Age

31

Education

Degree in biology from Oxford University.

So, what do you actually do?
I'm the managing director of Arenaflowers.com so have overall responsibility for the performance and health of the business. I also have operational duties myself. For example, I run all our Google Adwords advertising campaigns. In consultation with the team, I'm responsible for setting strategy and prioritising use of our resources (time and/or money). That means saying “no”, “yes” or “have we thought about this as an alternative?”

 
What makes your job so ethical?
My job running a florists doesn't necessarily have to be ethical. However our strategy means that, out of choice, it is. We are the first UK florist to sell Fair Flowers Fair Plants (FFP) accredited flowers. We made the decision to source and supply these flowers very early on. We felt it was the right thing to do for a number of reasons. The flowers are no more expensive than less ethically sound ones. There is growing demand for sustainable products from consumers, and it provides a point of differentiation for us as a business.  

It's my job to ensure that we keep our ethical credentials in mind for all decision-making. That may be having our greetings cards printed on sustainable paper, sourcing organic wines and chocolates to sell as add-ons, and even having a carbon neutral server for our site. We also reduce our carbon footprint in distribution too.

 

How did you get into it?

My dad was an entrepreneur and he always seemed like he was having such fun (albeit he was a little stressed at times!), so I grew up wanting to run my own business too. I got myself some training in the finance world, by going to work in venture capital for five years. Then I changed tack to get marketing and online experience, by going to work for eBay.co.uk in their marketing team. 

About 18 months ago I started to look around for an interesting project to strike out on my own with and, sitting having a chat with my friend Steve who was already working in the flower industry, we came up with the idea of launching the UK's first ethical florist, selling fantastic flowers, at great value, with a super slick user experience and an ethical angle.

What kind of personality is best suited to working in a job like yours?

You have to have passion, tons of energy and care about what you're doing or you'll run out of steam. You have to be very hard working (bordering on obsessive, at least for the first year!) and prepared to fail but be very unwilling to do so. It's vital to believe in the team around you because if you try and do it yourself, you definitely will fail. And, finally, you'll need to able to laugh it all off and start again the next day.

Arena Flowers

www.arenaflowers.com

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