Business Opportunities Weblog

December 9, 2005 by Dane Carlson | 0 Comments

Business Journal:

The small Seattle-based company provides instant office parties — quick, customized, affordable catered events on the customers’ premises for purposes like employee or tenant appreciation. Mumm-Pardo, Hughes and contract workers — often moonlighting restaurant employees — will either come into an office themselves, set up, serve and clean up, or drop off kits containing all the supplies that employees of a company need to set up an event.

One Hour Parties has different competitors for different parts of its business. For example, in setting up ice-cream socials, it mostly competes against ice-cream shops that cater. For other events the firm might compete with corporate or private event planners in a large but fragmented market.

Industry experts estimate that more than $500 billion is spent annually worldwide on special events; on-site office parties make up only a tiny fraction of that.

But One Hour Parties’ customers are enthusiastic boosters of the company and have helped it grow and identify new potential areas of expansion.

The Mumm-Pardo and Hughes duo started the company with about $500 in 2001 and expects to record more than $200,000 in revenues this year. The firm also is branching out in several new ways. It’s rebranding itself as One Hour Parties, and breaking away from an earlier name, DayPerks, which the two believe does not reflect the current focus of the business. It is serving up events for individuals, handling functions such as a recent child’s birthday party.

Photo by BigPru.

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