We recently connected with Abigail Harris and have shared our conversation below.

Abigail, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I have always loved nature and have been a fairly successful gardener for many years now. I got interested in floral preservation as a way to extend the joy we get from flowers beyond their natural life span. I did not one day decide that I wanted to make floral jewelry, it was a many step process over a long time to grow from beginning with basic flower pressing to where I am today. I wasn’t interested in making things with generic dried flowers bought from a big box source, I wanted to perform the actual preservation process and use flowers that I personally grew myself. I experimented with a variety of display methods before settling in to fine jewelry and accessories as my preferred way to showcase the beauty of the real flowers that I get to grow and preserve.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Mountain Creek Studio SC is a homegrown botanical preservation studio in the upstate of South Carolina, USA. I showcase the natural beauty of flowers that I grow and preserve in a unique and enchanting line of hand made products including fine jewelry, hair accessories, and small decor.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

The best source of new customers has been artisan markets and festivals in my region. I am fortunate that the south east is very supportive of local businesses and we have a great market for local events and festivals. While I have a strong social media following and full online store, in person events have been the most consistently reliable source of new customers for me. Folks love to get to see my products in person, meet me, and discuss my process and chat about the beauty of locally grown flowers.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I have spent my entire adult life growing a number of invaluable skills that my customers now get the benefit of, and that I strive every day to employ in my work and service. As an experienced small business owner, I fully understand that the single most valuable aspect a business can have to build their reputations is unbeatable custom service. This is the best possible way to show to your customers how much you value and appreciate them. Nothing is more frustrating than a business who will not communicate with you and who doesn’t value your time or business. My customers will never have that experience.
The next most important aspect to building your reputation is value. Customer service is valuable in itself, but product value and quality is equally important. I always strive to keep a consistently increasing threshold of quality for my products and am constantly pursuing ways to improve my skills, my process, or the quality of my materials. I always want to offer an ideal mix of value and quality. A customer should always pay the fairest price for the best possible quality, but I never sacrifice quality to offer a lower price.
You must care. Emotion and business is rarely a smart mix, but things like dedication and passion are necessary for any venture to have worth. I care about my reputation, service, the value and quality offered, the way people feel about my business, and I care about doing things the right way. Not just the “best business model” way, but the morally and ethically correct way. There is a right way to treat your customers, to treat your community, to do business, and to treat other business owners. There is a right way to grow your business. Unfortunately that is often lacking in many businesses today, but it’s not lacking at MCS.
Experience matters, but learning from your experiences matters more. It is what feeds into understanding the necessity of top notch customer service, unbeatable quality and value, and the right way to do business. The most valuable knowledge is that which is grown from legitimate experience, of actually living through the customer interactions, the business management, the growth and the struggles and the success, and learning how to handle it all. Experience teaches you appreciation for hard work and doing things the right way and building a reputation to be proud of.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mountaincreekstudiosc.square.site
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/mountaincreekstudiosc
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/mountaincreekstudiosc