Business Spotlight: Country Garden Florist

Yvette Quigley has always had an interest in flowers. In fact, Quigley helped out with flower arrangements for her friends' weddings for years while living in Michigan, which is where she met her partner Mike Shaw. The pair moved to Lilburn and took over ownership of Country Garden Florist from Rita Pantels last February. Pantels originally opened up the florist shop in 1977. I recently sat down with Yvette and Mike to talk about their business.

Patch: What is the best aspect of owning Country Garden Florist?

Mike: We were very fortunate in terms of the staff and the customer base that were in place from the many years that Rita was running this place. We have very loyal customers and we do things that are a little bit out of the norm and we go above and beyond. But our customers know that this is what we're about. There are a lot of advantages to owning your own business but I think that it's not always as glamorous as people think. Yvette and I both left corporate positions in which we were both traveling 50 to 70 percent of the time. It's nice to be a lot more grounded in one place and we have a lot more say in doing the things that we want to do. It's rewarding.

Patch: What is the most challenging aspect of owning a florist shop?

Yvette: Trying to make the right decisions in terms of marketing and staffing and learning the cycles with the holidays. Valentines Day for instance we do four or five times the business that we do in a normal busy day. So figuring out what we need to do to prepare for those really busy times has been a real learning process.

Mike: It's not as predictable as some businesses. It's really driven by demand of different events that happen in peoples' lives. One day we might be dead but the next day could be crazy. It's balancing all of that and being ready for the busy times.

Patch: What makes your business unique?

Yvette: I would say first and foremost the quality of our work. We put out a really nice product. There is a lot of thought that goes into each thing that we do. Also our staff has as much of their hearts into the business as we do. We were told that by Rita but I couldn't have believed it until a couple of months into being an owner and seeing it for myself. We couldn't do a lot of the things that we are able to do unless we had the staff that we do. They are very devoted and they have a whatever-it-takes attitude. Staying late, coming in early, dropping off orders on their way home. They do it all.

Mike: One of the things about Yvette is that she is very professional in the wedding side of the business. She has truly embraced this part of our business. The comments that we've had from brides is that Yvette's work is unique and she really listens to what they want. That's a tall order in many cases because you only have one shot at it.

Patch: What makes the Lilburn community special?

Mike: There is definitely a community feel here. Obviously we're newcomers in terms of living in Georgia. But we have felt a lot of comraderie and feeling welcomed by the community. It seems like that being as close as it is to a major city, Lilburn has a small town feel.

Yvette: It is amazing that in a year the number of people that we know. We didn't know anyone before moving from Michigan but now we are stopped on the street all of the time and that is really nice.

Located at 3638 Lawrenceville Hwy., Country Garden Florist is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. and Saturday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. For Valentines Day, hours will be extended Monday, February 13 and Tuesday February 14 until 7 p.m. For more information check out their website at www.countrygardenflorist.net