We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Iesha Jackson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Iesha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear how you think where to draw the line in terms of asking friends and family to support your business – what’s okay and what’s over the line?

I feel family and friends support is beneficial to my business as I can’t do it alone. My family play a huge part in social media marketing, word of mouth advertising and Whatever aspect they can to help me grow. I will name drop my top contributors, first my aunt Lisa, my assistant and cousin in law Octavia, my muscle my brother Paul, my cousin Chris and last but not least my mom who’s my unofficial head of marketing lol she will promote to whoever will listen. They don’t allow me to draw a line they call and confirm weekly on events, orders and more. I’m very blessed and grateful.

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’m Iesha J. a first-generation business owner from the Westside of Detroit. I’ve always had a passion for crafting and fashion since I started cutting up my barbie’s clothes as a child. It wasn’t until I was planning my wedding, I discovered my love for wedding florals. I literally posted on social media a trial run bouquet and my Facebook friends encouraged me to sell them in 2017. It wasn’t until 2020 I decided to try my hand at graphic designs same scenario, I honestly wanted to market my business and didn’t have adequate funds or knowledge, so I did it myself. Event decorating came later with encouragement from my customers. I’m most proud of the growth and expansion of my business knowledge over these pass 6 years, so much so I will soon offer business coaching and branding, to fellow entrepreneurs. I would love for potential customers to know I’m going to give 110% to whatever service or product I’m offering them. My slogan will forever be “Why be Basic ,When you can be Bougie” and everyone knows bougie is top tier!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I worked full time as a Hospice Aide until covid came and wrecked my sense of a normal life. When the world started to open up, I didn’t feel comfortable returning to work, because I didn’t want to risk contracting Covid and passing it to my mom( who survived a heart attack in 2018). Also, I began to get orders and I knew with my work schedule of 40+ hours and the overwhelming number of brides it would be next to impossible to do both, so I made a choice. I’m glad I did I’ve now serviced over 300 brides, shipped to at least 30 states with a goal of ALL 50 !!

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

I keep in touch with my customers and potential customers on social media. I have about 12k followers on Facebook alone, I’m constantly tackling goals on TikTok and most recently I’ve broke into the YouTube market. My day ones enjoy our engagement on Facebook weekly where we discuss all things weddings on Wednesdays, Fridays we play games and un-wine, I host bouquets reveals and even trivia challenges for coupon codes on our website.

Contact Info:

• Website: bougiebouquetsthings.com
• Instagram: Bougiebouquetsthings2
• Facebook: Bougie Bouquets and Things
• Linkedin: bougiebouquetsthings
• Youtube: @bougiebouquetsthings
• Other: TikTok: bougiebouquetsthings