We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kimberly Hill. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kimberly below.
Kimberly, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
Ever since I was a kid, I have always wanted to move to DC and work in politics. After graduating from Vanderbilt I worked for my hometown Senator on Capitol Hill then later as a lobbyist. All the while I was helping friends host engagement parties, weddings and baby showers. It was just a hobby business on the side. I found myself faced with a big job change and three children under the age of four. I was leaning on a fellow working mother for career advice and she asked me, “if you didn’t take this new job, what else would you want to do?” I shared with her that I had a little side business but how I could never make that my real job. She asked, “why not?” And just that very weekend I got three inquiries from friends to help host various events in the coming month. For the first time I could doodle on the back of an envelope and see what it would look like if I really took the leap and made this my primary job. I knew I could make it work. So, I signed a lease a month later, with no future business in hand, but with faith that this was what I was meant to do. And I have never looked back. It turns out that all my experiences were building to put me in a position to be successful at this job. I was being prepared for it without even realizing. I drew so many business practices from my previous boss who ran our small lobbying business. Many of my clients were former colleagues to whom I had demonstrated my dedication to detail and professionalism. Even the initial stages of launching the business were taken care of by the fact that I had already set up an LLC with my own lobbying shop and simply had to change the name with the county and with my bank to get my business off the ground.
Most importantly, the opportunity presented itself at a time when I was seeking answers to how I was going to balance being a working mom while being forced to face a big job change. I was poised to make a move and take a leap. It was all divine timing. Had I tried to do this earlier I wouldn’t have had the experience working and observing the innerworkings of a small business as a lobbyist, nor would I have build the client base and reputation I relied upon to start my own company. Sure, there are always things that you might do differently if you knew then what you know now. But I always say that there is no plan B and we are living the life were were designed to live. God is providing for this business and I see evidence of it every day.
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 background and context?
I love to host. Growing up in the Hospitality State of Mississippi, I was raised on the principles of gracious entertaining, polished silver, starched linen, and recipes handed down through the generations. Most importantly hosting a party is the ultimate expression of gratitude and love. To host is to love. Even though it’s been three decades since I lived there, my Southern roots run as deep as the memories of my Mississippi grandmothers. At an early age, my grandmothers taught me all about hosting parties for family and friends. Grandmama Mary Wallace hosted us each year for the most thoughtfully planned Thanksgiving weekend. I still have her carefully crafted seating charts and handwritten place cards. I loved hearing her talk of her upcoming party plans, such as a neighborhood ice cream social, complete with a barbershop quartet.
As a child I also spent hours sitting in the kitchen of my other grandmother, Lady B, while she made steaming pots of Gulf Coast seafood gumbo for Christmas dinner and heaping batches of pimento cheese for our family reunion — neither with a recipe and never prepared exactly the same way twice. As I grew-up, my passion for entertaining continued. While attending Vanderbilt, I made meals and party food for our events at the Tri-Delta house and served as the Hospitality Chair for many extra-curricular groups.
I started The Party Bee as a party planning business, with a focus on helping people entertain in their homes. I approach every party as if it were my own- relying upon my collection of Southern Junior League cookbooks, using the silver platters and recipe boxes handed down from my grandmothers, sourcing items from the best specialty stores, and presenting it all in a way that feels authentic, comfortable and elegant. We collect beautiful vintage silver serving pieces and set every buffet table using a curated collection from our silver chest. The food we make is what I call elegant southern comfort food. My most requested item is a traditional New Orleans barbeque shrimp, which actually has nothing to do with barbeque sauce but everything to do with rich butter, Worcestershire, lemon, garlic, herbs and spices. We serve that with our Mississippi Garlic Cheese Grit Soufflé.
The events we host most often are Jazz Brunches, Cocktail Suppers, Ladies Luncheons, Afternoon Teas and special occasion dinner parties. Every menu is custom and all events come with a walkthrough at the home where I meet the hostess and we come up with the design, party flow, floor plan, and menu for the event. Our staff is steeped in Southern Hospitality and I have relationships with vendors of all kinds to be able to pull together every facet of your event- from that special case of champagne to the jazz trio under the backyard tent.
I am most proud of the fact that we stayed in business during the past few years of the pandemic. My clients are the most generous and loyal. They supported me and my staff during some dark days and now that we are coming out the other side I am happy to say the silver lining is that we are continuing our newest line of business, “Party Bee at Home” – ready-to-serve elegant southern comfort delivered to your door or dining table. We have focused on the specific occasions most well suited for drop-off catering without requiring staff to serve. These include Traditional Afternoon Tea, Ladies Luncheons and the comfort and joy of a casserole. The menu offerings will be refined and will rotate seasonally and by special occasion. The bread and butter of The Party Bee will always be our fully staffed custom designed events. But, I’m really excited about this new expanded offering that will allow us to help more people throw the kind of party they wish they had time to plan.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
I learned from a former boss the very important business principle that you should always work hardest to keep the clients that you have. So, before I ever focus on reaching out and marketing to new clients I always return to the base of my business which is my return customer base. I am proud to have over an 80% return rate. Economically its always most efficient to keep happy the clients you have rather than to spend the time, money and capital on getting a new, fresh client. I also was taught by a former colleague to “fish where the fish are” which is a very simple but very true reality. If you feel like you are constantly going back to the well and to the same people over and over again, then don’t fret if you are still getting business there. Its a sign you are doing a good job and you don’t need to leave that behind and go elsewhere. I am working to stay focused on my core group and give them new and different offerings rather than to expand into a new customer base that I have yet to build loyalty with. Over time the word of mouth and expanded work will grow business organically on its own. In the meanwhile I’m keeping my head down and focusing on client retention, customer appreciation, giving away gifts and services and going beyond expectations. I am working to cultivate a group of mavens who will market my business authentically. My Instagram feed is small but mighty. Its just under 1300 people but I know or have a real connection with each of them in my immediately service area or sphere of influence. I try not to get distracted by what it seems a small business is “supposed to do” (randomly grow artificial follower numbers, run Facebook ads and update my website with action forcing appeals). My most effective strategy is word of mouth and the fact that I do no advertise. The velvet rope strategy is working and is effective for this reason.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I do not have a business partner but I feel I am partnered with several other working moms who all pivoted and started new businesses at the same time I did. Early on I joined a sort of mastermind group with a business coach and together we shared things like what our annual net revenue goal was, how we were planning for our 1,3 and 5 year goals, and what was the purpose of our business. I have never drafted a written business plan. But I have been very intentional on what makes sense for me to do and what is a distraction. And I have been held to a strict discipline of not bending my focus when something comes along that seems interesting. Sure, you COULD take that new client or develop that new line of business, but SHOULD you do it. Not everything that you could do is something you should do. Learning to say no, early and often, helped me cultivate the business I wanted. The few times I didn’t listen to that prompting and took a client I knew I shouldn’t or did a job that wasn’t in service to my best work it always came back three-fold to bite me. Doing work that isn’t representational of yourself only serves to muddle your brand and confuse your future clients. Saying no is often the best and most crucial part of getting the perfect clients in the end.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.partybeeevents.com
- Instagram: @thepartybee
- Linkedin: Kimberly Hill The Party Bee
Image Credits
all photos taken from my iphone