Mom organizes events with personalized touch
She was always a hands-on mom especially when preparing activities for family occasions such as her children’s birthday parties.
Debbie Huang knows that in preparing for these events every detail counts as much as the budget.
With this concept and first-hand family experience, Huang decided to go into the organizing events business, where she could share her skills in organizing events and give her clients her personalized way of handling the business.
She opened her shop, which she called Simple Wishes Flowers and More shop, at G. Garcia Street. Her shop displays flowers and stuff for theme parties and for weddings.
“This started as my passion. I like to organize and play with details and design themes and I’m a collector of different cute stuff that we can use in events like weddings and birthday parties so I thought it could be a fun business for me,” said Huang on why she opened her shop in Feb. 18, 2000.
With weddings and parties as her main markets, Huang made sure her shop would still earn during the lean months or what she would call the “off-party season.”
“August is usually low on weddings as well as the months after graduation during summer time when people usually go out on vacation. During these months it’s my flower business that sustains us most,” she said.
Huang said her investment wasn’t so big when she opened in 2000 because the property already belonged to the family.
“I only hired three people which includes a driver and two florists to assist me in the operations back then.”
She started with buying flowers from wholesalers around the city. But when demand grew, she tapped flower farmers from Cebu and sometimes even as far as Manila, Davao and Bukidnon.
“For the stuff that I use for theme parties like the balloons, novelty items, cartoon character items for giveaways and many more, I have a supplier from Manila who is an importer of these products,” she said.
Now, Huang and her team of 10 assistants now offer entertainment for parties, food carts, weddings, bridal showers, and many other events.
Huang doesn’t have set packages for her clients because her services are personalized.
“When we conceptualize a party, we make sure that the details are really what our customers prefer so it’s really difficult to set a fix rate package,” Huang said.
She and her team will try to work with their client’s budget.
“We give them options which are also nice so that they don’t end up going over their budgets.”
Huang said for weddings, her team would charge P30,000 for entertainment only and up to P300,000 if it would include other services such as giveaways and flowers.
Huang said her business provides her an avenue to express her creativity and satisfy her passion for collecting things and making them into something uniquely creative for every occasion.
“I used to do it for my own parties before. But now with the business, I get to share what I know, what I can do with other people and create something that they will remember for a long time,” she said.
She said she planned to have a bigger shop where she could display more stuff for her clients.
‘”I want it to be like a do-it-yourself shop where one can hand pick from many different themes, colors and designs in our displays the products that they want for their parties and we will also be there to help them out in organizing their party.”
She, however, is not keen on opening another branch because her business is very personalized.
She said it would be difficult to offer her personalized service if she can’t oversee operations of another branch.
“At the end of the day, it’s always the service experience that will matter. My presence will help make my clients see that I’m really doing it hands-on and seeing through every detail that they wanted me to do,” Huang said.
