Simsbury Business Spotlight: Non-Scents

Every local business has a story worth sharing with the community. And that’s the belief behind this exciting series we’ve kicked off at Patch — to shine the spotlight on all our favorite local businesses, and to learn a little about the ones we may not know that well.

Business: Non-Scents
Owners: Elizabeth Greenberg & Mimi Greenberg
Website: http://www.nonscentsflowers.com/
Address: We are all e-commerce right now but we work out of our home on Latimer Lane in Simsbury, CT.

How did you come up with the name?

My mom and I were sitting at our kitchen table having breakfast and going back and forth on different name options for the company. The whole idea was that our flowers were safe to send anywhere because they were allergen and bacteria free so when one of us came up with Non-Scents we loved it because it was both an informational name as well as a play on words since our products are more on the creative and whimsical side of the spectrum.

Why choose that location? Why start a business in this town?

I started this business the summer after my freshman year of college and it was just me and my mom, Mimi. We quickly found out that my mom’s greatest strengths were in product design and creation as well as customer service while mine were more in marketing and planning. Since we’re all e-commerce, our production location didn’t really make a difference when we started because of the smaller scale we had so it was easiest for my mom to remain in Simsbury working out of our basement like every startup story you’ve probably heard before.

Briefly, what business are you in?

We are in the business of sending messages and greetings in the form of origami flowers and supporting our communities through the products we offer.

What’s the most difficult moment or challenge you’ve faced as a business owner?

I think the hardest thing that you face when you own and run a business is that you have a vision for what you want your business to be. For me, I want Non-Scents to be a business that sends messages and connects people on a personal level through our products, supports adults with special needs through work-programs & partnerships, and that supports our communities by giving back to local non-profits working to make our world a better and safer world to live in. That said, my greatest challenge everyday is making sure we can gain enough funding and have enough sales at this early stage in our company to continue working towards that end goal. I am not just responsible for myself and my business, I am responsible for everyone who works for me, every organization that works with me, and everyone who has partnered with us or supported us in order to help us achieve our goals. At 22, I’d say that’s my greatest challenge because I don’t want to let anyone down.

Were there any challenges that made you second guess your decision to be an entrepreneur?

When I graduated college this past spring, I had been interviewing with different software companies for sales positions alongside my classmates. Starting a business is slow going and after 2.5 years we still hadn’t reached our break-even point and we were struggling finding people to work with us who shared our passion for the business. I saw that every company I interviewed with had an extensive training program and I wondered whether or not I was even capable of running a company without any training aside from my studies at university. It wasn’t until an interview with Oracle where they spent the whole time asking me questions about Non-Scents and giving me ideas that I thought, maybe I can do this.

What’s been your favorite moment or proudest achievement since opening?

I think that my proudest moments are when recipients of our arrangements or the parents of children who have received them call us and thank us for our creations. When people tell us how much the messages meant to them and how our arrangements helped them through a difficult time, that’s what it’s all about for me. When we started making a difference in the lives of others, that’s when I knew we had created something to be proud of.

What’s the most innovative idea your employees or customers have had that you put into practice?

Initially, the message were actually written on the origami paper and then the paper was folded into a flower meaning you had to unfold the flowers to see the messages inside. It was actually a 7 year old girl who told us that she wanted to see the messages but she refused to unfold the flowers because she didn’t want to ruin something that was so pretty. After that, we developed a way for the stem of the flower to come up through the center and curl around a message scroll so that you can remove the scroll and read your message without ever having to take apart your origami flowers.

How do you deal with difficult customers?

I can’t say that we have difficult customers but we have had a few who need to see examples of arrangements in different colors and styles before they can make up their minds. Right now, we’re small enough so that it’s possible for us to cater to those customers but moving forward we are going to have to limit the number of samples we can custom make due to the amount of time and materials it takes.

How does your business give back or get involved in the community?

This might actually be one of my favorite questions. We give back in two ways, both of which are still in “beta testing” but we’re very excited about them. First, we are working with different non-profits who support adults with disabilities and refugee families to create Non-Scents gift baskets for the holidays. Supporting these groups is something we aim to do year round and this holiday season will be our first test to see how our customers respond to it. Secondly, we have biennial non-profit giveback partners who will receive 1/3 of our annual profits every year. The giveback partners will rotate every two years so we are sure to support a number of causes.