A business model that's well organized
[attach]5143[/attach]With all the chaos that goes on behind the scenes to make sure events run smoothly, Anissa Holmes and Rachel Bowman say they could be reality television stars.
“It’s just a lot of craziness. I’m calling, she’s calling, just managing and making sure everyone is on time,” Bowman says. “We always say, ‘Why don’t we have a reality show? We need a reality show.’ ”
The pair teamed up last year to create Iris Blu Marketing, an event and promotional staffing agency combining Bowman’s experience in event management and recruiting with Holmes’ background as a model and actress. To date, their clients include UFC, Bacardi, Peller Estates, Harry Rosen and Japan Tobacco International.
“We specialize in staffing all sorts of events so everything from special marketing to Christmas events, corporate events, trade shows, golf tournaments,” says Holmes, who lives near Sheppard Avenue West and Allen Road. “Essentially we’ll staff anything and everything that’s on a corporate level.”
“We have dancers, performers, event hosts, people on the microphone talking, actors and actresses, if they need that extra oomph for specialty events,” adds Bowman, who calls Eglinton Avenue East and Don Mills Road home.
Although they are based in Toronto, they also have talent spread across the country and are in the process of breaking into the United States. Despite their expansion plans, they want to remain a boutique agency and maintain personalized services.
“We’re trying to put ourselves ahead of the game by giving them exceptional service right down to getting back to them within a minute or two minutes of receiving something on our phone,” Holmes says. “We want to make sure they know they can reach us at any time.”
“We’re the owners of the business and we say you can call us whereas other agencies will have other staff holding it together,” Bowman adds.
In the New Year they also plan on acquiring office space but for now are content with their home offices especially since Holmes recently had a baby boy.
“If we need to be somewhere we connect instantly,” she says. “We’re constantly in contact all the time, all day long.
“The reality is Iris Blu no longer is about my future it’s about his future and so it gives me the motivation to work twice as hard.”
Although most of their clients have been on a referral basis, they say it’s also important to meet new people and potential clients.
“We’re out in the restaurants and networking areas where you do meet business people, everyone from young professionals to established elder folk,” Bowman says.
Since starting the company, some of their highlights include a private party for Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White, the co-owner and president of UFC, where they staffed 50 models, a 50th anniversary party for Peller Estates and a big production with their dance talent with a play off the Chicago theme.
“A lot of people say, ‘Oh yeah you staff a lot of pretty girls’ because if you go to our website the reality is we do have a lot of beautiful women working for us but that’s not it,” Bowman says. “They’re trained specifically, they have a lot of experience in this industry, they know how to really get out there, that engaging attitude and that’s hard to find and that’s a lot of the misconceptions that we do get.”
