By Mary Staub, June 2016
Brooklyn, NY
(originally published in the Red Hook Star Revue)
Conventional wisdom often has it that mixing family and business is a
route to ruin. Conventional wisdom also often has it that if you are going to
start your own business, you might want to enter a field within your expertise.
But, conventional wisdom is just that—conventional. And those who fly in the
face of convention reap unexpected rewards.
Or thus has been the case with Big Dawg Party Rentals, a local,
family-owned-and-operated party equipment rental business that, in less than
three years, has gone from idea to go-to source for party equipment in Red
Hook, Brooklyn, Manhattan and beyond. Co-owned by a team of two,
father-and-son-in-law Michael Giordano and Brendan Quinlan, Big Dawg has gone
from cold, empty warehouse on Bowne Street in 2013, to 6’000 square-feet of
equipment the first year in operation, to 15’000 square-feet of equipment
today. (And they are ready for more.) Big Dawg has gone from being a complete
newcomer to being the exclusive vendor for numerous local business (Pioneer
Works, Methodist, among them) and working
the recent democratic debate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
“All told about 2000 chairs, 250
tables, we set it all up and took it down in a 24-hour period,” said Giordano.
“One of the biggest events in the country. And then we had to go to set up at
the Intrepid within 36 hours. We got very little sleep. I looked at my partner
and said: you know, I think we’ve made it.”
How did they get from there to here, then to now?
It all began with Wall Street, an engagement party, and a misplaced
delivery.
Around 2008, Giordano, who had been working on Wall Street for three
decades and ran two corporate brokerage firms, decided he didn’t like the
direction Wall Street was taking. So he took stock of where he was and where he
was headed. He started playing with the idea of opening his own business.
“I started kicking around a few different businesses,” Giordano said.
“And Brendan [my then future son-in-law] was good with technology. So we
analyzed four or five different businesses.”
The seed for a party rental business was planted at Quinlan’s engagement
party, organized by Giordano and his wife Catherine (whose daughter, Justine,
Quinlan was about to marry). “We threw an engagement party,” said Giordano.
“And the company we rented equipment from left it on the wrong floor. So we had
to shlep all this equipment up to the right floor. They didn’t seem so big on
customer service.”
Fast forward to today and you have Big Dawg Party Rentals, whose mission
and driving force are just that—customer service. Giordano and Quinlan crunched
some numbers and decided to dive in.
“I knew we needed to attack the customer service angle,” said Giordano.
“Whether people are in the office or in the field, there’s one rule: customers
set the rules so work hard and be nice. At the time, we didn’t know anything
about party rental. We just knew that customer service was lacking.”
Since then, Big Dawg’s family of two has expanded to a family of 23,
many of whom come from outside the party business. A former lawyer, real estate
broker, and interior designer are among the mix. These disparate influences
from outside the party business have helped make Big Dawg into what it is
today, says Giordano: “The interesting thing about this story is there’s a
mixture of five or six people in the administrative part of the industry.
Because of that we’re not restrained by the typical things. It creates an
interesting dynamic.”
At the same time, there’s a glue that binds the team, said Giordano’s
wife, Catherine, who began working with her husband at Big Dawg about a year
ago. And this glue is the commitment to customer service.
“The trick is when you grow [as a business], not to forget what was in
our mission statement,” said Catherine. “There are really no degrees for party
rental specialist and some of it is in one’s make-up. Do we have the patience
to talk someone through the process? Do we listen carefully? This is in our
DNA.”
It’s this DNA that
flows through Big Dawg’s veins and makes the 23 current employees into a
family. When new hires come on board, Giordano might say, “we’re gonna be
family here and we’re gonna build a business. They look at it and realize it’s
something special.”
Another binding
force is the fact that more than a quarter of the team are blood family. In
addition to Michael and Catherine Giordano, there are Catherine’s son James,
her daughter Justine and Michael’s son Patrick who work for the business.
(Michael’s other son, Michael, Jr., used to be part of the team, but he
recently moved.) James wears many hats, mostly in construction. Justine works
in the office. Patrick is about to join full-time after completing a degree in
food studies.
So what of
conventional wisdom?
“I did think
initially, ‘Oh my goodness, this could be challenging,” Catherine said of
sharing an office with her husband. “But Michael never really questioned it. He
said immediately, ‘I think it’s a great thing. Who am I gonna trust more?’”
Big Dawg’s work is reaching beyond Red Hook and Brooklyn more and more.
But their initial focus was on serving the Red Hook community, with a
commitment to local businesses and venues and work at Hometown Bar B Q, Liberty
Warehouse, local schools, Lobster Shack, and more.
“We concentrated very hard on Red Hook itself,” said Giordano. “It’s an
interesting place. It’s done well for us. Brooklyn is a slice of the country.
Everyone lives together in a very compatible place.” Or, in the words of
Catherine, who grew up in Dyker Heights, “Brooklyn is hot.”
