THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE ARTICLE BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: Cheri Welsh makes a wedding centerpiece flower arrangement at her Floral-n-Flair flower and gift shop in Catlin.
CATLIN — This will be Malia Pelszynski’s third Christmas working for Cheri Welsh’s Floral-n-Flair flower and gift shop as a main delivery person and assistant.
Pelszynski loves working there and praises her boss.
“Cheri is a wealth of knowledge. She knows everybody. She knows this business inside and out. And it is a pleasure to work with her and for her,” Pelszynski said.
Although, Pelszynski said she might not do everything quite right for Welsh, a self-proclaimed perfectionist.
“Catlin doesn’t know what they have here,” Pelszynski said.
Welsh and others like to call her business “a hidden gem.”
Welsh tells her Danville customers, “it’s worth the four-mile trip.”
Some people tell Welsh, too, that they don’t know where the Village of Catlin is. She wonders how they don’t know that, but she appreciates all her customers who come to her and for whom she delivers.
Welsh reflected on her time being a business owner for about 18 years in Catlin.
“Women in business I think is different. I don’t want to sound sexist, but I don’t think women have it as easy still, in 2024,” she said. “We wear our heart on our sleeves. We look at it with a different perspective — buying power, the relationships you make with your customers, with your customer service reps. A guy will come in and out and see a rep and they don’t even know their name. When you have good friendships and relationships with the people … we’re a team. It’s a team effort, and I think that’s a different perspective that a woman takes on rather than a male entrepreneur,” Welsh said.
She said it’s hard for any small business owner to stay open with the rising costs of everything. Until you’re on the ownership side, everybody doesn’t understand the hidden costs such as product delivery fees. Business owners try to recoup some costs through credit card fees and other ways.
Welsh too said “the little guys, like us” can’t afford to market up to market down. With internet sales, customers too can get about anything, anywhere, she added, about another small business challenge.
She said the $25 flower arrangement doesn’t exist anymore due to all the rising costs.
When families don’t have disposable income to put meat on the table, they also don’t have money to put flowers on the table, she said.
Welsh’s ties to Catlin come through her parents being born and raised there. There’s a family farm in Bismarck and Catlin. After high school, she first wanted to be a marine biologist but then looked at golf course design because she likes the soil science and topography of the land.
She ended up at Vermilion Occupational Technical Education Center studying horticulture. She then decided she should do something in floral. She owned Cheri’s Floral Shop in the back of her current building, 108 S. Sandusky St., in 1981, behind a barber shop. She got married in 1987 and her husband Tim’s career with JCPenney took them to seven different states. She’d find jobs in the floral or gift industry each place they went.
In 2006, Pauline’s Attic and Floral-n-Flair opened. The floral business has been in the back of the building owned by Kay and Ron Smoot. Kay is now retired from the gift shop that’s had home decor, gift items, cologne, food, self-care, flowers and other items.
“So, we’ve kind of just stayed with that course a little bit,” Welsh said about having items customers didn’t have to go to Danville or Champaign for.
For the future, Welsh turns 63 in November and will gauge how this Christmas season goes and take it year by year.
She also goes to Gordyville for the Christmas craft show. High school homecoming and prom flowers remain popular purchases for customers. She also does a lot of wedding arrangements. The funeral business has changed, she said, due to the funeral industry changing post COVID-19. The generation now doesn’t go to funerals, and there are more cremations, she said.
It’s daunting to be a business owner now, but she’s been proud too of staying open through COVID-19 and of the business’ success.
“It’s a continual battle,” Welsh said.
She said a perk of owning your own business is having the flexibility to close the store. You can put a sign on the door and walk away when you need to, but you also don’t want to have customers think you’re never there.
In addition to doing a lot of wedding flowers, she also does a lot for the school and churches.
“Walk-in traffic is not at all what it has been or needs to be,” she said. “It’s no longer a destination place. Phone orders are 80 percent of the floral business anyway. It’s getting more difficult.”
They do daily deliveries throughout the county and area.
It’s been harder to find employee help for the store too. Welsh previously had high school students help, but now has a good core of retired persons helping her out.
Business hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; and Saturdays, Nov. 9 through Christmas, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. In January, she’ll be closed on Saturdays again.
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