Today we’d like to introduce you to Tamara Marshall.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I have always been very creative and had an entrepreneurial spirit. I can remember painting and drawing as a little girl. In the third grade, I tried to convince my mom to allow me to sell me comic strips that I had created to my classmates. I started my first company Red Squared while in college. I sold studded t-shirts that carried my brand’s name. I then branched out to handbags that I designed, sewed, and sold to small boutiques to earn extra money while in graduate school.
In 2006, I moved back to Houston to finish my graduate degree and I was having a hard time finding a niche for my handmade bags. During that time, I had a friend who was getting married. As her maid honor, I took on the responsibility of planning, decorating and cooking for her bachelorette party. After the party, many of the attendees began to ask me to plan and decorate their parties. I was hesitant at first but my friend convinced me to do it. As a recent graduate, with student loans and a need to make it on my own, I began to design themed events with invitations and custom decor. In 2010, I married and my husband became my business partner. We soon decided to form an LLC and found that the name Red Squared was already taken. At that point, we were on a search for a new name. We had to find one quickly! My husband was on the phone with a gentleman with the Secretary of States office asking him to verify the status of name after name as I shouted out suggestions. All where taken.
As I began to get discouraged, I grabbed a thesaurus and started looking up synonyms to the names that we thought were unique, but were taken. That’s when I recalled that I had often heard my former clients and their guest refer to our events as more than just unique and beautiful, but an experience. That’s when The Red Experience, LLC was born. I began to find ways to perfect and expand what we had to offer to our clients. I attended the Houston School of floral design and developed relationships with other event vendors and venues around town. During that time, I worked full time managing clinical trials, commuted 3 hrs a day round trip from my South Houston home to The Woodlands and ran The Red Experience after hours and on the weekends. After a year and a half of burning the candle at both ends and feeling the toll of doing so, My husband and I decide to take a leap of faith.
I decided to resign from my job as a clinical trials manager and began to manage The Red Experience full time.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I can’t say that the road has been smooth. In the past ten years, we have experienced our share of ups and downs. In 2013, I became deathly ill and was faced with the possibility that I may have to close our business. Fortunately, I had an awesome team of employees, friends, and family that helped to get us through that difficult time. Many of the vendors that I had worked with offered to step in and honor our contracts with our customers whose events were pending if they needed to. We were very fortunate to have such great friends and fellow event business friends in our life.
The Red Experience, LLC – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The Red Experience is a custom event florist and design company. We help our clients to pull a complete experience together for their guests. When a customer comes to us in the middle of planning we are often able to assist them with filling in the gaps. In addition floral and other decors, we offer custom invitations, and other stationery and event accessories. That is perhaps what we are best known for, helping couples to pull together an experience for their guests and working with unique color palettes for those wanting a customized yet classic look and feel for their event. As a company, I am most proud of my team. We have a team of very dedicated staff and event professionals that work with us to provide the best service and experience possible for our clients.
I believe that our willingness and ability to help our clients with unique color palettes and ideas for their events, especially weddings, and turning them into memorable and classic events is what sets us apart from other companies.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moments in my career have been when I have provided.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.redexperience.net
- Phone: 713-269-3876
- Email: connect@redexperience.
net - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/redexperiences/? hl=en - Facebook: https://www.
facebook.com/redexperiences/
Image Credit:
Artist visions photography and Sydney Barker
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