By Sally Sola, Founder, Cheltenham Flower School
I think its fair to say that when my own family came along, life changed beyond recognition. I stepped away from event floristry and back into the high street world. Here, I could still be a florist and do the job I loved so much.
I worked part time here until my eldest son was nearly three years old. By then I was pregnant with my second and we were about to relocate to the south coast as my husband had been poster down there. I kept my hand in the world of floristry as much as I could but life with a newborn and a pre schooler was a challenge!
Soon it was time for my husband to leave the military and we found ourselves in Cheltenham. It was here that I was reminded that I had always wanted to teach floristry; the retail world just didn’t appeal or seem practical anymore. Back in my college days I had big ideas of one day becoming a floristry teacher but life just hadn’t worked out that way. But here’s the interesting thing. I had trained countless people how to be a florist in each job I had had in the industry, including how to be an event florist. It then occurred to me that I may not be able to offer a qualification, but I could share my floral experience with others. And so, my business was born. Originally called Little Blue Butterfly Floral Designs, I taught workshops once a month from September 2018. I soon had a good customer base and regulars too. The beauty of this was that I could still work it around my young family, I had it all worked out in my head and a 5-year plan to take over the world, especially when both boys were at school. I had a good foundation to build my business from ahead of my youngest starting school. What could go wrong?
The world however had a different plan. Roll on to March 2020, and I’m not sure any of us knew which way around we were. I soon realised that I could offer my workshops online. This was incredibly popular and I learnt how to teach remotely very quickly. It was quite the learning curve I can tell you. Teaching Christmas Wreaths over zoom had its challenges and there were a few times I questioned what on earth I was doing. The bottom line was that it was keeping my business alive and relevant, as well as providing some much-needed escapism for my customers.
After the pandemic the world and the pressures within the floristry industry around the cost of flowers made me stop and think. I still had a passion to share the floral love, but I would have to rethink how I did it and look again at who my customers where and where I would find them.
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