A former NHS worker who quit her job to follow her lifelong ambition of becoming a florist is encouraging women to pursue their real passions from a young age.
Mum-of-two Raysa Farah, now 30, launched flower brand LK Verdant in 2016, and now - with almost 60,000 Instagram followers - she works with celebrities and big name brands like Vogue and Elizabeth Arden.
She studied for years to become a Clinical Auditor, swallowing her aspirations after her parents refused her plea to pursue floristry as a teenager.
But at the age of 25, ‘unhappy and lost’, Rasya gave it all up and used her £4,000 savings to start again.
She started selling handcrafted flower arrangements in velvet hat boxes on Instagram while at home with her two kids.
Raysa, from Blackburn, taught herself everything she needed to know about floristry during the evenings, admitting it even became a therapy for her postnatal depression.
“My dad tells me I was four when I became interested in flowers,” she said. “I would always ask him to take me out into the garden after he finished work.
“At school, I’d be out on the field and in the playground picking flowers - whether it was summer or winter, it didn’t matter to me.
“My parents and grandparents have always loved gardening, but when it was time to choose my career path as a young girl, I begged my mum and dad to let me become a florist, and they said ‘no, choose something else’.
Admitting academic studies were never her strong point, she struggled with her degree at the University of Bolton and needed extra tuition to get her grades.
She worked on a YSL makeup counter at the time - the only way she could feed her yearning to live a creative and artistic life.
In 2013, Raysa landed a job as a Clinical Auditor, aged just 22.
Her role involved analysing information and data about cancer patients and presenting her findings to doctors.
She said: “I didn't discuss how I felt with my parents, only my husband Mohammed who I met in 2015. My mum’s a doctor and works for ill or premature babies, so I didn’t want to disappoint her.
“I respected my role and the NHS so much, but I knew deep down it wasn’t destined for me, and after years of studying, that was hard to stomach every single day.
“My husband knew about my real dreams and how much I was struggling. One day he presented me with flowers in a gorgeous velvet hat box and said, ‘this is what you’re going to do, run with it’.
“The next day I emptied the box and filled it with flowers from my parents’ garden, and it looked so beautiful. I made an Instagram page and launched LK Verdant.”
"Within a month of that conversation, he had us registered with HMRC, our business name trademarked and stock ordered while I put all of my efforts into Instagram."
Demand for Raysa’s flower arrangements became so high on Instagram that she took three months of unpaid leave from work that year.
On the same day she went back part-time, she handed her notice in, realising she needed to put her all into her small business.
“My mum was very disappointed I handed my notice in without telling her,” added Raysa.
“She was disheartened and worried about how I’d manage, not getting sick pay, or maternity pay, wondering if this was just a trend I’d move on from.”
Five years on, Raysa makes and hand-delivers fresh flower arrangements across North West England.
He first year turnover was £30,000, last year she hit the £60,000 milestone with the business heading for £100,000 this year.
‘Forever Roses’ - a single, preserved rose in the choice of more than 25 colours - is her flagship product.
Rasya's biggest achievement to date was when Vogue Weddings asked her to film a guide to making a vase arrangement for the official Instagram account’s story.
“I remember I was having a Sunday roast, and I screamed and dropped my knife and fork when I opened the message,” said Raysa.
“I had two days to send the video over, and film myself answering their readers’ questions about flowers.
“Attention to detail has always been so important to me, and that’s what’s helped the business to grow.”
The florist even worked with TOWIE stars Elliot and Sadie Wright when the celebrity couple wed in 2017, creating a pink bouquet for the bride and corsages and buttonholes for the guests.
But her journey to success hasn’t been without struggles.
In 2018 and after the birth of her first child Adam, now three, Raysa suffered from postnatal depression.
“The midwife told me my placenta was so small I was lucky he [my son] was alive,” she said.
Now, fully recovered, Raysa says she is in a good place and is working on the expansion of her empire, having recently launched FlowerFix - a letterbox flower delivery service that is part of LK Verdant.
“Despite them not agreeing with my choices at the time, I'm very close to my parents and they now see you can be successful without a degree - my mum is my biggest supporter,” Raysa said.
“I want them to chase their true dreams and goals because life isn’t all about the badge people wear - being employed as a doctor, lawyer or engineer is amazing, but their value isn’t any less if they want to do something else or become self-employed.
You can find out more on Rasya's business LK Verdant here.
