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

Windai, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

The idea of BYOP happened during a road trip with my husband. I was frustrated that a friend had borrowed some yard games of ours and when I asked for them back, they had loaned them to someone else. In sharing my frustration, we applied for a LLC and decided to make a party rental business with all of our games. We spent a few months creating the business plan, pricing, and developing the website and marketing materials. We also bought some more games to enhance our offerings. When we initially launched, rentals were for the duration of the customers party, up to 6 hours. We offered delivery and set up as additional fees, which surprisingly was added on to rentals, a lot.

Windai, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a former public health project manager turned HR/operations manager. I love helping and advocating for people. I am an Enneagram 8w7 so I thrive with experiencing exciting, new things and love to include others with my grand ideas or adventures. I love throwing parties and BYOP gives me a chance to help others elevate their parties by adding games, bounce houses, or hosting an epic sleepover. I am most proud of just making it happen and offering a service that makes others have the ultimate party. I love receiving pictures and videos of my customers creating their memorable event with my rentals.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My social media audience was built by sharing posts across Instagram and Facebook. I am not afraid to ask my friends to share and tag BYOP posts onto their pages to expand past the 6 degrees of separation. I share actual photos and videos/reels of BYOP rentals at various parties that customers have shared with me and people on social media seem to love that.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Referrals – It takes one post in a moms group on Facebook for someone to refer BYOP and the next thing I know, I have multiple inquiries. I have even offered small discounts to clients who rebook as a thank you for returning to support my small business.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.byop937.com
• Instagram: @byop937
• Facebook: Facebook.com/bringyourownparty937
• Other: email: [email protected]