Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Anetta Paver. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Anetta, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?
I believe the hardest part of entrepreneurship is the mental aspect. The ability to stay calm, confident and positive when everything is falling apart, when your existence as you know it, is at risk.
I believe the key to success is being extremely careful and selective on what you give your mental energy to. Things are going to happen – insurance rates will go up, accidents will happen, employees will leave, clients will be unhappy, hurtful things will be said about you. The difference between someone who is successful and someone who isn’t, in my opinion, is wether or not you have the ability to acknowledge the bad, and instead focus instead on the positive, and continue moving forward with a smile that is genuine, from within.
During the holiday season last year, I was driving our (rented) Uhaul, and ran it into a tree limb. (In my defense… I was driving at 6am, in the dark, and the tree was below required clearance level.)
As my business had grown so fast, I didn’t have the right commercial coverage, so had to pay out of pocket for the damage. I stood there, at Uhaul, as they told me I owed them $4500, and right there, I made a decision. I dug my credit card from my wallet, handed it over and decided in that moment that this was simply the cost of doing business – the cost of doing life. I decided I wasn’t going to give it another inkling of thought or any of my energy. It happened, and it’s done.
I booked another $12K of services later that very same day. I guarantee if I had given in, if I begun to sulk and gotten angry at the homeowners who hadn’t kept up with city code, gotten angry at myself for not having updated my insurance to a commercial policy, if I had moped around feeling sorry for myself – my clients, the Universe, would have felt that energy, and I would have crumbled with no new business bookings that day.
Things happen. It’s how we choose to respond to them, that makes the difference.
Anetta, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
When my children started growing and having birthday parties, I had this vision: I wanted them to have not just a fun birthday party, but an experience. I didn’t want them to have a Sesame Street birthday party… I wanted them to FEEL and BELIEVE they were at Sesame Street.
I found myself building these elaborate, over-the-top birthday sets. I mean – I was spending months, thousands of dollars building, sewing, planning, creating… at the party, the other parents looked at me as though I was crazy. Who would do this for a two-hour event?
I also started to recognize that all parents do want that for our children – but the majority of people aren’t in a position to spend so much time or money on a single birthday party. So I had an idea: what if I built these sets in a way where they are re-usable, high-quality, affordable, and easy to move around?
I didn’t sleep that night – I laid in bed, dreaming up a concept, and by morning, I logged into Fiverr and had a logo drawn up, a legal entity formed, and Enchantment was born.
I spent hundreds of hours working and building sets, networking and explaining my vision. I made $300 that year. (I had a lot to learn, with regards to marketing, bookings and selling the concept!)
I believe that at the end of the day – decorations don’t matter. No one will be on their death bed remembering the big, beautiful Holiday tree, or the dazzling fabric chandelier hanging from the tree.
But the decorations help create a feeling: Enchantment provides people an experience – an opportunity to feel inspired when they walk into a venue, to foster connection and joy. To differentiate one Easter brunch from the prior years, by adding unique elements that transform an average brunch into an experience and a unique memory. To enhance a brands image by fostering a feeling, through elements of decor. To leave guests feeling awed, connected and special.
I am incredibly proud of what we – my team and I – have built. We have a great reputation for treating every event, every client with commitment, respect, and flawless execution. Each of our team members are empowered to go above and beyond as needed, and we do so – every time.
Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?
My company grew quickly. In July of 2021, I was making $200/month.
July 2022, as of right now, we’re on track to do $600K in sales. I have three full time employees, a 2400 square foot warehouse, and a brand new Sprinter. I’m learning as a go.
My advisors would offer advice, and one think I kept hearing was “secure a loan or a line of credit… do it now while you don’t need it”, and every time I was about to fill out a form, I stopped short. Something kept me from moving forward.
Then one day, a few months ago, I spent an evening looking at my books and my bank account. “We’re screwed. We’re out of money! I don’t even know how to pay myself – how will I pay my rent??”
Straight. Up. Panic. Worst case scenarios came to mind. People will laugh. My kids will be sad. Clients will be disappointed. My ex-husband will be thrilled.
I spent a solid 30 hours in a daze. Do I need to let someone go? Let go of the warehouse? Stop paying myself? In conversions with a few friends in the corporate world, my fears were echoed. “Yes, a recession is coming. This could be bad.” Why hadn’t I secured funding?
I finally calmed down enough to think calmly. I called a few entrepreneur friends who had at some point been in the same situation, who talked me through my troubled mental state, and I came up with a plan. I texted my team, and asked everyone to meet in the office at 8am on Monday.
“We are pushing sales. Every one of us. I’ve activated a Hubspot account for each of you, and we are all making 20 calls a day, until we reach 15 recurring clients.” Everyone was completely on board. “Let’s do it.”
By the end of the day, we had six on-site visits scheduled. By the end of day two, we were up to ten. By the end of the week, we didn’t even have time to be making calls, because we were so busy putting proposals together. From three days of cold calling, we secured about 100K of business.
I state the details of this story, because my underlying intuition in not wanting to secure a loan/credit was to make sure we didn’t get complacent. Without a safety net, I kept going and pushing, made sure we were working, selling, building a pipeline, and on-task.
Accounting and book keeping are vital, of course, but they don’t tell the whole story – especially when motivation and mental discipline is such a vital part of the entrepreneurial process.
What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?
For three years, I was working a full-time corporate job, birthing and then caring for three back-to-back babies, while running my side-hustle. I was always working in one way or another. Building, networking, imagining, involving my children where and when I could.
In January 2020, I left my corporate job to do this “side hustle” full time. It had grown to a place where I could potentially get close to replacing my corporate income.
By March, 99% of my business was gone.
By summer 2020, I was back in the corporate world.
On October 17, 2021, I woke up and said “I have to quit.” I’m not sure what happened overnight, but I’m a big believer in the Universe, in listening to your gut, and I knew there was no denying it. At this point, events and Holiday projects were picking up, but not something I could live off of yet. Yet, I wasn’t scared, I knew it was the right thing to do, because it just felt right, simple as that.
Within two hours, I had given my two week notice.
On November 1st, my first day of no official job, I, along with a decorator I was just introduced to (who, just three months later joined my team full-time), did a holiday setup for the wonderful Giuliana Rancic and a product she was promoting on the Home Shopping Network. The day after that, I got a call for a activation for Purple Mattress, and the day after that, I put a team together to do a setup at one of the hottest holiday venues in town… I didn’t rest until mid-January.
Within six months, I had three employees, a brand new Sprinter, a warehouse, and multiple large scale contracts with luxury hotels, dealerships, country clubs and commercial office buildings.
Though there were many factors that contributed to this sudden growth – Covid calming down and Austin’s growth, to name a few, but I believe the biggest component was years of building a brand reputation, of optimizing my website, of building relationships that brought the clients, and years of slaving away, learning tricks of the trade, that brought me to a mental state where I was confident enough to take on large clients and accounts, when the time came.
Contact Info:
- Website: Enchantmentaustin.com
- Instagram: @enchantmenteventdecor
Image Credits
Anetta Paver / Krista Miller / Angel Conesa / Aimee Stevens