Greater Baton Rouge Business Report "Baton Rouge-based Fig & Dove prepping for growth"
Written by: Holly Duchmann
After finishing last year with 55% growth in year-over-year sales, local interior designer Colleen Waguespack is bracing for another year of growth for both holiday and gifts company Fig & Dove and design firm Colleen Waguespack Interiors.
Founded in 2015 as a high-end Christmas decor e-commerce company, Fig & Dove has expanded over the years to offer curated items for other holidays and events. Waguespack credits the business’s growth to its new office that opened last March.
Waguespack, who is also a former Business Report Influential Woman in Business honoree, describes the space as a hybrid retail office. When she moved into the new digs from the LSU Innovation Park, she had no intention of opening a retail shop for walk-in customers but after customers kept walking in and requesting to view products from the website, she began offering limited retail hours in October.
“We’re not a traditional store—we have no retail employees—but we’ve created a culture where people feel comfortable popping in,,” Waguespack says, noting that the brand’s niche offerings lead her customers to shop with intention instead of browsing. “When people visit the office, they’ve already decided before stepping in what they’re buying,”
Fridays before LSU football home games were especially busy, drawing out-of-town visitors familiar with Fig & Dove from social media, she says.
Beyond the lobby and retail area, the office is divided between Waguespack’s two ventures—Fig & Dove and Colleen Waguespack Interiors, her interior design firm. She looked for more than a year for a space that met her needs and found her current space, nestled discreetly in a shopping center on Essen Lane, during the pandemic. It took six months to renovate the space, which included installing garage doors in the rear for shipping as well as a full kitchen for product demonstrations on social media.
Currently, some 30% of business comes from wholesale orders but Waguespack aims to eventually shed that revenue stream by growing direct-to-consumer sales. She’s also exploring options for a distribution partner to move shipping offsite so the brand can grow into the extra office space. With the economy softening due to fears of a recession, as well as changes to Instagram’s algorithm, Waguespack isn’t trying to beat last year’s growth—rather aiming for 35% growth this year.
“Our space, and how it’s impacted our culture and sales, is a reminder how we spend more time at work than at home,” Waguespack says. “Creating a space that reflects a business’s culture pays off for itself and is worth the investment.”
Read the article on Greater Baton Rouge Business Report.
