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Yes, you heard it right! Business showers are a thing now. Your calendars must be packed with events like baby showers and save-the-date notifications for birthday parties, anniversaries, bachelorettes, weddings, and engagements but have you ever attended or hosted a business shower? Or have you ever heard of business showers?
If you haven’t heard of this new trend, it is time to brush up!
A few days back, I noticed one of the most famous memes on my social media feed with Elon Musk saying:
“Instead of baby showers, let’s host business showers. When a friend starts a business, we all come together, congratulate them and bring resources for the business.”
It quickly grabbed my attention as the concept sounded like the real deal to me!
While baby showers are events organized to celebrate would-be mothers, what are business showers?
Business showers or business baby showers are organized to celebrate the birth of a new business or startup and mark the milestone step of welcoming a new addition to the family.
It’s a new startup! Let’s celebrate!!
So, let us understand what business showers are, why you should celebrate them, and a few business shower ideas to successfully host and celebrate your business reveal party.
What is a business shower?
Business showers are ice-breaking celebration parties that announce a person’s entry into being a business owner, entrepreneur, or founder/co-founder of a startup as they ostentatiously rejoice in being their own boss!
“Like a baby shower, a business shower is a business reveal party or a launch party before the actual launch.”
As family members, friends, colleagues, or peers, we mark our presence at such parties and wish our friends the best of luck in their entrepreneurial journey. We also support them by bringing them gifts, supplies, and money to help them meet the considerable expenses they encounter in the starting phase of their startup journey.
The conventional concept of baby showers inspires a business baby shower, which is the best way to introduce your new venture to your circle. A baby shower can also be called a business reveal party.
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What is the purpose of hosting business showers?
Business showers can serve many purposes and can be hosted for the following purposes:
- Celebration: The principal purpose is a celebration where you celebrate your new startup journey and share this life-changing moment with your loved ones.
- Breaking the news: The other reason for hosting a business shower is to break the news to your social and professional circle about your new business launch or entrepreneurship journey.
- Introducing the brand: You have launched your own company and now want to create a buzz in town. So, you throw a business shower and invite all your loved ones, including potential investors and clients, to introduce your brand. If you have friends in media, you would like to invite them too for some press coverage and PR.
- Brand awareness: One of the primary purposes for hosting a business shower is to create brand awareness and introduce the product that you have launched to the potential audience. When people come to your party, they celebrate and share it with their network on social media, and you get a free brand promotion.
- Getting product feedback: You can host your business shower to showcase your product or services to your invitees. You can have them use or experience your product or services firsthand, give you feedback and finetune your offerings.
- Generate leads or sales: A few invitees may be impressed with your offerings and instantly subscribe to your services or express their interest in becoming your client. So, by throwing a business shower, you generate few sales, and at worst, you get some solid leads to follow up.
- Arranging resources: Much like other parties and baby showers, when people attend your business reveal party, they bring with them gifts, cash, or even additional resources that can help you grow your business. In Newyork, as per a report by business insider magazine, a lady threw in a business shower and received $10,000 as gifts that she could use to fuel her new business.
Why do we need to host baby business showers?
So my friend in her early thirties leaves her corporate career as human resources manager to launch her mental health counselling App. For someone in their early 30s, quitting a high-profile and well-paying corporate job can be a challenging and transformational journey too!
It’s a milestone she wanted to commemorate. So it occurred to her that she would throw a business baby shower to celebrate her startup journey.
She took the first step and organized her business reveal party at Skybar. She invited 40-odd people from her family, social circle, and professional network to witness her transition into a businesswoman from being a corporate slave. For her, this moment was liberating as she could be her own boss, work for things she was always passionate about, and be invested in her vision.
So, she proudly raised the toast as she convincingly conveyed her vision to make this world a better place to live by committing herself to mental wellness. She asked all her friends and social circle to wish her the best of luck and help her in her new venture over steak and wine.
It is inspiring!
But how often do we celebrate our friends who quit their full-time stable jobs to become an entrepreneur and follow their dreams? If you are lucky, you may find few supporters. But most of the time, people are sceptical.
