You know him, you love him. And I got the chance to sit down with him, 60-minutes style, and get the “Here’s what the fuck you need to know about the event decor industry” lowdown from my man Jacob Becker.
Jacob’s business is a fascinating dive into a world most of us only see the polished end-product of.
As Jacob put it, his company, Florida Event Decor, serves corporate events by setting up a bunch of beautiful decor.
They build out custom items depending on what clients might want, but also have a treasure trove of inventory ready to go.
Table of Contents
The Business Model
So, how does this whole thing work?
It’s surprisingly brilliant. Event producers and managers are constantly in need of decor for their events.
We’re talking about things that make an event pop – lights, vibrant colored walls, those popular leaf walls, stylish colored chairs, you name it.
Jacob and his team build these essential items once. Then? They rent them out. And rent them out again. And again.
These pieces can be used multiple times a year for all sorts of different events.
We have a lot of inventory items that can be used at multiple events. We have a lot of different things in our inventory that come in various colors and various options… We like to have a lot of optionality to really fit exactly what the Client’s looking for.
Jacob Becker
Custom Creations
But what about those events that need something a little more… specific?
Think “cowboy,” “pirate,” or “Greek” themes. This is where Florida Event Decor really shines.
Oftentimes we have clients that have specific themes or specific things that they want at their events
Jacob Becker
Clients come with specific themes or unique requests, and Jacob’s team gets to work.
“Give it Back” Loop
Now, here’s where it gets even more interesting.
These event producers, who are about to make a gajillion dollars on their event, don’t want the headache of figuring out where to store these custom-built, sometimes bulky, decor items.
Penny-pinching on storage just doesn’t make sense for them. So, what happens? It’s better to just give it back to Jacob.
He takes it back, breaks it down in his warehouse, and when that themed event (or a similar one) rolls around next year, he rents it out again, repeating the cycle.
Ultimately, we try to serve that niche and provide different awesome items and different things to make these events really come to life
Jacob Becker
The Crew
This isn’t a one-man show, of course.
Jacob’s got a well-oiled machine. There’s an office crew handling all the admin work and scheduling – the essential behind-the-scenes tasks.
Then there’s the installation crew, the road warriors driving to these events and setting everything up, making sure it looks perfect.
And let’s not forget the craftsman crew, the talented folks in the workshop building new stuff every single day.
Jacob was kind enough to show me around, giving a glimpse “before the magic happens because most people just see it at the event. All set up and beautiful and there’s a lot that goes into it before we actually get to that point.”
Conclusion
Build it once, sell it forever.
It sounds more like the mantra of an AI or SaaS company, doesn’t it?
But here it is, packaged in a “boring” business like event decor. And it’s absolutely amazing.
It was a pleasure getting the tour and insights from Jacob. As he said, it was “pretty fun to have the opportunity to show off all this, the different cool stuff that we do.”
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