Xochitl Gonzalez is co-founder of A.a.B. Creates, a New York-based event design and planning firm, and editor of Alwaysablogsmaid.com. She is also the co-owner of event management and coordination firm J.A.M.
Back in 2002, I was the director of events and marketing at the Clio awards, and Mayra Castillo (my now-business partner) was working in our events department of three. When Clio (and its parent, Adweek) was purchased by Nielsen, our executive director was replaced and the company culture changed. To say that it wasn’t a good fit for our personalities is an understatement, and [Castillo] and I immediately started hatching plans to form our own event production company. But we did learn a ton about budgeting, corporate structure, and R.O.I. that stayed with us.
By 2003, we were launching, but we had absolutely no cash. To get off the ground we did some project work for the One Club, but we set our sights on the social market, where the barrier to entry at the time was a lot lower. In the early 2000s the social market was all very buttoned-up and Upper East Side-y, and we wanted to create a brand that was younger and hip. We wanted to attract the social business of the creative-director types that we had gotten to know and understand during our time at Clio.
Cheekily, we named ourselves Always a Bridesmaid and had a friend create a logo and brand identity for us. I taught myself HTML and built our first Web site. My skills were so limited, the look was clean and simple. It was effective: It was different from anything in the bridal space at that time and was fun, so it immediately resonated with exactly the kinds of clients we wanted.
I don’t regret the route we took, but in hindsight we shouldn’t have doubled down on being so specific to social. We painted ourselves into a corner with such a cute and wedding-y name, and that was shortsighted. It’s only in the last two years that we’ve been able to untangle ourselves from that name as we rebranded as A.a.B. Creates—and immediately we saw results in being called upon to bid for all sorts of different events.
My other great regret is how long it took us to feel we could command the fees that we deserved. I look back now and realize that we should have been much more confident in establishing our fee structure, even from early on.
From ’03 to ’05, we spent heavily on advertisements, which at the time were expensive because almost everything was still print. Online directories, etc. were just getting going. We tried to be savvy about using PR, and later, social media, as part of our brand-awareness strategy. In an effort to control our product, we evolved into more of an event design firm versus just planning and producing.
In 2005, we discovered blogging, and it was just a game changer. We essentially were creating our own content, creating a place to showcase our portfolio, and it didn’t cost us anything. For someone trying to start up a business today, social media is the greatest gift. The trick is to have a strong point of view in what it is that you are doing.
