It finally feels like Fall! I went on a little drive to
see the fall colors and ended up in Festus. As I drove down the main
street of the town, I saw something that caught my eye. Halloween
decorations and party supplies!!!
Treasure!!!
As the owner of a company that
answers the demand for Pirate Shows and Pirate Parties, the store
beckoned to me like an X marks the spot on a map...there be treasure.
I entered Celebrations Unlimited and was greeted by
Melody Yesberg, the Owner of the party supply store. “Is there
anything in particular that I can help you with?” “I spy your
pirate party section, which is why I came in to look.” I replied.
“Though I just enjoy looking at decorations. “ “We are
celebrating our 30th Anniversary, so these
decorations are on sale.” Sale. That is a siren song whether
you claim to be a pirate or not. I was impressed at the selection of
party supplies and decoration theme supplies that the store had
available. I am always hunting for something new that is pirate,
Jedi or superhero and I found plenty of all three. Treasures that I
had never seen before in all my travels. After I obtained my new
found treasures, I asked Melody if I could interview her since she
has been in business for 30 years and might be able to give a few
jewels of advice to would be entrepreneurs.
Why party supplies? Why go into a party supply
business?
After college I went to look for a job and interviewed
and it was for the most minuscule thing. I thought “I can do more
than that.” I was actually working in real estate for a little bit
while I was looking for a job and a friend of mine owned Eastern
Onion, which was an old singing, telegram company. Well, I knew I
couldn't do that so I thought of “What else along with singing
telegrams sounds like fun...maybe a party store.” I looked into
party stores in the area and discovered “Oh, there's not one within
30 miles” There's the why. I didn't want to work for anybody else
and looking at what this area didn't have, plus I wanted to do
something fun...I found it in owning a party supply store. Thirty
years ago, the party industry was really new too. I got in at the
right time as the party industry started to grow.
So Melody wanted to do something that was fun for a
living and that her community could use, since her closest
competition was 30 miles away. A good lesson to remember, know your
market before you jump in, or to borrow from a real estate mantra
“Location. Location. Location.”
We started out small. My first pictures of the shop
are pretty sad looking. The shelves were not really full compared to
now. This shop we moved into 15 years ago and it's about 6 times
larger than what we started with. Learn your market. We were
fortunate enough that there was not another party store within 20-30
miles at that time.
Starting out what would you have done differently?
I
have definitely learned my lesson on certain products. I used to go
“Oh this is a great idea!” and bring in a ton of it. That was
probably my biggest lesson was to try things small. I may not be on
the cusp of the newest thing, but I also haven't risked everything to
try something new.
How do you get this variety of party supplies?
We
have been here for 30 years. We search out different companies that
are not carried in the big chains, we go to trade shows, and I think
we are buying from over 95 companies. We carry over 12,000 different
items here in the store.
What is your advice regarding how you have been able to
stay in business all these years through the highs and lows in the
economy?
Times change so you have to stay on top of them. We do
weddings so we have to bring in what is currently “in”. We also
just find out what our customers need. I have friends in the party
industry and even though they are 40 miles apart their customers want
different things. Listen to your customers regarding what they are
wanting. Know your local market. It's a lot of trial and error and
it changes over time. We will purposefully bring in something new,
try it out and if it goes we will expand upon it.
What has been the biggest help to your business?
Education. I have never stopped. I will take online classes. I
will do Adult Education and computers if I think it is going to help
me. When I go to conventions, I take a lot of business classes. I
have a business degree anyway. I find that more interesting and the
creativity isn't that difficult. I've just learned in this industry
regarding balloon designs there are a lot of creative people out
there, but if you don't know how to run a business you don't succeed
longterm. It's the business side that I really like. I don't mind
taking classes. Accounting, learning the book keeping, but that's
me. It is a small business. I'm the full time person, so all these
50 jobs from accounting to inventory control to ordering to cash
management and even to marketing on social media-that's me. Nobody
is going to care about it as much as I do. I have a lot of part-time
employees. They are here for 8 hours, they get paid and they go
home. They don't have to worry about it. I can't complain if I am
not willing to learn it myself.
The second biggest help to Melody's business is
employing the right people.
Customer service is what is going to keep any small
business in business any more. With the online companies and the
big chains, you have got to stand out in personable customer service.
Finding good employees is the second most difficult job, because we
are customer service oriented.
Melody makes sure her employees know what is expected of
them when they come on as new hires.
We start with a 30 page handbook. Half of it is what
we do and the back half of it contains articles. This is what we
expect and that's the first thing. Some people flinch at the sight
of the handbook. I had one girl that never came back.
Communicating to your employees regarding your
expectations of them is key to running a business. Especially, when
they come in contact with your customers you want to make sure they
are offering the same customer service that you, the owner, would
offer.
I saw something the other day that says “We hire
smiles because we can train everything else.”
We are here to help people with their events. Their
life occasions, whatever it may be, whether it's a baby shower, new
baby, wedding, kid's birthday, whatever it is that is what we are
here for. We try to find people that work here that have that kind
of personality too.
In a way, you are part of making precious memories and
creating keepsakes for a person's milestones in life.
I am happy to say we are into second generations now
and that's really fun!
