I started Don't Buy Her Flowers as a 味方する hustle with £13k and turned it into a £2.5million 商売／仕事
- Steph Douglas 開始する，打ち上げるd Don't Buy Her Flowers in 2014?
- She explains how she self-基金d, grew and pivoted her 商売／仕事?
When Steph Douglas gave birth to her first child she was inundated with flowers that, 率直に, she didn't want.
Although they were 井戸／弁護士席-meant, a new-born baby in 牽引する meant that caring for flowers was the last thing on her mind.
Believing she was ありそうもない to be the only new mum who thought this, she 始める，決める about gifting personalised care 一括s to her friends before 開始する，打ち上げるing Don't Buy Her Flowers in 2014.
Starting out packing boxes in her living room to fit around 存在 a mum, Douglas has since 開始する，打ち上げるd care 一括s for every occasion and now 作品 out of a large 倉庫／問屋.
Don't Buy Her Flowers: Steph Douglas 開始する，打ち上げるd her 商売／仕事 after receiving eight bouquets of flowers when she gave birth
She tells This Is Money how she turned her 味方する hustle into a profitable 商売／仕事 with turnover of over £2.5million.?< /p>
Douglas first had the idea for Don't Buy Her Flowers after giving birth to her first child in 2010. When she arrived home she was met with eight bouquets which, while a nice idea, was '完全に 圧倒的な.'
Douglas thought there could be more thoughtful gifts to give new mums and the seed for Don't Buy Her Flowers was born.
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What started as 一括s for new mums, quickly grew into something much bigger and now Douglas 申し込む／申し出s 一括s for every occasion.
'We had three 一括s and all the gifts were about 存在 thoughtful and about what a mum would really need,' she says.
'Within a week or so of starting it, we had 顧客s 説 they' d love to send a care 一括 to their brother in hospital, or dad who's had an 操作／手術. They 手配中の，お尋ね者 to send the same 製品 but for a different occasion.'
Now, birthdays are Don't Buy Her Flowers' biggest occasion, 安全な・保証するing 安定した 歳入 year-一連の会議、交渉／完成する and a bigger market than just new mums.
'The world we live in - we're stretched and tired - people want to be thoughtful but don't have the time to compilate gifts. They can handpick what they put in it but they don't have to traipse around the shops to do it, we've already done it for them.'
Patience is 重要な
While Douglas had the 初期の idea for Don't Buy Her Flowers in 2010, it 現実に took four years to 開始する，打ち上げる the 商売／仕事.
'I had one baby and went 支援する to work, had a second baby and went 支援する to work. After my second, I started to think it more 本気で.
'In that time, I was talking to people and thinking about it. I started a blog that went really 井戸／弁護士席 and it made me think that if other people felt like I did, then the idea behind the 商売／仕事 makes sense.'
It was time Douglas said has been invaluable to think about her own circumstances.
'I had kids that were two and four when I 開始する，打ち上げるd it. I don't think my 長，率いる would have been able to 焦点（を合わせる） 適切に on the 商売／仕事, 反して at that point they could be in some childcare. I could do it part-time and fit it around them.
'I was packing boxes at home for the first few years, packing them after the kids went to bed. It was really 激しい but it meant I could go at my own pace.
'If I'd 急ぐd to do it, I wouldn't have had the headspace to think about the thoughtfulness behind our 一括s.'
Don't Buy Her Flowers 申し込む／申し出s gifts for every occasion, not just new mums?
Self-基金ing your 商売／仕事
Since its 2014 開始する，打ち上げる, Don't Buy Her Flowers had 安定した year-on-year growth up until the pandemic. Having self-基金d the 商売／仕事, all growth was reinvested 支援する into the 商売／仕事.
'We'd make a 雇う and for a small while we'd be just about covering costs. Then we'd turn a 利益（をあげる） again, so we moved to a new 倉庫／問屋 or bring on a new person. We did that incrementally from 2014 to 2020.'
By the end of 2020, the 商売／仕事 had grown 600 per cent year-on-year: 'It was a strange time to be successful when you knew what was going on in the world. The challenge was that when we （機の）カム out the other end, we had no sense of what normal sales were.'
While big 投資 一連の会議、交渉／完成するs for start-ups might make the headlines, the reality for most small 商売／仕事s is years of hard work.
Douglas was no different. She started the 商売／仕事 with £13,000 of her own money, which 含むd her laptop, fu rniture, 在庫／株 and website and everything was run by Douglas and her family.
Having worked in brand and marketing, Douglas had a strong understanding of where and what Don't Buy Her Flowers could be.
She was helped by her husband, who 作品 in 財政／金融, to keep an 注目する，もくろむ on the money 味方する of things, while her brother-in-法律 built the website.
'We were just really 用心深い. Any marketing we've done, rather than 雇うing people or working with 機関s, we've done it ourselves.'
When Douglas moved the 商売／仕事 out of her home, her brother took over the 操作／手術 and, seven years on, still runs the 倉庫／問屋.
'I started slowly and built the brand thinking about what new mums want, what 顧客s want, listening to feedback, because at that point it was just me. I wasn't trying to manage a team and I wasn't having to try and 支払う／賃金 投資家s 支援する.'
One of the biggest learning curves for Douglas has been learning about cash flow, having never worked in 小売, and how to manage both the 商売／仕事 and her home life.
'We both work 十分な time now and there's three kids. We're trying to juggle that and 確実にする we felt equal and didn't slip into a 伝統的な 役割 of how my mum might have done it. Then I would have become やめる resentful.'
The 商売／仕事 has since grown and accrued higher 総計費s- Douglas now has a team of 12 十分な-time staff - and over the summer took 投資 for the first time.
Pivot the 商売／仕事
Don't Buy Her Flowers 攻撃する，衝突する a roadblock when the cost of living 危機 first 攻撃する，衝突する, 押し進めるing Douglas to think about pivoting the 商売／仕事.
She 設立する that her team's knowledge of how to pack bespoke orders is 'やめる unusual… a lot of fulfilment centres just churn staff out.'
While Douglas doesn't 計画（する） on running a 抱擁する fulfilment centre, it now makes between 5-10 per cent of the 商売／仕事' 月毎の income.
法人組織の／企業の orders have also been a growing 歳入 stream and now （不足などを）補う about 15 per cent of Don't Buy Her Flowers' 年次の income.
On 最高の，を越す of this, one in 20 orders through the website is a 法人組織の／企業の order now. 'People in teams are making orders for someone on their team, usually 顧客s who already use us and then 説 'oh we should send something to Richard in accounts when he's off sick'.'
Douglas thinks the pivot, which she 収容する／認めるs has been a 実験（する）, has 'taught me to keep moving. You could think it's going 刻々と and stop, but the things we've had to put in place have really 与える／捧げるd to the 商売／仕事.
'If all three of those areas then 持続する and grow, we then have a much stronger 商売／仕事 at the end of it rather than relying on one area.
'The last few years have taught me not to rely on anything.'
