We recently connected with Laura Fulmer and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Laura thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

After working in the fashion industry for over 20 years, I decided to call it quits and dedicate my time to my growing family. I was blessed with so many special moments when it came to being the CEO of my family but I was itching to restart my career. After countless exciting years of planning my family parties, holidays and special events, I realized that this was something I loved and didn’t want to stop.

During the pandemic, I wanted to send my children’s friends little gifts with a gift note to let them know they were missed. I realized while researching for these curated gift boxes, there was a void in the market. One year later, I decided to launch my curated gift box and party favor business. I just celebrated my 3 year anniversary last month and have learned and evolved so much. The support of my community has helped with my growth.

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?

I retired from the fashion industry after my daughter was 1. Over the years, when my son was born, I tapped into my creative side by throwing them fun parties. I really put all my energy into them. I really focused on the details to make each party stand out. I would do this by researching their themes for a year. As soon as one party ended, I started with the next one. Friends and family always told me that I had an eye for parties so when the pandemic started, I really had time to think about the next chapter of my life. Because of the void in the kids market when it came to building birthday boxes or customized favor bags, I decided this was my opportunity to launch a niche business.

After I established my business name, I worked on the web-site. Slowly I used past parties to post on my site and slowly bought some product. I started to reach out to local businesses so I could piggy back on their party business and ran local ads. My business has grown mostly by word of mouth.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social Media has been the hardest tool to use and figure out. I have tried to use a few social media influencers (I have never paid for them), I run paid ADs, and try the give-aways. It definitely has been the most frustrating part of my business partly because most of my sales come from google search and not social media.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

I really believe in customer service and try to give a hand written note with each gift sent. I also send follow up messages, cards and gifts for my top customers. If an item is sold out, I try and touch base with a customer to see if I can replace the item and give discounts or waive shipping because of the inconvenience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ivyandbugz.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivyandbugz/

Image Credits
Scott Jones Photography Lauren Kara Majors Photography