Ruth Monahan is managing director of Appassionata Flowers, a creative floristry business in Dublin, with a shop on Drury Street and a studio on South Cumberland Street. Established in 2004, the company employs 12 people – a combination of florists, drivers and operations staff. Appassionata Flowers also provides a large- scale design-led floristry service for many leading venues, hotels and restaurants.
What sets your business apart from the competition? We pride ourselves on creating beautiful flowers whether it's for the largest-scale corporate event or the smallest order from a customer in the shop. My production background in television enables me to manage infrastructures that can satisfy large-scale events.
This year we’ve had some of the biggest jobs we’ve done to date – from one of the largest weddings in the country to large-scale events in the Conference Centre Dublin – and both at the same time. While it’s important to be able to produce and manage such large- scale events, you are also only as good as the flowers you produce.
What was the best piece of business advice you have received? Have a good accountant with a strategic business mind. Build a good team all of whom have skills in different areas to you. Look after your core customers as they are the ones that have helped you build your business and stood by you. Look after your health.
What is the biggest mistake you have made in business? In the beginning we got overwhelmed by technology and spent a lot of time and money trying to integrate our tills and our accounting structures with a CMS. It was a good lesson learned as we realised that sometimes the simpler package you have and the tighter the account structure, the better for the business. It taught me to do the things that suit your own business rather than feeling the need to do things that others are doing.
What is your major success to date? That we are recognised as a design business as well as a flower business. That we were shortlisted for the Image Business Awards. I feel it's a success and a privilege to be accepted on Going for Growth this year. It's amazing to feel part of the movement of female entrepreneurship in Ireland.
Whom do you most admire in business and why? It's not just because she is my mentor on Going for Growth, but I think Louise Phelan is amazing. She has a wonderful creative, holistic view of business. She's very driven but is so helpful with her time and has a fantastic ability to be inspiring and to create ideas.
I also admire Cathal Gaffney and Darragh O’Connell of Brown Bag Films. It’s amazing what they have achieved and how many people they have managed to employ.
Based on your experience in the downturn are banks in Ireland open for business? Our business is seen as both a trade and a service, not one or the other, so it is very difficult to explain how you want to expand to people in banks – a lot of whom are male, who essentially do not understand what we do. The amount of paperwork involved in getting any kind of funding is so time consuming that I am better off concentrating on my business and creating that money myself.
What one piece of advice would you give to the Government to stimulate the economy? In the flower business, our VAT rate is 13.5 per cent. I think we should be viewed in the same bracket as restaurants and hairdressers with VAT of 9 per cent. We are categorised as a trade as opposed to a service. We have a similar climate to the Netherlands yet flower- and plant-growing is a tiny industry here.
It seems crazy that I have to buy Irish foliage that is produced in Kerry back from the Dutch supplier to whom it has been exported. I can’t understand why the farming world isn’t more concentrated on flowers and plants here. I think it’s a lack of infrastructure.
What has been the biggest challenge you have had to face in business? Our storage unit burnt down six weeks ago. We had invested quite heavily last year in Christmas stock which is used to decorate some of the finest hotels, so we need to reinvest and see how we can plan for Christmas this year.
We got a nominal amount of insurance and thankfully no one died, but most of our props burnt down and when you’re a small business it’s not easy. We live Christmas for two months – we decorate for many clients at the start of November – so we have to plan and reinvest heavily this year for the Christmas period.
What do you see as the short- term future for the business? The retail store is flourishing in tandem with its location in the creative quarter around Drury Street. We are keeping up with a lot of new business this year and are investing in online. We want our website to work better for corporate customers.
We are building a better showcase portfolio to illustrate all the corporate and creative brand work that we do. We work with a lot of luxury brands in fashion and beauty, retailers, hotels and other venues, and want to showcase that. This year we look set to double last year’s turnover which bodes well for the future.
What is your business worth and would you sell it? Our business is valued daily based on the service and flowers our team delivers so I feel it is very valuable as a brand, but it is very difficult to sell a creative quality service. You could sell on a shop as a going concern but it would be very difficult to sell what we do.
appassionata.ie
