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Vicky Murphy, STEP HR manager spoke to Michelle Stevenson, director at Jennifer Morrison Florist at the launch of their new space in Stirling about the ups and downs of their business journey.
“I’m so proud of where we are today as a company but it’s certainly not been an easy ride, it’s been a journey of ups, downs and a lot of hard graft!
I began working at Jennifer Morrison Florist’s on Saturdays when I was just 15. After a short time, the company offered to put me through a YTS training scheme, attending college one day a week for five years. This was a great opportunity for me, I was incredibly lucky and I can’t wait to pay this back by offering a similar opportunity to a young person in the future.
Following this, at 21, I made the big decision to buy the business, as a going concern and took over the lease of the premises. The name Jennifer Morrison Florist was established and locally known so I decided to keep the branding and continue the high standard that was connected with the name.
I remember feeling frightened of the responsibility at the time. Taking on the shop involved getting bank loans, but I was so determined to make it a success and that determination made me fight the fears.
My lease at Spittal Street was for 10 years, I remember thinking wow such a long time but before I knew it I was signing up for another 10 years! During this time I got married and had a baby and my sister Adele who worked in the shop became my business partner.
The company grew so much that we took on an additional workspace at STEP’s Stirling Enterprise Park to meet the demand. Then at the end of now 20 years at Spittal Street, the opportunity came for us to move to larger premises at Springkerse Industrial Estate, with the added benefit of parking, so we took the leap and moved.
We were just getting settled and loving working from our new space then bang – COVID hit and like it was for everyone it was tough!
We made it through though and were back up and running supplying weddings, events, etc.. when our next hurdle struck us. The people we subleased from were closing down! Yes you guessed it, it was time to move again and if you’ve ever packed up your entire business and moved you’ll know it’s nothing but stressful!
But every cloud has a silver lining and our silver lining was the unit of our dreams on Munro Road. The space was not far from where we were trading which made things a lot easier.
We’ve now been in the space for three weeks and it’s fair to say (touch wood) we are loving it. Currently, Adele and I employ two staff members and we are looking to add to this soon. The space allows us to look at our team and what our future team will look like.
We have plenty of space to grow not just the business, but our creativity. The space allows us to host workshops, share our skills with others and use the fabulous space to its full potential, our first workshop was a pumpkin workshop – which was a great success, and our next will be Christmas-themed – so watch out for that.
The team at STEP have always been super supportive of our business. Whether it’s been for looking for property, needing some HR advice or just some friendly business chat, they’ve been there for us and it’s fair to say we’ve become friends with many of them.”
You can find out more about Jennifer Morrison Florist at https://jennifermorrisonflorist.co.uk/ or by visiting their new space at Unit 3, 10 Munro Road, Springkerse Industrial Estate, FK7 7UU.
