Esscents of Flowers – Ariana Mabley
#025 – Today we talk with Ariana Mabley, East Oakland native and owner of Esscents of Flowers, a floral design company, which she started as a side hustle pop up business while still working a full time career. Ariana wears MANY hats – wife, mother, chauffeur AND entrepreneur. She credits the tremendous support from friends, family as well as the team at the Uptima Business Bootcamp for helping her business succeed, but she credits her grandfather for planting the gardening seed in her…
“It is something I used to do with my grandfather – who has since passed. But it was because of his love for nurturing the ground, growing things from the ground that even allows me to be where I am today. He showed me how to garden. And that was one of our favorite pastimes”.
Every other Saturday she would pop up in front of cafes, bike shops, and other small Oakland and San Leandro businesses. That led to a contract with a wedding venue. It took off organically so in the summer of 2019 she decided to go full time. And then the Pandemic happened.
“All of my events were canceled. I had to figure it out really quickly. There goes the art of the pivot – being able to think just super quickly about how you’re going to steer this business that you created. From there I worked with some small farms that are local to the Bay Area and I started offering delivery services throughout the week because what I realized is that people wanted to stay connected to one another but they couldn’t physically be with one another. And so I was like I can still provide flowers, it just has to be a different way”.
This is truly a family business. Ariana married her high school sweetheart and they have 2 boys. Everyone pitches in when needed. You can find her E of F Studio at 329 17th St. – Downtown Oakland
Be sure to stick around until the end to hear about Ariana’s amazing support system.
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