On the Job With … Bastian+Skoog

These floral fanatics tell us why flowers might not be so ladylike after all.

By Dana Raidt
Published: November 26th, 2010 | 1:58am

In the mid-‘90s Liz Bastian and Heidi Skoog didn't know each other yet, but happened to find they were in the same boat. Both were at a loss for what they wanted to do with their lives, each woman (somewhat reluctantly) picked up a job in retail. It was in the shoe department of a Minneapolis department store that they found each other—and figured out their next move.

“We saw each other and it was like, ‘I think you’re my people. You hate this as much as I do’,” Skoog remembers. The two bonded over their experiences in the retail trenches and came up with what Bastian calls “a list of things we’d rather be doing than selling shoes.” Skoog wanted a job in the floral industry and Bastian had done graduate work in plant pathology, but had become disillusioned with biology. Despite having no portfolio or business experience, the friends used their collective “enthusiasm and naïveté” to start doing flowers for weddings.

“We didn’t know anything. We didn’t even know what we didn’t know,” Bastian says.

Building a reputation from friends’, coworkers’, and family weddings, the women started running Bastian+Skoog, their floral studio, out of Bastian’s house while continuing to work at the department store, until they were finally able to move into a studio and give up their day jobs. Now 13 years old, their business’s roster includes regular corporate and private events in addition to weddings—they’ve even outgrown their current studio and are in the process of upgrading to a larger space. The duo’s innovative (and gorgeous) designs have built them a reputation that will ensure neither of them has to go back to retail anytime soon.

So, how exactly did two women who knew nothing about business make it work? “Trust gave way to confidence,” Skoog says. “Somewhere between the weight of people’s trust and being totally naïve, we found this middle ground of ‘I think we can do that.’ That’s literally the phrase that has gotten us through everything.”

Bastian and Skoog typically work six-day weeks in order to keep up. Much of the work involves planning, paperwork, visiting wholesalers, fulfilling weekly and daily orders, delivering, and meeting with clients. As the weekend nears they design, arrange, and set up for weddings and events. Even when they get to do the fun stuff (designing and arranging), both women agree that working with flowers isn’t always pretty. “People think it’s really ladylike, but it’s total grunt work,” Skoog explains. “When you do this for a living you find out: how does it feel to wire 50 orchids, or to carry three gallons of water in each hand? How much does a box of compost weigh? ”

Bastian adds, laughing, “When’s the last time you didn’t have something embedded in your finger?”

The Job: Owners, Bastian+Skoog.

Education: Skoog studied art and anthropology at the University of Minnesota. Bastian holds a B.S. in biology from the same school and did graduate work in plant pathology.

Resumé: Besides their shared past at the department store, Bastian was a plant clinic consultant. She admits that while she knows the Latin name of virtually every single plant, she had no clue how to handle and assemble the flowers when she and Skoog started. Skoog worked in a bridal store “for about a minute,” and in her early 20s did deliveries for a flower shop, which is where she originally found she had a knack for the business.

Mission: Bastian and Skoog believe that by staying true to their own unique vision, they will attract likeminded clients—and everyone will be better off for it. “There are a lot of people who do the same things [as each other] in this industry because it’s pretty and it’s expected,” Bastian says (anyone who’s planned or attended a traditional wedding lately can give an “amen” to that). “We’ve always just done what we want to do. Clients really like that we say ‘That’s not a good idea, that’s not practical, that’s not a good value. We can do something better.’”

Why it works: “Our product is us,” Bastian says. The women have a hand in every aspect of the business, including: website design, brand identity, social networking, accounting, client relations, and advertising.

Skoog laughs and adds, “We’re also kind of one brain, which is fortunate—or unfortunate, depending on if we’re together or apart.”

Advice: For those who want to get into the industry, Skoog recommends having some basic plant coursework. She says the best thing to do is to work at a flower shop to pick up technical skills, ask questions of the pros, and observe the balance of work. She reiterates that physical labor is a unavoidable and that you should be prepared for a lot of heavy lifting. “Start lifting weights right now,” she cautions.