Enterprising Woman: Kimberly Sevilla opens Rose Red & Lavender

Kimberly Sevilla in front of Rose Red & Lavender. Photo by EB.

Kimberly Sevilla has a background in visual merchandising, but with a small daughter at home and a baby on the way, she finds life as a business owner much more compatible with raising a family.  As the first full service flower store in Williamsburg in over a decade, Rose Red & Lavender burst onto Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg alive with potted plants, fresh veggies and herbs and wonderfully fragrant flowers.  Inside 653 Metropolitan, you’ll find impeccably designed gardening tools, recycled glass hummingbird feeders, vintage planters, candles, soaps, and other gift items, plus a staff of renowned flower designers to work on your special occasion. And pretty much all of the plants and flowers are organic!  My own garden would not be nearly as bountiful without the tomatoes, blueberries, and rose bushes from Rose Red & Lavender. On top of that, Kimberly’s stellar advice makes me want to quit my day job and open a shop of my own!

EB: What inspired you to open your business?

KS: I have always wanted to own my own business and do something creative. I majored in biology and chemistry in college and worked for the USDA while I was a student. After I moved to New York, I had the opportunity to garden upstate on the weekends which I did obsessively for about 10 years. In that time I created a line of jellies that were made of flowers and flower petals. They are beautiful, but after two years of production, development and going through all of the USDA and FDA regulations to make it a saleable product I ran out of steam. I did continue to garden and moved my focus to urban gardening and container gardening and put my idea of opening my own business on the back burner while I focused on my job and my career.

After my daughter was born, I realized that I needed to make some changes in my life. I was used to working long hours designing and building retail displays and props for events and wanted to do something where I had a more flexible schedule. I sat down and wrote out a list of things I am good at (design, project management and selling) and things that I like (building stuff, flowers and gardening) and what I wanted (to be closer to home, spend more time with my daughter and have a more flexible schedule).  We put this list on a chalkboard wall in our living room and I stared at it almost every day for a few months.

During that time, I started interviewing people in my neighborhood to find out what type of business they thought was missing and the idea of a flower shop evolved. Flowers, design, events, project planning, those are all things I know because flowers are so seasonal, I thought it would be nice if I could sell gardening plants too and to me that would be icing on the cake, that was something I truly loved. It turns out that plants and gardening supplies are what we sell the most of and it is super fun for me because I get to go plant shopping all the time and share what I have learned about gardening with others. Like the old advice says, " do what you love" We also do a fair amount of wedding work and I am such a romantic, I almost always cry.

EB: What challenges did you face as a woman opening a business and how did you overcome those?

KS: Time was a huge factor for me and also having enough energy to give to my job and my family and to the business I was starting. I think being female it was almost easier to find help, I turned to other woman owned business for advice and they were more than willing to share what they learned. I borrowed a little time from here and there by going to work a little later or leaving a little earlier and doing research on my laptop while nursing my daughter. Sometimes I would skip out during lunch to meet with business advisors or bankers. I did encounter some problems when it came to negotiating the rent and dealing with some vendors but after years of working with construction companies, riggers, and manufactures I was able to get past all that. Having my husband involved was a big help and I remember sitting in bed together on a Saturday morning combing through pantone books and interior design magazines to find the perfect look for the shop, he was really interested and made it all seem like fun and not work at all.

EB: What advice would you give another woman who wanted to open her own business?

KS: Find a mentor or mentors. Don't be afraid to ask for help, accept the help given to you. I turned to people around me on a number of occasions to answer questions about everything from coolers to dealing with employees and continue to seek the advice of my peers.

Take the time to write a solid business plan and don't get upset if your initial idea has to change or evolve. Initially, I thought I had spent way too much time writing my plan but it paid for itself when I was trying to get funding, lease a space, negotiate with vendors and hire new employees. I had all the answers to their questions available to me because I had taken the time to research it and put together in writing. I really felt confident about what I was saying and what my plans were for the future because it was based on well researched facts, every answer was on the tip of my tongue. No joke, I used a copy of "Business Plans for Dummies" when writing mine. It was integral in making a dream a reality.

Take advantage of government programs and local business outreach programs, the advice and assistance that they give is invaluable. Many of the programs have volunteers that work for them who are retired business people. You can learn a lot from their years of experience. Others have access to bankers, real estate or funding that you may not have access to and they will introduce you to the right people. They will also review and critique your business plan and help you to write one should you need help.

Take the time to research your idea and take the time to put the funds you need in place. Make sure you have your cost of living covered for at least a year, don't plan on making a profit for the first year or so and don't quit your day job until the time is right. You will know when the time is right.

Use professionals for things like accounting and legal matters, that’s what they do best, you do what you do best. Learn to delegate and learn to let go, you can't do everything at once and you can’t do it all, but you sure can delegate, that’s how things get done. I love painting and I am good at it but when building out the store, I hired professionals (we bartered with flowers); that way I had time to focus on other things like credit card machines, POS software and all the little details that pop up when opening a retail location (who knew I needed to hire a carting company).  

Try to join professional organizations and network with other business owners. Make a plan and check back in every once in awhile to make sure you are on track. No one has a crystal ball to see into the future but you can find out what the industry standards are for your business through trade organizations and that should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect for your business.

Form a corporation or an LLC. For me it was also important to incorporate, it made dealing with some vendors much easier because I was calling as a company and not an individual. Unfortunately, more than one bride has tried to pose as a flower shop to order flowers for her wedding and some flower vendors can be pretty protective of the industry.

Don't be afraid to negotiate terms or minimum orders with people, don't be afraid to bargain or barter even if their "policy" is in writing, everything is negotiable.

Focus on the end goal and then think of ways you can get there and make that a part of every decision you make. I was only able raise less then half of the funding I needed to open the store and almost decided to wait for the recession to be over and banks to start loaning money (they still aren't). Instead, I took a razor to my plan and in every step figured out ways that I could save money and get what I wanted. I have a friend who works for Barneys, his job is to comb flea markets and salvage yards to find materials for the stores, BARNEYS! Now if they can make found materials look cool and relevant, why couldn't I?  For example; instead of using the expensive British wallpaper I had selected, I used old sheet music from a flea market, instead of buying a stainless steel sink, I used a claw foot bathtub from a salvage depot. We didn't order pre-printed bags and bought stamps instead and stamp our own (kraft bags are very cool). I scanned Craigslist.com and found shops that were closing to buy their old supplies, which gave me all the little odds and ends that florists always seem to need and always have to buy a whole pack for one or two pieces. I even found a woman who had used an antique gurney as a worktable in her shop which had closed and bought that from her and now have the coolest looking work table ever. Almost everything in our store is salvaged or found material. My husband eventually got used to me yelling "Stop" and then throwing a trash find into our car when he saw the miracles a coat of good paint can perform. The results are that the store has a much more interesting, funkier vibe and looks like it has been around for years. I was able to reduce the budget for the build out by 75%.

I think that just about sums it up. It is a lot of work but very, very rewarding. Like anything in life, you have to take it one step at a time.

Learn about other enterprising women, including Jenny Yuen and Alix Sloan, or let us know about your favorite woman-owned business by commenting below!