50 Years in Flowers: Vonda's Origin Story
With Lori sidelined by laryngitis (picture a whispered Zoom call where Vonda catches herself whispering back), Vonda takes the mic solo for a milestone worth marking: September 2025 is 50 years since her first flower shop job. September 1975, Ames, Iowa — she was 14, too young for a work permit or a driver's license, so her parents drove her 12 miles every Saturday. That commitment was the first lesson: somebody is paying you to do a job, so do it, and do it right.
The front room: where quality begins
Under her mentor Peggy Harrison, Vonda's first assignment was cleaning — crystal, dusty displays, the "permanent botanicals" — and putting every piece back exactly where it belonged. It taught her that quality begins with cleanliness, and it's why she still tells shop owners to walk in their own front door and see what the customer sees. She learned the power of a greeting and a smile, and when she was terrified someone would ask her a question, the answer was simple: just come get one of us. Her first Christmas open house meant closing Saturday and working all night to flip the store by Sunday — a masterclass in watching one person's vision come to life through a willing team where everyone knew their task, finished it, and looked for the next one.
The back room: mechanics, care, and teamwork
Graduating to the back room meant processing flowers — a responsibility Vonda took so seriously that the shop's waste measurably dropped. Flower care equals quality equals satisfied customers. This was before floral foam: shredded styrofoam with chicken wire over the top, until Oasis arrived as the new cool thing, followed by glue guns. In that design room she learned that pretty isn't enough — good, solid mechanics keep a design intact when the driver moves it, and bad mechanics create complaints. She also learned to observe: watch the people around you, pick things up, and share teachable moments. She still remembers Donna, the pastor's wife with no sales experience, who presented every design with "Isn't this beautiful?" instead of "Do you like this?" — a natural lesson in the power of positivity. And she remembers the regulars — Joe the banker on his coffee break, Robert and Marvin who stopped in a few days a week — proof that a flower shop can be a retreat and a safe space, and that simple things bring joy both ways.
Ownership: know your competitors, and know your numbers
A stint at a wholesale house introduced Vonda to great (and demanding) designers — and to AIFD. In 1987 the Iowa gal flew alone to San Francisco for her first symposium; two years later she was inducted. Then came ownership in a new state with her husband and business partner, Bud: she brought shop operations, he brought HR, relationships, and business development. They did their market research first (the same setup work Flower Clique's Real Life Retail Florist course walks owners through today), found room in the market, and built on a tagline that said it all: a distinction in quality. The playbook was old-fashioned and it worked — community involvement, a team hired around shared core values, and a founding motto of family, friends, and fun. The business lessons still land today: count every flower in every arrangement. Price your designs as they need to be priced — know what competitors charge so you're in the ballpark, but don't copy them, because price shoppers are not the customer you want. And watch cash flow: when Bud came out of the office saying "if you don't need anything right now, hold off," that was smart buying — pushing Christmas deliveries later to earn net-30 terms, delaying homecoming orders a few weeks, even part-timers volunteering to shift hours. Vonda also cherished the working relationship with competitors — borrowing six white carnations until tomorrow's truck beats paying for a special wholesale run, and the kindness went both ways.
Sharing what you know
The first website (built by a self-taught family friend, about 10 products strong) arrived when the internet was, as Teleflora's Tom Butler put it, the wild, wild west — a shift Vonda compares to what AI is doing to the industry right now. Teaching floral design at Kishwaukee College through Bill McKinley and the AIFD student chapter taught her the joy of the light-bulb moment. And a hard season taught her what she calls the yo-yo effect: if you empower someone with a responsibility, don't snatch it back for self-serving reasons — it hurts, and it sends the message they failed. If you truly need to make a change, clear communication is all it takes. When the fun disappeared, she took her own parenting advice ("if you don't like what you're doing, make a change") and her entrepreneur parents' voice ("if you're going to work that hard, do it for yourself") — and Flower Clique was born, surviving a COVID launch and growing into a team she names with gratitude. Fifty years in, the through-line hasn't changed: keep learning, share what you know, and you elevate everyone around you.
Key takeaways
- Quality starts with cleanliness — walk in your front door regularly and see the shop as a customer sees it.
- Mechanics matter as much as beauty: a design that can't survive the delivery van creates complaints, not compliments.
- Know what competitors charge so you're in the ballpark, but never copy them — price shoppers aren't your customer.
- Watch cash flow like Bud did: hold off on non-essential buying, push delivery dates, and communicate it to the whole team.
- Don't play yo-yo with delegated responsibilities — if you must take something back, explain why clearly so it doesn't feel like punishment.