Eccentric Designs very first "Girl Power - Back to School Bash" was a success! It's been a long three months preparing, soliciting, marketing, and planning for this event. This was all new to me and was my very first time planning anything of this magnitude with so many people. The hardest part for me was asking for "help", but I was able to quickly get over it (and myself) and recruited 14+ dependable volunteers.

Before I jump into the event, I wanted to back up and give you (the reader) a little history on how the "Back to School Bash" was born. I don't remember the exact date, but sometime in April the idea of having a Girl Power Event - 'popped' into my head. Immediately, I wanted to tell someone about it and my mom and my dear friend Talia with (Talia Felicia Events + Designs) were the first two people I discussed the idea of the Girl Power Event. Both my mom and Talia were very supportive of my idea, but initially I do not believe they knew how soon I wanted this event to kick-off. I was able to connect with both of them and find the perfect date - July 20th. It was important for me to have both of my girls there by my side that day, because I knew this event would be special and I wanted them to be apart of it.

As I've stated previously, I've NEVER done anything on this level... I didn't know the first thing about soliciting sponsors, marketing, or planning for a event like this one - however, I played upon one of my greatest strengths - the internet/social media. I filled out a lot of applications for sponsorships online going through corporate websites and when that did not work I walked into local businesses explained what I was doing and requested sponsorships that way. Soliciting sponsors may have been the hardest thing for me to do throughout this process - because sometimes I can be a 'brat' and I hate being told "no". I heard the word, "no" so many times throughout the process that I almost wanted to cry. I would go to my mom and vent and she would give me the extra boost of encouragement I needed and I would dust myself off and move on to the next business. Needless to say, I was able to recruit TWENTY FOUR sponsors (God is good!).

I primarily used Social Media for marketing (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) I dropped off flyers at a few churches and local businesses. I was able to talk about the event at a couple of local Small Business meetings and spread the news of the event that way. I'm also apart of a few local Facebook groups and I was able to connect with some businesses that way. My biggest marketing strategy (that had absolutely nothing to do with me) was a local Newspaper article about my event! When this article published my remaining tickets were gone within 2-3 days!