Melanie Fernandez, founder of House of Lilac
Melanie Fernandez understood quickly that pivoting as a result of COVID-19 would take more than simply encouraging her customers to connect with her online. When she started House of Lilac a flower company in 2014 her unique value proposition was consistently listening to what her customers wanted and this time in the world was encouraging her to do more of the same.
“We’ve always stayed away from big events,” explains Fernandez of the business that graduated from gift boxes to brick-and-mortar flower offerings. “Our focus, from the beginning, has always been ‘everyday flowers.’ That includes flower deliveries, subscriptions, gifts, home décor, and small dinner party packages.”
Being dependent on the ‘everyday flowers’ business model was both the silver lining and mountain to climb for Fernandez.
“Flower distributors stopped selling fresh flowers —essentially, the markets halted and closures started trickling down to the flower farms, affecting everyone in the chain of supply,” explains Fernandez. “90% of my revenue pre-COVID was premised on fresh flowers. At that point, all I could think was, ok, what’s the 10% we sell that isn’t coming from fresh flowers and how can I ride that wave?”
Since sitting down and asking those tough questions, Fernandez has identified and expanded the revenue stream that was offering her an opportunity to stay afloat — dried flowers.
Below Fernandez expands on the 4 tactics that have helped her save her flower business during COVID-19.
When resources run dry, look at what you can still offer
Taking a step back is ultimately what helped Fernandez spot the existing revenue stream that could be expanded to help keep the company afloat.
“People loved dry flowers for home décor and we had started filming these quick tip IGTVs a few months prior to inspire those that wanted to elevate their home décor through dried florals,” adds Fernandez. “I’d get endless calls in the store about them but people would come in because we had so much variety it was easier to see in person. A lightbulb went off and I basically took all the dried flowers we had in store and created a collection online in three different color palettes for people to choose from that we could ship UPS (so we didn’t have to come into contact with anyone and we could increase our customer base by expanding outside Miami). It took off.”
Like crazy style. At that point, I started picking up on my consumer trends after launch and realized people were purchasing dried flowers for their homes (because they were home a lot and paying attention to the décor more than ever) and they were sending gifts to those they missed and couldn’t see. So I loaded more products onto the website that fit that criteria: fresh eucalyptus for your house, quarantine care packages for those you loved and missed. And, the rest was history.
Plan for long-term
No one knows how long quarantine is going to last and even when we do begin to reopen, there will be a transition period where not every city or state is on the same path. Acknowledging this has helped Fernandez keep her finger on the pulse of what her and her team she continue to pour energy into.
“I started picking up on my consumer trends after launching [dried flowers] and realized people were purchasing dried flowers for their homes (because they were home a lot and paying attention to the décor more than ever) and they were sending gifts to those they missed and couldn’t see,” notes Fernandez. “So I loaded more products onto the website that fit that criteria: fresh eucalyptus for your house, quarantine care packages for those you loved and missed.”
She adds:
“For us nowadays it’s about reassessing what’s going to make us profitable down the line. I’m working under the assumption that this will go on for at least another 6 months, and if that’s the case, how are we going to make money consistently every month? Does that mean more dried flowers? Does that mean other revenue streams?”
Be honest with your community
“I’m such a believer in silver lining situations and what I mean by that is, take this time to assess where your business is at and what is working and what’s not working,” encourages Fernandez. “Do the work right now so that if and when this happens again, you’re not affected. And as for business, what can you give your customer? How can you pivot? Our biggest weapon has been communicating with our customers. I tell them what’s happening, what’s going on, how difficult it is to be an entrepreneur, what we’re selling and how they can support. And they connect to that.”
