We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jenny Trejo. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jenny below.
Jenny , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?
In March of 2020, I was up for a promotion at my company to officially move into Corporate Event Planner. I had been working in this role in addition to my other role for about 6 months but March was my official transfer time. I had been hired at this company 2 years prior with the intention of moving into Corporate Event Planner and my other role was transitional to help me better understand their service. Well, we all know what happened in March 2020 and the promotion obviously didn’t occur. By the summer, I was moving so far away from an event planning role and the job was not fulfilling me, only causing me bucketloads of stress. I have always been someone who believes that you should love your job, even the inevitable stresses that come with it, so I knew I needed a change. I was so fortunate that my partner gave me the go-ahead to quit my job and start my own company. We figured that most people in the world didn’t have a job and there was enough of a cushion to be able to take a leap and not have too much pressure to be profitable immediately. I knew I was mildly insane to start an event planning business in the height of a time when no events were taking place but I also knew I am motivated, creative and hard-working and I would be able to make it work one way or another.
The first week I spent a lot of time lounging by the pool brainstorming services I could offer and my vision for RosePOP. My ultimate vision was to take on corporate events predominantly but I knew that wasn’t realistic because corporations weren’t even allowed to host events at that time. So I came up with ideas like partnering with Airbnbs to provide in-home parties with all the activities and itineraries delivered contactless in a box and hosting virtual trivia events for team building. Pretty quickly, through my event contacts in Austin, I started receiving referrals for weddings so I took those on as well – not my ultimate vision for RosePOP but I had years of experience working in weddings in Austin and have always loved the joy of the celebration.
I had already owned a company from 2014-2018 so I had a pretty good idea of what was needed to be set up and I just got to work. My first step was to make sure my liability was covered. I found an insurance provider through a networking connection who got me set up with everything I needed and more to mitigate my risk. Then I created a mini (and incredibly basic) brand kit with a color palette, fonts and created a DIY, rinky-dink logo on Canva. I set up my website on Wix using their templates. I set up my Instagram and Facebook pages and purchased and set up my official LLC. I wanted people to know I was in business so I posted on my personal Instagram asking people if they wanted to be included on my new company’s newsletter and sent out my first newsletter to about 30 people within the first month of being open. I now have over 300 people on my mailing list.
There are so many things that can slow people down when they launch a new business. They can brainstorm and re-hash ideas for weeks, months, years but I didn’t want to wait until the perfect plan came together or I had a professional, perfect business plan. No. I just wanted to get to work and start seeing what people in my community needed and wanted from me as a new event planning business. Businesses adapt over time and I knew mine would be no exception so I was prepared to start in one place and evolve RosePOP to new and other places. I just started with the things that were necessary for people to know about RosePOP and to make me visible and then just I started trying things.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?
After graduating college and beginning my professional dance career, I began to be identified as the logistical, organized one in a group of dancers. While planning performance events, I was always bringing up the many necessary tasks that aren’t obviously thought about and those tasks always fell to me. I quickly found out I loved event planning even more than dancing (didn’t know that was possible). Whether it be for immersive theater shows, non-profit events, corporate social gatherings, or dance festivals, I had my hands in the planning side of the show in addition to performing in the shows. As a dancer, I taught dance to pay the bills and my teacher role often grew into community outreach, event production and acting director. In these roles, I was very much in charge of organizing and planning events. As a side hustle, I would also pick up catering and bartending shifts for private events. Over time, I fell in love with event planning and organizing and started taking on roles where the predominant job was to plan events. I didn’t care what type of organization I worked for, I just wanted to plan events. This roundabout way to get to owning an event planning business is definitely a key to my success. Because I have experience in performance events, weddings, nonprofit events, corporate events, networking events, flashmobs, private parties large and small (and the list goes on), I am adaptable while being very clear on what types of clients and events I want RosePOP to take on. My vast experience also lead me to our main goal which is to help adults celebrate! So often adults are stressed about their events and are relieved when they are over. We do not want that to be the case! We want to take the stress of event planning off our clients’ plates and allow them to BE A GUEST AT THEIR OWN EVENT.
So, what does RosePOP do exactly? We provide event planning services in Austin, TX for any type of celebration (corporate parties, holiday parties, weddings, birthday parties, conference satellite events, anniversaries, etc). We specialize in interactive events that keep your guests engaged with unique and memorable experiences. We love to hire interactive performers, specialty vendors like typewriter poets and, facilitate games and activities that help people to get to know each other in a seamless, easy manner. We want the flow of your event to be smooth and natural while allowing you and your guests to try something new.
Supporting our local economy is highly important to us. We (almost exclusively) hire local Austin businesses as our event vendor teams and we strive to have all event components made by local Austin vendors, too! We also strive to be conscious of reducing the amount of waste that comes from your event. We will use little tricks like not over-ordering food, donating flowers after the event, or encouraging our clients to steer clear of using non-eco-friendly items like balloons.
Since everyone on the RosePOP team has diverse experience in the types of events we plan, we don’t get stuck in one way of planning a party. Sometimes a wedding requires some of the money-saving tricks we use for nonprofit events or a networking social requires some icebreaker activities we use for team-building events and so on! Every event is unique and we take great care in supporting your vision and your needs throughout the whole process!
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Being reliable, professional, and always going above and beyond not only for my clients but for the vendors and partners that help to throw the events. Simply following through made a huge impact and I was told by many people that just by doing the things I said I would do within the time frame I was asked or initially gave helped me to stand out and build strong rapport within my community. Being genuine and adaptable and coming from a place of servant leadership helped me help others naturally. I never assume I have all the answers even though I am experienced in my field – I am always open to feedback and I honestly take what people say to better myself, my team and my company.
Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
I don’t know a lot about NFTs but I do know they are quickly becoming a major factor in our economy and world. They are hard to fully understand and will take some time to weave into mainstream culture but I think it is a really unique concept and will inevitably provide a lot of positives for artists and people.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rosepopparties.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rosepopparties/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rosepopparties
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenny-alperin/
Image Credits
Elizabeth Wight Photo Max Photography Wisteria Jade Photography Bonnie Burke Photography Finnbix Photo