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

Laurelle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

My first job was at a flower shop in Southern California- I always knew I wanted to work at one; never imagined actually owning one.
Fast forward to a decade later, I got married and was working as a Club Coordinator at a gym with my husband, on the computer all of the time handling all data entry, billing, member issues, etc. and needed something for the right side of my brain to do. That’s when I decided I was “going to do flowers”-something beautiful, familiar and fun that I wanted to do as a hobby.
Turns out when you’re married to a man who is all-business all of the time, if you’re gonna do it, you might as well do it. And from there, WildWood Flowers was in full bloom.
Mother’s Day, 2015 was my first real crack at it. I transformed my dining room in to a whole flower mess and between hitting up everyone I knew and having my son sling flowers on the corner of the street, not a single stem was left.
Then we moved to Idaho and I started all over again out of our dining room the next Valentine’s Day. There was already a florist here who had had her shop for something like 13 years, so the last thing I wanted was for everyone in our small town to think I thought I was some hotshot from California coming to try and push her out. (I’m a chronic overthinker and never want to be misinterpreted!!) So my business came more from word of mouth and I began doing wedding flowers for my neighbor, cousin, brother, and then random strangers who had begun to hear about me. That was perfect because our local florist didn’t dabble too much in to weddings and I felt like I was safe there.
But again, if you’re gonna do it, you might as well do it. So my husband eventually kicked my business out of our house and made me get a spot in town. Actual overhead definitely changes the way you operate and I was forced to find another gear.
So here I am now, owner of WildWood Flowers & Events (now operating as a wedding planner and coordinator as well), with a beautiful spot in downtown Weiser. I am now the only florist in town, handling all the day to day floral needs for our community and neighboring communities, am on preferred vendor’s lists at several wedding venues, and living my dream that I didn’t even really knew existed.
I definitely needed nudging all along, sometimes pushing, other times dragging- but am so grateful for that. I have had the pleasure of connecting with some of the most amazing couples, sharing in some of their most beautiful moments and being able to follow their journey for the rest of their lives. I have been able to provide comfort and something special and unique for people’s loved ones who have passed. I have been able to celebrate milestones with perfect strangers, share in their sorrows, and make long lasting relationships and friendships.

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 am Laurelle Jones, owner of WildWood Flowers & Events in Weiser, Idaho. I am a floral designer, wedding and event planner and coordinator, and have an event space where I host floral classes and rent out for celebrations!
My passion for floral design turned in to something so much more once
I set up at my first wedding. The hardest part for me was seeing the Bride in all her glory and glam, handing off her flowers, and spending the rest of the day wondering how the rest of her day went. I decided right then and there-I had severe FOMO and needed to be there for it all. That, and the fact that my eye is trained for balance, harmony, and beauty, my personality is made for making friends out of strangers, and my hustle doesn’t halt until the day is done.
All of those traits make for the perfect person to help plan, strategize, execute, navigate, decorate, and orchestrate weddings and events. I am energized by being around people and strive for everyone to have the best experience.
I would do it all in the name of philanthropy if I didn’t have a husband and 5 kids who require some things out of me from time to time ☺️

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

One of my parent’s longtime friends visited not too long ago and came to check out my shop. They asked me how it all had come together and assumed I had gotten a grant or a loan. Ya sure, something like that…
I’m extremely frugal. Like, frugal to a fault.
So much so that when my husband and I were going through some shit (can I say that?? 😅) my Dad handed me $500 cash and said “here, you can use this to put towards a therapist”, knowing full well I couldn’t stomach forking over money for something non-tangible like that, especially when I wasn’t the one that needed the therapy 😉. He did also say “or whatever you want” so clearly that meant to take the cash and open my own account. I also had my late Grandmother’s wallet and she would always keep a $100 bill in there and if I had to bet, I would bet she would definitely want me to invest it. In myself.
So with my $600 I opened a business account-which between you and me was gonna go either way-a business account or my little nest egg. Every purchase for my business came out of there and everything from my business went in there. And that whole frugal thing?? I thrifted and yard saled like crazy for vases, buckets, containers, baskets-anything I could find that I could use. Which at first was super embarrassing but now is a huge flex for being able to save my customer’s money and saving space in our landfills. I still do it but have a little less time in my days!
So it turns out I did need therapy all along. Something that I could call my own, a way for me to create and escape and all the while build up value in myself and confidence that I so desperately needed. I needed something outside of my husband and children that gave me a purpose and identity, that helped me discover things about myself that I believe would still be dormant to this day.
I was able to take a little crack and turn it in to a whole-ass career. I’ve been able to purchase a work car for myself, all by myself for the first time in my whole life. I was able to float my family of 7 while my husband took a year and a half off of work to heal his heart (he was in heart failure at the age of 35). And I should have been using “we” but I didn’t want you to get confused thinking I was meaning my husband and I…which yes, he’s been super supportive and encouraging and helpful and yada yada but the “we” would be me and my Creator. The one that knew exactly what I needed and when I needed it, taking all of my strengths, talents, passions and weaknesses (tho very few) and paving a way for me to succeed.
I know there will never be this exact same scenario for anyone else on the planet but keep your eyes peeled and your heart open because it’s there. It’s gonna be something you’re naturally good at, that blesses others, that even when you feel drained, you’re able to draw energy from. Something that when you think back on your life and all your experiences, it was always there. You grew up around it, it’s cultivated from all your relationships and your relatives, taking bits and pieces from everything and everyone.
“You were created for such a time as this.”
Esther 4:14
Woah, that got really deep 😆😆

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

My audience started with my friends and family-inviting them to like my business page on Facebook and then accepting every friend request on Facebook only to turn around and invite them to like my business page. So I literally am friends with people and I have NO idea who they are but it’s all part of my strategy 😂.
I use my social media platforms to introduce myself. I want people to know who I am before we ever speak, meet or make magic together. I want them to know I’m really serious about what I do but am not serious in my real life. I want them to know the energy they’re getting before they sign up for it.
I use my Facebook to market to an older crowd (I’m in that category too so calm down), and a more local crowd. I post special events and specials on neighboring Facebook groups and use it to advertise for more day-to day customers. I’ve recently decided to curate my Instagram to attract attention from people all over the place. I want it to be clean and sharp, aesthetic and trendy. I’ve actually hired a local gal to help with my Instagram and various other social medias. We’ll be working together to create posts to appeal to a larger audience, she’ll be keeping track of what types of posts do best and we’ll go from there! I’ll still very much so have my voice, it’s just that technology, Lightroom and algorithms ain’t my thing.
My advice would be to always be yourself. Sure, you’ve gotta play the game- but play the game according to your rules. Never try to be like anyone else and try not to draw inspiration or ideas from anyone too close to home. Know who your audience is and what you want to get out of them and target them. And then sometimes post just to show off-that’s especially necessary if you’re the middle child.
Social media is free and used world-wide so love it or hate it, it is an amazing tool that can blow it open for you.
Oh, and have a proofreader!! I screenshot most of my posts and send them to my Mom to make sure that 1) spelling, grammar and punctuation is on point and 2) what I’ve said isn’t going to shock and awe her relatives in Minnesota too, too much 😋

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @wildwoodflowers1
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wildwoodflowers1
• Other: I’ll be working on a TikTok account and a website, and possible LinkedIn. I would love to update with you later down the road if that’s a thing!

Image Credits

Photo Grove
Kortney J Photos
SS Photos
Quincy S Photos
C Stell Productions
Bilbao Whitney Photo