Why The World Needed BriteBiz
We were headed into the middle of another busy event season, and yet again, I was left frustrated, this time more frustrated than ever. I had co-founded a very successful events business with my business partner Emma Killian. Our business was growing, and getting bigger, we were managing up to 8 events a week, but we were drowning in admin. We simply were struggling to keep on top, with zero room for growth.
Managing weddings and events is a complicated business. There are a lot of moving parts, from the point of initial inquiry to final payment. There are countless emails, proposals, legal contracts, tasks, staged payments, and vendor management, as well as the actual event itself! There are a lot of balls in the air. Keeping on top of all this information is crucial!
And we were using good systems. We were using Salesforce, Google Business and Quickbooks Online. We even brought in a Salesforce consultant to help us fine-tune how we had it configured for the events industry. These were great tools, right? No !
The problem was, that none of these systems talked to each other. We were essentially running three parallel systems, we had three separate databases of client details. Our business became more checking and cross-checking than event management.
And all the other event details like Function Sheets/Vendor Details/BEO’s and floor plans were all hanging in different places or platforms, with no central point. It was incredibly difficult to get the client on the same page. It was stressful, we were “hoping” we had it right for every event.
And there were mistakes, there had to be mistakes. When systems are not integrated and streamlined, there will always be mistakes. And mistakes hurt, both financially and in terms of reputation. We were just about keeping on top of the admin, but in reality, we were drowning…….. We should have been enjoying our business, our lives, and our families much more than we were.
Time To Rethink
Both myself and Emma had worked in the wedding and events industry for over 10 years, well before we set up our own company, we knew the industry extremely well. I was also from a business background. I originally qualified with a degree and master's in science, and then I trained as a Chartered Accountant with PricewaterhouseCoopers, working with a large number of companies from small family companies to large corporations like Dell and Microsoft.
I had seen firsthand how other industries and larger companies had highly configured and integrated systems, and I simply wondered, why has nobody built a system streamlined and integrated for the wedding and events industry?
We often said, “There has to be a better way”. Our forever words were “We need a new system, we need something that works”... Managing what we had was too stressful and taking up too much time. We knew that we could not grow anymore unless we found a new system that would integrate all our processes. It was time to put the thinking cap on, again. So not for the first time, I went back scouring the internet to see if I could find a solution.
Evaluating Existing Event CRM’s
I probably spent weeks, if not longer, working my way through every platform I could find that claimed to offer what we needed. I didn’t just read the websites, I demo’d and trialed them. I tried them all! What I found was the following, and I broke them into three broad categories.
Solopreneur Platforms
There were a few platforms that were in the market that people were talking about. These included 17 Hats, Tave, Honeybook, and Dubsado. These platforms were advertised for mainly “Solopreneurs”. They were great simple platforms for that type of person, but they did not have the tools we needed for a busy wedding and events business working with a team. At that time, we had 4 people working in our office, excluding Emma and myself.
Restaurant & Catering Platforms
Other software tools were designed for the restaurant industry that some event companies were using, These included Tripleseat and Caterease. Again, I trialed them, Tripleseat was much too tailored for restaurants, and Caterease was an older-generation platform that did not fit at all.
None of these platforms had the integrations we needed. All of these platforms had either a basic Zapier accounting connection or a simple one-way accounting connection. As an accountant, I knew that if we were really going save time and reduce errors we needed to integrate everything, we needed systems that spoke to each other, two-way accounting integration.
Wedding Planning Platforms
I also had a look at what was available in the Wedding Planner area. The main player here was Aisle Planner. I decided to give it a go! I was very disappointed to find out that you could not do some of the most basic things we required in a platform which included.
- Email: Send an email through the system (through your own integrated Business Gmail/Office365).
- Accounting: Linking to our accounting software (Quickbooks/Xero) - meaning double accounting and possible mistakes.
They had some useful event management features but using a system like Aisle Planner would have set us back by some distance.
Ethical Considerations?
I am an ethical person and one thing I had at the forefront of my mind when choosing a platform was - is this a Venture capital (VC) company? Choosing a software platform is a partnership, If we were partnering with somebody else, we wanted it to be a partner that we knew was a true partner in an ethical and financial sense. Most of the solutions we looked at were owned and controlled by VC companies. Honeybook, for example, an Israeli-based company has taken on $498M in venture financing and has 10 venture capital companies in control. We did not want to walk that route.
