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

Susy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

The cost of materials has increased significantly in the last couple of years. My pricing must not only cover that cost but my overhead, too. This is a competitive industry, and in order to keep repeat clients and book new ones, we sometimes find ourselves lowering our prices. This in turn affects our profitability.

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.

Susy’s Soirées started as Getty Go-To Girl and “for fun” when I was still a teacher almost six years ago.

As the business started to grow, we rebranded and eventually I left teaching to pursue event planning and styling full time. It was THE BEST decision (as much as I love teaching and little ones).

We are a small family business with a BIG passion for making special occasions for our clients stress free, unique, beautiful and unforgettable! And that’s precisely what sets us apart from the rest. We will go above and beyond for our clients’ events and spare no details.

I am most proud of how much our business has grown in just six years. We service an average of 100 clients a year and a large number of these clients are repeat clients who have been with us since our humble beginnings. This means so much to us. We could never be where we are today if it weren’t for the loyalty of our clients. We are so grateful!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The pandemic was a big challenge to our business. We had only been open for less than two years, and truly had just started to see growth the year prior to the pandemic.

To stay afloat, we began offering caravan party services, front yard decor to celebrate milestones, and shifted from event planning to mostly decor for a great number of months. We did everything and anything to not have to close our doors. Having survived those difficult months demanded a lot of perseverance and resilience. And we wouldn’t trade it for the world! We learned so much as a business and established meaningful business relationships during this time. It is how we react to difficulties that builds confidence and character. It wasn’t a perfect or ideal era of Susy’s Soirées, but it is one that we are proud to have experienced.

How’d you meet your business partner?

My co-founder and business partner is my amazing husband Eddie Abreu. We met in college in 1997 and fell in love almost immediately. From the moment I set my eyes on him, I knew he was the one.

I couldn’t have asked God for a better partner in life and business. He supports all of my insane ideas and is my greatest fan and cheerleader. What’s most amazing about him is that he doesn’t just stand in the sidelines. He’s all in! He’s a Corporate America professional by day and the most hardworking Susy’s Soirées employee by night and on weekends. The amount of physical labor required for just a single event is beyond laborious and arduous. I sometimes wonder where he finds the energy because he is always present and with the best disposition every time. Susy’s Soirées would not function without him.

I’m thankful we met in that English class back in 1996. That’s where our love story began and through the years our love grew into a true partnership in all senses of the word!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.susysoirees.com/
• Instagram: Susysoirees

Image Credits

https://www.instagram.com/ainara.visuals?igsh=MW93eTMxb2NmOHp5YQ==

https://www.instagram.com/artisticdesire?igsh=OXAxdWdwM2J0czBj

https://www.instagram.com/shotbysusy?igsh=bTNseTlnOGZ0empi