Welcome to our “Day in the Life” series! We feature wedding and event planners from around the world with many different levels of experience. If you would like to be featured, download our questionnaire here and email your responses and photo to info@plannerslounge.com. We are excited to feature Atlanta wedding planner Bisola Esiemokhai today!
Name: Bisola Esiemokhai
Business Name & Location: Event Design by BE – Atlanta, Georgia
Years Working in the Event Industry: 1.5 years
Years Owning Your Event Planning Business: 4 months
Website & Blog: www.EventDesignbyBE.com and Event Design by BE Blog
Twitter: @EventDesignbyBE
Facebook: Event Design by BE
What is your typical day like?
I wake up at about 7:30 AM to get at least 30 minutes of exercise in before I start my workday. After that, I start helping my husband get ready for work. Once he’s out the door, I start getting ready and sit down at my desk in my home office at about 9 AM.
For the first 30 minutes of my workday, I don’t check my voicemail, email or phone. What I do first is review my to-do list and focus on the revenue generating and new client producing tasks first and schedule them into my calendar for the day as if they were appointments. Then I look at my current client to-do list such as following up with vendors, developing design proposals or day-of timelines and schedule those into my calendar for the day as well.
After I’ve created my workday with all of my important action items and tasks, I check and respond to emails and return phone calls from clients, vendors, potential clients, etc.
With that said, none of my days are ever the same, which is one aspect I absolutely love about my career and I use to my advantage. For example, Monday mornings are my days to focus on social media and track/analyze my company goals and metrics while Thursdays are my days to meet new vendors and schedule in-person consultations with potential clients.
At about 6pm, I’ll start making dinner while listening to business podcasts. At 7pm I try to shut everything down before my husband comes back home from work and I try not to look at social media or check emails until the next morning unless I have an event coming up soon.
How did you get started in the industry?
Throughout college, I was very active in campus organizations and found myself planning a lot of events on and off campus such as fashion shows and spoken word events. I noticed that event planning was something I was really passionate about and very good at.
After receiving my business degree in Finance and International Business, I began a career in corporate America as a Strategy and Operations Consultant for a top tier consulting firm. After a few years of the corporate grind, I started to feel confined with little to no outlets to express my creative side. So, in July 2013, I made a decision to take my previous event planning experience and all of the knowledge I gained in consulting/corporate America (where I learned the inner workings of some of the top brands in the world) and started my wedding design firm.
Where do you find design inspiration?
I tend to draw the majority of my design inspiration from fashion and old classic films as well as home décor magazines such as Elle Decor. I also get sparks of ideas when I see really interesting color combinations, so abstract art is a source for inspiration as well.
What are your favorite online resources for your business?
I have a few sites that are very helpful to me in building the business side of my company: Social Media Examiner for social media strategies and insight, Systems Rock for help with developing systems within your business, Liz Pockard for strategies to gain more website traffic from SEO and Google Analytics and Social Triggers for a breakdown of consumer psychology.
For wedding specific info and business ideas my go-to resources are Confetti Radio which is a repository of podcasts that go into detail about the wedding industry and related topics for wedding planners as well as Wedding Industry Rescue which is great for straight forward business advice and strategies for business owners in the wedding industry.
Bisola, thank you so much for taking the time to share your story and a day in your life. If you are an event planner and would like to be featured, download our questionnaire today and email it to us along with a photo. If you aren’t sure about being featured, take a few minutes to read how it can help your business.
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Day in the Life | Regina Osgood
Day in the Life | Sara Jane