Style Flower Shop Entrepreneurship: From the dialogue between the two founders of GEKIHANA Flower Shop and Yiyuhua, we can re-understand operating figures and business models
I heard that today is the hottest May day in Taipei City in the past 122 years, but no matter how hot the weather is, it cannot resist the enthusiasm of a group of friends who are deeply interested in entrepreneurship. In the afternoon, everyone gathered together to participate in the “Style Flower Shop Entrepreneurship (opens in a new tab)” event hosted by Mouselab (opens in a new tab). Cafe](https://www.facebook.com/ceeinganemos/ (opens in a new tab)) The second floor is packed! Not only the enthusiasm for entrepreneurship, but also everyone’s curiosity and desire for a style flower shop can be seen.
Thanks to Mouselab2015/ (opens in a new tab) for facilitating this event, which was co-founded by two Chinese and Japanese online flower shop operators (“There are flowers in a corner (opens in a new tab)” Zhang Baiwei (opens in a new tab) and “Digital Power is the Power to Make Money” (https://goo.gl/FbTAuA (opens in a new tab)). The “Digital Thinking to Drive Steady Sales Growth” entrepreneurship lecture given by Furuya Furuya (opens in a new tab), the author of “Digital Power is the Power to Make Money (opens in a new tab)” gave me the opportunity to see the two entrepreneurs personally and learn a lot of business concepts.
In fact, I am no stranger to Furuya Satoru (opens in a new tab), the author of “Digital Power is Money-Making Power (opens in a new tab)”, because I was once invited by the publishing house to help write recommendations for his masterpieces. Previously, some friends in Taiwan’s e-commerce circle, such as Xiaohei, Mike and others, also praised this book. In fact, we at TeSA had previously organized a [reading session] for this book (https://tesa.today/article/1822 (opens in a new tab)).
Last time I was chatting with Mike (opens in a new tab) at Blue Rock Coffee. While talking about his experience in starting a women’s underwear business, we also talked about the inspiration of this book for him, which made me want to read it several times. So, a month ago, when I learned that Furuya Furuya (opens in a new tab) was coming to Taiwan to share his entrepreneurial experience, I signed up immediately without thinking!
Today, in addition to getting a glimpse of Furuya Satoru (opens in a new tab), I also understand the importance of small profits (marginal contribution) from his personal experience. Many friends who start a business or open a store just want to increase sales without paying attention to the hidden expenses. This is really dangerous! After listening to Mr. Furuya’s sharing, I was convinced that you can really make money by understanding numbers.
This is Mr. Furuya’s first visit to Taiwan. From his Facebook, I saw [photos] of tasting Taiwanese food and visiting bookstores in the past two days (https://www.facebook.com/Furuya.s/posts/1972460632765489 (opens in a new tab)). I think he must have left a good impression on the island, right? Well, I also look forward to his GEKIHANA Flower Shop (opens in a new tab) and health food business expanding to Taiwan!
Compared with Mr. Furuya, I am completely unfamiliar with the co-founder of “There are flowers in a corner (opens in a new tab)” Zhang Baiwei (opens in a new tab)! I am ashamed to say that it was only today that I got to know “Yiyuflorist (opens in a new tab)”, an online flower shop that adopts a subscription service system. But the entrepreneurial community is actually very small. I was chatting with Baiwei (opens in a new tab) during the break, and I suddenly discovered that I have a close connection with “There is a Flower in the Corner (opens in a new tab)”!
“There are flowers in every corner (opens in a new tab)” I hope flowers can enter a corner of people’s lives. Through the considerate “subscription system” service, fresh flowers of the season are selected every week and delivered by dedicated personnel, adding beautiful little surprises and expectations to most people’s work life.
“There are flowers in a corner (opens in a new tab)” co-founder Zhang Baiwei (opens in a new tab) mentioned that the key to promoting subscription services is products, services, trust and popularity. Coincidentally, Furuya Satoruji (opens in a new tab) also mentioned that entrepreneurs must “save credit first, not money.”
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When it comes to business models and digital power, Paul Cheung (opens in a new tab) also echoes Furuya (opens in a new tab) - only the higher the gross profit, the more room for merchants to operate. High revenue alone is not a guarantee, you must pay attention to many aspects; in addition, do not blindly increase product categories just to pursue sales figures.
Zhang Baiwei (opens in a new tab) pointed out that the subscription system is a long-term relationship that brings customers a week of fragrance at the cost of about two cups of Starbucks coffee. They choose to charge the target customer group an amount that allows them to live on, and use delicate social marketing techniques, such as the heart-warming service of “weekly cards” and carefully selected wrapping paper. All these efforts are nothing more than hoping that customers can have the best experience the moment they receive the flowers!
I just mentioned yesterday that “Learning can make life better”, I think starting a business is the same! Before changing the world, I hope to learn from the experience shared by two online flower shop operators from China and Japan, and then start by changing myself.
I think of what Furuya Satoruji (opens in a new tab) said today when he answered a guest’s question about how to become a consultant: “It is true that many people may read a lot of books and start working as consultants, but if they only understand the theory and do not pay attention to practice, it will be difficult to provide specific assistance. As a consultant, if you do not personally run a business, you cannot use the numbers on your transcript to speak for yourself!”
As a business consultant now, these words undoubtedly inspire me. Whether I founded TeSA (opens in a new tab) (currently the largest e-commerce community in Taiwan) with a group of friends three or four years ago, or now run the Content Hacker website, I think the principles are the same. We must be more pragmatic and diligent, and use data to interpret operating results - this is not only the spirit of an entrepreneur, but also the quality that a successful consultant should have.
★ To improve your content power, come and join Teacher Vista’s online course “Content Power: The Super Power of Building Brands (opens in a new tab)”
Further reading
- Stop blindly pursuing traffic: The secret for small e-commerce businesses to make big money is hidden in that broken bowl
- Sales no longer relies on luck: Revealing the growth rules of “The Model” of Japanese B2B
- Make good use of AI tools to help you understand what foreign language videos are saying in seconds
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Vista Cheng speaks and runs workshops on AI workflows, writing and content systems for companies, schools and public agencies.
