We recently connected with Janessa White and have shared our conversation below.

Janessa, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

When we started Simply Eloped it was only my partner and I for the first year-and-a-half. We wore all hats and built all systems, processes and automations from the ground up. There was real value in this in multiple ways. First, we didn’t fundraise and were able to grow organically and at our own rate. There was no pressure of being responsible for other’s expectations: either investors or the livelihood of employees! This truly gave us the opportunity to learn at our own speed.

We actually didn’t even hire our first employee until we absolutely had to: we both lost our phones in Costa Rica while working remotely and were unable to manage our socials without some help. This person went from managing our socials, to helping me with sales and customer relations, to hiring and scaling our teams. She became so pivotal in our company.

From our first hiring to where we are today, we made every mistake in the book one can possibly make when it comes to hiring and training. We hired (and ended up firing) friends and family members; we have to infrastructure for culture or KPI’s; we had no documentation for systems or processes. It took us years and years to get a place where we felt like we had our feet under us, and we’re still learning and growing!

If I had known then what I know now, I would’ve put a lot more infrastructure in place before we even made our first hire. From an employee manual, to a clear outline of our company values, I would’ve put everything in writing as to how I foresaw the execution, expectations and growth of everyone involved with the company. Structure are documentation are your friends when scaling a business – I promise!

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

Simply Eloped is the largest elopement company in the world! We are located in 31 destinations around the US and we plan elopements – -which we define as 20 guests or less – from top to bottom. We coordinate permits and venues, offer officiation, photography, videography. hair & makeup, florals and more! We take pride in personalizing every ceremony we perform and ensuring that the focal point of each event we produce is the unique love between two people. To date, we’ve performed over 10,000 ceremonies and we can’t wait to reach more couples.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

When my business partner and I first started Simply Eloped I was extremely anti-funding. I’d watched another startup company I had worked for fundraise and the trials and tribulations with managing their investors ultimately lead to the tanking of the company. I was heartbroken as it was a vision I really believed in. I was hellbent on not making those same mistakes. For the first 2.5+ years of the company we bootstrapped our way to success. However, we ran into an issue where we would bring in a bunch of customers, then have to hire folks to manage those customers, then have to bring in more customers to pay for the cx reps we just hired; it was a vicious cycle. So to break us out of the cycle, we decided to go after a *bit* of funding. We found this great company called Indie VC (RIP) who was focused on founder-friendly funding (say that 5 times fast).

We took an initial 250k from them and then another 250k. What’s great is for the most part we stockpiled it and saved the money for a rainy day – which ended up being during COVID. Having such a great stockpile really saved us when we needed it most.

I’m still a really big believer in bootstrapping your company when able. Having the say as to how you want your company to grow and at what rate is such a paramount decision early in the growth process. At the end of the day, you should be the expert on your industry, company and future vision and no one should be dictating the direction you go; that’s your job as CEO.

In addition, it’s important to consider that the only job of a board (truly) is to determine whether or not you’re the right CEO for the company. For later stage or 30-year old companies, that’s a great role of a board. But when you’re just starting out it may take years, maybe even a full decade, for you to become the fullest version of you as CEO. I’m 6 years into this gig and just now really feeling like I’m getting my bearings. The stressors of determining whether or not you’re a *good* or *fit* CEO really shouldn’t come until later down the line. You should be stressing about how to grow and scale your business.

So long story short – don’t get a board until you have to. Just my 2 cents!

(For further thought, I think this article is really insightful: https://reactionwheel.net/2021/11/your-boards-of-directors-is-probably-going-to-fire-you.html)

Any advice for managing a team?

Since I’ve had the luxury of making every mistake in the book when it comes to building and managing a team, I’ve also had the luxury of learning from those mistakes. 6 years into my business I can say with certainty I’m bullish on a healthy company culture. I’ve come to find that putting mental health and safety at the forefront of your company culture is really important. In my experience, when a person’s needs are met in the workplace and he/she feels safe, they are able to approach their job with more freedom and creativity than if they do not.

We also are a huge advocates of celebrating wins of all sizes. From treating teams once in a while to lunch for going above and beyond (even if it’s not measurable) to offering bonuses when KPI’s are smashed, we really do our best to recognize teams at every stage of success.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://simplyeloped.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simplyeloped/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SimplyEloped/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janessa-white-5818541b1/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/janessanwhite
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzzb_sy-wuvuagXJO6d0Spg