We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Danielle Boss. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Danielle below.

Hi Danielle, thanks for joining us today. Too often the media represents innovation as something magical that only high-flying tech billionaires and upstarts engage in – but the truth is almost every business owner has to regularly innovate in small and big ways in order for their businesses to survive and thrive. Can you share a story that highlights something innovative you’ve done over the course of your career?

Most of my adult career has been in medicine. I began as an ICU nurse, then became a nurse practitioner in a family medicine clinic. When my daughter was diagnosed with a rare genetic condition that caused her numerous health issues, I had to leave my medical career to take care of her. But in doing this, I became restless and depressed. I wasn’t sad to care for my daughter; I love her and would do anything for her. I was depressed because I needed something more… a way to be creative, to contribute to society, to have some greater purpose beyond a wife and mother. So I turned my love of gardening into a small business of building a flower farm. I took online courses from other farmers, watch any videos I could, and read every book I could find. I researched this for 2 years before I actually went through with it. It has been the best decision of my life, to take this leap into becoming a business owner and starting a small business in a field I had absolutely no experience in.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

At our flower farm, Summer Skye Gardens, our main focus is agro-tourism. We want to bring our neighbors onto our farm to experience the true beauty of locally grown Texas blooms. We do grow for both retail and wholesale, but we focus mainly on our large U-Pick flower field as well as offering workshops, tours, and small events. We feel that everyone should take the time to unplug and be present in nature, to clear their mind and improve their happiness in life. It is a great way to also spend time with family and children, and show our kids that there is more to life than screens. I am proud to say that we grow as sustainably as possible and focus highly on quality and our customer experience. We also focus heavily on education and sharing our knowledge of farming and growing flowers with those around us.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Ultimately, social media is an important, and almost necessary, tool for the small business owner. It is a way to reach people that you would never meet in person, and to get them to understand your business and what you offer. However, you have to remember that the ultimate goal of social media is to build relationships and take them somewhere else off social media. It is not about how many followers, likes or posts you get. Sure, you need to share about what your business does, and show up consistently. But remember anyone that interacts with you is your main priority. Take the time to respond to comments or messages. Engage with them daily. Show up in your stories and SHOW YOUR FACE. Take your viewers behind the scenes. And when you start to build these relationships, then you can move these individuals to potential customers by bringing them to your website, to your store. People want to shop from a person they know and understand; this builds trust and they know that they can rely on you for a quality product or service. If you remember that everyone you show up on social media, it will work wonderfully for you.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

For my business, we invested from our savings. We have always saved a lot of money over the years, and when I took my 2 years to research this business venture, I built up a lot of research on how much I could make and how much I would need to invest to get there. I discussed this at length with my husband (my business partner) and we made a financial plan for the first 2 years, both in how we would generate revenue but also how we would handle costs.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.summerskyegardens.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summerskyegardens/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/summerskyegardens/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_XUM0-8sSveOhDg3AsiWUw