Many of you may call your friends crazy for quitting their rewarding corporate careers, but it can be a lifetime event for them. It is indeed hard to take a plunge into entrepreneurship, and it takes some real guts to do so. But if your support your friends at this juncture, it can make their startup journey relatively easier. And it is why exactly business showers are thrown- to gather wishes and support from loved ones.
And if you are a true friend and a well-wisher, you can show your support by helping your friend host a business shower and by giving them gifts in the form of money or office supplies they may require to kick start their business.
In today’s world, hosting a baby shower has become more like a ritual where husband and wife celebrate this landmark step of going the family way. They welcome the expected family member with a toast and commemorate this most crucial phase of their life with a bang.
Surprisingly, baby showers are just not about announcing the upcoming addition to your family; money is a major driving force for hosting such gatherings. As with other occasions like birthdays, weddings, and dinner parties, you are expected to bring gifts. As uncharacteristic as it may sound, you mark your presence in such celebrations with expensive presents even if you disapprove of the apparent commercialization of such events. A business shower is no different.
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Indeed, owning a new business is like giving birth to a baby.
When you treat your business like a baby, you divert all your resources, such as time, money, and energy, to grow it. You may even take a sabbatical from your steady source of income to invest your time in your business. And why not? It is a time to commemorate this momentous period in life.
Having a baby is a huge expense, and so is owning a business. In short, having a business or baby-both are long-term investments and full-time jobs. Even though they will test our limits, watching them grow will be beyond rewarding and transcend all the hardships.
Having said that, if you are starting your own business, you will need support from your family, friends, peers, and colleagues. And the first step to seeking support from your friends and family is to make them part of your new venture by inviting them into your business shower.
A business reveal party or business shower helps you not only mark this incredible moment in life but also helps raise funds and support from your family and friends. Yes, you can raise funds from friends and family for your new business through gifts such as cash, office furniture, or other necessary resources. Business showers can be a sort of crowdfunding for your business. Ka-ching!
“Instead of baby showers, let us all come together and host avant-garde business showers. When a friend launches herself as an entrepreneur, let us all come together and celebrate this milestone. Let us congratulate her by bringing her supplies, resources, and funds as gifts to help her kickstart her startup. Let us be a milestone in their mission to build a new empire”.
Benefits of hosting business showers
There are various benefits of hosting a business shower such as:
1. It helps in your brand promotion
When your family, friends, and colleagues attend your business shower, they bring with them, other guests. It helps more people know about your brand, vision, products, and services. Plus, you get a free brand promotion when your guests post about your venture and party on their timelines or social media feeds.
2. It helps in the expansion of your vision
Of course, a business shower is a perfect platform to make people believe in your vision, buy it, and become potential customers or users with time. When people personally know the founder and how invested they are in their vision; they are more likely to transact with your business and collaborate when they find the right fit.
3. It helps you network with other businesses
Naturally, as you spend time with other people from the business and corporate fraternity, you make new friends and understand what they do. It may open new avenues for future business opportunities, alliances, or partnerships.
4. It can help you find potential investors
When people know you, your brand, and your vision, it can open up many new avenues. For example, you can find potential investors from your business reveal party or some leads to start with.
5. It helps create memories
When you throw a party on the roof-top or the poolside, you celebrate this remarkable moment of your life with a bang. It gets you excited, gives you a necessary push, and sets you in the right mood to excel in your entrepreneurial journey.
6. Help arrange for resources and funds
Business showers can help your gather necessary resources and funds that may flow in, in the form of shower gifts from your friends and family.
Shower gifts are quite a potent reason! Ka-Ching!
How to organize a business shower?
Wondering how to throw a business shower or how to organize one? Here is a simple guide to hosting a successful business shower:
1. Make a guest list
When you decide to host your business reveal party, the first step is to prepare a list of people you want to invite to your business shower.
It is advisable to invite people who are your well-wishers and ready to extend their support to your newly launched startup. In fact, you can invite everyone you know, but it is wise only to invite people who are your supporters. Your aunty, who only cares about your marriage, will not give you the kind of energy you need right now. So, craft a list of people who can benefit you, such as
- Your coworkers, managers, co-founders, investors, and mentors.
