Our Story

Meet the girl behind The Flower Crowd

The saying, ‘from little things, big things grow’ couldn't be more apt; not only for The Flower Crowd but also for its Founder, Shavonne. 


Shavonne began working as soon as she could legally do so and she landed her first job as a pharmacy assistant at age 14. Whilst the role taught Shavonne some terrific lessons about customer service, it wasn’t where her passion lay.


At the beginning of Year 10, Shavonne decided to turn her love for flowers into something a little more tangible and she enrolled in a floristry course at The Flower School. It was love at first bouquet for this young entrepreneur! 


Instantly Shavonne knew she’d found her passion and she worked hard, juggling school and work. If that wasn’t enough to keep her busy, Shavonne dived head first into the market scene where she would wake at 3 am each Saturday to set off to the markets and grab a spot by 4 am.


At the markets, she would sell little posies and arrangements that she would remodel from the arrangements she’d made at college that week. In true spirit, Shavonne wasn’t upset if she only sold a few bouquets; her true reward was seeing the reactions on peoples faces and the knowledge that her work was going to make someone really happy. That was the joy that Shavonne got from her endeavours. 

A forward thinker, Shavonne realised there was an opportunity to add to the “grabbing a bottle of wine from Dan Murphy’s” on a Friday afternoons. Off she set to her local Dan Murphy’s to sell the store manager the idea of a flower stand outside the store so that customers could grab a bouquet to go with their wine. The store manager loved the tenacious 15 year old Shavonne’s idea and each Friday afternoon, Shavonne and her sister would set up their stand outside Dan Murphy’s. 


Whilst not everyone bought flowers; they did remember an infectiously positive mood, big smile and the young girl with an intriguing name; Shavonne. Hence, Flowers by Shavonne was created. Shavonne built her following by getting to know people on a personal level, taking an interest in them and finding out what customers were needing and wanting.


Keen to bring even more joy to people with flowers, Shavonne enlisted her grandad to help her out by driving her around to various IGA stores. The Brendale IGA was the first store to get on board. Ecstatic was the emotion Shavonne remembers,  when she came home that day and shared the exciting new with her parents about just landing her first IGA store. 


Ever supportive of Shavonne, Trudy and Wayne  jumped in wholeheartedly to help their daughter learn what it took to run a business. Shavonne remembers her first lesson was about  3rd party insurance - nowhere near as exciting as designing bouquets but very important nonetheless. 


The following day, Shavonne printed business cards to drop in to the  manager along with some samples for him to sell, which of course they did and another order was placed. 

One store turned into two stores which  turned into multiple stores as other IGA managers heard about Flowers by Shavonne and this little flower business by the little girl with the captivating smile, blossomed. 

By June, Shavonne needed to make a decision regarding her future and with her business growing faster than petunias in spring, Shavonne made the decision to leave school and jump wholeheartedly into her business. 


So this kid, with the big smile and truly personable nature, set up her workshop in the gazebo on the side of her house and sweet talked her parents and grandad into being the delivery service for Flowers by Shavonne. 


So as not to let people down or over commit, Shavonne has always prided herself on only taking on work that she can fulfil and not over capitalising on stock. A gradual ease into custom orders has seen her business grow even more and now Shavonne has many repeat customers who get her to design floral arrangements to celebrate special moments. 


At the tender age of 18, Shavonne has been in business of making people smile with her arrangements for three years. The growth of her business has allowed her to take on team member Natalie; who she says is ‘just amazing’. 


Shavonne and her team have now set a goal to develop a strong wholesale presence and recently took another big business step by engaging Little Pig Consulting to help them create a brand that can sit up there with the leaders in their field. As a result, The Flower Crowd was born.

The Future is exciting when you follow #TheFlowerCrowd!

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