Onside Media sat down with the co-founder of Thyme Studio, Nas Neufeld. Nas explains how she and her co-founders, Kwan Rujira and Off Suriya, created Thyme Studio during the Pandemic after working together at a bar.
What was the journey of starting the business:
“I [Nas] was proposed at a very young age. I planned a small civil ceremony while working at a bar in Toronto along Kwan and Off. We required a bouquet for my special day and I kept complaining that I didn’t like anything I saw at a price that I wanted. And Kwan recommened, “it’s okay I’ll make you one”.
She showed up with a beautiful bouquet and I suggested she do it as a business. It was really during Covid when we all got laid off from the bar that we said maybe we should focus our efforts on this company. With the success of the first product, we decided to do it. We opened our first retail store in July of 2020, and then we opened a second location in the East End”.
What has helped make the business successful:
“A big thing that put us on the map that was lacking in the Toronto flower market was to have a flower bar. Kwan found that she enjoyed doing it as a hobby but didn’t want to go and just buy bundles of the same flower. She said that she would like to pick individual stems which is what we do at Thyme Studio and a lot of people love it.
It’s also the dynamic of the owners, we all have very different strengths and weaknesses, which combine and make a strong team. Kwan and Off are highly creative yet in completely different ways, while I come from a business/operations background. It meshes together to make a great team.
How Three Friends Created a Flower Shop: Thyme Studio
We believe in what we do and we love what we do and that really portrays in the work that we produce. Kwan has magic hands and when she makes anything we are shocked, so that’s also part of the success. Of course our team, again we take pride in our company. When people work for us they really give it their all”.
How has pandemic affected business:
“Its really difficult talking about this because we’ve seen a lot of businesses struggle because of the Pandemic while we grew because of it. It pushed us to go outside the box. Something that happened with the floral business during the Pandemic is that people wanted to make their house homier because they had to stay home. This was really the birth of dried flowers. That really helped the floral industry significantly”.
How has the increase in demand for flowers impacted business:
“It was honestly scary, coming new to the industry and in 2020 people didn’t know what was going on. Then in 2021 with the huge wedding boom that occurred, we couldn’t get flowers that we were supposed to get so we dealt with supply issues and it was extremely stressful.
So we took that as a learning curve and set ourselves up for success this year. The supply chain is not normal and it might not be normal for awhile. We are just being super honest to our customers and recommended the other options that we have.”
“I just wanna say thank you to this amazing community. I think customers don’t realize the meaningful impact they have when the walk into the store for a purchase.It’s such a huge win when we make a sale. We always want to challenge ourselves so if anyone has recommendations send us an email and let us know”.
For Product Inquiries Kindly Visit: 779 Queen St E, Toronto, ON M4M 1H5
Author: Kathryn Intini, Content Writer, St.Catharines, Canada. Kathryn is a fourth-year Business Communications student at Brock University. With an interest in big data analytics and a commitment to lifelong learning, she hopes to work in technical sales. She has been recognized for over $1 million in products sales at her summer job and her commitment to Autism Speaks Canada. If you have any stories or comments, kindly email: – kathrynintini.theonside@gmail.
