We recently connected with Lauren Atkinson and have shared our conversation below.

Lauren, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us 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?

Let’s be realistic- The hardest part about owning a business is all the work no one actually sees. The hours that are put in when no one is watching. The days or hours off you need so desperately for your sanity but instead you are crunching numbers and organizing or answering that email that you have been waiting to answer for weeks.

10 years ago, I made the decision to leave the company I was working for and venture out on my own as a floral and event designer. I told myself that I would never have a studio and always work out of the home, never have staff and only take one event a weekend. Truthfully, I didn’t want to grow. I thought I would be content right where I was at. However, the business naturally started to grow through word of mouth and referrals. Within 6 months of starting LMA Designs, I quickly realized I needed help if I ever wanted to sleep again and I hired my first part time/freelance staff members. It initially started out as friends helping after their work hours or on weekends until I felt steady enough to hire a freelance team member. I slowly dipped my toe in the pool of staffing. From there we grew to hiring part time staff, to full time staff to now multiple part time, full time along with free lance team members. I remember a key moment before my first full time staff member when I realized if I wanted to continue to grow, I needed to realize I couldn’t do it all and if I could, I wouldn’t be able to do it all well.

After 2 years of working out of my home with flowers everywhere (seems magical but it was not), I knew I needed to find a studio to lease to work out of- This felt like a huge jump and risk as I wasn’t used to the financial commitment every month of rent and signing a lease for 5 years seemed like an eternity. But I fully believed this was the next step for growth. I made the leap and it was so wonderful and terrifying and we outgrew our space within 4 years. It was time to leap again to a bigger space with a higher rent that felt so big I never thought we would fill it- We are almost 4 years into a second space and we are bursting at the seams but it is home and it is more than anything I could have ever dreamed. Every time I have said- “I don’t want … a studio space, a staff, more than one event a weekend”- I have been pushed to the limits and taken those leaps towards growth. But it was always a little bit at a time- dipping my toe in and seeing if I could do it and realizing growth can be hard and scary but it isn’t bad. Growth is usually a good thing

At LMA Designs, we pride ourselves on relationships and community. We want to be known as the team that will lend a hand and jump in to help other vendors when needed because we are all a team with ultimately the same goal and that is executing the best event for our clients. This was and has always been a driving force in our company culture. And I truly believe this is what lead us to scale and grow through the years.

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

LMA Designs- Lauren Marie Atkinson Designs- is a full service floral and event design company based in Nashville, Tennessee.

My Grandparents came over from Holland and started Van Dyk Brothers- a wholesale floral farm in New Jersey. I grew up working there every summer for as long as I can remember and knew I loved flowers. I thought that one day when I “retired” I would start a floral company. I moved to Nashville in Fall of 2003 to attend Belmont University and in my last semester of college, I still had no idea what I wanted to do. So I got a job doing what I knew until I figured out what it was I wanted to do- and that was working at flowershop. I fell in love with the event side and walking clients through special occasions and bringing their vision to life.

After six years at the shop, I decided to venture out on my own solely focusing on events and on May 20, 2013- LMA Designs was born.
I never dreamed that the company would be what it is today with the opportunities that we have had (including creating a backdrop that traveled the world on Justin Timberlake’s The Man of the Woods Tour) We have been a part of over 1000 weddings through the years and we love watching our couples grow in their personal lives and being there to celebrate all of life’s occassions with them.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

When we identified that our core client was actually planners and venue’s- that became our best source of new clients because we learned who our target audience was and how to serve them best while serving their clients AND they were reoccurring clients

Have you ever had to pivot?

Our biggest pivotal moment was when Covid shut down events in 2020. We truly took it day by day and were determined to get through it as a team. One of our key core values is client relationships. With every decision we kept that in mind and encouraged and reminded our clients that we were there for them and with them. Because we had maintained such close relationships with our clients- they in turn supported us- we started a daily floral delivery option, monthly floral subscriptions, online floral classes- Because of their support we were able to keep a steady stream of income until events came back!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.laurenmarieatkinson.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lma__designs/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lmadesignsnashville
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-atkinson-71bbb7126/

Image Credits
Orange Photographie JAO Photography Lauren Bailey Photo