Little Posy Co
Mission: Harness the internet to drive growth up and overheads down
Journalist-turned-florist Helen Pow has some simple advice for budding entrepreneurs: “Make sure you’ve got a really good idea and don’t wait around — get stuck in.”
Pow’s hugely successful online florist Little Posy Co is an example of how first-time business owners can make an impact, while keeping their initial risk low.
After living in London and New York, where she interned as a florist after tiring of the media industry, Pow returned to Perth with a very clever, yet simple business idea.
“A posy a day” is how she describes the exclusively online business. Pow visits the flower markets each morning and buys the best local blooms to assemble a host of near identical posies.
She posts the day’s signature posy on Instagram, with customers ordering before 11.30am for same-day delivery around Perth.
In 2014, Pow started the business alone from her lounge room, deliberately shunning a bricks and mortar shopfront.
She gave herself six months to sink or swim, without the pressure of being locked into a business lease. Today, Pow employs four staff and 16 drivers to keep up with the deluge of orders.
And she has her eye on growth, with plans to expand the Little Posy Co to Brisbane.
The hardest part of starting the company, Pow says, was ensuring the website gave customers a seamless experience — vital for an online enterprise.
Before launching, she ran a six-month Instagram campaign to establish the brand aesthetic and a market. When it went live, Little Posy Co had 1000 followers.
That number has grown to more than 45,000. Social media is the major driver of growth, with each person who ‘shares’ Little Posy Co pictures generating more followers.
“And it’s all free marketing,” Pow says.