WHAT IT'S GOING TO TAKE

I am cross-posting this as a LinkedIn article in hopes it can help others especially those that I don't personally know. Since posting this on my personal FB page, I have been encouraged by some to share this because they are experiencing the same but didn't have the words to express their frustration. In full transparency, my team had some hesitancy in me sharing such an open post, but I just let the words flow. If you find this particularly relatable, please share and maybe this can be one small step to helping our devastated industry recover in 2021.

Reflecting back on this year, many have been supportive and kind enough to write to me or text me and say what a strong leader I have been through this journey. But can I confess? 

I feel disappointed in myself. 

My hope was to keep as many of our team members together through this pandemic as we could, so that we could be there when business started to return. I was a saver and in our best years stocked away enough savings that even if we had no new sales for six months, we would get through this fine as a company. I applied for the PPP loan when it first came out. By all accounts we should have been “ok”. I was cautiously optimistic the entire time and was constantly re-evaluating the situation at hand with our leadership team. And although I remain optimistic, things feel less certain.

So why am I writing this post today? It’s not to ask for pity, rather it’s to be transparent about what our business - and many others in the industry - has experienced the last 10 months.

This is the perfect storm of our situation: 

• Our company essentially has little to no new sales despite doing all the right things to drum up business; 
• Businesses are contracting spend in marketing, events and activations due to economic uncertainty;
• The government continues to discourage people from gathering in large groups

So what do we do?

I recently re-listened to the Senate hearing from early December where they were still debating over passing the “Save our Stages” bill and the RESTART Act. During this hearing, another business owner said it well - “NO business school teaches us how to survive 18 months of little-to-no new revenue” because that’s not how commerce works.

As of today, we’ve burned through most of the savings we stocked away so diligently the last decade, used up all of our PPP loan, and even creatively reduced our salaries and cash expenses to extend our lifeline and fully expanded our digital offerings. We slashed expenses at the beginning to a bare minimum; I even eliminated my own salary to keep our team intact (still haven’t paid myself since April 2020); we redeployed our team to tackle new markets and revenue streams. Despite all this, we are STILL nowhere near returning to normal.

I sit in CEO meetings encompassing other industries and hear them share that they are either flat or reporting just 10% YoY growth for 2020 (which is not great for them but they will take it knowing it’s a pandemic year), and I find myself wondering “what else could I have done?” 

I am sharing this with you all today because I do not feel that corporate America has realized how many small businesses - that they have come to depend on and benefit from - will NOT be here if they continue to sit on contracts and defer from spending for another 6-8 months. Small businesses keep America employed and right now we are losing the battle, especially if you’re in the industry where you can’t perform your normal duties because it’s deemed a risky health maneuver. 

ONE medium-sized engagement contract would allow us to bring up to five of our employees back on payroll. Others have asked me why I haven’t created a GoFundMe page, and it’s because we have a service to deliver. I want our team, myself included, to be HIRED to do what we do best. We are not asking for a handout; we are asking for corporate businesses to re-engage and SHOP SMALL, especially if you’re wanting to support small businesses in the future. As this pandemic extends, I am afraid to see how many more small businesses will forever shut their doors; we are fully aware of how many of our fellow competitors and event partners are already out of business or plan to permanently shut their doors on Dec 31st; these are businesses we rely on being there. At RED VELVET, we are committed to keeping our doors open; we will get through this pandemic together. And I’m asking for your help - businesses like RED VELVET and our friends need your support. 

As I was writing this, a voice inside my head was saying aren’t you afraid that your clients will read this and fear you’re a risky bet to partner with? Well here’s my response to that fear - it’s because of our very own team’s creativity, resilience and tenacity that we’ve been able to stay afloat. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have produced the UT Kendra Scott WELI Women’s Summit event in November 2020 (this was originally slated to be in-person); we wouldn’t have produced the most epic virtual holiday party for Realtor.com with only four weeks notice. We did NOT sit idle when the sh*t hit the fan; we did what we always do….we evaluated the situation at hand and made a plan and executed like gangbusters against that plan. That’s why our clients choose to work with us; we provide that same tenacity when it comes to producing every event. They know they’re not going to get a cookie cutter solution. Ever. They know we will always push the limits and help our clients make a name for themselves. 

Through these last 10 months, we have learned that video fatigue is real and that measuring and sharing ROI is so important to any engagement investment but that many don’t yet understand how important it is. We truly believe we are going to solve these problems together with each other and with our clients, along with what it will take to produce a TRULY engaging hybrid event.

SO, what exactly am I asking for (if you’ve read this far)? 

I am asking that if you are responsible for a corporate budget for ANY sales and/or marketing effort, and you’ve seen a decrease in your revenue but you can’t 100% attribute it to COVID, reach out to us. Talk to our team and offer us a challenge we can’t turn down. We live in this world of creative problem-solving through the lens of effective sales and marketing engagement. Learn for yourself first hand why pre-COVID, we were able to proudly tout that all of our growth was organic and through word of mouth (read: no paid advertisement). Partner with a small business because we need you as much as you need us. We recognize you’ve had just as challenging a year as we’ve had but let us help you solve your problem through a different lens.

On behalf of the RED VELVET family, we are incredibly grateful for all the clients that not only kept us on contract in 2020 when everything was changing so fast from IRL events to virtual; we are also appreciative of all the NEW clients that reached out to us during a very dark time. You will have a spot in our heart forever. Let’s continue to lift each other up in the future. Brighter days are ahead in 2021.