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

Stella, 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?

Of course I started out like most businesses with a dream, a few ideas & lots of excitement, not knowing the immediate outcome. I literally started this for $25 & just wanted to make my own bouquet, thats it! I watched some YouTube videos over and over, picked up materials to get started and I began creating something that I had no idea on how it would turn out. Fast forward to making my own bouquets & the wedding being over, I immediately started posting my (ok looking) work to see if anyone liked it or was interested. A few people were interested & I would get orders here and there through FB Marketplace & Offer Up. This gave me a huge spark of confidence & I continued to work on perfecting my craft & gaining more people that would ne my potential customers. I created a business page on FB & started building my audience every day. I was consistently posting & sharing the few items I had made & was slowly building up my audience! I started running ads & started an IG page as well about 6 months in. The ads were hit or miss as far as customer sales, but they indeed helped me build up my audience! I continued to post on marketplace and offer up and I would get more and more people reaching out and I wanted to learn more & more about my craft, so I continued to watch more & more YouTube videos. In short, with my consistent posting, creating more products & being engaged along with a professional, user-friendly website, running ads, sales became steady & steady became busy over time. This was not & is not an overnight success. I work long days & evenings on this business to keep it going & relevant. Stay the course, be innovative, be creative, add more products to keep income going (I create custom bouquets, but also added classes to teach others to do what I do)! Build on what you have, don’t become complacent, stay relevant & market, market, market your products!

Stella, 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?

I have worked in various roles mostly in healthcare my entire career. 3 years ago, I found my passion for creating custom bouquets & it started with a vision, $25 & a craft table along with watching YouTube videos. What set me apart is all my products are custom, I try to keep my prices below average & still give my brides/couples an amazing product along with a great custom service experience.
I am most proud of my consistency to give quality products at a fair price along with top notch service, despite the way our economy has been hit over the last few years along with working towards setting the bar to expand on different types of bouquets including, but not limited to cascading, brooch, silk, non traditional styles & more! I’m not afraid to say to a customer, “no I haven’t made that before, but I’m sure I can!” Stepping outside my comfort zone is what sets Brides on a Dime Bouquets apart.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Recently, I made a business decision to give up my intimate event space where I had been working out of for the last 23 months along with allowing customers to have events there.

It was not an easy decision to make, but I knew that this change was what I needed to scale back & grow Brides on a Dime Bouquets at the same time. I have added on more services Wedding related & let go of running a venue. For some, it may look like I was quitting or giving up, but in reality I am growing in a different area of the business. I could have easily just given it all up, but I decided to shift a bit & I truly believe business will continue to grow & expand due to the shift.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Yes, this side hustle turned into my full time job after about 18 months of being extremely consistent & working long hours & marketing day in & day out. I am now going back to a part time position due to the economy, yet still running the business full time. We have to roll with the punches of all the changes of business & the economy that can be so unpredictable. I made almost 2.5 times my “9-5” income my 1st 12 months of quitting my job and running the business full time”. It was more money than I anticipated & happened way quicker than I ever expected. Business can be like a roller coaster. Just keep going.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bridesonadimebouquets.com
• Instagram: brides_on_a_dime_bouquets
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bridesonadime79/