Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris Weinberg. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Chris, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?
In 2003, I started a home-based event planning business as a way to renter the workforce part-time as I had always worked since I was 15 and had taken some time off until my three young children were all in school. My word of mouth business did very well the first five years, although not every client was one that I would have chosen to work with. Then our economy suffered a big recession and business halted for a few years while my youngest were in middle school so I took a brief pause and waited for the economy to shift and luxury spending to resume. In the 2012 I decided to move the business into an executive office which quickly turned into hiring my first full time team member and moving into our own office that we shared with two additional companies in the industry.
The best decision by far that I made at this time was to attend a new industry conference I heard of called the Engage Wedding Business Summit to help me as a business owner. The Miami luxury market is seasonal (September to May) and I attended at the end of our season, burnt out and questioning if, after 10 years, I should just leave the industry. I made this investment using my business credit card to fund the costs, approximately $4,000 at that time as I did not have enough cash on hand to pay for it any other way. Technology was forcing small businesses to invest in websites and social media to stay relevant and attract new business and clients were experiencing restaurant and hotel hospitality upticks and expecting the same level of expedient service. I knew I was in trouble and needed to figure out a solution that would allow me to stay in business doing what I was passionate about.
Turns out, this was the right conference for me. It spoke to my business’ many pain points and a started to visualize a road map for success, with no idea how to pay to implement it. I left the conference rejuvenated with a road map on how to successfully stay in the business and to attract and work only with luxury clients and budgets. Thankfully, I had business credit as the only way forward was to take a risk, incur some more debt and develop a plan.
My plan started with identifying and codifying all I did daily, what I loved, what I could hire and teach others, who my ideal clients were, and how much money I wanted to earn. From there, imagine splitting myself into 2 and hiring 2 new people to train, thus allowing myself more time to work on the business without the quality of our work suffering. This was my first action and I am happy to say both of these hires are still with my almost 10 years later and we have developed into a powerhouse event producing team.
My next move was to hire a sales and marketing coach from our industry to help me turn my word of mouth business into one that attracts clients from all over the world this was achieved through a dynamic and target specific website and marketing plan, including the tripling of our client fees to ensure the business would earn money. This was one of the scariest decisions I made. As new namesake of the business and with a team in place, I officially became the sales team. This was a role I had never envisioned for myself but ultimately when your name is the company name, prospective clients love that I speak with them directly about their event vision. By explaining our sales process and what they can expect when working with us, combine with educating them with estimated range of costs based on their vision, I have been successful in building a business that today consistently is booked to capacity.
In 2022, Chris Weinberg Events produced over $5 million of events for 13 clients and projects 20% growth in 2023.
Chris, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Chris Weinberg and I am a wedding and event producer who designs and creates outstanding, fun, once-in-a-lifetime, memorable events for high net worth clients . My company, Chris Weinberg Events, is founded on three simple ideas: work with awesome clients, exceed expectations, think outside the box I seek opportunities to bring clients’ visions of their important celebrations to life. As a business owner for 20 years, my team and I produce luxury, large budget, destination and complex multi-day events. Our breadth of services, industry relationships and expertise enable us to combine talented creative partners, the finest event production, and latest technology, with seamless execution. We provide a superior level of service, while offering the utmost professionalism, flexibility, creativity and event management.
What sets us apart is our experience, our industry relationships and our reputation within the global events community. We understand how to professionally produce successful events in a creative industry. We understand our clients’ needs and we educate them through the process as well as provide them with direct access our vendor partners; and a detailed estimate of costs in advance of being hired.
At Chris Weinberg Events, we hold ourselves to the highest standards of excellence. Our customers receive nothing short of curated, expertly crafted wedding experiences delivered with creativity, empathy, trustworthiness, and generosity. Our commitment to forging meaningful connections with our clients ensures a compelling, best-in-class experience that surpasses anything found in the mass market.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In March 2020, the business world experienced the covid pandemic. We had several events coming up in the next few months and more in the fall and winter that we were in the middle of producing. Not only did we have to pivot to communicate with frantic clients and vendors but I shut our office and our team had no work. As a business owner, I then had to navigate through government programs and loans to assist with payroll; how to end our existing office lease, how to keep our team together and the worries of how long we would be out of work.
Fortunately, Florida became known as the stage to have weddings and events for large groups. . By July 2020, we were discussing how to pivot existing client events and starting to receive inquiries again for future events. in late 2020, a legacy client contacted us to say her daughter was engaged and we planned the micro engagement dinner followed by the wedding a few months later for 250 vaccinated guests. That wedding, combined with booking clients slightly beyond capacity for the next season, gave us the funds to open a new office with my existing team intact.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
When I hired a sales coach in 2017 and we discussed our fee structure it was clear that in our market planners were not charging clients enough to earn and profit and support a small team. We determined that I would need to triple my fees I’d I wanted the business to make money. This was one of the the scariest business decisions I mad and as the salesperson for my business I had to be the one to sell it. Yikes!
Knowing what I needed to earn to make a profit for the services we provide, I developed a sales process that educates prospective clients on what we do, what they can expect from us, how we charge for our services and an itemized range of costs for the event they envision having. This process leads to us being hired by the right fit clients and removes prospective clients whose vision and budget may not be in alignment with the services we offer.
I remember the first time I went to meet a client to sell services based on our new fee structure. I told my team we would either work with the clients who value what we do and are willing to pay for it or we would start spending a lot of time at the beach! I was so nervous but I left that meeting with a signed agreement and a deposit that boosted my confidence and showed me clearly that not only was my business coach right, but I could do this! I could sell as well as produce for exceptional clients. Was a pivotal moment for sure! .
Contact Info:
- Website: https://chrisweinbergevents.com/
- Instagram: @chrisweinbergevents
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisWeinbergEvents/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/chris-weinberg-events
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chrisweinbergevents
Image Credits
Domino Arts Photography Suzanne Delawar Studios Bill McCullough, Technicolor Weddings Elisa López Photography Marjy and Andy Photography Lukas G Photography