Name: Megan Seagram
Business Name: Seagram's Systems Audiovisual
Location: Richmond, Virginia , USA
Establishment (Year): 2014
Category: Art & Entertainment
Profession/ Specialty: Event Audiovisual Production
Website: www.seagramav.com
Social Media: LinkedIn
Company Detail:
Seagram AV is an event production company specializing in turnkey live, hybrid, and virtual events. They work with corporate, education, nonprofit, and association planners and venue partners to ensure an excellent event for attendees and clients, and exist to take the stress of technology off the event planner so they can focus on running a successful event.
Unique Selling Proposition or Competitive Advantage:
Seagram AV was started by the founders after working in the hotel industry for years and seeing the lack of dedicated service for event planners and their event technology. With their background in event planning and administration, moving into the audiovisual space gave them a unique advantage to become a planner's true event partner on all things AV. They work closely with planners to ensure they understand the key components of what they are bringing to their event and provide dedicated, turnkey service that is specific to their needs. Because they think like event planners, they're able to work closely with clients and even help them create their scripts and run of shows based on their knowledge of planning and show flows that work. Their most repeated (and loved!) praise has been "Seagram AV makes everything so easy! Clients know when they hire Seagrams, they don't have to think about AV; it will be great!".
Challenges Faced During the Journey:
In 2019, there was crazy financial growth, but also massive burnout for the founders running their business that had grown too quickly. They spent the end of 2019 planning to cut their business in half in 2020 because they were overwhelmed and overworked.
As we all know, by the end of Q1 2020, the Global Pandemic had handled that for them. As their inboxes filled with cancellations in mid-March, they panicked for a few days, and then quickly pivoted to marketing virtual events and livestreaming. They had been livestreaming for a couple of years already for a handful of clients, so now they just had to market it to those who would have never gone that route if not for the current state of the world. Through the next two years, they spent hours and days teaching their clients how to put on successful virtual events while not adding to the Zoom Fatigue so many felt. 2020 ended up being their favorite year of business so far because they had more time to focus on what really mattered to them and actually provide excellent, dedicated service to each of their clients, which is why they started the business to begin with! 2021 was a bit more challenging because so many people kept trying to hold in-person events again, only to have them canceled by the latest variant, but by 2022, they had hit their new stride in business and are now able to confidently maintain their service level for all events and maintain financial stability in the company as well.
Advice for Women Entrepreneurs:
Women entrepreneurs are advised to find their community! The early years of entrepreneurship, especially as a young adult, are so hard, and if they don't have a community, it's so isolating. The founders are grateful they were able to find several communities of women in their city that were interested in similar things and all wanted to design a life they loved. They believe in collaboration over competition and have seen firsthand that if everyone works together instead of working against each other, they will all go further, faster. They no longer see people as their competition but as opportunities to learn new things. They are passionate about helping women succeed in growing their business, figuring out pricing that works for them, finding the right connections for things they need, and finding a community that uplifts them in the hard times, and they're grateful to the women who did and do the same for them.
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