Entrepreneur: Kelly Jamieson
Kelly Jamieson. Kelly founded Edible Blooms with her sister Abbey, which began as a small business start-up in 2005 and has grown to be the current winner of Canstar’s 2022 Australian Online Gift Delivery Company award. Kelly and her team are also previous National Telstra Business Award winners. An advocate for women leading in business, Kelly was named the 2011 SA Telstra Business Woman of the Year and is a 2018 inductee to the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Winning Women program.
In her spare time, Kelly can be found jumping off the Port Elliot jetty fully clothed, challenging her team to how many chocolates they can eat in a day or busting embarrassing disco moves with her husband and two children.
You started Edible Blooms in 2005, what gave you the courage to turn it from an idea into an actual business?
Thank you, it’s great to be here! I always wanted to own my own business – since I was about 15 years old!
It was the concept of smooshing together two of my favourite things – fresh flowers and gourmet food - that created the concept of Edible Blooms. I started making some prototypes to take to friends houses as desserts and the reaction was so good it made sense to take the plunge and turn it into a business. From the time I started experimenting to opening our first set of colourful doors was just a few months.
The other thing that gave me the courage to start was my family and especially my sister Abbey. She joined me soon after Edible Blooms started and it’s one of my biggest joys, working with my sister every day.
Edible Blooms now operates throughout Australia and New Zealand with six locations. When was the first time you thought ‘I am successful’?
The key to success is continually learning. I never feel like I know everything and I’m naturally curious which means I’m always thinking about what’s next. Taking a moment to pause and reflect was probably when we were nominated by a friend for the Telstra Business Awards a few years after starting Edible Blooms. It was pretty incredible to be recognised as both a State and National winner.
In the early days you did everything in the business yourself, from making your edible blooms to dressing as a giant strawberry to deliver them! How much hard work goes into building a successful business?
So much! I think it’s important to know and understand all parts of how a business operates and there is no learning experience quite like starting up your own venture. When you follow your passions and dreams, you easily spend a lot of time on your business without it feeling like ‘work’. This is definitely important because the more you put in, the better the results.
What was the biggest hurdle you’ve had to overcome in business?
Great question, I think it would be trying to juggle being a great Mum and a great leader. Managing my time since becoming a parent has been a constant struggle and sometimes I feel like I’m failing at both because I just need more hours in the day! It’s really helpful to have others around you with similar challenges so you can help each other. Quentin Bryce said ‘You can have it all, but just not all at once’ so I try to focus on one thing at a time and prioritise as best I can.
How do you celebrate success?
As a team we get together for fun activities. Most recently we went lawn bowling together and one of my favourites was a Paint and Sip class we all did together. It’s important to have fun with your team.
Taking regular holidays is also important to me to celebrate success with my family. This is also how I make sure we spend quality time together. Travelling has always brought me a lot of joy and I have been lucky to do a lot of it since I first went on a working holiday to the UK at 21 years of age. I hope I am giving my own children a love of travel with the experiences we share as a family.
What education/skills do you think are most important for someone wanting to become an entrepreneur?
It’s all about attitude in my experience. Curiosity and love of learning is key if you want to be an entrepreneur. Great problem solving skills and a positive outlook on life are also essential. Other than that, you can pretty much learn anything else you need to!
What are three pieces of advice you’d give a young person with a great business idea and entrepreneurial dreams?
Do as much research as you can before you get started – learn and pre-empt any pitfalls before you get started. It’s amazing what you can learn from talking to people and researching online.
Create a written plan – the statistics support that a written plan gives you a much greater chance of success. There are great business plan templates you can download for free!
Surround yourself with great people.
You run Edible Blooms with your sister Abbey, what’s it like working with family? How do you overcome differences of opinion?
Abbey and I have always been best friends as well as sisters, we’re incredibly lucky to have one another. The secret to our partnership is that we bring different skill sets to the business and we trust each other completely.
What were you like as a tween/teen?
I had no idea what I wanted to do until after I finished school! Although I was a reasonably good student, I also wasn’t overly confident when I was younger. I developed confidence once I started working my first office job and I loved it.
Do you think branding or social media is more important to a new business?
This absolutely depends on how you can best reach your customers. For most businesses, I think you need social media (ie customer communication channels) in order to build a brand.
Franc’s Fast Five
Favourite subject in school? Art
Summer or Winter? Summer
What do you collect? Friends
Go-to weekend breakfast? Poached eggs and crispy bacon
What is the first thing you do each day? Gratitude – the start and end of my day. I love reflecting on the positive things in my life, it starts the day well and helps me sleep each night.