We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Macy Grier a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Macy , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. How do you think about vacations as a business owner? Do you take them and if so, how? If you don’t, why not?

Absolutely yes to vacations. Family time and your home life should always be your top priority.

I’ve learned this the HARD way. I spent the first several years of my career skipping out on family time, missing events, and prioritizing clients and work over my home life. My mindset was that my family would always be there.

This is so far from the truth BUT you couldn’t tell me anything. I was head strong {most would say I still am} and just knew eventually my 80+ hour work weeks would make me a millionaire and that would make all of the things I missed out on worth it…..but it didn’t. We hit record numbers year after year with both businesses and the only thing I felt was more stress and so disconnected from my friends and family than ever before. I guess I was naive enough to think that “stepping away” was something that would only come after I had so much money in the bank.

I never thought about the fact that success and money wouldn’t mean anything without the ones I love to share it with. It took me several years to understand what works best for my family and that looks different for every business owner. We’ve set boundaries and take time for ourselves and I can’t explain the feeling of accomplishment I have to be able to say “We’re out of office” and not be stressed about it.

So, the best advice I can give to anyone who struggles with “stepping away” is this..

Life is short. We’re not promised tomorrow. Work Hard for your goals, but set boundaries and don’t overlook time with your loved ones ever. You will have to sacrifice sometimes to be successful but it shouldn’t be your “NORMAL”. Money will always be around and if you’re good at what you do, you’ll make more so take the vacation.

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.

Belle Events Co. is a full service event planning company. We specialize in weddings + large festivals but have experience in any and all things events. Not only do we offer planning + coordination but we have a full inventory of rentals including but not limited to:

+Farm Tables
+Tables
+Chairs
+Linens
+Tents
+Lighting
+Dance Floors
+Decor

On top of rentals + planning we also have a design and floral team that can turn any vision into reality.

Our introduction to the event industry happened back in high school. I was a waitress at my hometown country club/golf course where I quickly learned my way around planning and executed golf tournaments and banquets in the banquet hall. Slowly that led into loving the design and decor element of the special events..which then led to helping with wedding setups etc. It really just grew from there. I worked as an assistant and lead planner with some of the biggest wedding planners in our area. That’s when we really got our feet wet into the luxury big budget events and away from the small town local weddings and events we were used to.

We’re so proud of the growth we’ve made in such a short amount of time and the capacity of events we’re able to manage with our very small team. We look forward to continuing to work with our clients and evolving and growing our business to be known as a well rounded top notch provider in our industry.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Our business was acquired on literal hopes and dreams. One of the most unique things about our business and previous businesses is that we’re 100% self funded.

We don’t finance any of our rental inventory or equipment and have never had backing of any sort to purchase or generate cash flow. It took me 2.5 years of negotiating and saving to purchase our larger rental items {farm tables/benches/chairs/tables etc.} I bought those initial items with cash and made sure we made the money back before purchasing anything new.

I guess you could say I’m “old school” in that sense. I believe in spending money to make money, but if I can’t afford to buy something- I just simply don’t buy it until I can. I learned at a young age how much money is out there in the world, and you really do just have to go out and get it. I focused my energy on things within my control, set goals, and then adjusted everyday to make sure we could obtain those goals. Money does make the world go round, but it’s not everything, and if you can understand that and become so secure in yourself and what you’re providing in the world {rather a product or service or etc.} then the money will absolutely come.

There are plenty of great benefits in having capital and backing- personally I just feel more accomplished knowing that my husband and I made it happen without it.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

I think Social Media plays a huge impact for every business these days. People live and breath Facebook, Instagram, and tik tok. We gain a lot of clientele from all of the above-we post almost daily but it helps tremendously when real clients share their feedback and photos and tag us in them.

We have a great local vendor family that recommends us often as well.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.belleeventscompany.com/
• Instagram: belle_eventsco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/belleeventsco
• Other: Tik Tok: @belleeventsco

Image Credits
Vitor Lindo Photography Brittany McCool Photography Bailey Walker Photography Ivy Rae Photography The Fuller Effect Photography