By TAYLOR DEAN
When Kristyn Cline walked into a mercantile shop while on a solo trip to Nashville, Tennessee, last September, she emerged with a spark of inspiration.
The experience she had in the hometown-feeling store and the accompanying flower truck outside the store gave her an idea to open a business in Colorado Springs with the same vision.
And with that short seven-day trip, “Sweetwater: A Flower Market” was born. The floral and mercantile store that opened this week is named for Sally, Cline’s mother, who passed nearly three years ago. The logo features lavender, Cline’s favorite scent, and something that calms and attracts her, and she hopes others as well.
Cline bought a building at 2419 W. Colorado Ave. in Old Colorado City for the brick-and-mortar business, where she felt the market would fit in with the historic vibe while growing the neighborhood.
Cline, 52, created Sweetwater because she wanted to share her experience with a southern charm mercantile store in Nashville with the Colorado Springs community.
“It was something about being there, the country, the music, the people,” she said. “It somehow got into my heart and inspired me to bring this to Colorado Springs, where we don’t have flower trucks, and we don’t really have interactive flower markets.”
Cline wants Sweetwater to be a place where people can go and have a unique experience. The shop sells bouquets, but customers can come in and pick stems to create their own bouquets. The other half of the store features mercantile products, including everything from linens and soaps to charcuterie boards and candles.
The most unique part of the store, Cline said, is its flower trucks.
The business’s first truck is a 1969 Volkswagen bus flatbed. The truck will make deliveries, travel to events, and share the joy of flowers with the surrounding community.
“You can come and pick your stems like you would pick your fruit, and we’ll wrap it up for you,” Cline said. “You can take home this beautiful bouquet that you designed yourself.”
Flowers have always been a significant aspect of Cline’s life. She took a floriculture class in high school and always keeps a full vase on her kitchen table.
“The joy of receiving flowers is something that’s always made me feel great,” she said. “Even though they don’t last forever, the gift of receiving them, creating them, growing them, is amazing.”
That same joy is what drives Sweetwater’s vision: to change the lives of others, one flower at a time.
Cline has always loved flowers, but she never would’ve thought about opening a flower shop until just a few months ago. Cline also owns a Farmers Insurance agency in town and plans to continue working there while building Sweetwater.
“I first and foremost love being a Farmers Insurance agent,” she said. “It’s a gift I have to be able to help these people best protect themselves.”
To balance Sweetwater with her agency, Cline hired a team of five at the flower market, including her daughter, Abbi Poirier, as purchase manager. Poirier, 24, views her mother, a woman successfully running two businesses simultaneously, as an inspiration to many.
“It’s great to see a woman set her mind to something and achieve it not once but with a second business,” Poirier said. “She’s very self-sufficient and ambitious, and she just embraces what comes.”
Izzy Cline, Kristyn’s 20-year-old daughter, is also involved in growing the business. In addition to being a Sweetwater florist, she handles the market’s social media channels, including Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.
“We built this business from the ground up and seeing it come to life is mesmerizing,” Izzy Cline said. “As a young woman working for a woman-owned business it feels powerful ... I am my mom’s biggest fan and there is absolutely nothing she can’t do.”
Christy Metz, Sweetwater’s head florist and creative director, echoed the same sentiments as Cline’s daughters.
“She has really great relationships and cares about everybody, and that just comes across,” Metz said of Cline. “She’s also great at delegating and finding out peoples’ strengths and using those to build a strong team.”
Metz, 57, was a florist in Chicago for over a decade before returning to her hometown a few years ago. She met Cline through a mutual friend in November, and Metz learned about Cline’s passion for opening the new business.
“I could tell that she was a successful businesswoman just by the way she talked about her business and her staff, and we hit it off right away,” Metz said. “I envision Sweetwater being a really welcoming, wonderful place ... where they can feel really energized and inspired.”
Cline and her team plan to open the store on Friday, March 5.
“I am looking forward to genuinely just putting smiles on our customers’ faces,” Izzy Cline said. “We ware doing it for our community and we are doing it in the form of flowers and flower trucks.”
To learn more, visit Sweetwater: A Flower Market on Facebook and Instagram at “SweetwaterFlowerMarket” and Twitter at “Sweetwaterxx.”
The Link LonkMarch 01, 2021 at 02:00PM
https://gazette.com/cheyenneedition/colorado-springs-entrepreneur-brings-flowers-and-charm-to-old-colorado-city-with-sweetwater-a-flower/article_7dbaedde-77a5-11eb-8fe3-1b45ec1a2d2e.html
Colorado Springs entrepreneur brings flowers and charm to Old Colorado City with Sweetwater: A Flower Market - Colorado Springs Gazette
https://news.google.com/search?q=Flower&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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