CAIRO: Following frequent visits to a friend's flower shop, Sally El Torgoman decided to take on this friend's offer and combined her interest in art and her background in sales and public relations into a partnership in a small scale flower business. El Torgoman, who used to help her friends furnish their houses as a way of satisfying her interest in art, worked with Dina Zaki, her partner and friend, on increasing the scale of events they handled. Flamengo, their first shop, located in Zamalek, primarily supplied weddings and receptions with the required flower arrangements. For the first two years, the duo didn't make any net profit; whatever income they got was re-invested in the business. According to El Torgoman, they had to compile a supply of equipment with their main focus being weddings. Providing the flower arrangements includes the usage of other props like candles, candle holders, ribbons and other decorative items. "We started with the minimal finance, because we didn t know what to expect, says El Torgoman, explaining that they had to accommodate to customer tastes in their choice of their first equipment - now they have a storage space packed with different decorative items. In addition to the decorations, El Torgoman offers other wedding-related advice to the couples she's working with. She is not a wedding planner, but with her continuous experience in the field, she feels obliged to help the bride and groom in their choice of music, food menus, lighting and other matters related to the memorable night. "Some people do this as a profession. Wedding planners take it as a profession because they take a percentage of everything they do [ballroom booking for example] . But for me if the couple doesn't have a wedding planner, I usually act as a free-of-charge wedding planner, says El Torgoman. But this business has proved quite an emotional strain. For starters, El Torgoman has grown to love the flowers. "When you love something - when you love a flower - you know how it feels. You just know that this flower is tired, whether it needs water and how long it will last, she explains. Although this is part of her success in the business, she has had some troublesome experiences. One of her customers insisted on having an outdoor wedding during dust storm season and El Torgoman had to watch the flowers die in the bad weather. "It's like watching a man dying. While she managed to move the wedding indoors and get fresh flowers one hour before the wedding started, she says her reaction - a result of a lot of practice on keeping calm and blocking panic - wasn't solely because she was protecting her reputation in the business but also due to a sense of responsibility toward the couple and their families. "It will be a memory for a lifetime, she adds. This responsibility and concern for this memorable and stressful event is a reality that El Torgoman lives almost every day. Sometimes she works on four weddings a night. But she loves it and she loves helping her clients on their special night. She tries to be present during the weddings to make sure things are running smoothly. "People will start seeing defects that they won't see if you are there .You've been working on their wedding for two or three months, so they trust that you are giving them what they want by being there. This passion for her work, which often shows on her face and voice as she enthusiastically recalls her most memorable wedding experiences, is probably what has gotten her through the usual difficulties women face in establishing their own businesses. Getting the workers to accept orders from a woman wasn't accomplished over night; keeping a balance between being firm and friendly is one of the lessons she has learned. But spending money, time and effort has never affected the attention she gives to her children. While she complains that women are always criticized for giving time to their work - she has more than one story to tell in this regard - she says she never let her work affect her relationship with her children, as she makes sure she is always around. Keeping in mind other problems relating to starting the business in general - developing an understanding of flowers and the quality and prices of local farms and devoting a great deal of time and effort to one-on-one interaction with her clients and personally observing the progress of work - it has paid off. Five years after El Torgoman's partnership with Zaki, the two now supply flowers on a daily basis to a handful of major hotels, in addition to their work in weddings and receptions. They've recently moved to a bigger shop in Mohandiseen to accommodate their growing business.
