How I created a blooming business selling flowers online

Lana Elie launched her online marketplace, Floom, in March 2016. Now it sells to customers in 134 countries, employs a staff of 14, and expects turnover to hit £5m this year.

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Lana Elie grew up in many different countries before moving to London, says Matthew Caines in The Daily Telegraph. As old friends gotmarried and had birthdays,Elie would send them flowers, but "the picture rarely matched the end product or the bouquet would justget chucked over a wall". So Elie decided to launch online marketplace Floom in March 2016.

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Chris Carter
Wealth Editor, MoneyWeek

Chris Carter spent three glorious years reading English literature on the beautiful Welsh coast at Aberystwyth University. Graduating in 2005, he left for the University of York to specialise in Renaissance literature for his MA, before returning to his native Twickenham, in southwest London. He joined a Richmond-based recruitment company, where he worked with several clients, including the Queen’s bank, Coutts, as well as the super luxury, Dorchester-owned Coworth Park country house hotel, near Ascot in Berkshire.

Then, in 2011, Chris joined MoneyWeek. Initially working as part of the website production team, Chris soon rose to the lofty heights of wealth editor, overseeing MoneyWeek’s Spending It lifestyle section. Chris travels the globe in pursuit of his work, soaking up the local culture and sampling the very finest in cuisine, hotels and resorts for the magazine’s discerning readership. He also enjoys writing his fortnightly page on collectables, delving into the fascinating world of auctions and art, classic cars, coins, watches, wine and whisky investing.

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