SAVVY BUSINESS


By Carla Jean Whitley
Owner: Diana Hansen

What is it? White Flowers is a gift shop in which virtually every item—from floor to ceiling, from T-shirts to candles—is white. The shop recently relocated from Mountain Brook Village to downtown Homewood, in the former home of Daedalus Candles. “Somebody walked in our store and said, ‘Is there any white paint left in Birmingham, Alabama?’” Hansen says.

History: Hansen and her husband, Eric, moved into their Edgewood home 25 years ago. “I was so inspired by the flowers that grew in the garden,” Hansen says—so inspired, in fact, that the flowers became part of her home décor and quickly inspired her business. She arranged some flowers for her husband to photograph, creating prints they would hang in their all-white home. Hansen decided she also wanted to wear the flowers and created her first T-shirt. The Birmingham Botanical Gardens shop and other stores saw the design and asked if she could make shirts to sell in their businesses, and eventually White Flowers expanded to showrooms across the nation. “My business is more one that I’ve followed than I’ve led,” Hansen says.

She dreamed of opening a store of her own, and over the past 20 years has grown from two kiosks in the Riverchase Galleria and Colonial Brookwood Village into the spacious storefront she now occupies. The store carries Hansen’s own designs as well as works in white by a variety of artists.

A day in the life: Although the store doesn’t open until 9:30 a.m., Hansen is in working mode by 3:30 each morning. She spends that time overseeing business details as well as working on her designs. She arrives at the store by 7:30 a.m. and remains there until 6:30 p.m. It makes for a long day, but Hansen says she wouldn’t know how to run her business differently. “It is just a wonderful, quiet, peaceful place to be,” she explains.

Staff size: Five. All but one of Hansen’s current employees came from the Mountain Brook location and have worked with her for years. “They work with me—I never say they work for me,” she says. “They walk around showing the store as if it’s their own.”

What’s ahead: Hansen intends to continue developing in her new location and may resume creating designs for other companies, as she did in the past. “But mainly I’m so satisfied with my business, I don’t know how I could wish for too much more,” she says. Over the years people have shown interest in franchising, but her aim is to continue creating new designs and focus on her customers. “I’m much better in making one thing the best it could be.”

the details:
 White Flowers
Hours: Mon.-Sat., 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 or 6 p.m.
2800 18th St. S., Homewood
871-4640

January Birmingham, Alabama

  

 
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