We recently connected with Lindsay Seel and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lindsay, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
I had always wanted to work in events but coming out of college during a recession wasn’t the best time. I took a great job with Nestle and was with them for 7 years before taking a sabbatical and traveling with my husband, Brian. We returned to the States and landed jobs in Northern California. I worked for two incredible event companies, which helped me to narrow down my passion to rentals. Without this experience, I would have never learned how to pay attention the details that craft a high end event, including customer service and seeing the larger picture. The journey to get to the point of business owner is truly a lot of many lessons that you look back on and they show you many more lessons than when you are in the moment. When we had our first daughter, we knew we would head home to Florida. This is what ultimately led to starting Vivant Event Rentals. The market here in Tampa was really missing higher end rentals and custom event design. We had our first event November 2018. It was so wild to think that someone trusted us and paid us! We’ve been growing ever since.
Lindsay, 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?
The Tampa market was really missing higher end rentals and custom event design. From my California event experience, I really have been able to see a different perspective for the style of the market. We have managed to curate a rental collection that mirrors interior design trends more than the general style of rentals. Our collection sets itself apart, but it’s our customer service that truly defines our business. We have managed to build a team that values customer service and attention to detail. We never stop focusing on keeping customer service and a premium product at the forefront of our daily activities.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
The hardest lesson I had to learn was how to lead people. I had an incredible manager at Nestle who taught me how to see others as part of your team and how to provide people the resources to become better than you. When I first was promoted into a manager position though, I didn’t have that mentality. I assumed everyone was as driven and Type – A as I was. I quickly realized my team wasn’t motivated by this same mentality. In fact, it was the opposite. Everyone felt like it had to be my way. My mentor helped to show that we need to meet people where they are at. Everyone is walking is a very different path – some with more obstacles than others that we may never actually know. With Vivant, we make it a goal to train people in the Vivant way, but also be respectful of the very hard work they are doing. Being in the events world, especially rentals, the team is lifting heavy furniture and working long and late hours. We are committed to providing the best working environment we possibly can to ensure our team feels like they are taken care of.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
The rental business has a high – barrier due to a high – cost of investment. Furniture is expensive and the logistical costs of storage, transportation and paying for labor is a huge portion of your operating expenses. When my husband and I started talking about opening a rental company upon moving back to Florida, we spent a lot of time researching every aspect of the costs – from insurance to truck leasing, marketing to warehouses. There is a lot more that goes into the business than just renting furniture. We came up with a start up number and started saving. To be able to maximize our money and build a larger inventory quickly, we placed a lot of things on the back burner. We did zero formal marketing or advertising, we stored everything in our garage, we only purchased as people requested specific items, I built our website and all our collateral materials, my dad built our first bars and Brian, myself and my brother did every delivery for the first year. It was a wild first year, but we grew responsibly. The best thing I did was to invest my time in a mock look book and start reaching out to Florida planners. I didn’t get a huge response, but those that did reply have ended up being my longterm and best clients. When the time was right, we invested in a logo, website, storage units which then grew to a small warehouse and all along the way kept investing back into the furniture. We used a staffing company for additional crew and spent many late nights and early mornings loading trucks. All of these things allowed us to be profitable within our first two years of business and begin repaying our investment. Having a finite number and staying focused on our goal of looking like we had a broader collection made making financial decisions much clearer.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.vivantrentals.com
- Instagram: @vivantrentals
Image Credits
Brittany Elise Photography Hunter Ryan Photo Dani Nichol Photography Jacqui Cole Photography The Edges