First Eleven Years

It would seem likely that we might produce a writing about our first 10 years. But, the 11th year was so challenging, uplifting, and full of learning that it really has become the benchmark of the entire duration.
Owning a business – large or small – has its difficulties. For Toni and me it has been one of the most empowering experiences we could have as strong, independent women. Our business has allowed us to face, endure and overcome personal tragedy, to build on our strengths and gain more confidence, to play an impactful and present role in our children’s lives and to set goals and crush them year over year. When you own your own business, success is relative. We get to choose what our success looks like and detailz Event Management Group has mirrored those choices year after year.
But then…. the eleventh year. My Dad always said that the fourth, seventh and eleventh years in business have historically been the most challenging. Well, we killed the fourth year and the seventh went so fast we barely had time to reflect. But the eleventh year – this is the one that will define detailz going forward. Not because we didn’t do well – we did. And not because we didn’t learn and grow – we did that too. It’s because we looked back instead of forward. We made some decisions in our 9th and 10th year that allowed us the opportunity to rebuild our business in 2017. What a great opportunity, right? I mean really, we can take all the learning and growing from the first ten years of business and simply reapply them to this year and we should be successful, right? Wrong. You see, the market changed. We changed. Our personal and professional situations changed. Our goals changed. So, attempting to use old practices and past learnings as a roadmap simply wasn’t going to work. And, the two of us are so much smarter today then we were before, that we just couldn’t allow ourselves to do things that we knew wouldn’t work. So, our eleventh year took shape differently.
Different is good – but for the first time in our business history we were not going to exceed our financial goals. And we knew it. We weren’t going to hit other goals too, and we had to learn to accept it. So, with that in mind, we trudged on. We made some decisions, tried a few new things, refocused our attention on our brand, and I’m proud to admit we endured a tough year, respectfully. But, here’s the better news. We are so well poised to enter our twelfth year of business and so excited to see what happens next that we can hardly wait to begin. It’s almost reflective of the energy we had eleven years ago when we launched this little jewel we call detailz. What a cool thing that is.
The greatest gift of our business is our opportunity to create experiences for our clients and their guests that exceed expectations. Our brand speaks to the value of every small detail of event and meeting planning. If you miss even the smallest detail, it can have such a huge impact on the guest experience. So, while we used 2017 as our building year, we are super excited to share with our clients, old and new, how our attention to detail, combined with a renewed understanding of technology, markets and brand experience will build peace of mind for them and memorable for their valued guests.
Be Memorable!
Sheri and Toni