Relationship management for the career woman: it’s time to take action!
Ok, level with us here: it’s become a cliché to apologise to your loved ones by saying you’re ‘so so busy’, and to think that quick excuse is good enough. We all lead crazy, hectic lives and our jobs can be painfully demanding. There’s always one more email to reply to, one more business trip to go on, one more press release to write. We’re all ‘so so busy’. A quick text just doesn’t cut it anymore.
We love that you’re so driven, but we don’t want your career success to come at the cost of your social life. Sure, we get it, it can be hard to be there for everyone at every moment, especially when you have your boss breathing down your neck and the potential for a promotion on the horizon. But when your friends are getting engaged, starting new businesses, having babies, or landing nerve wracking interviews, don’t you want to be there as much as you can, even if you can’t physically be there?
Enter: Petal & Cycle. This bright business delivers vibrant flowers arrangements to anywhere in Central London through a 90-minute bike delivery service. Picking from their monthly bouquets, you can have them sent to your friends or family during those times when you really want to be there but just can’t. And did we mention they come wrapped in burlap and tied with a bow? So lovely! Sending flowers is so much more personal and thoughtful than a quick, generic voicemail, and with Petal & Cycle it’s just as easy and speedy!
‘We work hard to make sure the flowers speak for themselves’, Petal & Cycle’s founder Richa Bhalla told us. ‘All deliveries are made by a lovely, happy human being within 90 minutes so the moment isn’t lost. Our cyclists are instructed to make sure the flowers are handed over to the recipient when possible. We like the personal touch’.
For Richa, flowers are more than just a kind gesture, they’re a way to be more effective in our communication with each other—something we as career woman are always striving towards. We are, she reminds us, all slaves to our phones and can no doubt all conjure up numerous stories about something getting lost in translation over text message. ‘I am encouraging my generation to be more purposeful in their communication…to be bold and spontaneous, to make a statement and send a REAL message’, Richa explained of her endeavour.
Don’t get us started on the politics of the early stages of a relationship – will we look too keen if we text back too quickly? How many messages can I send in one go? ‘Without mobile phones people were calling each other up to have a conversation and things weren’t getting misconstrued along the way’, Richa reminds us, ‘but now, with the age of social media and text messages we lay victim to playing games and not showing someone how we really feel’.
With all of our relationships, both personal and professional, we’ve started to get to the point where a simple text or call seems sufficient to show someone you’re thinking of them. And while that’s an incredibly kind gesture in itself, if a friend is having a bad day or has an important interview, it’s nice to send a real message that will brighten her day and show you care.
In a world that’s growing more and more environmentally conscious, Petal & Cycle flowers allow you to send a sweet message in an eco-friendly way. As London has begun to invest more in bicycle routes and designated lanes (here’s to Boris and his bikes!), Richa felt it salient to take advantage of the trend and create a company that would have as small a carbon footprint as possible. Of course, it also adds a chivalrous touch to a usually impersonal gesture—one customer even likened the delivery to a knight in shining armour coming to bring her flowers!
So, whether you’re apologising to the girls for missing the monthly get together because you had too many emails to sift through, or to your parents for not being able to make it home because of a last minute business trip, consider sending an ultra-personal message their way. It’s important to manage your relationships as well as you manage your career!
To send someone flowers just because, you can order online at www.petalandcycle.co.uk!
