Business is blooming for entrepreneurial Beijing florist
Enterprising florist has found a fertile opportunity in the upmarket wedding and gala market as more mainlanders have cash to splash
After nearly a decade of hard work and literally digging in for the long haul, everything is coming up roses for Cao Xue, a 26-year-old florist in Beijing who has carved out a niche for himself in the industry. Cao specialises in weddings, parties and galas. He opens up about how the mainland flower business has slowly developed over the years but continues to lag behind other countries.
At 17, after studying gardening at a vocational school for a year, I decided to quit school because I thought I'd rather get into real work. So I started working for flower shops. In 2005 I found that floral services for weddings were booming, so I jumped ship to work for wedding planners and saved my earnings to take classes conducted by Taiwanese designers. Later, as my savings accumulated, I took more classes by well-known designers from the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore and Japan. In 2009 I set up my own studio and started my own business.
For flower design services, the usual steps involve determining what theme and atmosphere the clients want for the event, then producing a design proposal and discussing changes with them, before finally ordering the flowers and decorating the event venue. Because I mostly do weddings, I am busiest during the peak periods for marriages, that is April, May, June, September and October. For the rest of the year, I hold training courses for people who are interested in floral design.
Though it's a very small part of the business in terms of profit, I enjoy it because we share ideas.