Blooming good for web novices

Think global, act local is the catch cry for a sustainable planet. Tricia and Mike Legg reckon it's a pretty good philosophy for business too.

From a quiet side street in the village of Omokoroa, near Tauranga, the Leggs run an internet business and produce a monthly magazine that is distributed internationally. And they do all this using as much local help as possible.

The local store handles their day-to-day mail, intellectually disabled workers at Avalon training centre pack, wrap and label magazines for dispatch and a Tauranga printer produces the magazine.

"We don't need to live in Auckland or New York to do this," Tricia Legg says. "It's a joy to have a cyber-business. We can work from home, do our own hours and if we want to, we can swim in the harbour at the bottom of our garden at 3 o'clock on a hot day."

Their full-colour glossy magazine, Floral Design, has subscribers in 26 countries, but is only part of their business. Their website, floralartmall.com, also offers how-to DVDs and CDs, many of which have been created by the Leggs themselves using Tricia's floral art talents or some of the many thousands of photographs that never make the magazine.

"The latest is another instalment in wedding flowers - everything from foyer designs to the men's buttonholes - and last year I did a DVD slide show of wedding bouquets because I was sick to death of seeing brides with boring bouquets," Tricia Legg says. "It's the sort of thing a florist can show her client."

It was her enthusiasm for her two hobbies - floral design and websites - that led to the creation of floralartmall.

The couple were teachers in Kerikeri in 1998 when Tricia, "totally in love with technology", taught herself to create webpages and designed an information page on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and a site for teachers in different countries to swap homes for holidays.

"I sold the ADHD site and then discovered floral art. Mike dared me to see if I could make an internet business of it. I just wanted to share everything about floral art. It's not just for old ladies, there's some really cool stuff."

floralartmall was born in 1999 as a free email newsletter which quickly grew to 4000 subscribers in 26 countries.

"We knew a lot by then about marketing and how to get people to come to a website. By 2002, I was doing a free step-by-step lesson every month complete with photos and doing about 30 to 40 hours a week on it, even though I was still teaching fulltime."

Mike Legg's reaction? "You're nuts. Charge for it. And bugger me, the cheques and credit cards came rolling in," he says.

Then subscribers asked for a print version, although the Leggs were reluctant, having been advised that the financial outlay was too great.

"So we asked our people if they would support a print magazine," Tricia Legg says, "and the flood came back in again."

Previously a teacher of computer studies and tourism, Tricia Legg was made redundant in 2003, and the couple decided to move to Omokoroa to be nearer her mother, bringing their business with them.

Floral Design was launched in October 2004 entirely on subscriptions and now has a distribution that comprises 50 per cent New Zealand and 50 per cent the rest of the world.

"We've never thought of New Zealand as our only market," Tricia Legg says. "We are totally planet driven."

From the beginning the Leggs wanted to be paid in US dollars or sterling, but found that New Zealand's banking system wasn't able to cope with their ambitions.

"It was the time when the kiwi dollar was so low we were calling it the New Zealand-Pacific peso, but the bank gave us blank looks when we said we wanted to do cheques online. The US was doing it, but we couldn't. Now it is happening here."

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise wasn't much help either, says Tricia Legg. "They said we were growing organically, as if it was a bad thing. Of course, we have business plans and goals, but we don't have board meetings, we don't have to."

Mike Legg recalls an e-commerce seminar run by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and said that in a room of 200 people, they were the only ones running a business entirely online.

"Most of them had a website, but if it's just pictures it might as well be wallpaper," he says. "We have utilised the internet's enormous potential and power. It works 24/7, even though I don't, so we've got money coming in all night long while we're asleep."

Keeping up with international trends means plenty of travel. The Leggs make an annual trip that takes in major garden and floral shows. The trips also allow them to stay in touch with their markets.

- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES