We were lucky to catch up with Rachel Guffey recently and have shared our conversation below.
Rachel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
Our cute little shop, Jungle House, started in a run down old Ice House in a warehouse district of our small college town of Lawrence,KS. We opened with a leaking roof; we drilled holes in the ceiling and hung buckets to catch the water for the first 6 months. When I say catch water I mean the constant drip drip drip of 20 plastic home depot buckets hanging from the ceiling with constant climbing up and down the ladder to empty the buckets (and occasionally spill on myself ;) ) Since we sold tropical plants we constantly shared jokes about it raising the humidity in the shop and “the plants like it!” jokes to our customers.
One evening we decided to host a gorgeous high-end watercolor workshop hosted by an artist in our town. (Tickets were around $80 per person.) We unluckily had a major rainstorm the day of the class so my husband and I strategically placed MORE buckets hanging from the ceiling to catch water and held our breath none of them would drop and crash on anyone during the class. (We made it unscathed- and so did the painters!)
My very favorite google review from these times was, “Sketchy on the outside, gorgeous on the inside!” That sums us up pretty well.
Fast forward 4.5 years and we’ve moved to shop to our main Downtown shopping district! Our store is stunning- no leaking roof, big gorgeous mural (and a disco ball) and probably a little less sketchy on the outside.
March-June 2020 were actually our busiest months as a shop- people being stuck at home and wanting to bring some beautiful plants inside to join them. We feel that gave us the momentum we needed to make the big move to a beautiful home we deserved.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I started my love for tropical plants in 2016 by hoarding them. I was driving to Kansas City (about a half hour away) a few times a week to scratch the itch for tropicals. There wasn’t a shop in town that had quite the selection I was looking for – so I would spend the day nursery hopping and bringing home as much as I could find. By 2017, my husband suggested that maybe we open an online shop selling plant accessories; pots, soil, macrame hangers, etc. We started an online shop and sold just a few things – but selling plants online just seemed too scary to learn! In 2018, we had the opportunity to host a pop up shop at our friend’s store, Wonderfair, in Downtown Lawrence. The pop up shop was supposed to last for 3 evenings and we ended up selling out in just a COUPLE HOURS! People were running up to me and taking potted plants straight out of my hands. I knew then that we would have a market for us!
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
My husband, Jhami, and I met working at a locally owned toy store! We both had a passion for working in small locally owned business and Jhami has always been runnin’ after his dream of owning his own shop since he was a child. I was a hairstylist and never had any interest of owning my own store(s)! HA!
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
We opened our shop with 2 no-interest-for-a-year credit cards and a $5,000 loan from my dad! Thankfully we were able to pay off the credit cards in a couple years and the loan back to my dad as well!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.junglehousegoods.com
- Instagram: @junglehousegoods
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/junglehousegoods
Image Credits
Leah Evans Photography