Beautiful Kreations • South Florida Women in Business { south florida lifestyle photographer }
I recently met Marcia Villiers, the owner of Beautiful Kreations, at a wedding I was photographing. She had created the beautiful bridal bouquet, as well as the floral design for the room at the Hyatt Pier 66. We chatted over dinner, and I found out that we had a lot in common. We are both the owners of our own businesses, we are both passionate about being creative, and we are both constantly interested in learning more about marketing, branding, and other business strategies. Plus, we both look for artistic inspiration in the world around us. So, I am very pleased that Marcia agreed to be our guest blogger this month for the South Florida Women in Business segment.
Q: Tell blog readers about your business…
Beautiful Kreations is a 5+ year full service floral décor and wedding planning studio with 14 years of event industry experience started with the planning of my own wedding and years later some beautiful floral work we did for one of Clarence Clemons Charities “The Childrens’ Place Safe at Home.” We are happy to celebrate our 1st year at our new 1000sqft location here in Tamarac, FL though I feel like we need more room. We enjoy taking full advantage of business seminars pertaining to our industry so that we can impart those fresh, innovative ideas to our discerning clientele. We are passionate, creative and a lot of fun to be around. When we meet with our clients, it’s always clear to them we are passionate about their design concept, the understanding of the vision they want for their big day, and of course making sure we meet and exceed all of their requirements. I am extremely involved in each of the wedding events that we produce as I understand it’s one of the most important days in my clients’ lives. We were very happy to be one of the chosen Tailgate Florist designing for 10,000+ VIPs and tailgate fans for the 2010 Superbowl at Sun Life Stadium here in Miami. Fingers crossed that they will be back here in 2014!
Q: How do you balance work, family and fun?
I always love the saying “all work and no play makes Jack a dumb boy” I work hard but I also play hard too. And I’ve got to tell you being married for 14years with 3 kids the oldest in middle school with 2 elementary girls, the family and the family chores are no easy tasks. Talk about Monday evening BSO (Broward Sheriffs Office) Cadets, and the Tuesday nights Socialites for the girls on break for now, coupled with evening appointments that’s most welcomed by most of my professional clienteles, prepping dinner, homework (s) squeeze in a weekend movie/ party plus client’s events whew! Quite a handful! The honey and I do get to break away though, could be a stroll on the beach, a drive to South Beach, an afternoon bite, and then there is Disney which we look very forward to around the holidays during December. Still there is one show of all the years of going to Disney we haven’t seen and it’s the Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party and I’m committed to making sure we see that this year.
Q: What’s the most rewarding aspect to owning your own business?
I love this business, OMG! The interaction with all the clients, getting to know a little or a lot about their background, how they’d like to incorporate some of those traditions into their wedding is so very special. I truly love that. I love the time and flexibility the business offers, even though I may be up until midnight tweeting or on FaceBook I can always sleep until 10am unless I have an early am appointment. I like that I’m always in the creative mode it’s really an enjoyable process. I love the fact that I can assist my clients with finding inspiration in something as simple as a style of pen, a shoe, a pocket book, a painting, a scarf, an engagement ring, and being able to bring about ambiance and character to their event from infusing those inspirations is such a great feeling.
Q: What’s the most challenging thing about owning your business?
We are working on defining our “target market” to make the most of our advertising dollars. If it cost us $200 per month to advertise and our phones are not ringing, then that was a bad ROI. That’s $2400 annually wasted -lesson well learned. Knowing “where” to advertise is one of the key factors for our creative business. We’re also looking at Branding and a better Marketing plan and we are very excited about our new approach. Those areas hit us hard last year, 2009 was a good challenge to have. We’ve learned what to avoid, what to stay focused on and so we are ready to apply our lessons to 2010 and beyond.
Q: If you had to describe your life, your business, as a movie title, what would it be?
Wow! Ummmh! I love Dirty Dancing RIP Patrick Swayze, Love just about every thing “Bond” James Bond! Love Pretty Woman! Those are some great choices. I love to explore options/ investigate things. Fits right in with planning and decorating!
Thank you Marcia! You can view more examples of Marcia's work on her website and blog at www.beautifulkreations.com.