We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Evelyn Rose Whitlock a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Evelyn Rose, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
Years ago, when the very first princess company I worked for shut down, they sold off all of their costumes. I love to cosplay so I thought, I’ll but some of my favorite characters for fun. Parents that I worked with tutoring or babysitting knew that I did parties and now had some characters of my own and suggested I should start booking my own parties. I didn’t take it seriously at first until two of those families hired me for their parties in early 2022. I was lucky to have people around me who wanted to see me grow and referred me to their friends, suggesting I bring business cards with my website to their parties. I had neither so I was up late the night before the first party making my first business cards and the second, trying to design my website. The process ended up feeling like an “If You Give A Mouse A Cookie” scenario. To make a website I need a domain, which needed an email, which needed, most importantly, a name for my business. My boyfriend helped me brainstorm and when “Royal LA Parties” was taken, suggested “Royal Rose Parties” and it stuck. For each character page I needed to take and edit photos of each character and a lot of it was done late at night, after my day job, with the help of one of my best friends. Then I realized I drastically needed to expand the number of characters I offered. So, I researched costume and wig options, price differences and starter vs advanced costumes. There was a mad rush in the beginning to try and create a stable foundation I’d be able to build on. Part of being a party princess owner is keeping up with kids’ trends and movies, and knowing that what’s popular now, might not be in a few years. If a client asks for a character I don’t currently have, the process starts over again; balancing quality, with price and shipping times; then pictures, posts and website edits. The great thing about it though, is I really do love all the different aspects of running this business. From creating content, to finding and styling new characters, working with other character actors and teaching new ones the basics of party performance. Sometimes it’s slow, but I try to remember that there’s still always behind the scenes work to get ready and promote myself or future parties. This is definitely work, but it’s work that I enjoy and I hope for it to one day be my full time job.
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?
Royal Rose Parties is a Princess Company and the easiest way I like to describe it is if a child wants the Little Mermaid, or Spiderman or Mickey Mouse at their birthday party, we provide you those characters along with games, activities and a tailor-made experience. While some parties are similar none are the same and that’s the same for companies who work them. I’ve been a princess with really good and bad companies and eventually decided to take what I’ve learned and build something of my own.
I know as I grow as a business, my prices will have to increase to accommodate staff, storage and upkeep. But what I think makes me different is that I started this company performing for families in the same apartment complex I was in, and I never want my prices to only be afforded by the rich. I want to reach as many people as possible and make sure that characters will always be accessible to them. I want to make this my living one day, but I’m not doing it simply to make money and I know, as most small businesses are, I won’t really start to see a profit for a few years. Every party I do, I turn around and put that money back into a new character, or costume upgrade or wig restyle, and equipment. I want to put being a quality company over making money first. I want people to book me and not see a startup small business but a successful, and high-quality character experience. We provide all types of character services from Disney Princesses to Superheroes, Swimming Mermaids, Wizard parties, Mascot Characters and other movie or show specific characters, Holliday characters like, Santa and elves, the Easter Bunny and Villians for Halloween. If you don’t want a character, we have face painters and balloon twisters and we also provide add-ons like a princess coronation and crown, a bubble machine or a glitter make over or glitter tattoos.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Saying “No” to a child’s question about you in character. If you’re a Unicorn Princess and a child asks if your horn is real, because no matter how hard a company might try, making a forehead horn on a human pushes the boundaries of belief. The first instinct is to say “No, of course not! My horn is as real as your (insert kid specific example here)” and move on, even if you give a reason why it’s real you have pretty low success rate of being believed and moving the conversation on. This is where improv comes in handy and specifically the “Yes, and…” rule where, if someone says something, you don’t negate them but keep the idea going. So we lean into the unbelievability and instead say “Promise not to tell anyone? I use this head band to hide my REAL horn! If grownups thought I had a real unicorn horn and magic they might try and capture me!” Now they have a fun secret and a reason as to why it might not look 100% real. We also get the “Are you the REAL Elsa (or other character)” ALL the time and instead of brushing past it and saying “Of Couse! You’re the real Avery, or Michael or whoever. aren’t you?” Acknowledge their disbelief, because they WANT to believe it’s you. “It’s strange seeing me in person and not on TV huh? But your parents reached out and said it would mean the world to you if I came to visit on your birthday! So, Anna and I left Olaf, Kristof and Sven in charge of the castle for a few hours so we could come and celebrate with you!” It’s about understanding why they might not believe and reassuring and redirecting them instead of just telling them “No”
Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?
I was very lucky starting my business, I had a few thousand that I’d been building up over the years in my savings account that I used to buy most of my starting characters. I was also getting booked for parties so I already had some money coming in I could put back into growing my business. I thought about taking out a loan to market myself more, get top tier costumes and have someone design my website and business cards along with other things. But it would be risky, and I didn’t know where my business would go and how long it would take to pay it back. In the end, I decided to do as much as I could myself, get good costumes and wigs for $50-$200 instead of buying the $500 dresses. Eventually I would LOVE to have those expensively beautiful costumes in my closet for performers to wear one day, but I need to be realistic because I’m doing this myself. When my birthday or Christmas rolls around, I usually ask for things for my business as gifts because if someone is nice enough to get me something, why not have it help me and my business. Whether it’s a new Rapunzel dress from my Dad or a set of shaker eggs and scarves from a friend. When I get money as a gift, I often put it together to buy new costumes or pieces I need. I know not everyone can do this, but it’s about finding ways to put money into your business that you might not have had.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.royalroseparties.com
- Instagram: @royalroseparties_
- Facebook: Royal Rose Parties
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/royal-rose-parties-san-fernando-valley
Image Credits
Santa Mickey: A “Grams for Grams” event Peach/Mario & Elsa/Mirabelle: The Rose Bowl 2023