Work hard pray hard and let God order your steps
Helen Rome had spent nearly 2 decades in a very rewarding company in a directorship position. Whilst in this role, she had the opportunity to volunteer for charities. She organized fundraising balls and galas, helping friends and family with birthday parties and weddings – all reasons to celebrate. “This got me thinking about what my dream is and what I have a burning desire to do.”
The answer to that was to be a Wedding Planner. Her journey started in 2017 when she set up her own company. At the time, it was called Elite Events and Consultancy. She enjoyed 6 1/2 wonderful years organizing every type of event that you can imagine. These were both personal and corporate, but something was not quite right. She felt that her service offerings were at times not clear. Helen had veered off into more corporate events. She was taking any enquiries to get the business off the ground.
“It was only one day when I was talking to a friend about prayers being intentional that I thought about my initial vision and dream which was to be a wedding planner. So I have spent the last year researching the industry, researching the service offerings available. This lead to an absolutely wonderful rebrand and relaunch on the 1st of September this year.”
The Good and the Bad
The engagement from fellow industry suppliers and happy couples has been breathtakingly fabulous. Helen is excited to see what the future holds. Despite quite often working long hours, she now has the flexibility to work hours that suit her. She has a newfound spring in her step and feels that she is now doing what God intended.
Covid on the other hand, was a different story. This had a severe impact on her business. The day lockdown was announced, she had to cancel a 120-person, black-tie dinner. Then things got worse from there. Helen lost a year’s business in two weeks. But the fallout was worse when we came out of lockdown. Helen was caring for a family member at the time. She found herself as an event manager who didn’t want to go back into a room.
Covid also forced flexibility into the way we connect with many of our clients. Helen can meet with many clients outside of a normal working day if they are not corporate clients. This allows her to support her family unit in the way it needs supporting. She could swap a workday for a weekend if she has non-work-related time that needs to be scheduled.
Looking to the Future
Helen tries to keep up with technology while still delivering personal service. She sees AI as making an impact on her industry. “I think it will have a positive and a negative impact. Positive from a point of view that it can automate time-consuming tasks such as venue selections supply matching, and can really bolster the event planning and logistics. It can also provide personalized marketing, which is hyper-targeted and can help with your outreach campaigns. AI can enhance the attendee experience in real time, such as facial recognition to speed up checking. It can enhance Security it can help you for international audiences, and much more. It can also support you in your post-event activities and analytics.”
Lessons Learned
Like most entrepreneurs, Helen found herself wanting to accommodate all requests and scheduling lots of meetings during the day. This forced her to work evenings and weekends to make up the time lost from being at her desk. “I would say this is not a mistake, but more a change of culture and recognizing that time to actually do the tasks from meetings or conversations needs to be scheduled also.”
She has also learned to ask for help because you never know how long things are going to take. “Be prepared to be humble and admit when you are wrong, or you’ve made a mistake. People are not as hard as you think and will respect your honesty. Know when to say no. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. do not be afraid to stick to your morals and your principles when you feel outnumbered in a meeting; always be true to yourself.”
Learn more about what Helen is up to at : www.eliteweddingsandevents.co.uk
