Today we’d like to introduce you to Quinner and Stephen Machnik.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Quinner and Stephen. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I first came to America from Taiwan in November, 2014 for a brief visit. I had taken time away from my flower shop in Tainan, Taiwan to visit Stephen in the Boston area.
Upon my return in December, 2014 I began planning to close my shop in Tainan and relocate to the Ashland, MA. My flower business in Taiwan was a combination of designing floral pieces for individual customers, and supplying flowers for a major retailer throughout Taiwan, the Carrefour Company.
A friend of my new husband knew of a flower shop in Weston, MA which was being run by a woman in her eighties, with no apparent successor with the expertise required to successfully take over her shop. My husband and I were able to acquire the shop from Ruth Leiby on February 10,2016. Since then we have been supplying flower arrangements, bouquets, serving many weddings, funerals, church services, proms, and business functions, as well as providing flowers for individuals for birthdays, get well, and many other needs in the Weston area.
In the 18 months since then, we have increased our business size by about 20%, and chosen to focus on high quality and fresh flowers, rather than high volume.
We have since established a relationship with FTD, and begun serving customers through their network. We also maintain our partnerships with Teleflora and Lovingly (formerly UFN). We also began supplying flowers to local restaurants, providing small cube arrangements for each table, keeping them fresh by replacing them on a regular basis.
Leibys’ focus is in providing absolute beauty in any flower arrangement for any occasion, complementing them with fruit baskets, chocolates, stuffed animals, and balloons. When you get the most appropriate arrangement or gift, at the most creative, highest quality.
As time goes by we will continue to satisfy local needs, and extend our offerings to more businesses and restaurants.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Our challenge has been in becoming a full-scale business in USA. All my experience had been in Taiwan, where the laws and government structure are different, and my husband, though he has business degrees from college, had not run a business by himself.
We have now overcome the problem of ensuring we have adequate resources for our business day to day. We have had to rely on the goodwill of our main creditors from time to time.
We are still surprised, now and then, by an urgent need for a floral delivery such as a last minute requirement for a funeral piece or a requirement for delivery during the Boston Marathon on the marathon route! (We got it done courtesy of the Natick Police Department).
Also, we’ve had some personnel issues, mainly related to delivery of our arrangements. We had some difficulty attracting good people to do this very important job for us, but we’ve have since found and settled on a confident, reliable and personable delivery staff.
Please tell us about Leiby’s Garden & Flower Shop.
We supply beautiful floral arrangements, which are absolutely second to none, thanks to the expertise of our designer. She was trained in Taiwan but a Japanese flower design expert more than 25 years ago, has always worked in flowers (has never had any other job), and uses our creative style to enhance our offerings with fruit, chocolate, teddy bears, wine, balloons, or any combination.
We have many, many repeat customers for exactly this reason.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
My skill is something which takes many years to develop. And it is the reason that people get their flowers from Leiby’s. If starting over today, we would find a person with the creativity and openness to gradually expand our creativity and offer our benefits to a significantly wider audience.
Pricing:
- Minimum arrangement is $50 plus local delivery of $12 which increases slightly with distance from our Weston shop.
- Our most beautiful flower arrangements go for $80 to $100, depending on the size and need for unique flowers.
- Our balloons are generally $5 each. They are fully helium inflated. Please call for balloon bouquet rates.
Contact Info:
- Address: Leiby’s Garden and Flower Shop
430 Boston Post Road,
Weston, MA 02493 - Website: www.leibysflowers.com
- Phone: 781-893-9121
- Email: leibysflowers@gmail.com
- Facebook: Leibys FlowerShop
- Yelp: yelp.com/leibysgardenshop
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