Today we’d like to introduce you to Pam Goddard.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My floral design adventure began after realizing that nursing school was not for me. I was introduced to the Commercial Floraculture program at Michigan State University and from there I interned and eventually was hired at the Wild Strawberry in Holt, Michigan. I worked at several shops over the years and settled down in Morley, Michigan in 1997 to be closer to family. After some encouragement from my husband, we opened our doors in January of 2002 in our original location in downtown Cedar Springs. It was an older building and money was tight, as it always is with a new business, but my husband and I worked hard to provide our customers with quality product and a genuine customer experience. Over the years we have done very little advertising, placing our trust instead in building a word-of-mouth reputation in our local community. After the original building we were in burned down in 2009 (while we were on a family vacation in Florida) we went through the hard process of finding a new space and rebuilding. We moved to our current location on White Creek Ave and we have been here ever since! While there is something sweet and nostalgic about being in downtown, our new location has been good to us as we’re close to the 131 freeway, other thriving businesses and a growing part of the city. Just this last January we expanded our floral cooler as we needed more space to hold our product. The business has been growing and with it, our space becomes more cramped, especially during the holidays! In the beginning it was just my husband and I, me the designer and him the delivery guy, and now we have 3 full time designers (including myself) and a part time delivery driver. One of our other full time designers is my daughter, Morgan! She grew up in our business and spent most of her childhood here in the store and eventually helping out with design work and delivery driving. She went on to graduate with a bachelor’s degree from Ferris State University and after a few years in the corporate world, decided to join us again in the floral business in October of 2020. In the coming years we hope to pass the business on to her as we get closer to retirement.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Well the first obstacle we came up against was actually another floral shop opening its doors in Cedar Springs within two weeks of us opening ours! Neither of us realized that the other was planning to do so, so it was a bit of a surprise. We certainly were not at each other’s throats, but it can be hard for two brand new businesses to get themselves established. After a few years the other floral shop eventually closed down. And really the second obstacle for us was truly the burning of our original location. The whole building was a loss, including apartments upstairs and a few other businesses located in the same building. We were on a family vacation in Florida with my two younger kids and we received a call from my Mom telling us what had happened. We discussed coming back right away as we had a couple days left, but my Dad said that there really was nothing to come back to. The building had been reduced to about a 3-foot pile of rubble. Thankfully we had insurance but that was a headache and a half trying to get everything in place to find a new location.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
As a florist that has been in business for nearly 25 years, we pride ourselves on giving our customers the best experience we can. Floral design is a subjective art to some degree so we try to offer the best product we can with a wide range of styles and prices to meet the needs of our community, while adding our own style to the mix. We often favor garden and wildflower style bouquets and during the summer my husband and I grow a large garden with many perennials and annuals for harvesting to use in these garden style bouquets. We also focus our energy on not only finding the best quality floral products we can but taking care of them properly to ensure the best vase life for our customers. Flowers are not a cheap item, and we want our customers to get the most out of their bouquet! We offer floral creations for really just about any occasion, from birthdays, thinking of you, sympathy florals and weddings. We want to be our communities trusted local florist and have done our best over the years to build that reputation.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
Cedar Springs is really a wonderful place to have started our business. It’s close to Grand Rapids so we have a lot of people moving to the area and over the years it’s been fun to see it grow! Our delivery area is fairly large so we get to see some beautiful country landscapes.
Pricing:
- Generally bouquets in a vase start at $35.00
- Medium bouquets generally run from $60.00 $75.00
- And large bouquets starting at $100
- We do offer flowers by the stem as well starting at $2.00
- Plants usually start at around $35.00
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cedarspringsfloral.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cedarspringsfloral/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CedarSpringsFloral
- Other: https://g.page/r/CfvPN3Ry_kteEBM/review
