Baby Steps to Big Moves

The new, news-y news around here is that we’ve MOVED. To a bigger space, a bit further south. We are now located around the corner from Industry City, by the water’s edge in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. The view is the part that I can’t get over.

But also. For the first time, we have true natural light - and it’s abundant.

We have our very own very beautiful sink. 

We have room to run workshops. 

We’ll have walls around a small space where I can have a meeting or a call or crunch numbers without being in the fray of design work and the delightful - but relatively constant - chatter of people working around me.

We will have a room to put all of our unsightly cardboard boxes full of vessels, candle holders, and paper products. Thanks to the light and the space and the walls, we can finally make things pretty. Create an inspiring space to work in, as well as an inspiring space for our clients to visit.

These are not small things for a florist. Or anyone running a small business, really…

While we’re on Day 8 of being moved in, and are still immersed in an ocean of boxes, every day feels like a pinch-me moment. If you had asked me even just 2 years ago whether I saw this business in a space with an uninterrupted view of the NYC skyline, high ceilings, and light pouring in, I think I would have responded doubtfully.

So much in my life has changed in the past 2-3 years. We had a couple of challenging financial years, 2020 - 22. And now here we are. 

While this move is monumental, I think the biggest and most significant impact - the one that takes my breath away most - is the fact of the group of people who have materialized out of the ether over the past two years to form the sturdy, reliable foundation MOF has always needed.

Paige, Josh, Liz, Eliza, Tina, Corinne, Leyla, and others have made this growth and the feeling of possibility POSSIBLE. For so long, I was really and truly on my own in the work of growing this business. (There were various reasons for that, the largest of which was still being attached to farming, and being unable or possibly unwilling to put 100% of myself into Molly Oliver Flowers.) When that changed - when I began putting myself fully into this business, we grew.

In February of 2022, with the first full calendar of events before me since 2019, I felt ready (enough) to take the big leap of hiring my first full time employee, Paige. It felt daunting - the idea of payroll every two weeks for 2 instead of 1. Yet, there was still this clear feeling that I needed the consistency of another person. I am so grateful for Paige’s incredibly dedicated support, the way she has taken on the ownership of the Seasonal Flower Project and care of our members, and her love of seasonal floral design. Her commitment and drive to make MOF better added a new layer of structural support, of stability, it never had before.

Hiring Paige enabled me to focus more on numbers, sales, and profitability. Right around that same time, I moved to Quickbooks, away from my own complicated and dense system of Google Sheet accounting. Happy to share that my financial advisor was impressed with my system, but it deeeeefinitely needed help. There were a lot of missed expenses. (By the way, hiring a financial advisor - investing in monthly reporting and cost/profit analysis was another big leap, but well worth it!) Without that investment, I most certainly would not have been able to run numbers properly to gauge whether or not we were ready for this kind of lease. 

I guess the lesson is that we have to take risks in life sometimes. That to get to a better place, to make big moves, it’s really a series of many smaller moves, shifts - internal and intricate - that will ultimately build the road to that better place. That, and knowing your numbers.

I don’t aim to be trite here. I signed a 7 year lease and it’s not exactly keeping me up at night, but it is definitely a big risk. Anything could happen - including another pandemic. Hopefully, through 2030, this block will be mostly safe from major flooding. (I spent a day or so researching climate change related flooding / sea level rise-related coastline changes… and for reasons I don’t completely understand, 53rd St. is in a much better position than our previous street 30 blocks north).

I can’t wait to share this space with our community – our clients, subscription members, fellow florists. We’re still in incubation mode - thinking through what our offerings will be, and when the PARTY will happen. Because obviously, there needs to be a party. But first, there is a lot of unpacking to do, figuratively and literally:)

So, stay tuned for more information about our expanded offerings this year!