'm dyslexic as well, so reading the fine print in that was quite difficult. So I signed it, I

trust them, assigned it, sent it off great. And then one of my staff members here actually had an incident where I had to call work cover. She was working and dropped scissors into her foot and needed to go to hospital, and I said, you go to hospital. I'll call the insurance company and we'll work it out from there. And when I called eye care to find out what to do next, they said, we don't have a policy for you, and I was like, what do you mean?

So then I called called the insurance company and they said, no, you needed to take out that policy. We don't do that policy. And I said, well, we spoke about that's the insurance that I need. Why why would I hire you to do that job if that's not what you do And they said, oh, because that's a job that you have to do as the business owner. And I wasn't aware that I didn't have cover. I just genuinely

thought I did so. Needless to say, I ended up with a two thousand dollars fine I know, sorry, twenty thousand, not twenty twenty thousand dollar fine for negligence in my business. And then, of course, not only does that impact me financially, impact my family, impacted my staff member greatly. And then also, you know, that imposter syndrome set in and I thought, I'm not cut out for this. I'm not going to

be a good business owner. You know. I remember literally being on the floor crying and calling a helpline and they said, we can't help you because you're the employer. We're here to help employees. And so finding support in that moment was really really did be caught. However, I do have great people around me, and that has been my saving grace. So I know, rang, and I rang, and I rang anyone and any everyone that would give

me advice and help me navigate that. And I just put one's foot in front of the other and I was like, Okay, so what I can do. What's the next best thing I can do? And that is how we got through it. And I created a safety process. I created a staffing process. I created a contract for anyone that walked in my store that was coming to do any type of work experience or workshop here that made sure that they are aware of all the safety aspects of walking into my store before they even get

in the door. So, you know, as much as that was really hard, I learned a really valuable lesson. And I suppose at the end of the day, creating those you can't succeed if you don't fail at some point. But that was extremely difficult to get through, but it taught me something in that. It taught me that I am capable of dealing with really hard things, and it taught me to create processes when I make a mistake, to create processes around those mistakes to make sure that

that doesn't happen again. So, you know, I see other florists and obviously watch their Instagram reels and stuff, and they've all got their cute little sandals on and their little day dresses and they look beautiful on Instagram, and I think, oh my god, what if you drop something onto your foot put them shoes on, you know, so just little things, and I think that's going to help me and then other business owners as I go along my journey of helping them make sustainable florestry businesses to

make sure that they're putting the right processes in place to you know, make sure everybod is safe and that you, as a business owner are doing the right things by your employees.

So for myself in the lead up to this podcast, for example, I contacted business in South Wales because I'm an inquisitive person and went to them and asked them, Okay, what are you putting forward to support small business in our regional area to the government, and you know, we sat down had a fantastic conversation about there's grants being provided, there's some you know, tax incentives, there's loan programs. They're trying to get rid of the red tape that is

surrounding small business and the information that's provided there. But when things are changing, it's such a rapid pace in the economics times that we're in, how does a small business stay above all of that and stay across all of that, like it's not possible. You know. There's so many emails that go into our emails every day, you know, and I will open the ones that come from Business South Wales or my business or my gove obviously because I'm inquisitive and I want to know, and I'm sure

most small businesses do. They want to know. But what's happening is is everything is changing so quickly and so often that the current support system that we have leaves small business kind of gappling with the lack of access to these an awareness to these changes, and it is so complex to apply for any of them and for like you know, for a grant or financial assistance, for tax relief or for solar panels, whatever it is might be that the government are trying to do to help that.

The lack of time and awareness is the blockage there. They're run by, you know, they're influenced by big corporation, but where is the small business voice in there? Because small businesses. As a small business owner, we don't work to work, We work to live. We work to support our family and provide our skills and provide something to our communities, which is quite literally integral to the business world and into employment and you know, to life satisfaction.

Why are we not setting up our small businesses to succeed in the first place from the very get go. Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me.

school every day. And then I'm doing the mum things, you know, so by the time I get into bed by the time and I do my invoicing and my social media and you know, all the things that need to be done to keep my business rolling, finding things that could help me run my business and structure my business better, and you know, investigating the changes of legislrate legislations, and you know, tax reform and all of those things. I don't have the time to do all of that.

