Taking the stress out of weddings

BY PAUL ALLEN Business reporter allenp@jamaicaobserver.com

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

PLANNING a wedding can be stressful, especially if you have no idea who to ask for help. It's that knowledge that drove Andrea Green to start With Ease Catalogue, an online events planning register.

With Ease has no physical office of its own, but operates from the nutrition club that Green runs. She says this is a choice that embraces the move towards online, which allows people to conduct business from anywhere there's Internet connection. The company is the thirteenth nominee in the Observer's Mogul in the Making start-up programme.

Green operates a third business, doing wedding invitations, in addition to her nutrition club and online catalogue.

"It's about having information at my fingertips and being able to provide it to my customers as well. I wanted to have a list of preferred vendors for personal use but decided to extend it (to others)."

The company earns from money received when events planning businesses advertise on its website. Green said she intends to do printed copies of the catalogue once the business has grown. "I would want the catalogue to be the point of reference for persons who are planning events", she said.

Despite its name, starting the business was not easy, she said. "It was (difficult) getting sponsorship for the launch." Convincing people to sign up with her company has also been hard, given that she does not have a "brand name". This has been her biggest obstacle to date but she said it's important that one creates a unique product that will be recognised.

That aside, she does not think about failure because she is up for the challenge. "I have three businesses in one store. I'm not afraid of taking risks and I've done an assessment and weighed the pros and the cons."

With Ease is revamping some features of its catalogue, which should make it more competitive.