Let’s Build
We had a super management mix with really great experience in business, the wedding and events industry, and tech. We decided that the only way we would find a platform that would work was to develop it ourselves. We figured the world needed a new solution.
First, we had to come up with a redundancy plan. Emma stayed involved with our business, and we brought in a new General Manager to make my role redundant so I could focus on building our new software platform.
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After several weeks of searching, we met our superhero co-founder CTO Mike R, who had an extensive background in business development at Microsoft and Google. Mike was from a family hospitality business so exactly what we wanted, He just got it, the tech and the industry. Coupled with my business systems expertise, and our combined experience in hospitality and events, we had a dream team trio of co-founders.
Product, Product, Product
Within days, Mike and I were sketching and wireframing the initial iteration of the platform. I explained the flaws in the other systems and what we wanted to achieve. We built a development team. Everything was developed in-house. Within 5 months, we had the first, basic version ready to go. At the time, we called it the “EMS” - standing for Event Management System, and we put it working live in our own company.
The transformation in the workflow was immense. Our inquiries, events, calendar and payments were now all in one place, with a client portal for the clients. Every single payment or invoice that we added to was automatically updated in Quickbooks Online. And when we reconciled a payment in Quickbooks, it updated in the system. It was incredible! None of us had seen this in any system before (*you can do the same with Xero! ).
Compared to what is there today, the first version was very basic, but it did transform how we operated. Within the first 12 months of using it, we slashed our admin time, and we were able to grow. We went from a position where we were struggling with 5-8 events a week, to running up to 20 events a week with our eyes shut. With no mistakes and everyone was singing off the same hymn sheet.
Once we saw the results, our appetite grew more and more, so we kept developing new features. We focused more and more on the product. We built what, many tell us is the best client portal in that marketplace. Clients could view and add details to a wedding or event and could even add in documents or images when we needed them. It was a game changer for us, and more of our admin load was being eaten away with every iteration of the software.
Others Took Notice
We were networked within the events industry around us. Others saw how we were smoothly managing events and growing, and we could see the companies we spoke to, regardless of whether they were venues, vendors or planners, were challenged with the very same issues. Streamlining the booking process from start to finish.
Several of them asked us if they could use the platform, so we decided to re-engineer the platform, make it available to other companies, and we called it BriteBiz, a brighter way of managing your wedding and events business.
First Happy Customers
We onboarded our first customers in Ireland, the UK, and the US in 2017. In 2018 and beyond we added more and more tools, many specific to the events industry like floor planning, surveys and forms, and SMS messaging. We added a great two-way Calendly integration. Although we were a relatively new platform to the market, we were also awarded the best event technology at the Event Industry Awards which was an amazing achievement for our team.
Industry Leading Integrations
Every feature has been meticulously thought through by our team. We understand Weddings, Events, tech, and business and we always want to deliver only the best solutions to our members.
From what we know, we are the only CRM platform, in the world, not just in the event space, that has a live two-way integration with Xero and Quickbooks. It transforms how accounts are managed and cut’s out so much admin time and so many mistakes. As an accounting nerd, I value this development and what our team has achieved here.
We also have an industry-leading Google Business and Office 365 integration as well, which makes communication so easy. You can manage all your emails in an inbox in BriteBiz, so all parts of an event from inquiry, event planning, and floor planning to accounts and payments are, for the first time, on one page. This is not available on any other platform in the world.
We also took the bold move to develop leading wedding directory integrations, so there was no more copying and pasting, all your leads were pulled directly into the system. With copying and pasting being the most unproductive part of anyone's role, this was groundbreaking for our members.
2024 - Global Product
It’s been an amazing few years, and in 2024 we launch our new brand and website. Now BriteBiz is a Global product with thousands of users spanning Europe, the US/Canada, Australia, and Asia. We are very proud of what we have achieved in such a short space of time.
No VC’s- We Report To You!
Everyone loves to know how software companies are funded and if they are controlled by VC Firms? We are delighted to say that we are a 100% self-funded company that has grown from its customer base. We develop from your requests and we report to you and you only. There are no third-party or Venture Capital funds involved in BriteBiz, we are an ethically proud company and we plan to keep it that way, always.
The Future Is Brite
We are excited about where we are going. We plan to develop our community significantly in the years ahead and we look forward to you sharing our journey as a valued BriteBiz member.
We are a team of inventors, innovators, and dreamers, we are super passionate about what we do and the product that we are developing. We love success, we love your success. We are proud to call you BriteBiz Members, and we are super excited that you are traveling on this journey with us.
Thank you for reading our story.
