In 2020, the 24-year-old struck out on her own and started her own digital marketing agency. In September 2022, she moved to Los Angeles while running her agency from her apartment, but still yearned for something more.
“I was losing the meaning of what I was doing,” she tells JOBsNews Make It. “I had moved to Los Angeles and something just wasn’t working anymore. Everything in my life had changed, except my agency.”
That feeling of unease led her to talk to her therapist, who advised her to make a list of what she wanted from her ideal job. Hintze listed that she wanted to work with her hands, be outdoors interacting with people, and that she would love to own an old pickup truck.
About a week later, she came up with the idea to start her own flower truck business. Main Street Flower Truck.
Hintze launched her business, Main Street Flower Truck, in August 2023.
Tristan Pelletier | JOBsNews Do It
Since its launch in August 2023, the company It has generated about $44,000 in revenue, plus an additional $4,500 in cash, Hintze estimates.
In May 2024, the young man’s business, now 29 years old, generated around $16,000 that month alone.
“If you live with your happiness, the money will come by itself,” he says.
Hintze grew up on Long Island, New York, and his father often commuted to his job as a firefighter in a pickup truck. His mother worked many different jobs, but her love of gardening was her mainstay, Hintze says. So both the vehicle and the bouquets felt familiar.
“When I was a little girl, the whole backyard was filled with flowers,” Hintze says. “And some of my favorite memories with my dad are rides in his little pickup truck.”
He decided to name his company after the street where he grew up, Main Street. But before he could move forward, he needed to get one key item: the vehicle.
Since he was still running his digital marketing agency full-time, he had only looked at and tested a few potential trucks. Finally, by accident, She stumbled upon the perfect one.
Hintze spent $10,000 on the truck he uses for his flower business.
Vienna Hintze
When her parents came to visit her and her sister in Los Angeles last May, they decided to drive to Ojai, a small town in Ventura County about two hours from the city. As she drove down a back road, she saw a bright green pickup truck with a “for sale” sign in the window that looked just like the one she drove when she was in high school.
“This seemed destined to happen,” she says.
After the family stopped to inspect the truck, Hintze noted the number on the for-sale sign. He called the owner later that day to ask if he could test drive it. The seller agreed, telling him he had just replaced the engine and transmission.
“I put my hands on the hood of the truck and just said to the universe, ‘Please, if this is meant to happen, give me a sign.'”
I put my hands on the hood of the truck and just thought to myself, ‘Please, if this is meant to be, give me a sign. ‘
Vienna Hintze
The universe complied: The owner told Hintze that the truck’s name is “Fiona.”
“My name is Vienna and every time I’ve introduced myself to anyone in Los Angeles, just in Los Angeles, everyone has asked me if I just said ‘Fiona,'” she says. “So that was my cue that I definitely needed to buy this van.”
Two weeks later, she bought Fiona out of her personal savings for about $10,000. Although she was nervous about whether the flower truck would be successful, she was confident in her ability to run her own business.
“As scary as it was to pull the trigger on buying the flower truck, I already knew I was the type of person who was all-in on everything I did,” she says. “I was going to put 100% effort into it and do whatever it took to make it work.”
In August, Hintze started selling flowers from her van while working as an assistant at her digital marketing agency. But as her flower van business began to pick up, clocking in for her marketing job became more difficult.
“It was like pulling teeth to get me online every day,” he says.
She knew she had to make a decision: should she focus on running the flower truck full-time or on her marketing agency? In February, she decided to devote all of her time and energy to growing her flower truck business.
Hintze closed her digital marketing agency to grow her business, Main Street Flower Truck.
Tristan Pelletier | JOBsNews Do It
Hintze decided to put her advertising and social media marketing skills to work for her own brand, and saw the results of her efforts a few months later in April.
“Some of the content started going viral and it was amazing because for the first time I was promoting my own brand and it was the most authentic thing I’d ever done in my life,” she says.
