We were lucky to catch up with Maryland Evangelista recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Maryland, thanks for joining us today. Folks often look at a successful business and imagine it was an overnight success, but from what we’ve seen this is often far from the truth. We’d love to hear your scaling up story – walk us through how you grew over time – what were some of the big things you had to do to grow and what was that scaling up journey like?

My weddings & events planning business didn’t grow overnight. I started as an event helper to this successful woman in this business that does big scale events. One day she told me that I can be an event planner because I possess the skills of an organizer. I was hesitant at first because I was very young at the age of 22 and I do not have a professional experience by that time but I guess one day I woke up and I said to myself that maybe I can do it. Jumped right on and started advertising and telling friends and families that I can help with their wedding or birthday events. Fast forward, couple of friends contacted me regarding their wedding, baby showers, birthdays and from there I started to handle my own events all by myself. So imagine doing events all by yourself with not much experience, you would expect that I had so many awkward, clueless and misfortune moments along the way. As time goes by, I kept on accepting inquiries and bookings for small and big scale events from small to big venues, started doing it officially and applied for a business license, met different event vendors along the way that until now I work with. Kept on learning about the event planning business and gained lots and lots of lessons each and every event. Hired my very own event assistant and helpers. Getting more inquiries now more than ever and getting a lot of referrals from past clients. Having a team is 100% better than me doing it all alone when I first started. Looking back from all those years, I can proudly say that I grew as a person and as an event planner. Comparing what I have done before and what I’m doing right now, there’s a very huge difference in terms of the process that I do with the whole event planning. Absolutely, my event planning business did not grow overnight. It took me years and tons of events to learn what I know right now and I’m very proud of what I have achieved so far.

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?

My name’s Maryland Evangelista, I own MBE Events and I’m the main event planner. I used to be an event helper but my mentor told me that I can have my own event planning business because she sees that I have a potential and I have the skills. Jumped right on and started to take small events, made it official and got my business license. Once I started doing events, friends and families started giving referrals and hired me on their events from small to big venues. From there on, I loved hearing people how I’ve saved them from the stressful planning and coordination. So I continued my journey and grew the business and took it to next stage by accepting much much bigger events from social to corporate to weddings, etc. I think what sets me apart from others is that I treat my clients like my family and not just a client who booked me for a certain amount of time. I put all my heart and soul into their event that I want it to be very seamless, fun and enjoyable experience. Definitely, I’m most proud of who I am today and what my business have reached starting from a small clueless event helper to a very confident weddings & events planner. I’m proud of how we maintained our connections with our past clients that they are still raving about it and continuously referring us to their friends and families. We at MBE Events take care of you like a family and helps you create that dream vision that you have for your event. We listen and we deliver.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

For me personally, I do social media marketing from time to time but I have to say that most of my clients comes from referrals from my past event clients. Word of mouth has been a big part of growing my clientele. I believe when you really do a great job and a memorable experience to one of you clients then expect that you will get more clients just by them telling people how great your service was. So far, referrals has been the biggest percentage of growing my clientele. Of course I do not just rely on that, I do my own advertising too on social media. It is very important to show them your portfolio and that you are actively doing events because clients will always check if you are legitimate or not. Social media posting is a very big help also as people can share your posts and also view them whenever they want to.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I give my utmost gratitude to my clients who take their time to give me feedbacks and reviews on my social page and also referring me to their friends and families just by telling them about my services and their good experience. I make sure that I take care of my event clients from start to end. Event vendors such as the DJ, Photographer, Videographers, etc gives such a good review to their other clients that makes a way for their clients to connect with me and I do it to them vice versa. I believe that if you do an awesome & fun experience for your client, it won’t be hard to build a reputation within the market as it will just come to you.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @mbeevents
• Facebook: MBE Events
• Other: Email: mbeventsplanning@gmail.com

Image Credits
ND Images Jaime Maramba III Photography