080 | Using personal savings to grow a $23M business with Christina Stembel, Farmgirl Flowers

Christina Stembel is the founder of Farmgirl Flowers, which she started 7 years ago from her living room table. She invested $49,000 of her personal savings to start the business and Farm Girl Flowers is projected to hit $23M in revenue for 2018.

Christina disrupted the floral industry with new options for consumers, less waste and higher quality products. Farmgirl Flower arrangements are designed by hand, in-house in San Francisco California.

On today’s episode, Christina is sharing why it is so important to know your numbers, the struggles of scaling and how she’s pivoted more times that she can count. We also talked about how she’s been proactive about business education and why she focuses on caring about people, but not what they think about her.

ON TODAY’S EPISODE:

Her career background prior to starting Farmgirl Flowers
The research that lead her to an e-commerce floral boutique
How her business model has changed over the years
The importance of knowing your numbers as an entrepreneur
How she predicted numbers at the beginning of her business
The advantages of pivoting often in your business
Her attitude towards copycats
The very first position Christina hired for & how adding team members impacted her business
Farmgirl Flower’s marketing strategy
What success looked like for Christina in the early days & what it looks like now
How she learned business concepts
Lessons Christina has learned as an entrepreneur
The importance of focusing on team culture to avoid burn out
Her advice for someone just starting out as an entrepreneur
What’s next for Farmgirl Flowers

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KEY TAKE-AWAYS

“Younger consumers, it’s not rocket science what they want. They want something that’s beautiful, they want to feel like they weren’t ripped off or robbed in the process. They want a good value for the money.” – Christina Stembel

“There’s 27 million new box companies or socks companies or toothbrush companies, but there’s nobody that’s reinvented this space yet, so let me see if I can be the one to do it.” – Christina Stembel

“My goal from day one was to build a billion dollar company, and I have no qualms saying that.” – Christina Stembel

“Everybody always asks if we’re profitable. We have to be profitable.” – Christina Stembel

“As an entrepreneur, you have to know your numbers. You have to know your forecast. You have to know your projections, and you have to go back and check them often.” – Christina Stembel

“Our consumers are telling us what they like and don’t like, and so listening to them, seeing what’s selling, not selling, and then pivoting.” – Christina Stembel

“Every two weeks, our company looks different than it did two weeks ago.” – Christina Stembel

“I think the fact that we can change so quickly without any red tape allows us to ensure that we are a very healthy, financially healthy company.”– Christina Stembel

“If everybody’s making things that look strikingly similar to us and creating businesses that look strikingly similar to us, that means we’re the best.” – Christina Stembel

“I think part of the thing that makes us different and more special than our competitors, in my opinion, is that we have a heart.” – Christina Stembel

“The number one thing that to me means that I’m being successful is that I don’t run out of money.” – Christina Stembel

“I think if we focus on building a business that we believe in, that has the core values that really mirror our own personal core values, then that’ll breed success.” – Katie Hunt

“You can learn anything you want just on the internet now.” – Christina Stembel

“The number one thing that I’ve learned from it is that it doesn’t matter if you make mistakes. The only thing that matters is that you get back up.” – Christina Stembel

“Just because they say it doesn’t make it true.” – Christina Stembel

CONNECT WITH CHRISTINA STEMBEL

Website: Farmgirl Flowers | Instagram: @farmgirlflowers | Facebook: @farmgirlflowers | Pinterest: @farmgirlflowers | Twitter: @farmgirlflowers

Connect with Katie Hunt

Katie Hunt is a business strategist, podcaster, mentor and mama to four. She helps product based businesses build profitable, sustainable companies through her conferences, courses and coaching programs.

Website: prooftoproduct.com | Instagram: @prooftoproduct