Digital Tools Maintain a Family Mission

Josenny Tineo and Michelle Peralta have always been family planners, with the two moms organizing every holiday, graduation, and birthday celebration. Eventually, the jokes about their unofficial “jobs” turned into serious suggestions that they should start an events business, and ten years ago Josie Michelle Events was born.

With no formal training, the women outworked the competition and used digital tools to grow a successful business by planning weddings, birthday parties, and corporate events. Tools like Google My Business Pages and social media ads helped the business reach new customers and compete with established brands, while specialty tools like Aisle Planner and Timeline Genius helped them organize the events.

But no amount of experience could have prepared the women for a pandemic. When New York shut down in March 2020, Josie and Michelle resolved to stay true to their mission to “celebrate life and help others dream big.” Remarkably, within two weeks their operations went all-virtual and so did their events. Google Meet and Zoom were hugely important during the pandemic, and digital advertising was critical so people would know that the business remained open and organized celebrations were still possible. 

Now the pandemic is slowing down and business is booming again. The women are grateful for inexpensive digital tools that helped the business survive, and they want to ensure that digital tools remain affordable and easy to use.

“Congress needs to understand how digital tools kept us in business. Without them, we’d be lost. We hope lawmakers don’t make a big mistake by passing tech legislation that makes small business digital tools far less effective, because that will make it harder for our business to thrive,” said Josie.