We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Diei-Yoa Gbinssey recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, appreciate you joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

My first customer that wasn’t a friend/ family or friend of a friend was a young Makeup Artist who was looking for a decorator online for her 24th Birthday Party. She had posted on her Instagram page that she was looking for a good decorator and asked her followers to tag the ones they had worked with before.

She had more than 6K followers and got a lot of comments with names of decorators that had been in the business for decades, so the odds for me to be hired was very minimal. I was new to the industry and my Instagram page was not showcasing a lot of previous projects.

However I believed in the saying that God will place you in the right place at the right time. Also, in a room full of opportunities, real friends will always mention your name. A friend of mine sent me the MUA post and tagged me in the comments. I did the same thing and identified my very new page in the comments. Three other friends of mine saw it and identified me as well.
That’s when my name got her attention and she reached out to me.
Two calls later, she had sent me details of the event, and paid her retainer fee.

And just like that, I was hired by my “First” Client that wasn’t Friend or family or friend of a friend..
I have had clients who were friends or family before that, who didn’t hesitate to pay the full price they were quoted for, so it was not the first dollar of revenue for my brand, but this one felt very special. It was the proof that a complete stranger could trust my creative eye, without even knowing me, personally.

I will always be grateful for that client because she made that “first” experience, a smooth one. Not only has she offered me a nice thank you card for the job executed, she also has added a generous tip to it. Moreover, right after her event, she gave me credit for the decorations on her instagram page, which has granted me 150+ more new followers.

Jessica, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Hello everyone! Jessica, here! Owner of Elucammi Concepts and Design. I am from Côte-d’Ivoire, in West Africa and have moved to Atlanta, back in 2011 for school. After completing my bachelor’s degree in International Economics and my two master’s degrees in Finance, Management and Leadership in 2019, I am now a full-time Bankruptcy Specialist in a Law Firm and a part-time Event Decorator and Planner.

Elucammi Concepts and Design is a business that evolves in the decoration and event planning industry, with an extension to interior design. We design events such as weddings, baby showers, birthdays, engagement parties and a lot more…

The journey has officially started a few years ago. However, since childhood, I have always wanted to be my own boss. I just didn’t know what industry would strike my interest. I just knew it would be something related to creativity. Moreover, I have always had an eye and cultivated a passion for originality, organization, style and aesthetic.
I tend to be an introverted individual and it is that trait of my personality that was preventing me from diving into the entrepreneurial world. Friends and Family were always encouraging me to take the step and start my decoration business.

Although, it belongs to a “almost saturated industry” in which the slightest add-on makes a huge difference, I believe people like to feel unique and cherish memories that are custom made. That’s why I fell in love with a mixture of creativity and authenticity. Whenever I am working on a project, my main goal is to serve people and to deliver an event that is nonidentical from the previous one, and from what is common.
There will always be a main piece in the decor that will make the whole look different and special.

I am mostly proud of being recognized as creative with an aesthetic eye. That’s the most recurring comment, I get everytime I throw an event.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

For me, I would say there has been two best source of new clients: a combination of referrals and those who were just scrolling on social media. These referrals could be from friends, family, friends of a friend, strangers during events, and mostly clients I had worked with before.
As far as social media is concerned, I think ensuring that I have catchy and original visuals can land into the feeds of the right customers for my business. In fact, for every 2 persons who liked a post, there are 48 others who have actually seen it and probably have saved the page, and another 3 who will request quotes.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I’m still working on building resilience every day because every challenge that comes my way in the pursuit of expanding my business tackles it the best way possible, and helps me to build more and more resilience. In a constantly changing industry like events, there is always a new trend that rise every day. Keeping up with that trend and adding a touch to it, to make it my own, also comes with a lot of challenges, through which I have to be resilient.

Costwise, events can be extremely arduous. Dealing with potential clients budgets, clients who ghost you right after you have given them a quote, a contract, clients who have champagne tastes with beer budget.

Difficult clients can also test your resilience. Not respecting deadlines, trying to micromanage your moves.

It’s not always simple to recover from these but passion and resilience are the capicities that allows me to withstand.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/elucammi_concepts?igshid=Y2IzZGU1MTFhOQ==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/elucammi.concepts?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@elucammiconcepts?_t=8e1BeoIGdyc&_r=1