When he realised that his parents’ seven-year-old flower shop business wasn’t blooming, he knew he had to do something.
Stanley Tan, 25, refused to give up on Windflower Florist, which is located at Loyang Point. That is despite it declining to just single-digit sales each day.
“Everyone was just worn out and they wanted to give up on the business … The shop was there just for the sake of being there,” Stanley told TODAY.
However, Stanley still saw potential in the floral business.
According to The New Paper, two and a half years ago, when he completed his national service, he persuaded his parents to let him take over the shop – even though he did not know much about flowers.
His parents would have nothing to worry about. Today, the shop is flourishing – a staggering 1,000 per cent increase in daily sales since Stanley gave it a facelift in November 2014.
A Male Florist Among The Roses
Many might raise their eyebrows at Stanley being the man behind Windflower Florist’s beautiful arrangements. Male florists are rather rare, and even the man himself never thought about being a florist prior to taking over the business.
Stanley, who studied Mass Communications in Polytechnic, told Youth.sg, “I had very limited knowledge of flowers back then, and I thought I would only have to handle the marketing aspect.”
He laughed and said there are even customers who try to flirt with him over WhatsApp, thinking he’s a female.
Stanley learned the basics of floral arrangement from his mother but felt that his parents’ styles were too old-fashioned. The flower shop was started in 1997.
Speaking to The New Paper, he recounted:
“I’ve never really done flowers before.
“But I am bullheaded. I plunged straight into it. I had many quarrels with my mum on the design aspect.”
Stanley travelled to Taiwan and Japan, visited flower nurseries and talked to veteran florists to learn everything he could about floristry. He also built a rapport with suppliers and sought inspiration from established florists on Instagram.
Appealing To The ‘Hipster’ Generation
According to TODAY, with the help of his army buddy and now business partner Charles Wong, Stanley completely reinvented his parents’ florist business. He also pumped in all his savings, renovated the whole shop and changed its business model to a “more Westernised style”.
The enterprising guy also knew that the bouquets needed to appeal to the modern generation. That meant unconventional, less uniform and rustic arrangements. Windflower’s bouquets range from stunning rainbow roses (think unicorn craze) in French wrapping to dried lavender and cotton fluffs in brown paper packaging and twine.
From the variety of arrangements and options available on their shop, you can tell that the products have gone through a detailed thought process. If you ever had any gripe about handheld bouquets – wherever do you put them? – Windflower offers their ‘Bloom Box’ series and ‘Mason Jar Arrangements’. They have gone the hipster route by putting everything in mason jars, and it works. No need to look for a vase to store your lovely blooms.
If you hate flowers because you feel that they die too quickly and that it is a complete waste of money, their ‘Dry It Yourself!’ series addresses that. The dried flower arrangements feature assortments of dried lavenders, dried Caspia, dried Wheat, cotton fluffs, and baby’s breath (that will dry up). You can turn these into table decorations, potpourri, or just keep them in a vase for a long time.
What better way to signify a love that never withers?
One of their most requested flowers is hydrangeas from their Kisetsu series. The shrubs native to Japan are elegant and a tad more unique that the regular rose.
Besides the unconventional floral variety, Stanley’s business strategy was to sell everyday bouquets: giving or receiving bouquets “just because”. He sought out flowers that were available all seasons.
Instagram posts by Windflower Florist highlight this aspect. One quips: “You don’t need a special occasion to receive or give flowers, these dried beauties make any other day a special one!” It’s a genius move if you think about it. Why only sell on special occasions if you can persuade people to give flowers on any day?
From just five to six bouquets a month, the shop now receives about 10 to 15 orders daily.
Building An Online Presence
In this age of technology, a business that is looking to succeed cannot possibly just rely on a shopfront.
Foreseeing that, Stanley invested in a five-degree sum to bring Windflower Florist’s mode of business online. Currently, their shop has an online store, their Facebook page sports about 17k likes, and their Instagram about 14.5k followers. They also have WhatsApp as a sales channel.
The beautiful photos you see on Instagram are taken and managed by Stanley himself, with his girlfriend occasionally modelling.
“It’s important that the photos we post are ‘up to standard’, for people to be attracted to our bouquets,” Stanley said to Youth.sg.
He also attributes some of his Instagram popularity to Windflower being featured in the Singapore Garden Festival. It had helped them gain many hundreds of followers in just a few days.
“Exposure is still very important to us now, so we would try to participate in events or collaborations as much as we can,” he said.
Windflower Florist also frequently holds collaborations and workshops.
What Do His Parents Think?
Mr and Mrs Tan now man the physical shop space, while Stanley takes care of the other channels. TNP reports that while the folks are pleasantly surprised by how well the business took off, they are also tired out by the volume of orders.
“We have to stay up for three days and three nights, crafting the bouquets to make sure they go out. That is quite new to them,” said Stanley.
Just by selling everyday bouquets alone, there is a 1,000 per cent increase in daily sales. Before, the shop would earn only $8,000 during Valentine’s Day period. After the revamp, their earnings shot up more than three-fold to a whopping $30,000 during the love holiday.
Windflower Florist also has an office space and eight team members apart from their physical shop at Loyang Point.
This is not the end of innovation for Stanley. The entrepreneur is looking at diversifying the business to stay relevant.
“Flowers are just a medium to branch out to many other things, like styling and the lifestyle industry,” he said.
