A single act of kindness turned into a profitable business for Junior Angelica Gutierrez. When Gutierrez’s friend, D’ymond Lewis, had her birthday coming around, she had told Gutierrez that she never received flowers before.
“…a pretty girl deserves flowers… so that’s how it all started,” Gutierrez said.
After looking at Lewis’ TikTok reposts, she was inspired by the videos of ribbon flowers she saw. Gutierrez learned how to make flowers as well by watching TikTok videos and Youtube tutorials. After Lewis saw what her friend was capable of, she encouraged her to start a business.
“I was like ‘well I don’t know’ but then it was my mom’s birthday and my dad told me to make her flowers,” Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez made her mom a large bouquet of ribbon flowers and posted it on her Instagram story.
“Everybody was like ‘that’s so cute’ or ‘you should start a business’, so I opened up the page,” she said, “It was around January so I already knew that Valentine’s Day was coming up so I had 4 or 5 orders already”.
When starting her page, Gutierrez had doubts on whether or not it would be successful.
“I didn’t think that people would really put money into flowers and stuff like that,” Gutierrez said, “People were like ‘omg those are so cute I need some’ or ‘please make me this or this’. I would just try to do my best and I feel like sometimes I’d be like ‘this doesn’t look good’ but when I see their reactions they’re like ‘oh my god it’s so cute it’s exactly how I wanted’”.
Since the beginning of her business, Gutierrez has received support from family and friends.
“My mom, she bought my supplies…my friends were the ones who were like ‘I’m buying from you, I’m paying this much, I don’t want you to give me a lower price because I’m your friend, I want the high price because they’re high quality”.
Gutierrez wants to keep her customers happy so she works with them to achieve their desired result.
“If they want a certain thing that’s okay but I ask ‘can we add this or maybe this?’,” Gutierrez said, “I give people lots of options”
Because of the way she conducts her business, she has had customers come back and purchase another bouquet. One of those customers being Tiara Savage.
“My favorite was when she added the bear on top of the flowers,” Savage said, “My siblings loved them; they still have them. I didn’t want her to use real flowers because I wanted them to be able to keep them. They still have them”.
When ordering from Gutierrez, customers are required to order two weeks in advance.
“The ribbon ones can take up to a whole day,” Gutierrez said, “and then with school now, it’s just a lot of work”.
Gutierrez will continue her business throughout college.
“Shop my brand!” Gutierrez said.
Buy flowers from Angelica from her Instagram @flowersby_angelica
