Emma Soulsby, owner of London-based Ladybird Flowers, explains why the business should win the innovation in funding category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition.
My passion for flowers grew and couldn’t be contained and by the time I turned 30 I decided I needed to explore it seriously.
I had a full-time job but no savings, so quitting wasn’t an option. To train I walked into my amazing local florist, explained I was thinking of a career change (from finance to floristry) and asked if I could volunteer my services every Saturday in exchange for training. Thankfully they agreed and I started the next week.
Although I started with a barter form of training I still didn’t have any capital to set anything up, so I opened and used a Facebook page as my shop, before moving onto Instagram. My ‘likes’ and ‘followers’ began to grow but I still didn’t have professional photos to put onto a website.
I then started to work with like-minded creatives, on creating our own photo shoots, getting amazing pictures for our websites and getting featured in blogs and magazines.
I went from having only a passion for flowers, to receiving training from volunteering, working with others to create our own amazing photos and getting featured in some of the top wedding blogs and magazines.
I’m now part-time in the finance job and have gone from seven weddings last year to 15 so far this year and 10 booked for next year.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
