How I Got Here: The founder of Daily Blooms on making the leap into a creative industry
WORDS BY MAGGIE ZHOU AND CAIT EMMA BURKE
“It doesn’t matter how much you think about something – the reality will always be different.”
Have you ever stalked someone on LinkedIn and wondered how on earth they managed to land that wildly impressive job? While the internet and social media might have us believe that our ideal job is a mere pipe dream, the individuals who have these jobs were, believe it or not, in the same position once, fantasising over someone else’s seemingly unattainable job.
But behind the awe-inspiring titles and the fancy work events lies a heck of a lot of hard work. So what lessons have been learnt and what skills have proved invaluable in getting them from daydreaming about success to actually being at the top of their industry?
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Welcome to How I Got Here, where we talk to women who are killing it in their respective fields about how they landed their awe-inspiring jobs, exploring the peaks and pits, the failures and the wins, and most importantly the knowledge, advice and practical tips they’ve gleaned along the way.
You might not expect the founder of Daily Blooms to have had her start as a financial analyst, but that’s exactly what Courtney Ray’s job title was before she launched into the world of flowers. In 2014, Courtney brought Daily Blooms to life and a decade on, the business has bloomed into one of the country’s largest flower delivery services.
Surprisingly, the worlds of finance and flowers aren’t too different. As Courtney tells us below, the skills learnt in one industry are transferrable to the next. From a chaotic first Valentine’s Day to working with “truly creative, fun, flower-loving enthusiasts,” read on to hear more about Courtney’s decade in business.
What do you do and what’s your official job title?
My official job title is CEO of Daily Blooms but I quite like to call myself [a] founder and florist. I mostly like the alliteration and the fact that it suggests I get to play with flowers every day.
Take us back to when you were first starting out. Did you study to get into your chosen field, or did you start out with an internship/entry level role and climb the ladder? Tell us the story.
I actually started my career working in something very different to flowers – I was a financial analyst. It was whilst working as an analyst that I decided to make the jump from finance to floristry so I enrolled myself in a night TAFE course (Certificate II Floristry) and started making the transition.
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To be honest, I didn’t wait to be fully qualified before I quit my job, registered by ABN, built a terribly dodgy website and started Daily Blooms. In those early weeks, I was very fortunate to have generous friends and family members [who] ordered flowers [from] my website. It took a couple of weeks to start seeing orders from total strangers – I still remember the feeling of absolute excitement.
What challenges/hurdles have you faced getting to where you are now? Can you tell us about one in particular?
There are new challenges every single day… When it comes to running a business, if you don’t have new challenges, you probably aren’t growing and learning. One of the biggest challenges that come to mind when I think about the journey of Daily Blooms was our first-ever Valentine’s Day.
The business was just a couple of weeks old when Valentine’s Day came around and I could not have been less prepared for the onslaught of demand. In hindsight, I now know how lucky I was to have so much demand so early on in my business, but at the time it was far too much demand for the business to cope with. I was unprepared for the volume of orders, flowers, customer queries, delivery drivers – the whole thing.
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I still remember calling customers to say their bouquets would be delivered after business hours into the evening and hearing the disappointment in their voices was heartbreaking. It was so horrible. I have never forgotten it. Thankfully it is those tough experiences that make you learn and improve.
These days, the business has more robust systems for handling our orders and demand for those big event days like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day. We have a team preparing for months to make sure things go perfectly.
What do you want people to know about your industry/your role?
Floristry is actually a really physically tough industry. People often think floristry is pretty and delicate (and in many ways it is) but it is also incredibly physically demanding. You need to be really fit to work in this industry.
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What’s the best part about your role?
Fundamentally it is the people that make my role and my business so special. I get to work with a team of truly creative, fun, flower-loving enthusiasts. The other little bonus is that I am surrounded by flowers every single day. You couldn’t ask for a better workplace setting.
What would surprise people about your role?
Whilst I work in a really creative, flower-filled industry, my role is very analytical. Every day I am thinking about different numbers and metrics within the business. I am thinking about website sessions, conversion rates and product split metrics. I was determined to move out of finance and into floristry but it is funny how similar both worlds can be.
What skills have served you well in your industry?
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Funnily enough, it is my financial background that has served me well in running a business. I think it doesn’t matter what industry you are in, you need to be financially literate to run any type of business successfully.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to be in a role like yours one day?
I think for anyone wanting to start their own business, [know] there is never an ideal time. Once you have an idea and a plan on how to roll it out, just go for it. It doesn’t matter how much you think about something – the reality will always be different. You will need to change and adapt to curve balls and unexpected events in real-time.
You also don’t need to risk everything to start. I think it is really smart to start small or start as a side hustle. You just need a bit of forward momentum and you can grow from there.
What about a practical tip?
It has been really important for my professional development to learn from others. Running my own business can be a little lonely at times, so it has been important for me to connect and learn from others in different businesses and industries. I find it inspiring [and] motivating and I learn so many lessons (both good and bad) from listening to those who have either done it before or are going through it at the same time.
Read the rest of the How I Got Here series here.
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