Business | Markets

Ask Jo Malone: Opportunities can come from win-win business arrangements

 
Small business agony aunt: Jo Malone (Picture: Jo Loves)
Jo Loves
Jo Malone
15 June 2015

Small business agony aunt Jo Malone on knowing your business' worth and understanding what you have to give in return for something you need to create a win-win situation.

Dear Jo,

I run an online flowers-by-post business. We despatch once a week and I need a workshop around Camden just for Tuesdays and Wednesdays to receive the flowers from UK farmers and prepare them before despatching to customers.

I can’t find any or I’ll have to pay for the whole week, which is very expensive. Any creative ideas around this?

Funnily enough my first job was in a flower shop. I was just 16 and vividly remember being surrounded by so many beautiful smells and the constant creativity — it’s where I fell in love with fragrance.

I quickly learned that the two most-important things when handling flowers was to get them into buckets of water as soon as they came back from the market and to keep them cool in the summer to prevent everything from wilting.

So thinking along these lines, I would recommend that you approach a local church in the Camden area.

Churches tend to be chilly and crypts even colder, which would make an ideal space for you to work from.

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To get started, perhaps you could offer to supply the flowers for Sunday service.

Negotiating a business arrangement which is mutually beneficial would also stimulate more opportunities such as flowers for weddings and christenings, flower-arranging courses and at Christmas you could offer to decorate Christmas trees and wreaths.

To get ahead, it is vital that you know your worth and understand what you have to give in return for something you need to create a win-win situation.

Business news in pictures - June 15

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Second, don’t forget your local council because there are so many empty units available that you could use as a temporary workshop for six months while you establish your business.

Also try community centres and local Women’s Institutes who are always so full of positive people willing to help with leads.

I’ve come to realise that when you are happy to accept help people come forward with the most unexpected and exciting offers.

Make sure you keep sharing your story and don’t be afraid to ask for help — if you don’t ask, you don’t get. Knock on as many doors as you can and I promise that eventually the right one will open.