We were lucky to catch up with Dinese Young recently and have shared our conversation below.

Dinese, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What’s been the best thing you’ve ever seen (or done yourself) to show a client that you appreciate them?

One of the best ways to show clients you appreciate them is through follow up. In most businesses, a relationship or interaction with a client ends when the transaction ends. However, sending simple communication after the fact not only wraps up your full transaction, but it reinforces to the client that you appreciate their business and their interactions. Since I am in the event business, it is easy to let the client interaction end at the end of the event. Following up with a hand written note within days or a week or two after the fact shows that you respect the care and responsibility they took in abiding by the rules, respecting the space, and interacting with the business. A thank you goes a long way in helping leave a positive feeling about your business with the client. For the duration of your client interactions, it is also essential to not allow your communications to sound too business like or cold. Add a personal touch so they feel you are connecting with them on a personal level asa well as a business level. Never underestimate the power of a phone call instead of email, as much more positive feelings can be transmitted via verbal communications.

Dinese, 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?

I manage a small nonprofit community center that also serves as an event center. My previous professional life was in education, but ten years ago the opportunity arose to switch professions and be an independent contractor for the nonprofit. While this was never a goal initially, I have enjoyed the self-directed nature of my current role and creative opportunities. Not only am I collaborating with local arts and education groups to plan and create community programming, but I work directly with private clients who host large events in our center, such as weddings. The events management has taught me so much about marketing, business, and client interfacing. That side of the business provides the funding to support our community endeavors. The wide variety of stills I have needed for this job has diversified my skillset and grown my abilities to adapt and plan in a variety of situations. I am most proud of building back a business and community center from scratch that had been dormant for several years without any other paid support staff. We went from zero income to over $90,000 in profit within a year or two. This was only possible due to my willingness to learn as I went and be self-directed and self-taught. Patience and sticking with goals and a plan is essential for success.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As with most small businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic hit our business hard. We are a community center with in-person programming and host an event rental business simultaneously for income. We went from having nearly 50 events booked, to having more than half either canceled or rescheduled. Both cancelations and rescheduling for a different year cost us money that could not be recuperated. Additionally, 2021 was a slow booking year due to the hesitancy of people to plan events without resolution with COVID-19. We had to think outside of the box to allow clients to reschedule instead of canceling altogether, which required a lot of communication, planning and flexibility. Additionally, we worked with catering staff to create serious safety measures and accommodations to allow clients to feel safe when they finally got to hosting their events. Instead of showing the building in-person to secure year-out bookings, we created a video building tour and did virtual meetings, like many other businesses.

All in-person programming had to be canceled as well. This led to incredibly flexible and creative problem solving. We worked with an arts group that delivered art activity bags to people’s homes, we created how-to project videos for people to do during quarantine, hosted outdoor produce give-aways and we also started and developed a community history website where people could compile an share histories of their homes and community. It was struggle to keep adapting to the unknown circumstances, but creativity and flexibility helped us survive and regain clients post-pandemic.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Because I started from scratch with a negligible marketing budget, we had to rely heavily on work of mouth, personal references, and as many free online advertising platforms like social media as possible. Even today when we have a more substantial marketing budget, we still get the biggest slice of new business from referrals and personal recommendations. To ensure that happens, we ask clients to fill out online surveys and reviews while making sure our clients are happy throughout their process. Building a positive relationship and experience with a client is always the best investment.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thecarnegiecenter.org
• Instagram: thecarnegiecenter
• Facebook: TheCarnegieCenterOfColumbiaTusculum