We recently connected with Jana Cott and have shared our conversation below.
Jana, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to start by getting your thoughts on what you are seeing as some the biggest trends emerging in your industry
Our networked venue managers across the USA are seeing the following two challenges lately: 1) Many couples are cohabitating instead of marrying. Thus, weddings have progressively declined over the past decade 2) As a trend in the United States, more venues are popping up from repurposed buildings or as new builds. Increasing the supply of venues is challenging enough, but combined with decreasing demand for weddings equals an economic challenge in our business field, for sure! We are always concerned for the entrepreneur who calls us asking detailed questions about best practices in a start-up venue like ours when they haven’t first researched the supply and demand in their area. It sounds so sexy, but it’s hard work and a declining profitable field unless you’ve got longevity and a reputation built up.
Another trend that’s been around for awhile, but has an added twist, is destination weddings. The latest twist is that it’s not enough to just go to a fun spot in a nearby county, but the stakes have been raised to go to a far away beach, or an island or even an international destination. The increase in Google searches for “weddings in Italy” especially rose from early 2024 to currently. Therefore, some venues are trying hard to hurry and create a “look” that will appeal to the couples who want that theme, but cannot afford the international pricetag.
One more trend in the last several years has been a full weekend experience. This does sacrifice the number of guests. If your budget is XYZ but you want several unforgettable days together, then friends 1-5 make the list over Uncle John six states away whom you’d only invite to please Mom.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Ironically, we didn’t go looking for this business field. Our six owners (3 separate households) farm together, and we built Life’s Finer Moments, which opened in 2012. Hunters come to enjoy midwest hunting on our land. Our outfitter suggested we build a facility so that when extended families came along, they’d have a larger space in which to gather. Kitchens, bedrooms, private showers, and 2 large fireplaces immediately became important. As planning blueprints progressed and our hospitality passion wasn’t forgotten, we morphed into a facility the community could use as well. From there, we decided the overnight accommodations needed to be separate. Therefore, a few nearby cabins were constructed. It was truly a family project. Our kids helped stain the three stain coats required for nearly every board inside and outside the venue. All have worked many hours on the property in various capacities. Some jobs include landscaping, housekeeping, cutting firewood, and conducting tours or hayrack rides.
Locals utilize the venue for reunions, corporate meetings, parties, showers, ministry, large BBQs, hayrack rides, a dinner theater, concerts, a giant “house” for weekend family gatherings, and more. Weddings immediately rose to the top of the list. Weddings have become our most popular events with some couples coming from as far away as Florida or Wisconsin, while the majority of customers are from a 60-mile radius.
The other four owners continue primarily with farming and my husband and I fulfill the manager roles and responsibilities of this business. Like most farmers, he puts in 70+ hours a week farming but continues to troubleshoot and help me manage the venue and cabins on the side. I’ve worked part-time at a church for decades, and still do, in addition to previously teaching in the public school system. None of us were expecting to run this type of business so it’s been pleasurable, though a steep learning curve with so many nuances in the operation.
****Fun Fact: Our two oldest adult children are males. One son and his bride held his wedding here even though they had many choices in her home city of Wichita, KS. We were honored. Our other son strategically proposed at our venue. He had us prep the fireplace and twinkle lights before they arrived. Though she comes from a neighboring state, so the ceremony wasn’t near here, they had a follow-up reception at Life’s Finer Moments for the Kansas crowd. *****
Some of the memorable events at the lodge have been people’s themed parties. The decor, photo booths, evening activities, and tailored menus were all theme cohesive, and guests dressed in costume if they desired. We’ve seen themes of a CLUE dinner party for 100, Wizard of Oz, “Ham” it up with all things pig, Cowboys, Hawaiian Luau, a Pirate Party with a plank to walk, Lumberjack theme complete with pancake flipping across the room, and numerous other themes.
We’ve hosted the local high school prom for various years and even their After Party. Because we’re not too far from Kansas State University, there are several formals or barn dance parties each year from their crowd. We’ve had churches from out of county use us as a conference day, worship service spot, or a youth group sleepover event.
