We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nicole Harris a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nicole, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about growing your team – how did you recruit the first few people, what was the process like, how’d you go about training and if you were to start over today would you have done anything differently?
My company did not have employees from day one. It was just me at the start. Financially it was impossible to bring someone on as an employee so I would work with event assistants at an hourly rate for a few hours on the day of the event to help out. It was tough to work on my own at the start but it taught me every role at my company which provided me with valuable perspective on the ins and outs of my event planning company.
Recurring the first few team members was a process. It took me a little over a year to build out enough freelance assistants that I could trust to help me on the day of. There was a lot of trial and error and most day of assistants didn’t work out because this is a tough industry and the work is labor intensive.
Eventually I found an amazing freelance team and when I wanted to scale up and take on larger events I hired a full time team. I started with an assistant, then I hired another event planner, then I hired an event/rental coordinator for the rental side of my business, then I hired an event assistant. My team is incredible. It took years to find such an amazing group that gels together so well.
If I were starting today I would hire another planner sooner so we could scale faster, but ultimately I am happy at the pace and growth of our personnel and the business.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
The entire event industry is so hard to understand from the outside looking in. Once you’re deep in it, especially on the luxury side, you are exposed to the limitless potential of creating experiences for guests. What I love most about what I do is transforming spaces. The ability to create iconic before and afters of spaces, which curating the vibe is key to an amazing event. Every decision I make in regard to an event is so that the event looks and feels like a dream. I am most proud of the team I have built and work we have produced together, through not the easiest of circumstances. The Dreams In Detail approach is we get it done by any means necessary and I love that our team goes above and beyond and makes it happen for our clients.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
My online presence on social media played a huge role on building my reputation within the market. Social media (mainly instagram and TikTok) are how I garnered a lot of business. I offer tips and advice and build trust with my followers because I genuinely want to help. My reputation as a thought leader is the event planning space is important to me.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
Managing a team in the event planning industry in very unique and unlike other industries in the sense that you are working as a team together on event days for 16 hours at a time. With that said, a large part of managing a team is making sure that we collectively enjoy being around each other and working together, which means that I have to have a pulse on who is assisting us, who is on our full time team, and I have to pay close attention to the character of those we surround ourselves with. Maintaining a high morale can only be done if everyone is happy at work, together, because having peace of mind and enjoying your long event days is the only way to produce incredible work in this industry at the highest level.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dreamsindetail.com
- Instagram: by_nicoleharris
- Linkedin: Nicole-Marie-harris
- TikTok; by_nicoleharris