An Open Letter to NON Business Owners

As a small business owner, professional event planner, and woman who takes fun seriously, I wanted to address the handful of concerned emails we have received from those who don't own small businesses, or work in the event industry. 

This is me. I'm a mom of 3 small children under 4. I have a mortgage, a minivan payment, and 8 people who rely on me paying them through my small business. 

I have COUNTLESS vendors I work with and other small business owners who count on our events and our clients to pay them for their services.

In just the past WEEK I have had to:

• Cancel an event for over 2,000 people who were looking forward to that event, cancel 30+ vendors who were relying on the business traffic, cancel services from 10+ service providers, EMS, police, rental companies, etc who were going to make money off of the event....
• Postpone a large fundraiser for 300+ guests, cancel the marketing money we were going to spend in print and radio, cancel all of the social media posts we had scheduled for the event, contact all the vendors we had contracted for the event, hold countless meetings about messaging, and offer support to the non-profit who is missing out on at least $50,000 by not holding this fundraiser.
• Cancel a fundraiser for another non-profit who was counting on a minimum of $30k that they raise during their annual event. Held countless meetings on messaging, options and ways to keep their organization a float.
• Assist all of our Marketing clients with messaging regarding the Coronavirus and help them make hard decisions that affect HUNDREDS of lives and family incomes.
• Make difficult decisions around our own signature event, the NoCo Easter Keg Hunt. See below.

​For those asking about The Easter Keg Hunt....

• We already purchased all of the supplies for this event.
• We worked with 13 businesses as stops for this event and created the clues.
• Then....We altered the event to have more outdoor clues and spent hours doing so.
• We sent out a survey to get feedback. Team captains voted to keep the event on as planned with adjustments. The government forced us to change that.
• We created clues and new stops to make the event more 'small team' friendly. The government changed that too.
• The majority of team captains voted to MOVE the event. So we did.
• We were forced to move it out to a date that will work for our starting and ending point venues/partners. We had to get confirmation from them first.
• At this point, June 13th is only a 'holding spot' as we don't know if we will still be under strict quarantine rules.

We cannot predict what the future will hold. Just like all other small businesses who work in events, we have PLANNED the event, we have DONE the work, and now the day is on hold. We offered a refund option to team captains who were uncertain about moving forward. The timing on this has passed. We do not offer refunds - same as every other ticketed event we plan and other businesses plan.

This is not the world we lived in a month ago... Understand that we are all doing the best we can to keep our heads above water and focus on the positive. We are trying to keep this event on because we all need some FUN in our lives.

The weight of the world is on my shoulders because I am fully aware that what I do impacts others. My small business is responsible for affecting thousands of peoples lives. I take that very seriously.

What YOU do impacts others too.
Let's not lose focus on what is truly important.

Let kindness rule your heart. If you cannot have empathy for my small business and the other businesses and people we serve, then we kindly ask that you not participate in the fun we offer.

​-Christine Forster, President
​My Big Day Events