Northern Ireland wedding florist finds success in full bloom after career change and government support

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A Northern Ireland entrepreneur who swapped the corporate life to become a full-time wedding florist is set to see her business blossom after receiving help from the government-backed Go Succeed service.  Louise McCooey, who specialises in weddings and events, established Farmgirl Florals in 2019, harnessing a life-long love of nature and creativity.  Based in the village of Park at the foothills of the Sperrins, Louise also operates a studio in south Armagh, allowing the business to cater for customers across the island of Ireland.  She threw herself into floristry full-time five years ago after a career in corporate finance that had taken her to London, Dublin, and Belfast.

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00:00In 2019 I just thought you know what life's short I'm just gonna go for it

00:03because I'm in this job now a long long time. I love creativity, I love flowers and

00:08I just thought yeah what can go wrong.

00:13My name is Louise I am the owner of Farm Girl Florals. It is a wedding design

00:19business and I specialize in events mainly weddings. I was working in

00:23corporate for my whole life basically. I didn't love it. I wanted to tap into my

00:28creativity. I always thought I wanted to own a business really was sticking my

00:31hands up for all my friends were getting married around that time and I was like

00:34would anybody like me to do their weddings? So I did at one friend's wedding in

00:39particular it was down in a really fancy hotel and then the hotel were in contact

00:43with me to say they had a few people inquiring about it they had never seen

00:45the balcony done like that and had seen the photos so I thought well maybe there

00:48is something in this you know I did come up with something a bit different it was

00:51original so I started looking at courses and and it was night school for three

00:55years to do level one two three floristry and it was brilliant it's lately but

00:58this year you know don't have a weekend free it's great it's just ticking off.

01:03I first heard about Go Succeed and there's a local community group and they

01:07had it on their Facebook page so I thought I'll go along and hear what it's

01:10all about so you know there was a girl there and she spoke her story and her you

01:14know how she got on with Go Succeed and she said it was fantastic so I

01:16thought well I'll give it a go so it was very simple just signed up that night

01:20we're naming a piece of paper they got in contact with me after that and it was all very

01:24simple. I reached out to Go Succeed because I was struggling with a website

01:28it was something that was always in my mind everybody was telling me you need

01:31a website you need a website so I got the website finally up and running it would

01:34still be a project on my to-do list if I hadn't signed up to Go Succeed so I'm

01:39thrilled about that so the IT that I've been able to get through Go Succeed grant

01:43is has really set me apart from other florists if you're a bride and you want to

01:47come and you want to know how I'm going to create your day to make it extra special I

01:52can draw the picture now on a photograph of your venue and you can see exactly

01:56what's in my head in front of you Go Succeed fantastic I mean I would say get

02:00involved it's so easy you know you just had to think like work work and I use this

02:04in my business and for me it was definitely the IT angle the website it was

02:08fantastic the IT I have now is going to change things like it will be brilliant

02:13you

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