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

Molly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Looking back, do you think you started your business at the right time? Do you wish you had started sooner or later

I started my boutique event rental business, The Yellow Rose Collective, in February 2023, after roughly four years in the wedding, events, and hospitality industry. I got my start in events and hospitality at a boutique hotel in downtown Austin, and as luck would have it, this hotel was also a wedding hot spot! I was exposed to all sorts of different vendors that I didn’t even know existed, and I LOVED it.

I got into venue sales and loved getting to see how planners would transform our spaces every weekend with a small village of vendors. It made me want to be a part of that small village, so I started spinning my wheels and chatting with other industry professionals to see what drove them to start their businesses. I knew that I was hungry for new challenges, and I was at a point in my sales career where I would either need to buckle down and start looking for the next opportunity for growth as an event sales manager, or I would need to head in another direction. I’m lucky to say that entrepreneurship runs in my blood and I’ve always been fairly comfortable competing on my own, so the possibility of starting my own business was something that absolutely appealed to me and was constantly on my mind.

After weighing several business options, I knew that specialty rentals were calling my name, and had been for a while. Late in 2022, I started putting a business plan together complete with overheads, start-up costs, goals for the first year of business, and more. I drafted a logo, and with the help of my grandmother, I came up with the name, The Yellow Rose Collective. The timing seemed right because I was able to fund the business entirely on my own, I had some connections that I knew I could lean on for support, and at 25, it was the career change that just made sense. No time like the present!

About a month in, I left my full-time position as a venue sales manager, and all my attention was on The Yellow Rose Collective. Pretty quickly I realized why a lot of people think about starting a rental company and then decide to go in another direction: this business is expensive, and you have no choice but to rely on others to help make your visions come to life. While it takes a small village of vendors to produce a stunning event, it also takes a small village to load furniture and backdrops and all sorts of other things in and out of the venue.

The logistics side has been the most challenging by far because I’ve had to trust and rely on others to believe in and represent The Yellow Rose Collective the way that I do to make sure that events are executed the way they should be. Being the leader of an operation like this has taught me how to be brave and delegate, exercise patience and lead with communication. My biggest inspiration for these traits has to be the fabulous Brené Brown; if you haven’t read her book, Daring Greatly, I highly recommend it!

After six months in business, I can say without a doubt that I started this business at the exact right time. The amount of support I’ve received and the amount of people that have said they’re rooting for me is wildly humbling and like nothing I ever expected. I know that I’ve grown as a professional, as a creative, and as a person. Not to sound cliché, but if I had to change anything I think I just would have taken the leap sooner!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was born and raised in Houston, TX, then I moved over to Austin to go to the University of Texas (Hook ’em Horns). I found my home and tons of inspiration here in Austin with my husband, Nate, and our pup, Gus. We love getting lost in the hill country, getting some mountain time in Big Bend, or sitting under an umbrella in Galveston. We never fail to find a new pocket of Texas when we head out on our weekend trips!

My goal with the Yellow Rose Collective is to be able to offer the Austin and Central Texas events industry some items that are as unique and playful as our clients and the place we live, so my inventory is bright, modern, funky, and interesting. Each piece is named after a Texas town or city to pay a wee bit of homage to the state and places that are home to some of my favorite memories.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

There’s so many lessons I’ve learned this year, but there’s three in particular that I’ll carry with me for the rest of my career, and those are:

1) Not everyone functions most effectively between the hours of 9:00am and 5:00pm, and that’s totally okay!

This one was hard for me to wrap my head around because as long as I’ve been working, my hours of operation have always been Monday-Friday, 9:00am-5:00pm, or as long as it takes to manage my workload. This work week shifted during events season to Tuesday-Saturday, but despite trying to stay within a 5-day window, oftentimes I ended up having 6-day work weeks during busy events seasons just to manage everything, while also being present on event days.

As a business owner and a work-from-home gal, it probably took a full two months to understand what my most productive timeframes were, and to break that corporate cycle of 9:0am-5:00pm, and allow myself to work when it felt best for me. The first few weeks, I would beat myself up if I took more than an hour lunch break; I’d question if it was alright to walk my dog in the middle of the day; I’d force myself to sit in my home office until at least 4:30pm, otherwise I’d feel like I wasn’t productive enough.

Allowing myself the freedom to work when my brain is eager to tackle a To-Do list, to put together mock-ups when I’m most inspired, to meet with other industry professionals for chats, to move my body whenever I feel like I need a break- it’s been the most refreshing reset, and I think the most necessary.

2) I can’t do everything myself, and it’s okay to ask for help.

I learned very quickly that I can’t lift a 400lb couch and that I can’t deliver lounges to three different events in a 2-hour timeframe all on my own. I’m also not the best at budgeting; if I had it my way, I’d buy every single new piece of inventory I have in my cart right now without hesitation. I think they call that an impulse spender?

Being forced to delegate and rely on others to offer support, guidance, and assistance has been a learning experience like no other, and I’m beyond grateful for the patience that those around me have offered. Over the last six months, I’ve collaborated more than I ever have and I’ve solved more issues, scheduled more events, and had more ideas than I could have imagined.

3) Patience is key and priorities are real.

This last one is the hardest. My husband (really my whole family) would say I’m not really a patience person. If I want something done, or if I want to get something for myself, my thought has always been, “Well, why wait?”. Starting a business is tedious, and you can’t have all the things right at the start.

I love to sink braincells into the more glamorous side of the business: new marketing ideas and tools, new inventory pieces, new branding, etc.- the list goes on and on. What I don’t love to think about so much is the blah department, aka the boring-but-necessary things like: storage unit monthly fees, U-Haul rentals, labor fees, taxes, etc. – this list also goes on and on. For every fun thing, there’s probably two blah things that should be tackled first, so I’ve had to learn how to weigh my priorities and make choices that might not be so fun, but that are what’s ultimately best for the survival of my business.

The other thing that I realized early on is that successful businesses don’t happen overnight. I have a vision for what I want The Yellow Rose Collective to be, and it’s going to take years to get there. For someone that’s addicted to overnight Amazon Prime, that’s a daunting timeframe. To make that timeframe more manageable, I’ve set smaller goals for myself on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis. At this point, I should probably have “slow and steady wins the race” tattooed on my forehead or painted on every wall in my home, because it’s something I remind myself of literally every hour of every day.

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

I think most people can agree that word-of-mouth makes the world go ’round.

I can say firsthand that when I worked in venue sales, 75% of the time my clients would book planners and vendors that I personally recommended, as opposed to going to find vendors on their own. Clients trusted me and my opinions so much that they were willing to trust and book vendors that I supported and spoke highly of. When I realized how much my clients trusted my opinion, it made me think that it had to go further than just my clients; it’s absolutely an industry-wide thing among vendors as well.

As creatives, I think when clients have “vibes” that they want to nail for their events or programs, planners immediately know who the vendors are that can nail the vision. I’m doing the best that I can to curate pieces that all align with a certain vibe, so that one day, planners can keep The Yellow Rose Collective in their back pocket. When clients tell their planners they want a funky, modern vibe, I want planners and vendors to all think, “The Yellow Rose Collective is the place to go”.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yellowrosecollective.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yellowrose.collective/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-yellow-rose-collective/
• Other: Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/yellowrosecollective/

Image Credits
Photographers: Jade Skye Hammer https://jadeskyehammer.darkroom.com/ MK Ferguson Photo https://www.mkferg.com/