Business Spotlight: Can't Miss A Beat

The biggest business day in Terrie Reno’s world is Saturday.

Reno, the Springfield franchisee for Complete Music and Video, plans her workweeks around Saturdays and knows what dates they fall on.

“I know my Saturdays,” she says. “That’s something you’ve got to know.”

Reno’s music and video services business handles 300 dances, weddings or other events a year. Because the work is part of families’ and couples’ special occasions, Reno says she gets to have a lot of fun on the job.

“I love it because it’s always special occasions. Whether it’s prom, bar-bat mitzvah, anniversary, high school dance or prom, they’re lifetime memories that you’re part of,” Reno says.

The Ozark native served as a disc jockey at a Complete Music franchise in Kansas City 2002–05 while working on her master’s degree in business administration from University of Missouri-Kansas City. She also was helping her identical twin, Tina, through law school.

“I was moving to the area here, getting married and contacted the owner here about working for her and found out she was selling the business,” Reno says. “I ended up buying the franchise here.”

On Aug. 1, 2005, Reno took over the Springfield-area franchise, which opened in 1997 and covers southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas.

More than just playing music
Reno says the DJ business goes far beyond showing up and playing music.

“We help (clients) through the planning process,” she says.

Reno says 80 percent of her companies’ events are weddings, 10 percent are school dances, and the remainder comprise company parties, bar and bat mitzvahs, birthday parties and anniversaries.

Reno says part of her role as franchisee is to spot coming trends for event coordinators.

“One of the new things (is) coordinated dances, whether it be taking dance lessons for the first dance or putting on a show like a theatrical performance for the first dance,” Reno says.

Another growing request incorporates video into ceremonial dances, she says.

“Instead of the traditional bride-and-groom’s first dance where everyone just stares,” she says, “you take that scrapbook video of the bride and groom dating together, and you play that in the background. It’s making it much more of a media event. You tie in the video and DJ together.”

The first mixed-media dance by Reno’s company is scheduled for a June 19 wedding.

Complete Music’s event-service prices vary, but Reno says about $645 is standard for a five-hour event. In 2009, business revenues totaled $150,000, a 4 percent gain compared to 2008. Franchise fees for the business are 8 percent of gross sales.

Important personalities
Kyle Glendenning is one of the company’s 12 personalities. His work begins well before the event begins.  

“A lot of times, I’ve had the chance to meet with them before,” says Glendenning, fresh off receiving Complete Music’s 2009 top DJ award out of its 250 franchises. “During that week, we’re going to sit down with that client, reception planner and the ceremony planner as well. We want to find out exactly what they like … so that when they show up that night, all they have to worry about is having a good time.”

Glendenning’s DJ award was presented May 2 at Complete Music’s annual meeting at its corporate offices in Omaha, Neb.

Chateau on the Lake, a John Q. Hammons Hotels resort in Branson, counts Complete Music as one of its preferred DJ vendors, says Ashlyn Vermillion, the hotel’s catering manager, who also handles events. Vermillion says the hotel has worked with Reno’s business hundreds of times.

“I can personally recommend them, because they DJ’d my own wedding,” Vermillion says.

Other common site vendors for Complete Music include Doubletree Hotel, Holiday Inn North, Clarion Hotel and Downstream Casino.[[In-content Ad]]