I am working in my business every day and when I'm not here, my time needs to be spent with my family. I think there should be some kind of It's hard because there's so much that needs to be done to help small businesses, so knowing where to start is quite difficult. But if there was some kind of online portable like you've got portal like for us there's businesses New South Wales and our local chamber websites that help give you direction. But again, if you're not actively

seeking that, how do you know. So when you register your business, why don't you get a starting small business pack sent to you? Because you've registered it. You've registered your business so the government know that you're starting a new business when you do so, right, So why is there no package sent out even in the sense of an email or you know, in the mail of you're starting a small business, here's the things that you need to know before you open a door to a customer.

I think that is really missing. I'm sure you know when you've got these big corporations, they have people they've employed to do all of that for them. But as a small business, you are one person and your time is minimal, so making sure that you do it correctly. Of course you want to do it correctly, But as I said, you don't know what you don't know, and most small business owners don't have business degrees, so they don't know they what is needed to be able to succeed.

So I think just as simple, you know, I get it when I do my own personal insurance. Have you got eye ear cover? You know, maternity cover? All these things that are offered to you, Why isn't that sent

to you when you register at a business. Because of my experiences and the hardships that I've been through in my business, I think the a as I said before, sending out a you've registered a business, this is what you need to know and do package to every single person that registers a business, whether it goes ahead or doesn't, is probably the best place to start. I think it's a no brainer to make sure that you're giving them the

support they need from the get go. So I think that would be something that the government definitely could put into place to make sure that all small that small businesses are given the right tools to succeed. However, from a personal experience point of view, I think insurance reform needs to happen. I think it's a growing burden on

small businesses. The amount of insurances that we need to have before we even open our doors, and the education around that is minimal unless you're actively seeking it out. So I think it's a really overlooked form of support that the government could be giving. You know, by the time we have our you know, window insurance, of personal insurance, and now there's mandatory cyber insurance, not to mention that

insurance has all gone up over thirty percent. So as a small business, when you're making a small profit margin already just by needing to have those you have to have those insurances before you can do anything. I think being able to kind of look at maybe an overall small business insurance package that covers you for all of those things. And as you grow and as you you know, put on more staff for the more money you make,

then that can kind of push out. But I just think it's quite a burden on small business when small business in itself is kind of starting to become unsustainable. I think the government could help in that one or two ways by making sure that we are better supported, rethinking insurance policies and capping them at a at a

certain premium. I think if we can do that and subsidize that for small businesses, it's a really great place to start, and it would significantly significantly reduce the burdens on small business owners. I don't I think it's becoming

increasingly unsustainable to run a small business. As we said before, the profit margins and the small business are small and unless like for myself, I create recipes for my flowers so that I know I'm making a profit margin, but that's through trial and error, that through failure and procedure, right, So for myself, I kind of come at my business as a system based approach where I combine process and creativity together so that I can make sure that we

are always sustainable in what we do and making sure that we're making a profit margin of what we do. But that profit margin is only small, and when things like insurances go up, and pay grades go up, and super and all of the things that we need to have to run our small business, rent is extronomical at the moment. So when all of that goes up, and if you're not on top of it, you can quickly

lose your business. And as I said, I speak to small business owners every day and I haven't spoken to one single small business owner who is not finding this current moment in our economic time that we're in the hardest to deal with that. It's harder right now than

it was during COVID, and that was difficult. You know, people shutting their doors left, right and center because just the rent alone, like my rent when I started working here, has gone up so I've been here for five years, has gone up by four hundred dollars a week in five years. So how and I run, as I said,

a system based florists. So I know how much it costs me per arrangement that I make on an average sale to make sure I cover my rent, my salary, you know, all of the sundrys that I need to run my business, my insurance, all of that I work out to it a figure and I put that onto every arrangement that I make. But there's so much more that goes into it, and I just I feel sorry for people that don't understand that they need to have those processes to make sure they make a profitable business.

