Brian Waldron claims he’s got a 7-figure event space company based outta Brooklyn, New York. Billionaire B, as he calls himself, grew up with that entrepreneur bug. He was flipping playing cards, candy, then as he got a little older, sneakers—whatever he could find that there was a market for. Meanwhile, his mom had this little space she was renting out for birthday parties and anniversaries and whatnot. Once Brian was old enough, he was like, “Yo, let me run this.”
She agreed. And so he did. And he was like, “This is lit. People paying me hundreds of dollars to use the spot for a few hours? And alls I gotta do is open the doors basically? Alright, bet.” Next thing ya know, Brian had his mom’s little side hustle bringing in $5-, $6-, $7 Gs a month. One space. Maybe a thousand square feet, tops. Naturally, Brian’s like, “Yo, if I’m making this much money off this space? I need me a bigger one. Of course, my mom was like, ‘Nah, don’t do it. It’s dangerous over there in Brooklyn.’”
But can’t nobody tell Brian nothing at this point. So he decides to run it back. He had like $40k saved up from all his various hustles and this Italian restaurant he worked at as a server. Hooks up with this realtor. She shows him three spaces. First one’s too ugly, second one’s too small, third one’s just right. The Goldilocks of event spaces, apparently. So Brian buys that, opens it up, starts getting bookings. A little while later, acquires another space. Repeats the process. And now, present day, with three total spaces?
He’s making $50- to $100k a month, just renting ’em out. Looking back, the one thing he wishes he would’ve done earlier is built a team. Brian was so used to being a solopreneur, embracing the grind, he just couldn’t picture anyone else coming into his business, being able to do it as good as he could. So he resisted hiring anyone for the longest time. That led to stress and burnout and ultimately became the bottleneck. Eventually he built out systems and SOPs and brought on more talent; and now life is great.
Okay, so how’s someone get into the event space space, B? Number one thing, he says, is just to start. Start Googling for locations, start looking at spaces in person, get with a realtor. Once you find a good spot and sign a lease? It’s all downhill from there. You run a little market analysis. What else is in the area and what are those people charging? Now model that following the MVP model: minimum viable product. Spend and do the least to open your event space up for business. Get your tables, get your chairs, let it run.
“Don’t get caught up in the glitz and glamour,” Brian warns. “Don’t keep up with the Joneses. A lot of people see a spot with porcelain floors and they think they gotta go get porcelain floors. Like, no. Run the comps. Don’t buy anything you don’t need. At the end of the day, it’s a location business. Location, location, location. You need to understand, you can’t charge the same in the hood as you can in an affluent neighborhood. So know where you’re at and what you stand to make and design accordingly.”
Makes sense. You’re not gonna put a Gucci store in downtown LA, with a buncha homeless people sleeping out front. You’re gonna stick that on Rodeo Drive, in the Hills, right? So you need to be picky about where this place is at, and how much they want for rent, and what you do with it once you get it. Then you gotta market yourself and prep it and clean it and all that. It’s a lot to learn. Brian sells an Ultimate Six-Figure Event Space Accelerator course and Event Space Elites mastermind if you’d like his help.
