Lindsey Crump said she never thought she would find herself in the family business, but a string of less desirable jobs led her back to Crump’s Garden. When her family closed the business after 74 years as a McKinney floral staple in 2013, Lindsey was ready to start a new endeavor—The Stalk Market.“When we found out we were closing Crump’s, I saw it as an opportunity to launch a new business,” she said. “I had been building on the wedding side of the floral business. Prior to that, Crump’s was just hit-and-miss on wedding arrangements. It was never the focus.”
It was an interesting road back to the floral business, she said. Following her graduation from the University of Arkansas with a degree in broadcast journalism, Lindsey landed a couple of jobs in sales.
“I hated my job in sales and had moved back to McKinney,” Lindsey said. “While I was a server, I talked to my mom about working at Crump’s and started learning floral design. It just came natural. As a fifth-generation designer, my mom said it was in my blood.”
Crump said she has developed a solid customer following and a passion for her profession.[/caption]Although The Stalk Market has a retail storefront in historic downtown McKinney, the store will soon begin focusing more on weddings.
Aside from flowers, The Stalk Market also sells candles and gifts.
Lindsey has been growing the business’s wedding market consistently during the past two years, and according to Lindsey, 85 percent of her business comes from referrals.
“Networking and word of mouth from past brides, venues and vendors have really helped The Stalk Market grow,” she said.
In its first year, Lindsey set a goal to provide floral arrangements for 52 weddings, which would be the equivalent of one a week. However, The Stalk Market did roughly 70 weddings. In 2015 the wedding business nearly doubled as the business supplied arrangements for 136 wedding ceremonies.
“Now that we have established a good reputation in the wedding industry, the goal is to focus on the business side and increase profits,” Lindsey said. “We need to work smarter, not harder.”
Aside from flowers, The Stalk Market also sells candles and gifts.[/caption]And The Stalk Market appears to be on track to do just that. In October, Lindsey and her crew had their biggest weekend ever with seven weddings. There are already six weddings scheduled the first weekend of spring break.
Lindsey said that although The Stalk Market needs to produce a profit, she has developed a passion for her career.
“It’s fun to make people’s dreams come true,” she said. “One of my favorite things to do is to give the bouquet to the bride on her wedding day. That has to be the most satisfying part. And it’s fun to read the nice things they say on [web] sites like Wedding Wire and The Knot.”
Lindsey is not in the business alone. Her mother, Debbie, assists her.
“We describe her as the Jill of all trades,” Lindsey said. “She is such a great source of information and helps me so much. I enjoy having her here to bounce ideas off of and talk about the trends and our love-hate relationship with Pinterest.”
The Stalk Market
305 W. Louisiana St.
972-542-3346
www.thestalkmrkt.com
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m.-5 p.m., closed Sun.
