I Felt Like There Wasn’t a Market for My Products

I officially started Bouquets en Papier (Paper Bouquets) two years ago but I've been drawing paper flowers for over 20 years. The idea was planted (pun intended) by my mother who would tell me that “flowers are dead from the moment you pick them.” For this reason, she didn’t like to have floral arrangements or ‘dead flowers’, as she’d call them, in the house and preferred to enjoy them in her garden.

From a young age, I loved to do all things creative. For special occasions such as birthdays or Mother’s day, I would draw paintings of flowers and would make paper origami bouquets and eventually started cutting my drawings to make paper flower collages. 

The first time the idea of starting a business came to me was when I saw a video about how unsustainable valentine’s day can be, due to factors such as the carbon cost of transportation and water usage. I wondered if I could combine the idea of gifting flowers and art into one. People gift flowers for all sorts of occasions but the joy of receiving flowers is short-lived. Paper flower art, on the other hand, could last for years! Due to the nature of my business and having to use paper, I decided that I needed to give back to the world. Early on, I decided to partner up with the non-profit organization ‘One Tree Planted.’ Every bouquet purchase plants one tree!

Today, Bouquets en Papier is carried by various shops, online retailers such as Uncommon Goods and The Grommet, museums, and botanical gardens all over the nation. It has been featured in The Weekly newspaper and in the Real Simple magazine. Our products range from paper flower bouquets, cards, and wedding bouquet recreations.

Finding My Market

I started my business when I was staying home with my daughter. Anyone who is a mother knows that looking after a newborn is tough. I felt as though I had no time to do anything but also felt like I had all the time in the world. I decided to quit my full-time job as an architectural designer to stay home with my daughter but I still wanted a creative outlet and something to call my own.

Starting a business was far from glamorous. Taxes, documentation, permits… the list grew to be quite daunting. Admittedly, it took me a while to get everything set up but once all the legalities were set I hit the road running.

One of the first things I did after setting up my business was to apply to as many craft fairs as possible. I wasn’t sure who my target market was and assumed that my products would garner a lot of interest. I was so wrong. After spending a whole week preparing for a craft fair I sold one item in the 6 hours that I was there. I was embarrassed to be there, especially seeing that my neighboring booths were doing so well. There was another craft fair where I drove for 1.5 hours and sold just about enough to cover the booth fee. After participating in about 4 craft fairs and doing poorly, I started to doubt my product and my skills. Perhaps there wasn’t a market for paper flowers and I was just wasting my time. I felt defeated and humiliated and started to wonder whether it was worth continuing when it obviously seemed like there was no interest. 

Almost as a last resort, I decided to pause on the craft fairs and focus on the online aspect of my business. I took the following steps to find my target market.

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