Empire Client Feature: Poppy Rose

Posted 7 Sep '21

Beth and the team at Empire Accountants have had the pleasure of working with Elli, owner at Poppy Rose since 2018.

We LOVE Elli’s business, and what’s not to love when it comes to beautiful flowers, plants, and gifts with same day delivery!? Poppy Rose has experienced wonderful growth over the last few years, so we sat down to find out more about her story, and what she’s learnt along the way in her business journey. Find out more about Poppy Rose below!

Q. Tell us about your business! 

A. Poppy Rose are an online and retail florist based in Brisbane. We deliver unique flowers, plants and gift all over Brissie and also have a retail store in Norman Park. Our retail store is full of carefully curated pots, vases and other gifts. We are also a greenspace! We aim to be a one stop gift shop in both our retail and online stores!

Q. How and when did you get started? 

A. The business was started 2015 in my sunroom at home. It was born out of the desire to fill a gap in the floristry market at the time. Our daily bunch business model wasn’t really being done in Brisbane, so I decided to see how it would go. Safe to say, people loved it and the business grew very quickly! It wasn’t long before I was moving out of the house and into a studio. When the opportunity came to open our retail store, we took the plunge and we have been there ever since! We started with one little  store and have now taken over two others in the same complex!

Q. What are some services you can offer to busy Brisbane business owners?

A. We work with a lot of real estate agents, vets, corporate clients etc who require thank you/sympathy/congratulations gifts for their clients/customers. We are always happy to work with customers to organise an ordering system that requires very little effort. We are in the process of building a new website which will be much better at handling our corporate customers requirements as well!

If you are interested in organising flowers or plant deliveries on a sporadic or ongoing basis, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our team!

Q. When did you start using Empire for your business accounting and what differences have you noticed since working together?

A. I think I started seeing Beth a couple of year in. My taxes and accounts weren’t in great shape, and I had landed myself in some hot water. It was an area I didn’t understand very well and my accountant at the time wasn’t the right fit for the business, especially at the rate it was growing.

Beth was recommended to me by a friend who also had a small business and I decided to let her take over everything. It was the best decision I ever made for my business.

I completely understand most aspects of my taxes, company structures, taking dividends etc now. I have worked my way out of any tax issues and have complete control over my money now. I am always ahead in payments and will never let myself fall behind. It’s changed my life as well as the health and direction of the business.

I see Beth every quarter to go over figures and have a good yarn. I get so much value from these sessions, and it feels like a mini pump-up session every 3 months. I leave feeling motivated to achieve or maintain my targets and goals!

Q. Starting a small business can be challenging in today’s market. What is one thing you feel was a challenge for you and how did you overcome that?

A. Growth is beautiful, but it’s very hard to manage, especially when you don’t really know what you’re doing! You always must be a step ahead of yourself but sometimes you don’t even realise it. I learned early on that you typically needed to be over budget in wages to some point because you needed people to cover sick/annual leave and also needed the business to be able to grow into its people. Once that happened, it was time to hire again and repeat the cycle. This can be hard to accept because you ideally want your wages to be as low as possible, but it’s not always the best thing for your business or for your current team!

Same goes with space, systems etc. Choosing options that you won’t outgrow too quickly saves a lot of pain and hassle down the road.

Also, don’t skimp out on your accountant – it can end up costing you a lot more money in the long run!!

Q. How can people get in touch with Poppy Rose?

If your business is looking for a gift delivery service (yes they’re tax deductible – check our gifts article here), or you’d just like to send a bunch of beautiful blooms to a friend please contact the team at Poppy Rose today!

Order: Poppy Rose
Phone: CLICK TO CALL
Corporate queries: hi@poppyrose.com.au