We were lucky to catch up with Jennifer Savage recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jennifer, thanks for joining us today. Do you have any advice regarding quality control and maintaining quality as your brand grows?

As a sole proprietor of a service based business, my entire business rested on my shoulders, which is great for a control freak, like me, but makes finding work/life balance a little challenging. My business has grown incredibly over the last 5 years, at one time tripling the bookings I had from one year to the next! This growth has been exciting, but it also left me stretched pretty thin. I faced 2 options-scaling back and working less or sharing the load and continuing to grow. I started this business because it was something I loved and that I thrived doing, so scaling back didn’t seem like an option that was going to make me happy. Instead, I leaned into the growth and hired my first assistant to take over the social media presence, add an extra set of hands to help with wedding days, and also allowed me to offer the services of a second planner-expanding my calendar of availability and branching into a new market price point.

In order to maintain the quality of service that my business is known for I was very hesitant to grow-how could anyone put as much into our services as I do? My fears were assuaged as I sat down for coffee with the woman who would become my second set of hands-she was a carbon copy of a younger me. Her attention to detail, problem solving, and energy were characteristics that opened the door, but training her and working weddings side by side gave me a more thorough exhibit of her skills and allowed me the reassurance that my business practices would be well cared for.

For me, the balance of maintaining quality while opening the door for continual growth could only be done with a slow, very deliberate process. My business model has always been about quality over quantity (the blessing of starting a business from a hobby you adored), and my minimal overhead allowed me the luxury of expanding slowly and deliberately, which seems to be working well!

Jennifer, 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 am a wedding and event planner and entrepreneur. I grew my business from a hobby into a full time affair over the last 13 years, and was booked to capacity in both 2021 and 2022. My passions are caring for people, problem solving and attention to detail. My love of all things beautiful and sparkly doesn’t hurt in this industry either!

My introduction to the event world came as I was working as an administrative assistant at a private country club in Colorado. As the F&B manager exited her position, I filled the gap while they hired a new person. Those early skills, combined with my natural skills made me the go-to person for my local church activities. When my niece got engaged in 2009, she asked me to help plan her wedding. During the course of that experience, my mother-in-law was praising my work and mentioned that I should start a business helping other girls plan their weddings. Wait-what? That is a real job?? The rest, as they say, is history.

Planning a wedding take a variety of gifts-psychology, logistics, engineering, time management, collaboration, networking, detail oriented and a being a little “extra” doesn’t hurt either. I provide custom service options for each couple, so that clients get exactly the right level of help and service. I don’t want them to over-pay for help they don’t need, but even more so, I don’t want them to stress over things that I can help with. I tell brides that if it relates to the wedding-everything from how to get a marriage license, how much cake to order or what undergarments to wear with her dress, I can help with it. In my local market, I think the level of hands on service is a distinguishing feature for my business. The other planners in the area may offer similar services, but rarely does anyone help their couple as much for as long as I do. According to other wedding vendors, no one else works as hard for as long on a wedding day as I do.

One of the distinguishing characteristics for my business is that the bulk of my clients come from referrals, primarily from past couples or their parents, but also from other wedding vendors. This is one of the things I am most proud of as I look at my years in business. Hearing a mom, dad, groom or bride tell me at the end of the night that it was “the most perfect day of their dreams” or “they couldn’t have done it without me” ranks pretty high on that list too! The slow, steady, deliberate growth of my business also allowed me to have my kids at home with me until they went off to school, which meant the world to me.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

My business grew from helping out friends and family for small events, then helping family (a niece and both my sisters) plan their weddings. It continued to grow as family friends and other acquaintances reached out to hire me to help with weddings. A huge turning point came when the first stranger hired me to coordinate her wedding. The referrals and the glowing review I received after that wedding launched me forward in a big way, but even more so, it gave me the confidence to see myself as a business owner, instead of just someone with a side hustle.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Honestly, maximum service and high levels of customer care have resulted in referrals as my most effective sales strategy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://plantopartysd.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/plantoparty/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PlantoPartySD

Image Credits
Maddie Peschong Solis Photography Cadey Reisner Weddings