Some of the content started going viral and I felt amazing because for the first time I was promoting my own brand and it was the most authentic thing I had ever done in my life.
Vienna Hintze
That’s not to say Hintze hasn’t faced unexpected challenges. Because she spends thousands of dollars on buying flowers, she used trial and error to determine how much she should charge to make her business profitable, for example.
“At the first event, I sold huge bouquets for $7 and I did it to prove to myself that people were buying those bouquets and that I kept doing it,” she says. “I definitely lost money that day, but that’s okay.”
Her flower truck business makes money in three ways, Hintze says: through pop-up events, corporate bookings and video shoots.
At pop-up events, she brings her van full of fresh-cut flowers she’s arranged in bouquets to various locations around Los Angeles. She sells them for anywhere from $10 for a small bouquet to $75 for larger, custom arrangements made on-site.
Hintze says he enjoys making custom arrangements for clients.
Tristan Pelletier | JOBsNews Do It
“It’s always so much fun to know who’s going to receive the bouquet because I then customize it based on what they like and their personality,” she says.
In between pop-up events, she organizes corporate events, parties, and weddings. So far, she has worked with several companies, including Lululemon, Free People, and Universal Music Group.
For these events, the company or individual can choose to rent the truck without flowers; rent the truck with flowers to sell to attendees; or rent the truck and prepay for the flowers to deliver to attendees for free. For these events, charge based on how long they reserve the truck and how many flowers they wish to purchase.
Because flowers are seasonal, she makes more money in some months than others. Sales often fluctuate around holidays like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, she says.
Main Street Flower Truck Revenue as of August 2023
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Hintze typically tries to host at least three events a month, which she says brings in enough money to cover her daily expenses. However, she tries to keep her personal expenses low so as not to spend more than she earns.
In May, however, Hintze had the most bookings since starting her flower truck business. She booked 10 events and generated just over $16,000 in revenue.
“I hope to keep that momentum going for the rest of the year,” he says.
Below are Main Street Flower Truck’s expenses for May 2024:
Main Street Flower Truck Expenses in May 2024
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Hintze’s biggest expense was flowers, which totaled about $2,304 in May.
Before a pop-up or other type of event, stop by the local flower district to pick out the freshest and brightest looking flowers, she says.
“I always lean toward wildflowers and things that look really whimsical and fairytale-like,” she says. “I think that’s the most fun decoration for the truck.”
Flowers are Hintze’s biggest business expense.
Tristan Pelletier | JOBsNews Do It
She then takes them home and begins preparing them for sale by removing leaves and thorns and cutting off stems. Finally, she arranges the flowers into bunches and places them in various containers, such as old milk jugs and antique buckets.
His other expenses are gas and maintenance on his truck. While the truck hasn’t needed any expensive repairs since he bought it, he has occasionally had to learn to fix mechanical problems on the fly.
“One of the biggest problems with having an old truck is the number of breakdowns that occur and having to start it up suddenly on the morning of a stop when you are scheduled to arrive at a certain time,” he says.
In the future, Hintze plans to continue growing Main Street Flower Truck and helping businesses and individuals realize their floral dreams. But she isn’t thinking about expanding her one-person business just yet.
“People ask me a lot if I’m going to franchise the truck and have a fleet of flower trucks, and I don’t think that’s the plan forever, but definitely for a while,” she says. “My goal is to make the flower truck as successful as possible as an independent business and see how far I can go.”
Hintze hopes to grow his business, Main Street Flower Truck, and hopes to see it appear on television shows and movies one day.
Tristan Pelletier | JOBsNews Do It
She hopes that one day the truck can appear in TV shows or movies. “In the future, I hope Fiona has her moment on the red carpet,” she says.
Hintze plans to continue enjoying the freedom and work-life balance she gained from starting Main Street Flower Truck.
“I’m excited to continue exploring the creativity I have that was bottled up for so long, and really develop a routine here that keeps my peace of mind at the forefront,” she says.
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