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My friend Kathryn recently sold their family “legacy” business as she called it and knowing that she was the third generation to lead it, I was filled with awe and respect. Our company can almost claim voting rights, and while twenty years isn’t a ‘happy birthday’ I ever thought I’d be celebrating, it deserved the very big party we threw for it.
Every successful business owner at one time or another has been asked by a well-meaning acquaintance, to have coffee and spill the beans on how you did what you do and impart that hard won wisdom in a single sitting. We’ve always been pretty open to sharing what we know or have learned, but the longer we hold on, the harder it is to succinctly articulate what it is that got us through, other than too little sleep, a lot of hard work, and perhaps a little bit of insanity.
Owning and operating any business presents growth pains and struggles but one that has survived beyond 10, 15, and 20 years plus, has challenges unique to those in the legacy category. A study done by the Seattle, Washington economic development board interested in supporting the many businesses that shared longevity, stated that “changing marketplace: Increased competition, technological changes, shifting consumer preferences, and neighborhood change present challenges for almost every legacy business at one point or another.” It might just take 20 years in business for that to really register.
Officially started in 2002 as a small children’s garden party business, the idea was to bring the love of gardening to young children in the form of picket fenced gardens, complete with soil, flowers, games, a bounce house and instructor, for the low, low price of ultimate failure. It took a quick 6 months for us to realize we weren’t going to pay the rent with this convoluted prospect and quickly pivoted, and delved head long into the wedding industry by 2003.
Since the business predated Tiktok, Instagram, Youtube and Facebook, the marketplace as we knew it, was mostly printed ads in small publications and phone books, a couple of small industry magazines with their digital warehouse type listings and trade shows. Once considered out in the country, our small 11-acre piece of country is now surrounded by neighborhood communities both large and small. A changing marketplace is really a sustained mutation of the world at large.
Nothing stays the same and the older the business, the more you realize you need to anticipate the need to adapt.
Increased competition as the study suggests, was reaching a fevered pitch into what had been essentially a non-market of approximately 25 wedding venues north of Lady Bird Lake (at the time known as Town Lake) all the way up to and including the Georgetown area. We watched in utter disbelief as an estimated 350 venues popped up in the span of about 10 years in the greater Austin area and Dripping Springs proclaimed itself the wedding capital of the world with approx. 30 venues just inside a 3.9 square mile radius.
Technological changes swept us off our feet in rapid form. Our first website in 2004, was one that my brother taught me to create, it used Adobe Flash and had very limited information, about 8 pages, but it sufficed until we paid someone to make it more professional and meatier. That segued to the current WordPress site that my daughter has overseen for the past 6-7 years. We once saved documents on floppy discs, photos were processed, printed and saved on CDs and now images are saved by the thousands on our phones, stored on ‘clouds’ and backed up on hard drives, not cardboard boxes.
Landlines and flip phone cellphones with antennas, printed files, paper calendars and boxes of business cards shifted into wipe off boards, digital calendars, schedules, files, online recordkeeping and billing. Print media has for the most part, given way to social media, and while magazines are fun to browse, they are too expensive and offer too little yield for the little guys like us.
Shifting consumer preferences is only slightly slower than technology in advancing but trends and expectations continue to evolve. Once an outsider in the wedding venue space due to the prevailing thought that weddings should be held in churches and if not churches, certainly indoors like a ballroom, or country club. Perhaps due in part to our theory that God needn’t be boxed into man-made walls, the outdoor venue became the leader in at least in the Central Texas region.
Like fashion ins and outs, wedding trends reach every corner of the industry. Catering companies have met the needs of the dietary restricted, floral creations that once were limited to mainstay selections like roses and carnations are now designed using flowers available somewhere all over the world and within a key stroke’s reach. Ceremonies can be officiated by friends as well as clergy and judges, and there is almost no bounds to the likes, dislikes, colors, traditions and cultural embracing that weddings have afforded those who wish to explore.
In addition to the changing landscape bullet points that legacy businesses have traversed, I’d add specifically to the most recent two decades, two worldwide events that forever changed the landscape. The financial market crisis of 2007-2008, the greatest since the Great Depression of 1929, turned inside out, every pocketbook as we saw the cancelation rate soar 2-3 times the normal rate. However, at that time, there were far fewer venues than those wishing to marry so it created a seller’s market, and the so-called depression proof wedding market fueled the influx of new venues that exploded onto the scene. Little did the new venue owner realize that couples were not marrying as much as before, nor at the same young age.
The 2020 Covid-19 pandemic would turn the world upside down and business right along with it. Shut down for 8 weeks and another several months of economic downturn, uncertainty, scheduling and rescheduling 60 some-odd dates over the ensuing two years, the business was left battered and bruised and aided by the Paycheck Protection Program to keep us afloat. Many, many friends and their businesses suffered and folded due to the evaporation of revenue and the inability to regain what they lost. It was a lesson in humility, perseverance, endless grace and gratitude. We were fortunate to never lay off a single employee.
The legacy of our business in terms of its lasting impact remains to be defined by those who we have served, but we can unequivocally say that the lasting impact on each of us on the business side is still life changing, as our byline has avowed. Twenty years is a third of my life and a full generation of families that have planned weddings, school banquets, baby showers, family reunions, family photo sessions and celebrations of life with us. Our venue has nurtured countless vendor showcase open houses and together with the staff of our floral shop, hosted a plethora of costumed Halloween parties, Christmas parties, easter egg hunts, and fundraisers and currently even hosts a small church on Sunday mornings.
There is no one key or secret to lead a successful business for two years or twenty, no cup of coffee will help illuminate what determines an ultimate outcome, but appreciating that something bigger than ourselves must surely be at play, molding and shaping a gifted purpose not even we are privy to, in an ever-fluctuating societal landscape takes the wonder of a child, the risk tolerance of a teenager, the tired caution of a parent and the sage discernment of a grandparent, all the while marching forward to the next celebration.
And in all things, as our creed prescribes, doing so with love.
This editorial was first published here in March 2024.
