Meet Tish Davis of Elegant Event Sitters

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tish Davis.

Tish, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
In 1993 I became a homeless single mother of an infant and a toddler. I didn’t have a degree to get a “real” job so I worked various temp jobs while my daughters were growing up. At age 29, I had a third daughter and still no degree but I did have a stable job. What I really wanted was a career. I wasn’t quite sure how to make that happen until a very good friend approached me with a business idea that she read about in a magazine.

I had NO money… like none. She put up all of the funds for our legal paperwork and we decided to work the events ourselves and use our children’s toys. We did 1 to 5 events our first 4 years in business. In 2008, my business partner decided to turn the entire business over to me and I started building from there. In 2009, I was blessed with an opportunity to quit my job and work my business full time.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Rough is better way to describe the first few years. After quitting my job I contemplated going back to work many times. I wasn’t doing tons of business right away, which I expected. What I didn’t expect was to go two full months with no clients, depleting my 401K, not being able to pay my rent or to adequately care for my kids with no income. Thankfully that phase was short lived and clients started booking. My other challenges were learning how to work government contracts and manage teams of sitters.

Elegant Event Sitters – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Elegant Event Sitters, Inc specializes in event sitting. A lot of people are not familiar with event sitting services such as ours. In short, we provide childcare solutions for special occasions (weddings, funerals, meetings, conventions).

I am most proud that I have expanded my business to offer sitters nationwide.

What sets us apart is that our staff constantly engages the children. We don’t just sit them in front of a movie and supervise. Our sitters play with the kids and make sure that they are having fun while keeping them safe.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success means so many different things to everyone. For me, success is not having to go back to a corporate job and being able to provide for my family with my business. I also love it when my clients and the parents are happy. Parents are trusting strangers to take care of their children and that is not easy to do.

So at the end of the event when parents tell us how at ease they felt leaving their precious children with us, I feel that we’ve done a great job.

Pricing:

• Hotel Room Care starts at $16/hr
• Group Event Care starts at $1000
• Sitter Supervision starts at $20/hr

Contact Info:

• Address: 1504 Stone Gate Lane SE
• Website: www.ElegantEventSitters.com
• Phone: 8882622838
• Email: tish@eleganteventsitters.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/eventsitters/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Wedding.Sitting.Event.ChildCare/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/eventsitters
• Other: https://twitter.com/eventsitters

Image Credit:
ZOA Photo, Project Duo Photography, Christine Gallagher Photgraphy

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.