We recently connected with Raylicia Young and have shared our conversation below.

Raylicia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

I had recently been laid off from my job when I decided to begin my journey as an entrepreneur. I am a huge planner in my day to day life, and with this business I had planned every inch nook and cranny before I had even really took the leap and got started. I had this notepad where I wrote everything inside. I priced out my parties, the cost of inventory, how I would create the website, what I would email to the clients, etc. I really had everything down pack. However, the name of the business was the one thing that I couldn’t figure it out. I had finally narrowed it down and was undecided between Dreamcatchers and Sweet Dreams. I practically sat on it for a few weeks. During those few weeks I would literally see and hear Sweet Dreams everywhere I went. I would watch TV and hear someone saying it in a commercial, I would turn on the radio and hear it, I would scroll on social media and see a friend posting it, I had even saw it on a billboard! After a while, I knew it wasn’t a coincidence and I decided to use the name Sweet Dreams Sleepover Party Rentals! And I don’t regret it one bit!

Raylicia, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Raylicia Young I am a mother of three beautiful girls and I started this business after getting laid off from my job at a local college. I began my journey back in 2017, I loved Pinterest at the time and would create cute little mood boards. From my future wedding down to my wardrobe. I had randomly came across this business in Australia and these adorable little sleepover tents. I thought it was so creative and I wanted to do one for my little girls! I searched all over and couldn’t find anything in the U.S. from my google search about them! I knew I wanted to do something outside of working a 9 to 5 and I was on a huge hunt to figure out what worked best for me. I decided to go for it! I planned for months and waited until my severance pay came in and decided to use the money for my inventory! I started sewing my fabrics and building my tents and eventually came up with this super awesome sleepover set up! I used my girls as little models and everyone loved it! I slowly began to advertise for $15 a week and I was shocked by the number of people who were interested in learning more and booking with me! We were able to give customers a new way to plan their parties. Our parties are already pre-designed, so it really takes the guesswork out of trying to create the perfect party for your guests! We offer all of the bells and whistles from our sleepover set ups to even our services that we offer locally such as our Outdoor Belle Tents and Luxury Picnic Services. We have grown so much over the years thanks to our customers and we are beyond excited to take it up a notch and take it to the next level! We are extremely proud of our growth with not only the services we offer and how we evolved in our branding, but also in how creative we have gotten with our party set ups!

Have you ever had to pivot?

In February 2020, I had just quit my job and decided to take a leap of faith and do this business full-time. I am a single mother and it was such a scary leap! I was confident that I could really take this business far. I just needed more free time to make it happen. And then the inevitable happened. Not even 1 month after quitting my job, COVID-19 shut the entire world down like a power outage at the Super Bowl. It felt like my world had come crashing down! Many people were unable to work, let alone pay for an extravagant sleepover party. And since the world had shut down, so many customers were demanding refunds and cancelling their reservation. As a single mother, I was scared of our own livelihood and how we would come out strong despite all of the set backs in the business! After 2 months and a few long sessions of couch potato and Oreo sessions. Many customers were still very much interested in utilizing our services. Apparently we were considered an “Intimate Gathering” We didn’t have to do much pivoting at all due to the nature of our business! Children still wanted to celebrate their birthdays, even if it was just with their siblings! We began doing door drop offs and allowed our customers to set up their own events to minimize contact. We took a stab at offering virtual sleepover decorated zoom sessions that customers could utilize. The business quickly went from hitting 0 and being in the negatives in regards to profit and sales, to quickly being our highest revenue months in the history of our business!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

A book that changed my life was We Should All Be Millionaires by Rachel Rodgers. Learning how to outsource, put myself first, and change my mindset from how society deems me to be, and instead how I need to be as a future Millionaire Entrepreneur! She dived deep on the history of women rights and plenty of societal norms today that go against us being all that we need to be as not only career women, but also mothers, wives, family members, friends. Realizing that there is absolutely no way that I can do this on my own and actually reading steps that would certainly help me gain peace of mind but also the structure and organization that I need.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sweetdreamsparty.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sweetdreamspartyrentals
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/sweetdreamspartyrentals
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/sweetdreamsprty
• Other: Pinterest – Sweet Dreams Party Rentals

Image Credits
@fancyhoneybee @fancysilverbee @fancydaisybee