Ready to Bloom

The Florence, S.C., native is excelling in the classroom, where she’s majoring in Business Admin in Marketing Strategy and focusing on digital marketing and … she’s already started her own business.

Hannah Fuson is founder and owner of The Florence Flower Shop, a part-time floral business she operates from a studio located behind her parents’ home. As its name implies, the shop serves clients throughout the Florence area, providing custom floral arrangements for various occasions. Her work focuses on three main areas: daily deliveries, weddings, and funerals. As the sole employee, Fuson personally manages every aspect of the business—from arranging the flowers to completing each delivery.

Fuson has already built a customer base of more than 130 clients. She accepts orders through her website, theflorenceflowershop.com, as well as by phone—a workload that often leads to long hours. Balancing school and business can be challenging; she sometimes even takes customer calls between classes in the study rooms of the School of Business and Education Building.

Fuson has always enjoyed flowers, but didn’t get into the business until she was in high school.

She was picking up her prom bouquet one year and, on a whim, asked the florist if they were hiring. They were and that timely bit of initiative led to a terrific apprenticeship. Fuson spent three years learning the craft, starting with basic tasks like cleaning buckets and trimming stems, and then moving on to arranging flowers.

Eventually, she realized that floral design requires a natural sense of creativity … and she had it. She began arranging her own designs and soon realized that she had the skills to open her business.

The Florence Flower Shop opened last summer. Fuson worked through the physical details with her parents, and her father, Jason Fuson, and grandfather, Glen Workman, who helped build her backyard shop.

“My parents refuse to let me take over their house,” Fuson says. “My dad and grandpa built me my own studio. I have my own building with air conditioning and water. It now holds two coolers (large refrigerators used to keep flowers fresh)!”

Flowers gave Fuson a good business idea, but she says she was sold on the idea of starting a business in general because she wanted to control her own destiny – at least in terms of her vocation.

“With the uncertainty of knowing I can get a job right after I graduate, this helps me feel like I can give myself my own job,” she says. “Also, the flexibility of my hours. It gives me control.”

Fuson enjoys the challenges of running a business, but her favorite part of owning the flower shop is still the creative freedom and flexibility it allows.

Fuson chose FMU for its affordable tuition and short commute.

She’s also thrived in the campus community outside the classroom. She spends the most time with the Baptist Collegiate Ministry (BCM). Fuson has served on the BCM leadership team and has traveled to a number of events and conferences. She also regularly attends School of Business events.

Fuson says her professors at Francis Marion have made a significant impact on her life. She is grateful for their ability to inspire change in her, their genuine care for students, and their commitment to staying current in the field of business and marketing.

Fuson is set to graduate a semester early in May 2026.

After that she’ll head into the job market where she already has one very firm offer – from The Florence Flower Shop.

Fuson says her next goal is to focus more deeply on weddings in the Florence area.