CECELIA MAYNARD gave up her corporate job of 17 years to pursue her dream.
“Leap and let the net appear,” she said when asked what she was thinking at the time.
Six months on, Cecelia loves the entrepreneurial life that has opened up since starting the Moments in Bloom Flower Shop at One Accord Plaza, Warrens, and hopes her experience can encourage others to not let their dreams die.
The florist said that for 13 of those 17 years she worked a nine-to-five job, she made floral arrangements on the side for funerals, weddings and special occasions like birthdays, but it was a balancing act.
She completed a floral arranging course and took a year off from work to spend time with her family before she opened the shop. “I thought, ‘why am I doing all that I can to make somebody’s empire successful, but I too have goals and dreams that I need to pursue’, and I decided to give up my job,” she said.
She had always wanted to work with her hands and this was her opportunity.
Before quitting, Cecelia had a contract with a funeral home so her focus was on doing arrangements for funerals as her full-time job would not have allowed her to take on too many clients or jobs.
Now she has her own storefront, Cecelia said her client base has grown tremendously; new customers spotted the arrangements and just walked in and requested items.
She said she does not regret her decision to get out into the community and be known publicly. While some people may question why she stopped operating rent-free from home, Cecelia said if she was at home no one would walk in and order something. So the shop is a trade-off.
“I am courageous and willing to take the plunge and see how it works out at the end of the day,” she said. “It makes no sense having an idea and not living your dream. If you start your business and it fails then you know you have the experience and can use what you learned to start over and do it better.
“I am proud of me. It takes a lot for someone to say, ‘I am in a full-time job that is paying the bills and I am going to give that up’. Most of the time our dreams die with us because we get very comfortable having that full time job and the security.”
Cecelia said in the moment that she made the decision to leave the office, it was just for her to live her dream and be an entrepreneur. Added to that, she knew she could no longer continue to do the job because she no longer had the passion or desire.
“My first love is working with my hands,” she said.
Cecelia said since she has opened the shop she has also unearthed talents she never knew she had. One is her paper flowers which have become a big hit.
“When I started the flowers were just some décor for the store, but when customers and passers-by saw them they just come and asked for them for weddings and baby showers, and I told them it was just décor for the store. I knew I could not limit myself so I started taking orders, especially for weddings,” Cecelia said.
Owning and managing her own business, she said, gives her the flexibility to be more in control of what she wants to do, and also to be able to spend time with her family.
Yet, she acknowledged that she was new to entrepreneurship and had so much more to learn. “It has its challenges and it has its peak moments, but I am just happy to be doing what I have always wanted to do, which is use my talents to make other people happy and make some money while doing it,” she said.
Cecelia hopes that by next year she can take a trip to see what international florists are doing, as well as doing some refresher sessions with some of the top local florists. She is not a member of any local floral arranging societies, but said she would give it some consideration at a later time.
Cecelia plans to use more local flowers and to have a store where she has a myriad of fresh cut flowers available to local florists and in some way alleviate the present challenge of not having a flower shop on the west coast. (LK)
