Owner To Owner Podcast Diana Sargeant from rosesalesonline.com.au on turning the worlds favorite flower into a business
Diana & Graham Sargeant run www.rosesalesonline.com.au, a leading destination for the #roselovers across Australia. The business started unexpectedly while on their honeymoon.
It's always been a #familybusiness, built around #familyvalues and #parenting and sharing the love for what is the #worldsfavoriteflower in a #sustainable, caring way for the #environment.
In our freeflowing and open discussion Diana talks about;
- starting at Kilmore back in 1986
- starting out of a small cottage with kids at home and being a #stayathomemum
- making a visit to the world rose convention, entering a miniature rose that unexpectedly won the Australian award for miniature roses - the #traceywickhamrose that really kickstarted the business
- from there building gardens around the cottage leading to people stopping because they knew that we were doing something there and they would ask, you know, can we buy this and can we buy that?
- reallising when there's obviously a business in this
- dealing with council and with neighbours who didnt want change and having a #waroftheroses
- turning this negativity into an enormous amount of really good publicity
- getting nominated to go to America on a rotary program (Business Program) for women, and the incredible impact this had
- going away as a #youngmum from my kids and husband for five weeks
- getting priorities sorted
- remodelling the business to suit their lifestyle
- opening the second nursery cafe in Victoria
- writing a book
- creating a newsletter, converting it to an email which nows goes to 10K subscribers every Thursday @ 10am
- #contentmarketing, sharing knowledge and #educatingcustomers
- the rose that went missing for 21 days in the post but survives in her garden to this day
- how #aupost came to the rescue - going direct to the top in Australia Post, punching out an email to Christine Holgate on a Saturday and getting a personal that Saturday evening (the absolute honest truth)
- 10 years on #3cr community radio
- the transformation from a traditional horticultural business to an online business
- becoming renowned across the country for your wealth of knowledge about all things roses
- the booming rose industry
- #grasgarble
- the avalanche of people moving into gardening because people have tapped into something that they really like - connecting with the soil, connecting with themselves, feeling really good about this gardening thing - it's not going away
Thanks for listening. Visit the Owner To Owner Podcast website to subscribe, listen back, or check out any resources or information mentioned on the show.
Search @ownertoownerpodcast on your favourite podcast player to subscribe and listen to the episodes.
Reach out to Michael Kerr via the website if you need personal assistance or advice for your small business.
michael.kerr@kerrcapital.com.au
www.ownertoownerpodcast.com.au