We provide a fall event annually for our own church with 150 attending for hayrack rides, hot dog roast, scavenger hunt, lawn games, and a s’more fest!
We want clients to know we’ll work with you to set up the layout that works best for your function. We have a projector, a giant screen, and state-of-the-art technology. Our school district and an area bank’s annual stockholder meetings have utilized those amenities. To someone else, our best amenity might be that the Great Room’s large kitchen has double every appliance and was created so you could use about 20 crock pots simultaneously without blowing a breaker!
The property consists of 40 acres with an event venue and several cabins within walking distance. There’s easy access to regularly mowed walking trails, fishing ponds, a blue rock shooting area, a large firepit, and lots of privacy. We are often asked when we’ll build more cabins so retreat groups have enough beds. As a temporary fix for now, we transform the sleeper sofas in the loft into sleeping quarters.
For hunters, Kansas offers some of the best hunting in the country, so we are proud to host return and new faces during each different hunting season throughout the year. The best part of our job is meeting the people, hearing their stories, and discovering what brought them to our little part of the world. Hearing how someone hadn’t seen the stars so clearly before or experienced such a breathtaking sunset just gives us joy.
Our priorities include our personal growth in faith and the development of exceptional relationships within our family, with employees, and with customers.
Mission: It is our top desire to provide an affordable and family-friendly atmosphere that creates some of your own-
life’s finer moments.
How do you keep your team’s morale high?
We’re a small business with various jobs. Our team members wear many other hats and don’t have specific work hours at Life’s Finer Moments. We can have a week of 2-3 events and then go 9 days without anything. Therefore, we think it’s wise to create and manage a work schedule tailored around the task and the employee’s personality. Our housekeepers are given the liberty of flipping a cabin anytime between 10 AM and 4 PM. (Cabins are big so take a minimum of 1-1.5 hours each not including laundry) If the employee has morning plans, they can wait until after lunch as long as their cabin(s) are ready to go by check-in time. If it’s an event at the lodge, and we don’t have another event for a few days, they have several days to flip the facility at their convenience. A staff member is there for the customer’s exit and locks up after each event, so the trash, thermostat, lights, and crucial tasks are dealt with immediately.
Creating and managing this independent work trust requires good communication, flexibility and of course, texting, We all work together to cover jobs in case of last-minute reservations. Clocking in with unstructured work hours. has been key for high morale. We also have group meetings as needed, always buying them pizza or treats, affirming excellent habits, and gently nudge on improvements needed. Annually and privately, employees are given kudos in areas they shine and a few bullet points to try to sharpen. We also require they write a few areas they could improve upon and we check in on that expected progress later.
Another morale booster is that we give them ownership to present new ideas we should try or something they see that we’ve been blind to that could be improved.
Everyone likes feedback when there’s been a specific compliment about their task. We always pass along written or verbal praises received. That can do wonders. Why would one withhold that which is good? Additionally, we try to pay decently to retain our excellent employees as it’s proven much easier to retain than to recruit and train newbies.
Perks that help with morale are that employees pay significantly less for any property use from photo shoots on the trails or fireplace, parties, overnight stays, and so forth.
