Take It From Me: Charlotte Simmonds, founder of Flowers For Susie

The Take It From Me series highlights small business founders sharing their journey and tips on how to navigate an independent lifestyle.

This week I chat to Charlotte Simmonds, the founder and designer behind Flowers For Susie that sells Illustrated stationery, gifts & home décor with a Mid Century Modern aesthetic.

I met Charlotte first in one of my Start Up for Creatives programmes a couple of years ago. Here she shares her experiences on jumping ship to a freelance career and how to navigate starting a small business.

Tell us a bit about how you started Flowers For Susie?

Flowers for Susie started way back in 2014 as a creative charity project in memory of my mum Susie. Initially it was a once a year charity fundraising project, using creativity to raise money, whilst I continued my work as a lighting designer. Through this yearly project, in 2016 I discovered the art of lino printing and the seed for Flowers for Susie as you see it today was planted firmly in my mind. It took until 2019 to really form my plan when a redundancy allowed me the time and space for this seed of an idea to grow.

Where does the name come from?

The Charity project initially started with me designing and making handmade flower brooches and my mum was Susie so I called the project Flowers for Susie, simple as that. By the time I developed into pattern and print that name had such emotional significance to me that I knew it had to be the name of my brand forever. Some people pushed me to change my brand name to my name but I could never do that. I am, and my business will be, forever connected to my mum and that is a precious gift.

How much have you grown as a person through your business since you started?

Oh my goodness, I have grown so much both creatively but also in my resilience in difficult situations.

My decision to turn my charity project into a business for good happened just before the pandemic hit the world and life as we knew it changed. On paper, not an ideal time to embark on such a life changing career shift and I can't lie, it's been so tough but..... it also brought massive positives too. Having the time and space to develop my new creative vision allowed my creative confidence in this new area of design to grow organically as my business did, and this is such a gift. The ever changing retail landscape through the pandemic meant I was forever pivoting as the goalposts for retail changed and businesses faced new challenges so my resilience has grown so much which I see as a massive positive especially as the small business world navigates yet another set of challenges moving forward.

What is the one piece of advice or mantra you tell yourself to support your daily life as a business owner?

Trust your gut instinct. When I've gone against what my gut is telling me it has never ended well.

What do you invest in most for your business?

Ooooh, well I invest mostly in design development and finding premium quality manufacturers. My design career started 25 years ago when I became a designer for the premium brand Wedgwood and it was there that I fully realised the importance of quality and detail to stand out from the crowd and that has stayed with me throughout my career.

You can find out more about Charlotte’s story and her beautiful work on her website here and follow on instagram here.

Have you started your own small business and want to share your experiences and top tips?

Get in touch, I’d love to connect!

All photos by UK’s leading product photographer Yeshen Venema