10/01/2026
My first week at Saltgrass, we almost closed our entire second floor for a party that had already booked somewhere else.
The team was excited about it. Big group, that weekend. Then I opened the BEO binder. One call, months earlier. A few menu ideas. Nothing signed. Nothing since.
So I picked up the phone and called the client.
"We never signed anything with you. We picked somewhere else."
If you run private events, you've lived your own version of this. The rehearsal dinner everyone called "confirmed" that went quiet. The holiday party you held a Saturday for, then lost the week of.
Without that call, we would have closed the floor, bought the food, prepped it, and scheduled the staff. For nobody. With zero recourse, because nobody had signed.
The team had menus. They had a form of contract. Nobody was asking for the signature, so every warm inquiry looked like a booking. However excited a guest sounds on the phone, they haven't booked until they sign.
So we made one rule: no signed contract and BEO, no event.
Then I brought in pipe and drape and carved that open floor into private and semi-private rooms we could sell.
Group sales grew 46%, then 60%, in back-to-back years.
Your turn, before next weekend:
1. Pull every event on your books for the next 60 days.
2. Mark each one signed or unsigned.
3. Call every unsigned one.
You'll lock in the revenue or free up a room to sell to someone else.
That rule sits at the center of Savvy Circle. I built it for whoever owns private dining at your restaurant: every inquiry, proposal, and signed BEO in one place, plus monthly training and live group coaching with me.
Founding enrollment for Savvy Circle opens Oct 5. Grab a demo time here: calendly.com/kmpalubiak/savvy-circle-demo-call
How many "booked" events on your calendar right now have a signature on them?
