Business Snapshot: Craig Sole Designs is a floral wonderland

Walk into the downtown Overland Park bungalow that is Craig Sole Designs and you’ll experience a colorful wonderland of all things floral.

From the antique-looking chandeliers covered in decorative vines and garland to the clutter on countertops, vases, urns and baskets are ready to be filled with fragrant flora.

The shop is in seasonal transition, from Halloween to the décor of Christmas but no matter. Craig Sole knows exactly where to find everything he needs to create his masterpieces, and well he should. Sole has been creating his floral art for 33 years.

Q: How would you describe your business?

“We are a problem solver for people who need to send specialized arrangements,” said Sole, who calls his business fine floral art. “We know our customers’ desires and their needs….Flowers are not just a botanical creation of God. They are emotion.”

Q: Share the details on services you provide?

Sole and his 10 employees do just about everything floral with a heavy emphasis on special events.

“We’ll do homes, events, funerals, weddings,” he said. Sole Designs does about 80 weddings a year and is now working with the children of some of his original clients. The business has numerous regular clients whose homes Sole decorates.

“We know what their houses are like and what their color preferences are,” he said.

Sole said his business has done almost every major signature charitable event in the area, including 27 years as the floral designer for Kansas City’s Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA) Dining by Design.

There are also funerals — something that Sole puts a great deal of thought into to make sure it sends the right message.

“We create sympathy designs that are beautiful...you want people to remember how great that person was and create a beautiful memory as opposed to sending just a plant,” he said.

Q: How did you get into the floral business?

Sole grew up in Olathe and the family had land around their home. Both his mother and grandmother were gardeners and that’s how he cultivated his green thumb.

“I learned pulling the weeds and learning what stuff is,” he said.

Then Sole discovered the Johnson County Fair.

“You could enter it and win ribbons and money for floral arranging…and after three years of doing it, I won $35,” said Sole, proudly.

At 15, Sole took a job at Suburban Lawn & Garden, where he worked for the next 15 years, including during high school and college. Eventually he opened the floral department there.

At 28, Sole was ready to try something else and teamed up with a former customer who had a special event company.

“I did all the flowers for them and a couple of years later I went off by myself,” he said.

With no formal business plan, Sole opened a shop at 95^th Street and Mission Road using his own savings.

After 11 years at that location, Sole purchased the two-bedroom 100-year-old home in downtown Overland Park and converted it to a shop.

In 1992, Sole was accepted into the prestigious American Institute of Floral Designers.

Q: Who are your customers and how do you get them?

“People who we know,” said Sole of his client base. “It is mostly word of mouth.”

Sole said he has spent his fair share on advertising, mostly in small publications. He hired his niece to do all of the Sole Designs social media.

Q: You work with a highly perishable product. How do you handle inventory?

Sole Designs has a walk-in 40-degree refrigeration cooler to store flowers. “It will hold things for two to three weeks without a problem,” Sole said.

And there are tricks to the floral trade.

“Chemicals are our friends,” Sole said. “We literally use three different chemicals on things before sending them out and they last a lot longer.”

His inventory is based upon what events are coming up in a given week. Sole Designs receives three deliveries a day from area wholesalers

Sole has his favorite flowers include the exotic proteia and free spirit roses.

Q: What about the competition?

“I don’t get all that worked up about it,” Sole said. “Most of the competition in town are my friends. I focus on myself. I don’t worry about what my other friends are doing.”

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Business Snapshot: Craig Sole Designs is a floral wonderland."