The 27-year-old quit her 9-to-5 job to start a flower business – this year she brought six numbers

Colleen McCarthy started making flower arrangements in her free time while working a corporate job she wasn’t exactly looking forward to.

Two years later, she designed flower arrangements for stars such as Sabrina Carpenter and Drew Barrymore through her business, Colleen Rose Florals.

McCarthy, 27, grew up in Ridgefield, Connecticut. She majored in environmental studies and communications at Fordham University, but after graduating in 2020, “I had a hard time finding a job or a term, let alone one I really wanted,” she says.

She took a job at a PR agency, but saw it as a “temporary” job until she made long-term plans.

A few years into the company, McCarthy said she experienced a “mini-quarter-life crisis” regarding her career. She took a step back and thought about it. “What do I like? What do I always like? What am I good at?”

McCarthy has always loved flowers. “I’ve always been the kind of person who would buy flowers at the grocery store and arrange them beautifully in my apartment,” she says. So when I came across floral design as a potential creative career, I decided to give it a try.

At the end of 2022, McCarthy took an introductory class at Flower School New York, a floral design educational institution. Beginner classes currently cost about $175, according to the website.

“I remember the instructor came up to me and said, ‘Oh, is this your first class?'” And I said, yeah. And she said, “I don’t think that’s the case.” You seem to have a natural talent,’” she recalls.

McCarthy says that gave her the confidence to seriously pursue floral design.

While working a full-time job, McCarthy began buying flowers from the grocery store every week to practice her floral designs, and began sharing her creations on Instagram, TikTok, and several local Facebook groups.

Social media has been “really huge” in helping McCarthy grow her business, she said.

“I just started telling people I was a florist, even though it wasn’t very established,” she says. “I think it would have been easier just to say to myself and to others, “Yes, I’m a florist.”

Her first formal sale was made in March 2023 to members of one of her Facebook groups.

“Just the fact that someone was paying me for my work was so exciting,” she says. “We were able to really verify that as well.”

In May 2023, Mr. McCarthy officially registered Colleen Rose Florals as an LLC. It’s an expensive process, but it’s worth it in the end, she says.

“I don’t have any regrets at all, because once I finished all my official work and actually started getting more attention and more business, I was happy to do it,” she says.

McCarthy began working with event planners to design flowers for the brand’s events, and booked her first wedding in late 2023.

“After I did that, I also felt more confident that I could do bigger events and figure it out,” she recalls.

Halfway through 2024, McCarthy says he “started seriously considering” quitting his day job.

“Increasingly, I’m having to turn down flower work because of my 9-to-5 job,” she says. “I think that was kind of a turning point, because I was like, ‘Wait a minute, I want to say yes to these opportunities.’

In December 2024, Ms. McCarthy decided to quit her job to focus on running Colleen Rose Florals.

“I was pretty confident that I would be successful,” she says. “I wasn’t too nervous or scared. I think my mom was probably a little more nervous than I was.”

In 2025, her first year focusing on the business full-time, Colleen Rose Florals brought in more than $175,000 in revenue.

Her main business expense is of course flowers. High-quality flowers are “very expensive,” she says, and “there’s a disconnect between what the average consumer thinks flowers cost and what flowers actually cost.”

McCarthy provides flower arrangements for a variety of occasions, including weddings, brand events, book launches, photo shoots, and even concerts.

She charges a minimum of $250 for a single “custom-made” flower arrangement and typically charges $1,000 or more for small events, while small to medium-sized weddings can cost between $5,000 and $10,000.

Starting in the spring of 2024, Madison Square Garden began commissioning McCarthy to create flower arrangements to decorate artists’ dressing rooms.

This year, she provided flowers to the dressing rooms of stars such as Katy Perry, Laney Wilson, Haim and Renee Rupp.

One of her most exciting moments was being asked to make a bouquet for Sabrina Carpenter in October.

“It was so exciting and vindicating that someone felt confident enough in me to commission my work for a big artist,” she recalls.

Colleen Rose Florals is now privately owned, but McCarthy sometimes hires freelancers to help with large events.

Every day running her flower business is “very different,” she says, but she typically wakes up at 6 a.m. to buy flowers from Manhattan’s flower district.

According to her, she usually starts preparing the day before the big event, and depending on the size of the event, she either takes the flowers back to her apartment or rents a studio space for the day.

Before McCarthy can start working on the arrangement, each flower must be “processed.” This is a “quite time-consuming” process that involves removing leaves, cutting stems, peeling off old petals and soaking them in water.

Once your design is finalized, hire a driver or rent your own van to transport it to the venue.

As a solopreneur, she says one of the biggest lessons she’s learned is “knowing when to ask for help.”

“There have been times when I’ve stayed up all night trying to get everything done, or I’ve made all the arrangements myself, when it would have taken half the time if I had asked for help,” she says.

McCarthy’s main business goals for 2026 are to rent permanent studio space and launch a weekly flower arrangement subscription program as a way to create “another steady stream of income.”

She still posts her floral designs on social media and often receives messages from aspiring florists who want to know about her career journey.

“I used to want to reach out to florists and learn from them,” McCarthy says. “The fact that I’m now a person who can influence others is really crazy.”

“I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to do,” she continues.

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