A passion for flowers
Family Heir Blooms providing a service in New Waterford
A Sydney woman’s dream of owning her own flower shop came true after she dropped off a resume at McSween’s Flowers and Gifts.
Katie Hodder, a certified wedding planner, had quit her job as a flower arranger at Lotherington’s Flowers and Gifts. Although she loved the job, she knew there was room for advancement.
“I’ve always wanted to own my own business. I’ve known that since I was in high school,” she said.
“I always said when I find what I want to do, I will open my business. It took me a while to realize … this is what I want to do.
“I finally just hit a wall where I was working… and I thought, you know what, this is the time for me to be looking into this.”
With the help of her husband of 12 years, Craig Hodder, they wrote a business plan and started applying for funding to open a shop in Membertou.
Realizing it would take more time than they first thought, Hodder began to apply for casual work with flower shops.
She dropped off her resume at McSween’s Flowers and Gifts in New Waterford and when they called she thought it was for a job interview. Instead they handed her a file with business financials and asked if she would buy the shop.
“It was all really fast. Next thing I knew I had a store. I had a dream … I am really happy,” said the mother of one.
Hodder has relaunched the business under the name Family Heir Blooms Flowers, Gifts and Décor. She says she changed the name because she didn’t feel right building a business off another family’s legacy.
As happy as she is, Hodder is busy — working 12–16 hour days at the store filling orders and doing minor renovations. For the first month, she worked alone, covering sales and flower design. Now, she has hired one
employee to help sort through old stock from McSween’s and fill orders.
This is the first store Hodder has officially owned but it isn’t the first store she has helped run.
When she was 16, she ran D’ Vals Comforting Creations on Keltic Drive with her mother, Valerie Chartrand, who was the owner.
Chartrand sold the shop when she was diagnosed with lung cancer, a battle she lost in 2010.
Now Chartrand’s picture hangs on the wall of Family Heir Blooms, behind the cash, where Hodder can look up and see the woman who inspires her so much.
“When my mom and I closed her store, it felt like an empty hole and I knew I had to do it again,” she said.
Hodder’s husband is her business partner and takes care of financials and whatever else Hodder doesn’t want to do. She likes to focus on creating displays which she says feels like creating “masterpieces of art.”
Hodder particularly likes to create arrangements for funerals and hopes those flowers can “give people that little bit of serenity.”
“If someone had shown me there were careers in (flowers), I probably would have found this passion a lot sooner,” she said.
Hodder and her husband still plan to open a second Family Heir Blooms location in Membertou in a couple of years.