**A fun housekeeping strategy I created some years back that spiked morale…***I noticed the couches and nightstands weren’t always getting pulled away and vacuumed behind as required on the cabin checkoff sheet. So I created and labeled “Cleaning Coins.” They looked similar to those small round wooden nickels. They were placed in unlikely seen spots to a customer, yet our housekeepers were expected to clean there regularly so they would spy the coins. If found, housekeepers could turn in the wooden coin for real cash from me, and this motivated the detailed cleaning once again. It didn’t have to last long, and I did it intermittently so they didn’t get spoiled. On the “Welcome Instructions” to cabin customers, the directions explained that if found, kindly put the Cleaning Coin back as they’re of no value to anyone else, but used as an incentive for our staff to excel, compete with one another, and be rewarded. It was fun to hear the employees compare with one another how often, or where they found them. One employee was tight-lipped because she felt she was the only one discovering them in one spot and didn’t want to reveal her secret cash cow! Ha! Things quickly returned to the highest quality again, and they had fun participating without feeling put down.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Our values and beliefs for sure helped build our reputation in our market. We are “THAT place.” Ha! We had to decide when we built the event lodge if we’d go the normal route and serve alcohol or be a dry venue. It was rather unheard of to try to be successful in operating as a dry venue. We are all about family along with our Christian beliefs, and we want to truly be a place where people remember their good times and associate positive vibes with our business brand. Now, of course, not everyone makes bad decisions with alcohol, but it only takes one bad apple to ruin the party or wedding for the whole group. This was a tough BUSINESS and VALUE decision. We had to draw the line and decide whether it was allowed or not. You can’t pick and choose to host if it’s just a little wine and cheese-tasting mixer but not host for the keg party. It’s either supported or not -no matter the amount of liquor involved. When we decided alcohol would be allowed down at the cabins in a smaller, non-party-type atmosphere, it was easier to decide for our large group gathering policy to be alcohol-free. We knew business might be considerably reduced, but we felt strongly enough about it that it overpowered the almighty money motivation.
Happily, our non-alcohol event policy has provided us with family-friendly and like-minded value followers. At first, we heard murmurings similar to, “Come on, be reasonable. Who’s going to have any kind of an adult party without alcohol?!” Well, there are lots of people out there who can attest that it’s not only possible but quite fun; the NORM in some circles, is safer, and cheaper! I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve had a bride’s father pull me aside or call us back later and thank us for standing our ground and saving him quite a bundle in liquor NOT served at his daughter’s wedding. We’ve had families tell us that “Uncle John” is a recovering alcoholic and greatly appreciated not having the temptation at their reception. There have been so many positives for choosing this route and we feel blessed.
Are we as busy as our neighboring venues? No.
Do customers choose other places based solely on our non-alcohol policy even if we are cheaper, more spacious, and they’d receive more value with us? Yup, nearly every week a customer chooses elsewhere and makes sure we know that our dry venue is why.
However, we also have many customers say that’s EXACTLY the reason they chose us. They heard we ARE a dry venue, and they wanted to support that. Manhattan Christian College (MCC) is in Manhattan, KS, 40 miles away, right beside Kansas State University. Students from both colleges occasionally support us with their event needs. MCC students who’ve gotten married or had their parties with us especially spread the word about our venue policies to their families. Consequently, the ripple effects just keep blessing our business. We are so thankful.
**One amusing story… One time, one of the venue neighbors called my cell and tipped us off that they were behind some wedding party attired guests at a local liquor store and happened to drive behind them all the way back to the Life’s Finer Moments driveway. The neighbors continued to their home just beyond.
“I think they’re sneaking liquor into your venue; better check it out.”
So I waited a bit, standing near the wedding party, and got friendly chatting with this crew while the dances were being featured for older folks. They assumed I was just a real friendly relative of the bridal couple.
I whispered, “Hey, who’s got the liquor? I can share some of mine too.”
A few said, “Oh, it’s out in our cars.”
I tested and pushed, “Well, when are we going to get this party rolling and bring it in?”
I am very proud to report their answer was, “Oh, maybe you didn’t know. This is a fun but dry venue. We got it for later when we go back to the local motel. You can’t bring it in here, lady.”
**Wedding venue owners’ forum conversation on Facebook**
A venue owner, after a particularly horrible experience, asked, “What’s the grossest thing you’ve cleaned up after a reception or party?”
You wouldn’t believe the repulsive answers flying into the comments. (Vomit and excrement on surfaces were minor reports.)
Then our answer because we’re THAT venue: “Um, a used tissue.”
There are non-monetary perks to our reputation in our market!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lifesfinermoments.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lifesfinermoments/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LifesFinerMoments
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@lifesfinermoments4930
- Email: [email protected]
- Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/venue_cabins/
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