Small Businesses
Many people know that Stay Wildflower is a vacation rental business with 24 apartments in two Los Angeles locations. However most people don’t know how this small but mighty company originated 8 years ago. The idea of creating a full-term business was merely a dream. At that point, the goal was posting the first listing on Airbnb and crossing fingers that someone would book. In less than an hour, a reservation was set for the next day. This simple ‘miracle’ became the catalyst of creating more vacation rentals and listing it on several third party sites. Slowly but surely a business began to form.
In terms of the team, it started with Jeff Cowan and his wife Shannon Cowan. Shannon was and still is in charge of all things design. From the carpets to the curtains, every element is thoroughly thought through to ensure each of our guests experience something new and exciting, however still feel the comfort of a home. Jeff on the other hand, handles any and all logistics regarding the company. This dynamic duo had a vision and executed it accordingly!
Fast forward a couple years later, and now Stay Wildflower has 24 listings live and active. Not to mention that Jeff and Shannon are now Superhosts with several Plus listings. The team has expanded by adding a Sales and Marketing Manager and an Operations Manager. Each person holds an important role to ensure each stay is seamless and perfect.
With any small business, there are pros and cons! Pro is you are an entrepreneur. The sky’s limit of what you can achieve. A con is you are restricted by the more developed ‘Big Guys’. For example, Stay Wildflower heavily relies on third party sites to boost our listings. Our product becomes less of our product the more that we share with these highly influential companies such as Booking.com, Airbnb, and VRBO. With that being said, our vision is less on what we are currently doing but more about how we can implement our dreams into reality. This requires us to think creatively and find ways to get people to book directly. We are in the works of cultivating this vision!
What is your small business story?
