DETROIT (AP) - Twitter has a consistent flow of tweets leading to an Instagram page about the Detroit Flower Company, with followers dropping hints to people to purchase a bouquet for them.
Detroit Flower’s Instagram followers - 6,460 people and growing - wait for the company’s founder, Ja’Nye Hampton, 21, to post images of flowers each day. If she misses a day, she says, she receives several messages from people asking why.
“It’s overwhelming,” Hampton told the Detroit Free Pres s. “Detroit is literally amazing. They only want to see you win. So many people that I’ve never met in my entire life go so hard for me.I just can’t believe it.”
Hampton, 21, started the business two years ago, but she originally had dreams of becoming a fitness trainer. Now, she knows that flowers have been her calling this whole time.
Customers send messages to order colorful sunflowers and roses in various arrangements around the clock. But no flower arrangement is the same, Hampton said.
“I just love waking up and doing flowers,” said Hampton. “I’ve worked jobs and I’ve managed jobs, but there’s nothing like having your own (company). I really put my all into it and I literally live to please my customers. It goes far beyond the flowers, whether it’s giving them their favorite candy, doing last-minute accommodations and adding flowers for free.”
Hampton said that people want to support her because she is a young, Black entrepreneur. She has a goal to have conversations with her customer and be as personable as possible.
In the future, Hampton hopes to open a flower truck or store with a full team. But the journey to get to this moment has been full of life-changing events.
Hampton started a summer job in 10th grade at a Thrifty Florist location near her home. She was hired, but in just two weeks, she had become sick with sepsis. The life-threatening condition happens when an infection is already present, but it travels through the body, damaging tissue, and potentially causing organ failure and even death.
“I just remember calling the lady who was managing the place,” said Hampton. “My mom was telling her that I wouldn’t be able to come back and I would probably have to be in the hospital for two to three weeks, which I was. But she ended up letting me keep my job.”
Hampton’s job gave her two weeks to recover. After she learned all of the Thrifty Florist techniques, soon, customers began looking for her to do their flower arrangements.
She eventually left her job and went to college at Ferris State University. But when she returned home to the metro Detroit, she realized she had to find a new job. So Hampton moved on to working as a fitness and yoga coach, which she is certified in.
It wasn’t until 2018 when Detroit Flower Company started. Her first customer would buy flower arrangements every week. Hampton would also receive a lot of orders on Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. But in 2020, things changed again.
When the pandemic started earlier this year, Hampton was forced to leave both her fitness and restaurant jobs. So she started making flower arrangements full-time at home and posting photos of them on social media. At the time, she had about 700 followers on Instagram.
Now, her number of followers increases every day, and she has more than 6,460. Hampton said she made sales of $10,000 just in the month of July. Prices of flower arrangements range from $50 to $420.
But behind the scenes, things haven’t been easy. She never had a set place to do her flower arrangements. Then Hampton hit a road block in August when she was forced to move because she had a business running in her condo, which she didn’t know was not allowed. She was also delivering all of the arrangements by herself.
She moved back to Detroit and now has her own space to make arrangements and custom paint the flowers. Hampton also has a delivery driver to lessen the load on herself. Since July, she has completed over 400 sales.
When creating the arrangements, Hampton said, “I just have an eye. But for the most part, it’s the customers. They put together the bouquets and flowers they want, and I just bring the vision to life.”
Hampton hopes to find time to hang out with her friends and get back to fitness, but right now, she is enjoying the support coming from other Detroiters.
“I definitely want to do this for the rest of my life,” she said.
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