They're doing something that they love and they want to be able to contribute, but they're not being able to do it in a way that provides harmony in that work life balance manner. So businesses are closing their doors left, right and center, or they're taking their businesses home because they cannot afford they have to take something away, so

they can't afford to run their business sustainably anymore. So for myself, I had to let go of my staff as I mentioned before, which was absolutely heartbreaking, not only for me but for them and took a mental toll on myself and my staff at the time. But that's what I needed to do to succeed in my business because if I go down, we all went down, you know. So I needed to make sure that this was staying

sustainable so that I could support me and my kids. However, I was open to the idea of this isn't a failure. If this change doesn't work, this isn't a failure. It's a learning curve and I had to really keep telling myself that or through that process. But it is hard.

It is hard for small businesses. I was speaking to someone the other day that said they asked someone for the money that there they were outstanding for an invoice, and not long after somebody, the person that was owing them the money committed suicide because we're all doing our

very best. But as I said, in small business, the profit margins are so low and the price of everything keeps going up so fast, the cogs are just extronomically increasing that how do you not only run your business and make sure that you're looking after your everything involved in your business, but your own mental health at the

same time. So I think we have a real problem in our community, small business community, in making sure that we are all sustainedly working and living for a greater purpose and not running ourselves into the ground where we think that's the only answer. It's heartbreaking for myself when I was in that space, and I was there, it was very difficult. I contacted all my creditors and I said, I'm restructuring my business. I'm doing something I don't want

to do in letting my staff go. This really wasn't what I wanted to have to do. But I had bills to pay, and I had outstanding, very significant outstanding bills to pay, and so I just contacted them. I said, I know that this isn't okay, and I believe I am a good business owner and a very intelligent business woman. I know all of that, and I'm here anyway. I'm at this point of very low where I owe more money than I can think of how to get out of.

So I just want and I said to all my creditors, I just want you to know that I'm restructuring my business in a way that means that I can continue to do what I do and make sure that I pay you back as soon as I possibly can. And they, because I had such good rapport with them, they were all like, that is okay, we'll see you next month

and we'll talk about it then, you know. But building really good relationships with the people around you and making sure you have the right you know, people on your bus is integral to making sure that you get through the hard times in your business.

the real florest education support. So we run a twelve week program here which is our florestry education from beginners to intermediate florestry and now so we've been doing that for the last two years, which has been amazing. Now we've got it going into local schools and for work placement. The reason being is that you know, these in this day and age, it's so hard to get your hands on experience, so we want to make sure that we're providing that as much as possible. And I love going

into schools. I've been teaching at a couple of local schools in their arts departments. I've been doing a six week program with them, and I always say to the kids, you know, push your hand up if you struggle with the reading and writing or maths, and they all put their little hands up, and I'm like saying, I am dyslexic, I've got disccalcolia and dysgraphia, and i am ADHD. So sitting down in a classroom was always so difficult for me. That's why I'm here to help you get hands on

experience and something that you love and enjoy. So and just seeing the pride on their little faces. So it's beautiful teaching it to adults in our twelve week program, but really getting it into the schools has been so beautiful, such an amazing experience for me to connect with other people like myself that really struggled with you know, the reading, writing and sitting down and concentrating all the time. It's

been able. I've been able to kind of gift my skill set to them and show them that there is other things that you can do in the workforce to make you know, that humus work life balance happen. And it's been so beautiful. So we're really working on that

at the moment. So we've taken that two years worth of experience that we've had teaching one to one two students here at the Real Florist or in schools, and we're about to take it to an online program to help teach other people how to do what we do and that it is possible to have a job that you love every day and be able to give back in a way that's really special.

four eight nine Swift Street in Aubrey at our local Aubrey, CBD. Otherwise, you can always find us on our website at www dot Therealflorist dot com dot au where you can find everything that we do here, so our education, our weddings events, corporate work as well as our local deliveries and now our teachings of the Real Florists. So our workshops are all on there, our education pieces all on there and that's where you'll find the links. Otherwise, you can jump

on our socials. We've got our Instagram, Facebook, our YouTube, our LinkedIn, our tiktoks. I'm very I'm not very good at the tiktoks, but I am trying so hard. I like to call them the toctics, but you can find us on all the social platforms. The real Florest. We wanted to continue advocating for or not only the Flores Street industry, but small business in general and making sure that we are providing real time education and space to

succeed in small business. And yeah, that's where we will be, thank you very much,