Turn your worst days into your best systems.
Hi y’all,
I’ve talked to a lot of event pros across industries recently, and one thing’s stuck out the most: the folks who aren’t constantly firefighting have one thing in common. They’ve turned their most painful lessons into systems that prevent the chaos from ever starting.
Every mistake is just a system waiting to be built. When Heidi at Innovative Party Planners forgot place cards at the studio during a bar mitzvah setup, she didn’t just panic and promise to “do better next time.” She built a system. Now they have a specific process for place card management that’s saved them countless times since. That’s boutique service — not winging it with a smile, but having rock-solid operations that make the custom experience repeatable.
Your boundaries need a “why” statement. Yvonne at Avalon Event Rentals learned this while managing full-service events. When she sets change order deadlines, she doesn’t just say “no changes after Tuesday.” She explains: “We need time to prep items in your counts, quality control everything, and schedule the right crew size. If it changes from 100 to 200 chairs, we need another person.”
When clients understand what happens behind the scenes — warehouse prep, crew scheduling, quality checks — they respect your deadlines. And the one or two who break the rule anyway becomes manageable instead of catastrophic.
Five minutes of checking prevents two hours of driving. Ramon at Peachy Party ATL has had exactly one “run back” in four years. All thanks to pull sheets marked as pulled, prepped, and loaded before anything leaves. Nothing moves until every item is confirmed. Yes, this process may sound boring and repetitive. But it saves you from explaining to a client why you don’t have the tent stakes you need for the job.
So here’s my question: what’s your most recent “never again” moment? Whatever it is, don’t just survive it. Build the system that makes sure it never happens again.
See you next Monday,
Mallory Mullen
Goodshuffle
