How Strawberry Fieldz became Successful

20. April 2018 · Write a comment · Categories: DIY Marquee · Tags: , ,

Guest Post: How We Set Up Strawberry Fieldz!

5 years ago I was about to head back to my very boring job following maternity leave, to work as a Relationship Development Consultant at a well know insurance company. My husband Adam was working in a planning role, which he had done for many years and was fairly bored. His main passion has always been music, gigging with his Dad from the age of 5 and playing in bands all through is life, teaching guitar, and running his own recording studio also. So we find ourselves at a small local festival, with a badly erected tatty party tent, with a tiny stage, and really badly managed sound where no one on stage could hear themselves. We sat in the sun after his performance and agreed we could do this set up better. So we did. Simple as that!

Adam researched products and prices, and I worked on a business plan and researched local companies. Where could we add value, go the extra mile, and make our offering unique.  After extensive research I found that websites were hard to navigate, quotes often did not turn up or where wrong, too many contact forms and not enough personal service. So that was where we felt we could really excel, using our years of customer service experience to offer the personal touch that was missing from our competitors.

We launched 8 months later with a website and no marquees at that point.  We used a well known business directory and got a fair amount of work from that.  We had a summer of bookings ahead and so we made the decision to borrow some money and buy the equipment.

DIY Marquees were absolutely amazing, they gave us brilliant advice because they have been there, started a marquee company and been in the hire market themselves. I turned up with a wobbly trailer and two screaming toddlers and we took our marquees home.

The rest really is history. We called many pubs and introduced ourselves, emailed local councils, joined local business networks, and had our vehicles sign written. Our hit rate for converting an enquiry to a booking was around 75% and I think this has to be down to us really caring about our customers and it coming across to them that we have time to discuss their needs, and we really want them to have a good experience with us. This has undoubtedly contributed to the amount of repeat bookings we receive. We have a strong repeat customer base and get recommendations all the time which saves on advertising costs!

We took very little pay in the first 3 years ploughing it all back in to the business to grow as quickly as we could.  We started offering small festival stages in the second year of trading which has added variety to our business. We have provided stages for festivals, local councils, pub events, and got paid to watch live bands!

We have so many great memories over the last few years, from our customers that invite us in to share a freshly made curry, to the quirky sheep that leapt in our van and ate our biscuits.  Every day is different, and each customer unique but it’s been an amazing experience and watching our business grow has been very rewarding.  DIY Marquees has been crucial to our success and have always gone the extra mile to help us. We have had to order next day delivery items at 4.59pm in the evening as we have lost a vital component, had issues onsite and needed advice, and been totally fine with us never giving the correct part name for an item in spite of them sending them to us numerous times. 😊

Get in touch with DIY Marquees if you are wanting to buy a marquee

DIY Marquee have new stock of party tents and pagodas

19. March 2014 · Write a comment · Categories: DIY Marquee · Tags: , ,

As you may have noticed our website has changed, this is due to our expansion in to other ranges of marquees. We now have five ranges of marquees across 23 different sizes of marquee culminating in over 70 different marquees to choose from, we believe this means we have the largest range of marquees available for sale in the UK and hope to have the marquee to suit any requirement. We also now stock a heavy duty range of pop-ups and pagodas.

Our two new cheaper ranges probably won’t be of interest to you as a hire company – the party tent range including DIY Party Tentand Pop-Up DIY Marquee range uses PE fabric (only suitable for occasional domestic use) and our new Classic range is made using 500gsm PVC but without the features we believe are essential to hire companies – I wouldn’t recommend hiring out a 6m marquee without eave braces for example.

Our new Professional range should prove popular in the hire industry; it is based on our Commercial framework but with a heavier duty 650gsm PVC roof.

As always our new products and ranges come from feedback from customers (thank you) and our own experience. This is why we are one of the leading designers and suppliers of marquees in Europe. Which we’re quite chuffed about to be honest.

We always like to hear feedback regarding our marquees or website so if you have anything to add or any new product ideas please always send them along.

How big a marquee do I need?

09. February 2014 · Write a comment · Categories: DIY Marquee · Tags: , ,

Are you thinking of starting your own marquee business? Have a read of some useful information which will help you to plan which marquees for sale and party tents for sale. slider3

 

Asking how big a marquee is required is one of your main jobs as a marquee supplier. Often the size of the garden will dictate the size of marquee but you still need to know how much space everything takes up to then plan suitable numbers.

Here’s how most marquee hire companies work out the space required in a marquee:

Round table seating up to 10 (usually 5ft or 5ft6in tables): Allow 3x3m -this includes space for walking between tables so for example a 6x12m area can fit eight 3x3m boxes so can fit eight round tables with space to walk between. Saying that it is more comfortable leaving one out to stagger the tables like this example.

Tradition long top table (usually three 6ft trestle tables but oval tables are similar): Allow 3x6m

Buffet (again usually three 6ft trestles): Allow 3x6m

Bar: Allow 3x3m for small functions, 3x6m in larger ones

DJ: 3x3m is usually fine

Band: 3x6m for a small band, larger bands you have to ask them (though be careful as they often want to take over half the marquee)

Dance Floor: A blog post in itself which will be written soon

Catering area: 3x6m or 6x4m for small functions, 6x6m for medium (80+ guests), 6x8m+ for larger functions (160+)

When planning layouts you also want to consider where people walk in to the marquee -ideally you don’t want guests walking straight in to a table so you may have to leave a gap. For marquees that are a bit tight consider having the entrance near the bar or dance floor to give some space.

Often you are asked to put marquees up over features like bushes, flower beds, small trees, water features or even swimming pools. This really adds character to a marquee so in my eyes should be encourages though as the marquee supplier it does make life a little harder and you should point out that it is not useable area. Often customers will need a larger marquee to allow for incorporating these features.

When planning the marquee remember which direction guests will be arriving from – you want it to look impressive. Windows make the marquee look more inviting – you don’t want guests believe that they are walking in to the back of the marquee. Also keep in mind access to the toilets, this may require an additional exit in the marquee.

Experiment with layouts using our interactive marquee planner, it allows you to drag furniture in to a marquee to experiment with capacities and layouts.