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

Alright, Jessica thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. 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.

Opening a unique flower shop has been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember. I’ve always loved to “play” with flowers but didn’t think I could actually turn this hobby into a real business. After helping a few friends with weddings and getting requests for arrangements, I decided it was time to put my business education to the test and do this thing! My family and other half had a huge hand in helping me with the courage.

I formed the business entity and started running it out of my home on the side of my full-time job. Hours and hours of self-learning really paid off! I have combined all I learned from
many different avenues and now can say I am a very diverse florist. As word
spread about my unique and quality arrangements… my kitchen began to
overflow. With lots of prayer and nudges from those who loved me: I finally
realized it was time to take the plunge and make this my career. It was definitely nerve-wracking knowing this flower shop would essentially be my “lifeline”… but I knew if I was honest, loved on every person that walked through the door, and put God at the front of the business, it would thrive!
I didn’t want to be an ordinary flower shop. Our arrangements are different and “wild”, so I wanted the storefront experience to reflect that also. I wanted Wildflower to be a place
people could come and get a breath of fresh air, and even get creative if they wanted to. This led to the “flower bar” idea! When studying abroad in Germany, I’d find myself lost at the flower markets, just gazing at all of the beautiful flowers on display. SO- Inside our super cute storefront,
you’ll find ENCs only Flower Bar! At the Flower Bar you can choose your OWN flowers per stem to build your own bouquet.

Jessica, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

In my first two years at East Carolina, I double majored business & dance performance. So I’d like to think I’ve always been creative and driven… but in different ways. In some ways, I think that is how I found the flower industry. If you’re creative, you’re creative- whether it is with flowers, painting, movement, or interior design. The behind-the-scenes stages of learning how to care for fresh cut flowers, what the thousands of flowers and greenery are called, and how to run a business with perishable items was the difficult part. The whole goal of the business was to bring something different to our area! We help people send smiles, and even come in and experience the therapy flowers offer. It’s scientifically proven that flowers give you a mental and emotional boost. Having a place where people can come and let their creative juices flow is definitely a blessing to me and this community as a whole, and I’m really proud of that.
We do everything we can to be unique while intentionally connecting with the ENC community. We host events and collaborate with other small businesses in the area. This community runs on the people, and we sure do love our Greenville People <3

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

Networking is the biggest part of business in my opinion. You can’t do everything on your own, and you sure need people supporting you to stay in business! Social media gives you the opportunity to form relationships with other business professionals in your area without having to be directly in front of them. If you’re a business owner, your “to-do” list never ends… and sometimes the only interaction you can get with other professionals outside of your physical business is social media. You’d be so surprised at the relationships you can form by just engaging with other businesses’ social media pages. Engagement shows other local businesses that you see them thriving and you’re proud they’re in the community. Post consistently, engage with your followers… and BE REAL. I’m not sure if it’s the best or most professional thing… but it sure works for us. Our platforms are a direct reflection of how we talk and act in real life. If you’ve visited the store, you can probably “hear” us saying the things that are in our captions lol. Try to form a “social media environment” where people feel comfortable and want to post when they visit your store, or when they use your services. Many of my new followers and clients come from social media! It’s definitely time-consuming, but it shows people what you have going on in your business. Have fun with it and give people something they want to be a part of!

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

We offer “save the date” options which have really been a hit. My man definitely needs reminders for our special dates…(: so I figured there were other people out there that could benefit from a little reminder. When a new client falls in love with the Wildflower experience after ordering an arrangement, we let them know we save special dates. Meaning: if you know you want to send flowers for an anniversary, Valentine’s day, birthday, Mother’s Day, son’s birthday, or you’re going out of town for a fishing trip… we’ll save those dates, shoot you a text the week before to be sure you still want to send the arrangement, and then take care of it for you the day of. It makes the process really easy for “ordering” and it’s also another reminder so you don’t get in trouble for forgetting a birthday!! We also have regular email marketing to let people know about events, discounts, or new arrivals!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wildflowerfloristnc.com
• Instagram: @wildflowerfloristnc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildflowerfloristnc