Hiring as a Young Entrepreneur with Jenny Lee Hines
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Show Notes
Hey friends! So excited for you to hear from my guest, Jenny Lee Hines. She's the owner of a flower shop in Wichita Falls that she bought from her parents at 23 years old and we talk about just the realities of hiring as young entrepreneurs. Both Jenny and I have had to work with a lot of different people on our teams. I have experience with contract leverage and she has experience with both part-time and full-time employees. She shares with us some of the difficult aspects of hiring for her business and having other people as extensions of your brand and how that can be a positive thing and also a negative thing. We also do talk about the beauty of hiring and what it's allowed both of us to do as young moms, not just as mompreneurs, but also as people who want to have the ability to occasionally step away from your business for a few days or for a week or two and not have to worry about actually shutting down the doors. So I think you're really going to enjoy this one. If you're on the fence about hiring your first employee or a contract worker, this might give you a little bit of the reality and insight that you need to make that decision.
Meet Jenny
Jenny Hines is the owner of Jameson’s Flowers which sits in Wichita Falls. Flowers have always been in Jenny’s DNA. Her grandparents started a flower shop when her dad and aunt were young, this shop is now owned by her aunt and just turned 50 years old. When she was young, her mom decided to step away from teaching after 13 years and her parents decided they wanted to start a business. Her dad suggested opening a flower shop because that’s what they knew, and Jameson’s Flowers was born. The shop is now 15 years old and Jenny was able to buy the shop from her parents just 3 years ago.
Our Conversation
Victoria: Well, I have some questions about when you took over the shop because sometimes family businesses are very apprehensive to change when change is presented, like they often fall into the mentality of, well, this is the way it's always been done. So when you came in as a very young entrepreneur, you and your husband together, were there any changes that you brought about in the way that you guys operate the flower shop?
Jenny: Yeah, so there are a couple of different avenues. When we first came in, we rebranded everything, which I think was weird for some people. Part of when we bought the flower shop was that my mom was going to work for me for a year. Well, she's not working for free. So that was another person I had to pay initially when I first came in. But, that meant I automatically had to lay one delivery driver off which was really hard. It was one of those things, it's not any hard feelings, it’s strictly financial. I also didn't want to overstretch ourselves so thin to keep everybody at first on top of paying my mom on top of learning everything. So that was the first hard decision we had to make coming in.
I knew the flower shop had been working. I didn't want to change too much coming in because I knew there was stuff that I was going to have to learn myself. So I wanted it to kind of operate the way it had been operating while kind of observing because even though I'd been in it for its coming up on fifteen years. So I just wanted to kind of observe what was working, what wasn't working, kind of get my feel back, designing every day, learning what our customers liked again. So really, that first six months was learning what they had already been doing and had been doing and try not to change too much. As soon as people hear new ownership, I think it freaks them out. I wanted our customers to feel comfortable with me buying it. On top of that, you have the expectation of the previous owner’s daughter. So it's like I didn't want to be the next generation that comes in and tanks it, so I had that added pressure in my mind. I just really came into it, people-pleasing and we can get into that later. But that was kind of the bane of my existence for a while.
Victoria: And you said that one of the first things that you did do was rebrand the business. Why did you feel that you needed to rebrand?
Jenny: So my mom never had any type of branding and the logo was her font on Word and it read Jamieson's flowers, etc. So I took off, etc. and my mom used to do gift baskets and balloons and those are two things that I had zero interest in doing. To me, they are more of a pain in the butt anyway, because half the stuff that they had had gone bad and we had to throw it out. Then the balloons weren't really selling and helium is expensive. So those are two things that I did nix right off the bat. I just want us to focus on flowers and be great at flowers. So whether that be our technique, our design skills, what flowers we're getting in, I want us to be the best at flowers in this area. So that's where I wanted our focus to be. So when we did the rebrand, I knew a bunch of our current clients were older, but I also wanted to be very visible on Instagram and social media. Another ideal customer would be women in their 30s. So that's kind of why I wanted to rebrand to something that would appeal to both of them.
Victoria: I also love how you simplified the services and the offerings that they gave you and your husband a more clear focus on what to prioritize and the new owners and probably allowed you to better target the actual clientele that you were after because you weren't trying to promote so many different services.
Well, let's shift and talk about hiring and I get these questions all the time. How do you know when it's the right time to hire or what if the business isn't there and you can't afford to pay them? So I'm so excited to hear your perspective on this because yours is actually a little bit different than my business. You have a brick-and-mortar, you had a tangible product that you needed to create and get into the hands of your customers. And, you're a fresh product business where it's limited in the time that you can do it. So you can't just like have a contract laborer for a couple of weeks and then say, okay, I don't need you anymore.
I'm curious to hear this, too. What has been the most difficult thing first about being a young employer?
Jenny: You know, my mom and I had very different approaches to hiring and not necessarily even hiring but the staff that we had on hand. I’ll start with where we're at now and what I went through. I have three full-time employees right now. Never, ever, in the fifteen years that Jamieson's Flowers has been open, had there been three full-time employees. Typically they were all part-time and my mom would work full time. There was another designer that would be here Tuesday through Friday and we would have two delivery drivers that were part-time that would interchange out and be flexible on schedules. It stressed me out because it was very much at the convenience of their schedule instead of what I needed. That was hard to shift from. Then on top of that, it was very much like older ladies who were typically retired and didn't have to work. So it wasn't like my business was a priority. My business was very secondary to they didn't feel like they had to be here and that caused problems. So I very much had to shift, and it wasn't necessarily like an old versus young thing. If you work hard and I feel like you're putting my business as a priority, I'm not going to have an issue. I don't care how old you are. I want you to work and put my business as a priority, if you want to be here, be all here. If you want to go and have more freedoms, this is not going to work. It took a lot of hard conversations and really just kind of going through people to figure out what I actually needed.
Victoria: Yeah. So you decided to shift from having several part-time workers to a smaller team of full-time workers. I can so see the benefit of that. I think the more every person that you have to manage that is a lot of work on your plate. You have to think, what do I need to do to financially get in a place where I can afford to have a smaller team that's well paid, that's working full time. Now granted, sometimes that comes out of greater expense financially. Right? A full-time person, especially if they're on a salary, is something you have to really work up to that. So how long did it take you from the time that you bought the business to transition from having several part-time workers to your team of three full-time workers?
Jenny: Really, it is another repercussion of covid. It was not something that I was like, OK, this year I'm going to try to get everyone on to salary and just do full-time employees. It was when everything shut down in March, I told the team that I had at that point, look, if you don't feel comfortable or if you need to stay home for a little bit. I understand. I don't know what it looks like for us either. Everyone peaced out except for one. That spoke volumes to me of the current team that I did have because they didn't come back for two months. And when they came back, it was at a busy time and it was just different. I mean, it was hard. So that's what the members that kind of left and didn't come back because we were considered essential the whole time. Funerals made us essential. So we were only closed one day throughout everything, and we were busy. It was just me and one other girl working every day. We were working late at night, so we were coming early in the morning just to get everything done because it was Covid and it was sink or swim time. It's not we'll sit back and see what happens as a business owner. I mean, you're trying to figure out how you're going to make this work and still be able to pay people.
So really, that's kind of what started to shift things. Once we kind of got back into the groove of things, I had to start hiring again. I just started looking for a full-time. And that's one thing with hiring part-time, I just got to the point where I was so sick of the interview process.
I wanted people to be here that felt like they had ownership of this place also. Yes, it is my business, but I wanted them to be proud of where they work and like being here. With part-time, it felt like it was a revolving door and I hated that. I really got worn out on the whole interview process. So we hired Mallory and Mayce, which has been such a huge weight off my shoulder so I can focus on other areas that I should be focusing on, business owner wise, like administration type stuff, podcasting, and marketing because I love marketing. I mean, that's what I went to school for. I really enjoy that part of the business. And then the last hire I just made to complete our group of three is solely like admin and she's been a game-changer already also.
Victoria: That's awesome. So whenever you add people to your team, they essentially become an extension of your brand. I know that for sure. Like as I'm adding people, I'm very choosy with who I bring on my team because I want these people to represent BrandWell well. How do you protect the reputation of Jameson's Flowers when you're hiring and when you're training these employees?
Jenny: This was something I forgot that my mom did in the beginning, that she reminded me of whenever I started to hire again. She told me that she would always do a 30 day trial with potential employees. So hiring them on the basis that the first 30 days is a trial period so you can really get a feel for how they work if they're going to be a good fit. Then at the very end of the 30 days, you sit back down again and talk about what's working, what's not working. If it's not a good fit, we both walk away, clean and free, and they have that opportunity if they don't like working here. I had that opportunity after kind of observing them. So it's not just solely basing it off the interview process.
Victoria: I love that and it's so funny that you say that too because I do the same thing when I'm bringing on new designers for my team. Now, again, our businesses are very different. You have a brick and mortar shop. I have an all online business. So for me, if I'm paying hourly, you have to report it on taxes and they have to claim me on their taxes for anything over six hundred dollars. So I have a 10 hour trial period where I'm like, hey, I'm going to give you a handful of designs, you can work for me for ten hours. Log your ten hours and it's going to fall underneath that six hundred dollar mark. At the end of the day, we don't have to mess with all of the tax issues and whatnot. If it doesn't work out and I give them the opportunity, it's not just to protect me from doing a lot of paperwork, it's for them too you know. I always say if you feel like this is not a good fit for you, if you don't enjoy the work that you're doing for BrandWell, then you can just tell me at the end of that time or say, hey, it's not what I thought it was going to be. I'm done and then we can go both go our separate ways and not have to worry about having to work out a ton of paperwork or tax forms. So I love that you do that. And that's just cool that we both kind of operate the same way.
Jenny: Yes, and really the girls that I have now have kind of seen this, I'm super protective over this little place. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears go into it. Part of why I'm so protective over it is from past experiences. I’ve had someone come in and work for six months then leave and start doing flowers out of their kitchen. The girls I have now, I've told them I'm super guarded and it's not you, it's me. So it's one of those things, I want to protect you and make sure that you enjoy working here because if you don't enjoy being here, none of us are going to enjoy being here. Then on the flip side, I want to protect my business.
Victoria: Well, yeah, let's talk about that for a second, because I think you've brought up a really interesting topic. And this is something that I have gone through myself with hiring designers. I want to teach them everything but I do run the risk of, hey, why couldn't they just take this and start offering it on their own? I think how I combat that fear because that is a very real fear in my mind as a young employer, is how can I make working for BrandWell so awesome that they don't want to leave? Like, how can I incentivize them that this is more than just you getting to design for a living? This is you getting to be part of this movement that we're creating at BrandWell. And, you know, I try really involving them, and as you mentioned earlier, you want the people that you hire to feel like they have ownership in what you're doing. I feel the same way. I think if you can get people on board with your mission and with what you're doing, they're going to feel like they're a part of something bigger. Then it's no longer just about the way they fill their days and the way they get their paycheck. It's about them being so fulfilled working for this company.
Jenny: Everyone here at Jameson’s Flowers hasn't been here longer than six months at this point. So we came into a year with a very fresh start. This is the first year that I've shared sales goals, we have quarterly goals, and they all have their own quarterly goals. It's like we're all we're working towards the same thing together. It no longer feels like it's just my own private goals because I can share things with them. We're all talking about stuff and they're having fun. We have a competition right now on selling greeting cards. So if they're taking an order, we have a competition going for the month of January to see who sells the most of those.
This is the first year I've had everybody on salary, so this morning I wrote them all a sweet note of what I appreciate about them and then gave them a bonus in it because we've had a really busy week. So just kind of making sure that they are appreciated with words, with gifts, making sure we're all working towards the same thing. This is the first year that it's actually felt like mine. Like Jenny owns Jamieson's Flowers now. Before it kind of very much felt like, there was still a lot of my parents in it and the way that they did it, which is not bad because I mean, it worked for them for however many years. But now I feel like this is the first year with a team that I have and their goals and everything and kind of what I'm doing that it's OK, now it's Jenny’s.
Victoria: Let's shift and talk about the benefits of hiring. I know I have a lot of benefits of hiring, but I want to hear yours. How has having these three full-time employees allowed you to grow your business?
Jenny: You know, the biggest thing when they all came in, whenever I first started talking to them in the interview process, I just dumped on them everything that I've been through and what I don't want. And so they knew coming in and everyone here has been very positive. Everyone likes being around each other. They all try to help each other out and they all try to help me out, which is what's great. So that's the thing with having two floral designers, I can really focus on marketing. So it feels like it's taking a weight off of me to focus more because as we're growing, there's more and more responsibility and we've grown quite a bit in just this past year. Even with such a new hire, I've never had anyone like Amber that can be there to help with the website and inventory, that kinda stuff. Or like the designers would be like, hey, we're out of this and OK, well, I'll write it down and get it ordered. That's not me anymore. That's you tell Amber what we're out of and Amber is going to order it. That in itself is just like one other little thing that I don't have to worry about.
Victoria: And, you have a one-year-old. So talk about that for our mompreneurs listening, because I know I have a lot of those. What is hiring done for you as a mother?
Jenny: Oh, my gosh, so Sadie broke her leg last week, and I told my husband, Bryan, that was the very first time that I didn't feel like I had to stress over things getting done at the shop while I'm gone. I felt security and knowing that the girls I have now are going to take care of everything and with excellence, while I'm gone, so I could take care of Sadie and focus on her at home. She didn't know what was going on. She was frustrated, upset, hurting. So I could focus on her while knowing that the girls I have are taking care of everything.
Victoria: Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest blessings of hiring a team, is whether it's your kid breaks their leg or you're going on a trip with your family, like whatever it is, you can actually step away from your business and your business doesn't stop. I saw that when I was in the hospital having Maia. I had a really long labor and was in the hospital for three nights, four days when I had my it and my business kept running. And had I not hired designers and administrative assistance to help me get invoices out, get designs out, like I would have had to shut down for not only the four days I was in the hospital but also those first few weeks when you bring a baby home, you are not coherent. That was the most beautiful picture to me of what a team can do. I was enjoying these newborn snuggles and clients were getting their work on time. I didn't have people emailing me being like, why is this taking so long? So even just the beauty of not only it allows you to grow your business because I do talk about the benefits of hiring to scale, but also it just allows you to step away and not have to close the doors.
Jenny: Yeah and I hear you say that repeatedly, hiring to scale. That's kind of the way I felt going into this new year. So whenever I was talking with Amber, it was like I don't really know what this looks like, so I don't really know what to tell you. It was very much a position of I don't really know what I'm walking into, but I feel like I need you to be able to grow and have more room to do what I want to do and to reach the goals that we have going into this year. And so far, I can already say that it's helping tremendously because there's stuff that she's handling and taking care of and making calls that’s not pulling me away from what I need to be doing or with Sadie. It's been great.
Victoria: Yeah. I imagine, anyone that reads the title they're considering or they just have hired their first contractor or employee, what advice would you give them if people are kind of on the fence about whether or not to bring on their first hire?
Jenny: You know, I think just being honest with them. The hardest lesson that I learned, in the beginning, was being a boss. Really even now, because I have a very young team right now and I think if I wasn't their boss, we'd probably be friends outside of work. So it's one of those things of like realizing, OK, you're not here to be their best friend, you're here to be their boss. But, also realizing too, you want to enjoy where you work and you want to enjoy the people that you're around. They say you're around who you work with more than your family. So, you need to really make sure you're enjoying that aspect. Being honest with them from the get-go about what you want and what you don't want so that way there are very clear expectations before they even step through that door that very first time. I think that has been a little bit of a game-changer for me here.
Victoria: Yeah, I think that's good advice. This has been so great, Jenny. Thank you so much for sharing. I feel like you were very real and honest, which is what people need to hear because we don't want to say like, oh yeah, I'll go out there and hire my first team member today. It's all rainbows and butterflies. It can be really challenging, especially when you're young. I think it is good to hear from other people who have gone before. It sounds like you have come from something that was really difficult. Having a lot of part-time workers and some that just didn't represent your brand to now building a team. That's what they're committed to the mission of Jamison’s Flowers and what you guys are all about. So where can people find you? Where can people see these gorgeous flower arrangements that you guys put together?
Jenny: Yeah, they can follow us on Instagram or Facebook, at Jameson's Flowers.
Victoria: I know that you have some exciting things launching in February. Can you talk a little bit about that? I know that again this is unscripted, but you come to BrandWell for brand projects and this episode will be launching right when your stuff is launching. So why don't you tell our listeners about it?
Jenny: Our biggest goal that we came up with as a team, because the sales goal that we reached last year was the biggest sales year that we'd ever had. So we felt like to grow in this next year, we knew we wanted to focus on subscriptions, which is something that we've never really had. This year we're going to have two different subscriptions that will go out once a month every month. One is going to be Jenny’s Bouquet Box and it's going to be a monthly box that's going to be my personal picks for you and will be color themed. Every month that you get is going to be kind of a surprise color theme and you'll get an insert about the flowers that I chose with a surprise gift also. So we can ship them anywhere or people can, if you're local, you can pick them up from here. The second subscription that we're also coming out with is a quarterly subscription, and it's going to be called the Wildflower Club. It's a T-shirt club where you get a T-shirt once a quarter and it's going to be fun flower themed. I like puns, so more than likely a bunch of them will have puns involved. You'll also get a surprise gift. So I'm really excited about both of them, I think it is going to be super fun.
Victoria: I love it and I know your goal is to be able to ship nationwide here in the near future. We'll have to get information from you when that happens and when I know the logistics behind that are really difficult. Then all of our listeners can sign up for one of these subscriptions or they can even just have your gorgeous arrangements shipped if they're not in Wichita Falls.
So thank you so much for coming on the show. You are awesome. Do you have a special offer that you want to share with our listeners?
Jenny: Yes. If they message us on Instagram, then we will get them signed up and we'll do free shipping on your first subscription if you sign up for it.
Victoria: Awesome. I love it. Well, thanks so much. I loved this conversation and we will have you on again.
KEEP BRANDING WELL,
Victoria
