We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jamie McPherson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jamie, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?
It took a while for family and friends to support my business. I assume in the beginning this was a hobby. When I first started in the floral business at my girlfriends flower shop, yes it was fun and a hobby. When I got burned out in my own outside sales job
I made the decision to leave that job and start a wedding floral design business. Quite scary after having a secure job for 14 years. My girlfriend who is my mentor kind of pushed me into the wedding floral business. But the support of family and friends didnt come right away or at least it seemed like it. They realized after 2 years and going into my 3rd year with 80 weddings on the books, they realized this is her job and her business.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?
How I got started in the floral business: my girlfriend owned a shop for 28 years. One day she asked me if I knew of any floral designers she could hire for Valentine’s Day work. I told her didnt exactly hang out with floral designers. She laughed and said, you can do it. Come on. I was like, hmmmm right. Thought about for a couple of days because I dont like the “B” word. BUDGET! I like my own spending money. So I tried it and was hooked after 50 hours in 3 days. I had a new found respect for Roses, thorns and a knife. Ended up helping her for 6 years on Valentines, Mother’s Day and in the summer because my job was on a school schedule. After she sold and retired, I asked her what was I going to do? I didnt have a place I could go “play” in flowers. She said, you are going to concentrate on weddings and do them out of your house. She is still my mentor 7 years later. I have turned our garage into my design studio. We do about 75-90 weddings a year and now getting into the funeral side of flowers.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
Honesty and customer service oriented. I have always been in the customer service/outside sales world. I like to create a relationship and connect with my clients. Answering emails and questions in a timely fashion, making that client feel they are the most important when talking with them. My integrity has helped build my 5 star reputation and work in the market. Do I fall short sometimes, of course. No one is perfect. If things are happening in my personal life that I get behind in work life, like emails, I tell them a tad of what is going on so they understand I am not just slacking off.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When COVID hit and the shut down happened, we rescheduled 35 weddings anywhere from 6 mos to a year out from the original event date. For 2-3 weeks I could not think straight as most no one could. However I as all other event vendors were scrambling. We were rescheduling events on dates/weekends that were already booked. We had no choice. One weekend we have 5 events, 4 in one day. I honestly do not know how we did it, but it was the most flawless weekend we have ever had. 95% of the clients were very happy. I was scared for sure and telling myself, this ship is not going to sink. 1-1/2 years after the shut down we completed the last rescheduled wedding and I could not tell you how happy I was to put that behind me. We came out stronger than ever in 2021 and beyond. 2020 was rough to say the least. Not just for me but for everyone.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.jdesignsevents.com
- Instagram: @jdesignsweddings
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JDesignsweddings
Image Credits
Meekerpictures; Cedar and Sage Photography