- Your friends, family, and relatives.
- Venture capitalists, angel investors, entrepreneurs, and industry experts.
- Other people from your extended circle who are your supporters.
2. Send invites
Do not forget to send beautiful invites to the guests. Your invites are the first impression of your event, so make sure they are well-designed and well-thought-out. Your invites can be printed or digital. But do not forget to mention the RSVP.
3. Choose a venue
Like all other events, your business shower deserves the best venue in town. You can choose an upmarket restaurant, your house, or even your business’s physical location. We recommend your business location to host your business shower as it can give them a sneak peek into your office and make them more invested in your cause. If there is a pandemic, you can host a virtual business shower as an option.
4. Create a business registry
Do not forget to create a business registry with a list of shower gifts that fits everyone’s pocket.
5. Rejoice
Enjoy your business shower and create memories.
6. Show gratitude
Send in thank you notes or return gifts. And above all be thankful to God for such a wonderful opportunity!
Business shower registry
Setting up a business registry for the business shower event
When accepting gifts, you can choose to fund your business or startup needs through a business registry, just like a wedding registry or baby shower registry. Business registries are well-suited for small businesses, freelance businesses, home-based businesses, etc.
Many entrepreneurs use Kickstarter crowdfunding or Indiegogo crowdfunding campaigns to fund their businesses; as a startup founder, you can launch your own business registries.
One famous company that offers a simple business registry option is Amazon, where you can create a wish list and change settings to identify yourself as a business. Another option is myregistry.com.
One thing you should take care of while creating a business registry is providing options with all price ranges and gift cards so that all your supporters can participate even with a limited budget, as we do in wedding and baby shower registries.
How to promote your business registry?
You can take the following steps to promote your business shower registry:
1. Narrate your story
You should use your social media and website to narrate your story and connect to your audience on a personal note. It would be better to create videos and other engaging content where you can tell people about who you are, what your story is, and how you need their support. Also, tell them how their contribution will help you kickstart your business.
2. Direct them to your business registry page
Share your URL or business registry link to your network so they can land directly on your business registry page and decide to contribute.
3. Incentivise the contributor
When someone contributes, be it your family, friend, peer, or acquaintance, reach out to them with a personal thank you note or a return gift. The idea is to find inexpensive ways to incentivize or thank the donor, like a discount code for your products and services after you are open.
4. Make the contributor feel an essential part of your team
Post updates of the gifts or contributions you receive from people on your social media or website. You can also place the gifts in your office or store wherever possible. It will make the contributors feel important and invested in your cause. In turn, they will be delighted and continue sharing the word about your business.
Your family, friends, and extended social network will be happy to see you flourish, so setting up a business registry & arranging business showers is always worth a try.
Business shower ideas: What to buy as a business shower gift?
Here are a few business shower ideas for gifts:
Promotional Gifts
All items used to promote a company’s business are promotional gifts. Promotional gifts are an effective and low-cost way of marketing. Many startups make custom promotional gifts in bulk with the company’s name and logo on them. These are often used to promote a company’s activities. Mugs, challenge coins, lapel pins, stickers, pens, etc. are all common promotional products. Whatever your audience is interested in, you can go to GS-JJ.com for personalized company swag.
Office Supplies
You can gift office supplies such as stationary, paper, pen, envelopes, clips, staplers, notepads, business card holders, file organizers, etc.
Décor items
If you want to give some office decor items, you can gift a flower vase, wall clock, showpieces, painting, etc.
Electronics
If you want to give something more expensive, you can go for gifting electronics such as a laptop, PC, iPad, mobile phones, printer, keyboard, fax machine, scanner, water dispensers, fridge, wine coolers, etc.
Others Gifts
You can also think of gift cards, cash, books, general magazines, room fresheners, good luck charms, etc.
Do you know of more business shower ideas? Please mention the same in the comments section below!
Well, now you know how to host a business baby shower, business shower ideas, its benefits, and how to go about it, it is vital to ensure you have positive people who want to see you win while keeping toxic people at bay.
I pray your business shower brings all the warmth and success!
Congratulations on your new venture! I can’t wait to meet the baby!! Let’s celebrate your business reveal party!
