Leveraging her many years of experience in the events business led Mozambican entrepreneur Lindalva Mulembwe, founder of LM Flowers On The Go, to identify a niche in the market - the creation of simple yet elegant flower arrangements. Today, she is building a successful business that brings flower celebrations to any special occasion.
LoA found out more this month from founder Lindalva Mulembwe
What does your company do?
LM Flowers is a company dedicated with passion to creating unique, simple, yet elegant flower arrangements which celebrates those special moments with the scent of one of nature’s most beautiful gifts to the human being - flowers. At LM Flowers on the Go, our flower celebrations are expressed in flower boxes, hand tied bouquets, bridal bouquets, vase arrangements and many more.
“Through our floral arrangements, we can put a smile on someone's face, brighten up someone's day (cloudy or not), and to be able to show care and love to a special someone in our lives.”
What inspired you to start your company?
Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I got to a point where I thought I want to create a product that would make people's special moments more passionate, and that would give me the ability to be part of those moments. I believe that everything made with passion, love, care and soul becomes perfect and unforgettable.
I love flowers as they would always give that last and lovely final detail to any event or space that I would decorate. That was when I got the idea for the business, why not create unique, simple and elegant moments with flowers? That was when flowers and I fell in love with each other. From that moment onwards, LM Flowers on the Go (which stands for Lindalva Mulembwe, my name) was created and the business journey began.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
Firstly, it is the fact that through our floral arrangements, we can put a smile on someone's face, brighten up someone's day (cloudy or not), and to be able to show care and love to a special someone in our lives. With flowers, we can be a part of the moments that happen once in a lifetime, moments that only a picture can hold on to it, moments that are life celebrations and mostly unforgettable.
If you add a flower to all those unique moments that life grants us, they become even more special and lovely. No heart ignores being cherished, and just receiving a single flower is enough for the purest of hearts.
I believe that if you express love, care and quality in what you do and offer, it screams louder than words, it’s a natural expression of how you care for our creation. We do, and we create flower moments with passion and we express that in every single creation of ours.
“With flowers, we can be a part of the moments that happen once in a lifetime, moments that only a picture can hold on to it, moments that are life celebrations and mostly unforgettable.”
Tell us a little about your team
I work along a dear flower vendor named Eduardo; he was the first vendor that I met when I started years ago. I learnt many tips about flowers from him when we used to do events and functions, he would work beside me. When I am not able to do all the orders myself, Eduardo is my right and good hand flower man.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And, do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
Even though I do not come from an entrepreneurial background, I have always been a creative and curious little soul from childhood. I was the type that if anything related to being creative would call my attention and awaken my curiosity, I would research and teach myself.
For many years I would only showcase this natural gift within family moments and not to the outside world. I never lost my passion for what was creative, amazing, different, luxurious, elegant, even in the simplest way. In other words, I never lost my passion for the beauty and good taste of everything creative.
Sometimes, we just need a day where our dreams and passions scream louder than before, and that day came to me. From then I started using this creative side of mine by doing decorations at events and functions, either private or corporate. I could not keep my passion inside a chamber anymore, although I did not let the world know by putting my name, persona and face expressively out there.
I believe that if you have a dream and especially if that dream comes with a natural gift, there is no way to escape from what you are made of. Having said this, there were ups and downs, but I never gave up. From some of those down moments we have to regain strength and feed the natural creative gift inside us that never sleeps. I decided to create something that would be very personal to me, that would express my personality, my kind of taste for things, something that would be unique and would be a part of me continuing in making moments more passionate and lovely, and this time it had to be something more intimate and personal, something that would say, " Specially and just for you".
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
I aspire to continue being trustworthy towards everyone that supports me and LM Flowers, that the quality of the work and products that we deliver to every door-way continues being the same and even more than expected, aiming every day for perfection, but being mindful of our limits and overcoming them day by day. By this approach, we will always improve and keep on being dynamic within the market. We aspire to continue being a part of our customers’ lifetime cherished moments.
My future plans are to become established and make LM Flowers an ongoing company, although not being in a rush but at the same time continuing to build up the business and create a well-known brand. Not just in flower design but also in returning to event and function planning as this is where I started in the market and creating elegant products to add to our brand. We have already launched a Scent Surround Diffuser, known by LM Scent Surround Diffuser by Lindalva Mulembwe. The journey is nowhere near to the end and I believe by keeping it dynamic it gives us reasons to live by.
“If you add a flower to all those unique moments that life grants us, they become even more special and lovely. No heart ignores being cherished, and just receiving a single flower is enough for the purest of hearts.”
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
Although I don’t see and consider myself as a 100% fulfilled entrepreneur, as I believe I have much more to learn in this entrepreneurship world, I guess that’s how I keep striving for more, not letting myself be in a comfort zone that would only end up taking out the dynamism of it all.
What gives me satisfaction is to be able to perform in a multifunctional environment, learning and increasing my knowledge, my life legacy, making my story authentic and having ownership. This keeps me alive and reminds me that I am capable, that I can overcome my limits and that it only depends on me. There is satisfaction for the challenges of being an entrepreneur, especially within our Mozambican market. It requires a lot of consistence, strength, and not giving up that makes the process. I believe that the process makes us who we become. If you believe in your potential, no matter what comes from the outside, you learn, because those same challenges are the ones that add up to our personal growth inside and outside the entrepreneurship world.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Listen to your inner soul, listen to your power, listen to your intuition, listen to who you are and who you aspire to be. Don’t turn away from the challenges, don’t run from them, but accept them because only those will put you where you strive to be. These will give you discipline and the ownership of your entrepreneurial path. But don’t forget what is essential, do it and make it happen because you love what you do, because you are passionate about it, because you can’t sleep with that inner voice telling you to do so. If you sleep and wake up with the same idea, having ups and downs but still continue loving your dream, you will never give up and that will only feed your dream further - your love for it! Do it for you and no one else, it only depends on you and what you believe in. There is no better person than you to know where you want to be and who you want to become.
Contact or follow LM Flowers
FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | EMAIL Lindalvamulembwe@gmail.com
Why LoA loves it….
It is always interesting to see women entrepreneurs successfully leveraging their experience and expertise to identify new market opportunities. In the case of Mozambican entrepreneur, Lindalva Mulembwe, she saw a gap in the market as a result of her events coordination experience for floral arrangements, and as a result, sought to build a business to fill that gap. Today, she is building a name and positive reputation for herself and her company, creating beautiful floral memories that capture those special events and occasions in our lives. --- Melanie Hawken, founder and editor-in-chief of Lionesses of Africa