Rehm, Reynolds ‘give it a shot,’ and find success with Bud Floral + Home
The decision Jamie Rehm and Susan Reynolds made to go into business together was nothing if not intuitive.
“We decided that we didn’t know what we didn’t know,” Reynolds said, “so let’s give it a shot.”
In late 2019, Rehm and Reynolds opened Bud Floral + Home in Red Bank. And while Bud was a startup, Rehm and Reynolds were hardly beginning empty-handed. Rehm had built and was running a successful floral business on Signal Mountain.
“I got my love of flowers from my grandparents,” said Rehm, who adds that she named the business for her grandfather. “They had big gardens and a greenhouse in the backyard. To this day, the smell of a gardenia takes me back to my childhood.”
A native Texan, Rehm said she and her family moved to Chattanooga in 2003. In trying to get established, she said, she volunteered for various local organizations.
“Fresh flowers came easily to me, so I’d always gravitate to the decorative,” she said. “Then people started asking me to do small
events, then larger events like graduations and birthdays.
“It went from being a sort of professional hobby to parttime. Then I started doing flowers for a local grocery, and it turned into fulltime,” she said.
Rehm said she went from a garage apartment to a studio on Signal Mountain, but wanted a true storefront.
“That’s where Susan came in,” Rehm said.
Reynolds recalled doing a lot of volunteer work alongside Rehm for Baylor School, where their children attended, and that she’d been a customer of Rehm’s. The conversation about going into business together, Reynolds said, was “very organic.”
“Jamie was looking to expand and move down the mountain,” Reynolds said, “and I was becoming an empty-nester. Everything just kind of fell into place.”
Reynolds said she and Rehm signed the lease in the late spring of 2019 and spent six months prepping the Dayton Boulevard space.
“Jamie had her dream space, a new workshop, and I had a vision for the home/gift/art side,” Reynolds said.
Rehm said Reynolds brought art expertise to the business, especially in terms of being a “wonderful” curator. Bud Floral + Home displays a collection comprised of works by about a dozen artists, Rehm said.
“People will come in for flowers and say, ‘We didn’t know you had this,’” she said. “It’s the unexpected that we enjoy a lot.”
When it comes to gifts, Rehm said, she and Reynolds don’t think in terms of being in competition with other, similar area stores.
“Our mindset is to seek out gifts that are different – niche items you can’t find anywhere else in Chattanooga,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of anything, but we do have a few very special things at a lot of different price points.”
Bud Floral + Home opened in November of 2019. Reynolds recalled the “enthusiasm was very encouraging” and that she and Rehm had a “huge floral month” in February 2020.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Businesses of all sizes shut down all over the country, but Rehm said Bud Floral + Home never completely closed the floral side.
“We got creative,” she said. “Curbside. Contactfree. That [2020] Mother’s Day was crazy, the busiest we’d been to that point.”
Reynolds said orders were “pouring in – bereavement, anniversaries, birthdays. People just couldn’t get out and shop for gifts.”
Rehm said when conditions permitted, she and Reynolds offered floral classes, art workshops and artist receptions. She added that now, with conditions much improved, Bud Floral + Home finds itself with an additional offering she and Reynolds hadn’t anticipated.
“Baby showers,” Rehm said. “It wasn’t one of our original goals, but Susan has designed the storefront in such a way that it feels like a living room. It’s a nice space for a small gathering when you don’t want to have to prepare your own home.”