After studying and working in marketing, Dana Baron decided to try to make her business bloom.
She took a design course at the New York Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, got a certificate of design, worked for florists in Manhattan and opened a home-based floral business in 2000.
Even if selling from home cut overhead, she took the risk of going the brick-and-mortar retail route after venues said brides and others wanted to see storefronts. And she’s happy with Baron Floral Designs, in Sea Cliff, although mixing bricks with blooms was tough at first.
“I had a lot of people ordering flowers online and sending them to friends and family,” she said of 2020 when Baron Floral Designs opened during the pandemic’s peak. “Nobody could travel or visit. The cards were, ‘I’m so sorry I can’t see you for Christmas.’ It was people sending flowers, because they couldn’t be together.”
Now that the pandemic has waned, her online business remains fueled by people sending flowers from out of town. But Baron, who has around 250 five-star reviews on Google, has innovated with her indie flower business.
She has truly proved an example of flower power, finding ways to boost sales and add new revenue streams.
“I import a lot of my flowers from Holland directly,” Baron said. “I try to get unique and different things in my shop as far as flowers go and I try to have an extensive variety of flowers and greens with very different flowers in different colors.”
Like so many business people, differentiating is the name of the game. Baron sells and designs with tropical protea, including the king protea, which she calls “an amazing flower” that sometimes sells for $45 to $60 and lasts three weeks. She says her flowers at Baron Floral Designs are higher-end, better quality and live longer than typical grocery store bouquets.
“I try to use flowers with symbolic meanings for arrangements,” she said. “A protea is a flower symbolic of diversity and change. I like using those in a bride’s bouquet. That’s a life-changing event.”
She uses thistle, a blue flower symbolic of overcoming hardship, in arrangements when people are ill.
“I use that a lot if someone is sick or if someone passes away,” she said. “It’s a strengthening flower.’
She likes using other flowers that have a symbolic meaning, linking that with the occasion or reason for the gift.
“There are many examples of flower meanings. It dates back to Victorian times,” she said. “In the Victorian era, people couldn’t express themselves verbally. So they sent bouquets with meanings without saying it. I love that concept.”
Inflation hasn’t really hit the flower business, which helps keep costs down for Baron Floral Designs.
“The price that flowers has risen is tiny,” she said of costs.
Baron buys dahlias, sunflowers and zinnias from local growers who sell to her wholesaler, and keeps her electric bill down to about $100 a month and a little more during the summer.
“That hasn’t increased so much,” Baron said. “I have a giant walk-in refrigerator, but it’s pretty efficient.”
Social media and good reviews are key along with good service. She photographs bouquets and provides images in advance.
In addition to individual orders, she has clients who get flowers delivered to their home or business weekly.
And she uses unique containers such as vintage glass and ceramic, including blown glass vases made by her daughter, to differentiate. Hand-blown glass can cost $70, easily twice as much as flowers, boosting margins.
‘When the flowers are gone, it’s a beautiful piece of art they can display and use again,” she said. “People like to have something nice afterwards.”
Baron also sets up a rack outside of her Baron Floral Designs storefront with fresh bouquets selling for $18 and helping market the shop.
“People go to dinner at someone’s house and bring a little something,” she said.
And she offers floral design classes once a month for $85, as people learn to arrange flowers at a huge flower bar she sets up along with snacks and wine.
In keeping with the idea of finding additional revenue streams, people can rent Baron Floral Designs for parties with a minimum of seven paying $85 each.
She also makes gourmet baskets with fruit, crackers, sweet cookies and savory meats for clients who want more than flowers.
Baron Floral Designs gets a big boost for Thanksgiving, with some orders around the end-of-year holiday season, but not as much as you might think for Valentine’s Day.
May brings Mother’s Day, florists’ biggest holiday, as well as graduations and proms with corsages.
“May is probably the busiest month,” she said.
Things are certainly more complicated with a retail space, including rent, but the benefits also are very real as long as you innovate while helping others celebrate, she said.
“I’m so happy to have clients coming in. They’re coming into the shop, seeing what I have to sell and buying things or looking around and enjoying the visuals,” Baron said. “I love it. I’m pleased to have a retail business.”
Read also: John’s Crazy Socks partners with PBA, inspires those with disabilities
