WHEN Emma Brady and her husband could no longer get to their dining table because flowers were engulfing their house, Brady decided it was time she had premises for her burgeoning floristry business, Betty Bluebell.

Since moving into Storage Vaults in Cambuslang – a convenient 15 minutes from both her home in East Kilbride and the Blochairn flower market – the 28-year-old businesswoman has never looked back.

Last year, while still working from home, Ms

Brady, who specialises in the weddings market, created floral arrangements for 70 weddings. This year, the total was 97 – or 3.7 weddings a week.

‘I’m hoping for three elopements to crash 100,’ she says.

In fact, with as many as six weddings some weeks, Betty Bluebell, which is named after Brady’s grandmother, has been turning business away this year. To cope with the demand, Brady has a couple of ‘really good helpers’ who come in on a freelance basis when needed but is chary of taking on permanent staff.

‘It’s a personal service,’ she says. ‘I’ve always marketed it that way and never tried to make myself seem bigger than I am.’

The consultation with the bride might span two years, and Brady always delivers the flowers herself on the wedding day. She still gets butterflies in her stomach when she takes in the bride’s bouquet.

‘It’s the best part of the job,’ she says.

With business blooming, Brady has, however, considered taking on an apprentice. She learnt her trade on a City & Guilds course at Glasgow Clyde College, which she attended one day a week while working in the hotel business. But some of the less glamorous aspects of floristry, such as heading over to the flower market at five in the morning, can only be learnt on the job.

‘That’s why I thought of apprenticeships,’ says Brady. ‘I could maybe help someone who’s in the same the position I was when I started.’

Brady herself was fortunate to be able to experiment with floristry while working part-time. After seven years in the hotel trade, she was working for events caterer Scoop when founder, Jonathan MacDonald, decided to wind the company down due to the success of his Ox and Finch restaurant. This gave her six months of part-time work while she established Betty Bluebell – a brand she adopted in 2015.

The business is a very modern creation built on word-of-mouth recommendations and social media. The floristry designs are contemporary too. No tight balls of impossibly pink roses at Betty Bluebell.

‘Everything is natural,’ says Brady. ‘We don’t do anything dyed, sprayed or artificially coloured, and there’s no glitter. ‘My style is lush, green and looser.’

Moving into Storage Vaults has allowed Brady to have a better work-life balance and to expand her business. She now has double the work space and a separate office space for consultations. Next year, she plans to hold workshops at the site – a service she has hitherto offered externally for birthdays and hen parties.

An important advantage of the Storage Vaults site for Brady is that it offers smaller spaces and is serviced, with secure entry and a receptionist. This makes it easy for clients to visit and means the environment is secure when working late.

‘The guys down there are brilliant,’ says Brady. ‘They’re really helpful if you need anything.’

A music graduate from the University of the West of Scotland, Brady may be focused on artistry but is undaunted by the financial side of running a business that can so often be the undoing of creative enterprises. In this she has been helped by her mother, who founded her own business, the Wee Fudge Company, after 37 years in the corporate world.

‘She always encouraged me to find something I liked doing,’ says Brady.

At Betty Bluebell, Brady is following this advice. Within a couple of weeks of starting her City and Guilds course, she was hooked on floristry.

‘I felt I’d found my calling,’ she says.

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