Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Choshonya Waddell-Green. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Choshonya, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

I came up with the idea for The Vision Castle rental facility when my father passed away. I was raised in the Mt Airy Section of Philadelphia and recently moved over to South Jersey 5 years ago. Once my parents knew I was moving to a different state they picked up and found a house before myself and my husband did. 2 years after moving my father passed away and since we were still pretty new to the area, we didn’t know of any places we could host my father’s repast. I began looking on the internet and noticed most of the halls were large spaces and wasn’t affordable. My mom next door neighbor came over and shared she recently lost someone in her family, and they had a repast in a space not too far from my mother’s home. I called to set up an appointment and they stated they have open house a couple days a week and I could bring my mom and stop in. My mother and I loved the facility, and I paid the deposit while we were there to reserve my date. The next day the owner called and stated her colleague accidentally booked my event and it was already an event that was booked that same day that would have caused a conflict. She stated for me to come back in to see a smaller facility she had that held about 70 guests. That next day I went back over there and met the owner, saw the smaller facility and told her this place was even better because we were only going to have about 60 guests. The owner stated since her colleague accidentally over booked my event, as a courtesy I didn’t have to pay her any more towards the balance since that was their error. That very moment I knew I had to bless others how the owner blessed me and my family during such a difficult time. I also began looking in different areas and noticed it was very few affordable halls in the south jersey area. The next year covid hit and I began putting a business plan together and later hired a realtor to help me find a location. I prayed and kept God First in everything regarding my business and a year later I signed the lease to my new event space. Till this day I ‘am still learning what it takes to be an Entrepeneur. I have been meeting so many wonderful business owners and great people to help me this past year and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Choshonya Waddell- Green but everyone calls me (Shonnie). I was born and raised in Philadelphia PA. I am a mother and a wife to Patrick Green. I have been working an 9-5 job at Cigna for over 14 years now. I recently started my business this year taking a risk of coming an entrepreneur. I got into the rental facility/event planning business once my father passed away. I began looking for affordable halls in the south jersey area where I could host my father repast and immediately realized it was a small selection of venues. A neighbor told me about a venue not too far from my mother’s home and while visiting the space I booked to secure my date for my father’s repast. The owner called the next day and stated my event accidentally was over booked with someone else, but she has a smaller facility that looks similar to the one i have already seen. Once I came back to visit the owner stated she would only charge me the deposit i already paid since it was an error on their part. I knew at the very moment that I had to bless others how the owner blessed me and my family during this difficult time. I began reading up on other business owners who rent out spaces and doing a lot of research on the pros and cons of leasing out a space to customers. I then hired a realtor that could help me find a small, safe facility in a nice area, free parking and a kitchen. Once a few months went by I finally found an owner that was willing to give me a chance and I signed my lease Nov 2021. I sometimes can’t believe I have my own business. Once we had the grand opening it began to really hit me that I was on my way for a new journey in life.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Once the idea came to me about becoming an entrepreneur, I began thinking about how I would be able to fund my business. I didn’t have lots of savings left because I help to put my son through college fulltime. And with everyday living expenses I didn’t have thousands of dollars to put down on a facility. I actually took out some of my 401k from my 9-5 job to fund my business. Even though I got hit with taxes I was still able to put down first, last and security for my space. I then took to social media and started a go fund me which helped me buy inventory for the building.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Being a business owner, you must hire or learn how to work social media. I was never huge on posting every day on my personal pages but, i knew as a business owner, things would have to change. I always try to come up with different content to post and of course I post pictures of the prior events we had at the space. Once we had the grand opening, I told the guest who were there to post they were there and to tag me on the picture. I also learned people are visual and love to see you in action instead of a picture.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thevisioncastle.com
• Instagram: The Vision Castle
• Facebook: The Vision Castle
• Yelp: The Vision Castle
• Other: Google- The Vision Castle

Image Credits
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