Finally, something to show you
I wanted to give an update to something I wrote about a while back, because i have something to show for it and wanted to express some gratitude.
I used the eraser tool on the bottom part, we have a business line but we're not open yet. When we are I'll have some more pictures and it'll be included.
That old post was the first time I had committed most of that to writing, and it was really encouraging for folks to take an interest, especially Akir's questions. Being asked and writing out the answers helped me clarify further, what I was intending to do and how I would get there. So, for the folks who read that, I wanted to share an update.
I'm really confident about this endeavor. It makes me anxious to say that but I've come to learn the position we're in just could not be better. Part of getting it started is forming an LLC, so I've gotten some time to talk with folks more professionally connected to the town. From what I gather, we don't actually have much direct competition. That's because the local venues are very high priced, and primarily do weddings. With some of them, it sounds like a case of possibly resting on laurels - one story was of a wedding, $10,000, which did not include things like tables and chairs and the house was not clean. Each venue charges quite a lot, I think because they're renting out most of their own supplies. We don't have to do that - we have enough already to accommodate up to around 150 people, and the space can accommodate up to ~350 if they're hanging out outside. We can do an event like that 10k wedding for around 3k with stuff provided.
No one offers stuff that's smaller scale. At least with all the places I researched, it's just weddings. No one really tries to host things like, say, a dinner for a local business, school groups, smaller parties. The first event we're set to do, is a tea party for around 30 people (it's for a little girl's birthday). I got to speak with someone who owns a local accounting firm, and learned from them what we are planning to do is pretty much an unserved market. Folks want to be able to go someplace nice that isn't a restaurant. The lowest priced venue sits around ~$3500, and that's just the price of being there. Bear in mind, this is Brookhaven, MS - it isn't a wealthy place by any stretch. The venues currently operating seem to be relying on folks finding them online, and catering to those higher end kinds of events (again, it's mostly just weddings. Some of them do bed and breakfast but it's clearly not what their branding is about). We have practically no overhead, no loans, no investors, and our plan targets stuff that isn't available but is in regular demand. We're doing a few small events to get some practical knowledge and in May we'll open officially.
There's a separate story in there, of two independent folks figuring out how to live together. Neither of us is used to having someone around to do things. Changing my environment has meant being more productive and motivated, which has been pretty nice. Grandma rocks, that's really all there is to it. It really feels like having chosen to do something at precisely the right time, at least with respect to making the business work. I can't speak to the more lofty goals and ideals, because I haven't gotten far enough yet for those to really enter the picture. Upcoming: Business cards, a pamphlet, posters. There's opportunities for advertising that are either free or quite cheap. The print shop owner can get an ad out to 10,000 in the local area for around $500, which I think will have to be good because they're the only folks doing a mailer. That's the only consistent issue, things just move more slowly here and choice is extremely limited. I came here from a city of ~1m, so I guess I had gotten pretty used to having about a bajillion choices. On the other hand, it's been very easy to get the beginnings of a professional network going. I grew up in a place like this, so getting along is no big deal, and everybody knows everybody. A good first impression means something; a good conversation travels. Folks have loved the idea thus far, and have been nothing but encouraging. I don't ramble about the long term plan with anyone, ya'll are the only folk who really got that. As I go along I intend to see how that all shakes out, give an account of how it takes shape. I appreciate folks checking it out and responding. Happy to report anything you're interested in.
Anyway, that is it for now. I hope to return with some cool stuff from a big reopening party. I wasn't sure where this should go so I figured ~misc would work.
Oh wow! I am glad to hear an update on this. Congratulations on getting your first event planned! I’m honestly a little jealous of the little girl. 😺
It looks beautiful. Congratulations and well done for moving forward with your dreams!
If you want help setting up a non-Facebook web presence, DM me!
I appreciate your offer! As things come together, I will remember :)
Good luck! I hope this works out well for you, I love the idea.
Tugging at two aspects of what you’ve said:
I’m getting married in uhh about 18 days, and you are absolutely correct about how expensive places are that don’t even offer good service. Luckily, we found a venue that’s mostly all inclusive (aka they run catering and floral in house, which is convenient but also probably slightly more expensive) and had a discount with the time frame, but still - all told it’s ridiculous.
I love the idea of opening a “Third Place” like that. It’s honestly one of my dreams to do something similar-ish; I want to open a decently sized coffee-shop, but with as much of an aspect of having space to do small events as it is a place to get coffee. Something like a board game cafe, but a little more community focused. But that’s going to be years down the line (probably retirement age), because finding a place for it would likely be prohibitively expensive, and I doubt I could make it profitable.
Congratulations! I hope y'all have a wonderful wedding :) Thank you for checking out what I had, too.
I'd be full of it if I tried to say there wasn't a lot of luck involved, and I'm not successful yet so I can't talk too highly. But we are working out all kinds of offerings to try to build up that sense of being a third place. The sign was pretty cool to do. I put the image together using a drawing my dad did of the house something like 20 years ago. I scanned a postcard of it and then traced over it to make it more bold, line by line lol. With the frame, I drew one myself with pen and paper, then fed it to an LLM and had it elaborate a bunch with various prompts until I got a result like what I was imagining.
I can share a few of the things we've been thinking about. Kids' birthday parties, graduation photos, as well as just having a flat rate package if you just wanna get people together for something. The house is nestled within the fine arts school's campus, so my hope is we can build a relationship with them, and provide for things like an after school club, or a cheap venue for presentations/performances.
On the note of performances, I really want to see if we can get some local musicians to perform here. That one has to be more of a medium term plan because we'd need to get a few things, but one of my personal goals is regular, live performances, and cater to a very wide range. Like, if you're just a guy with an acoustic, we can arrange an indoor performance setup and it wouldn't cost much of anything. If you've got more, we have the carriage house, where we can have a small stage and some sound equipment (that's the medium term bit, we'd need to buy some of that, and the carriage house needs some renovating). Music is just tremendously important to me, so I want to do something that makes more of it happen.
Local businesses are also top of mind. The accountant was very big on the idea there are a number of them who want to host meetings and parties somewhere, but there's just nowhere besides the restaurants trying to be available for it. It isn't difficult for us to arrange for small groups, and we've got a massive, fancy dinner table. I think we'd be able to make it work pretty easily, and it's a phenomenal opportunity for us to know folks/be known. One of the goals in general is building out a network of professionals. Hosting dinners and parties seems like a great way to work at that.
The only thing we really don't want to do, is lodging/bed and breakfast stuff. Though I'm branching out a bit, I'm still an introvert and so is my grandmother. Gotta have the ability to say the day is done and retire to one's own space.
My hope over the next couple of months is to have all of this (and more of course!) prepared for and ready to go the moment we're officially open. My thought is, if we come out the gate with a wide variety, priced affordably, folks will understand what we're doing quickly. Then we can busy ourselves with making each thing the best it can be, and whatever competition arises will have to make up for lost time.
Long, long term, I hope we'll be able to position ourselves in a way that means we can't really have a direct competitor - it's one thing to be a more profitable business, it's another to have to also convince the town you're better than the thing they grew to love, a thing with which they have years of (good) history. We just need to stay flexible and true to our aims, and I think things will work out beautifully.