This is the second piece in a series on what local small businesses are doing to survive in the slowing economic conditions.

For businesses and individuals alike, the expression "catered affair" conjures up notions of soirees glitzy, luxurious, stylish ... and high expense.

As Georgia's economic picture looks increasingly precarious, A Legendary Event, a small Atlanta catering and events company, is moving decisively to dig in, downsize and convince its clients the party must go on. "The market is hurting everyone," says Legendary Event founder and President Tony Conway. "We're feeling it. They're feeling it."

The National Small Business Association's (NSBA) 2008 Survey of Small and Mid-Sized Businesses finds 71 percent of business owners perceive the economy as worse today than it was five years ago, and half of them cite economic uncertainty as one of the biggest challenges to their growth and survival. Conway has noticed it for months in discussions with clients. "It started at least as far back as October," he says. "When they began setting their budgets for the following year, they've asked ‘how do we scale back if we have to.' We knew people were contemplating ‘what if?'"

"What if" has now become part of his infrastructure as years of strong and steady growth have petered out to zero. He now expects sales this year to be "flat" compared to last year, counts himself lucky for that, and suspects trying times have just begun. "Our catering is still very fortunate. I thought we'd be down more."

In its 11 years in operation, A Legendary Event has experienced dramatic progress. Repeatedly singled out as one of Georgia's fastest growing businesses, it now helps customers put on some 1,200 events a year for crowds of up to 10,000 people. Conway reports $18 million in sales last year in the company's three divisions: contract food service, event catering and event design.

"We don't have all our eggs in one basket," Conway says with relief, seeing a certain amount of diversification as a precious asset with the contract food service division, providing a level of stability that Legendary's contemporaries may not enjoy. However, he fears much more economic sensitivity for the event catering and, especially, design sides of the company. "Design sets the stage. Décor, design, floral, it's the division that makes it look pretty," he says. "That's probably what we'll see decline the most. If a client has to make a budget cut, they'll probably cut the theme of something instead of what people are going to eat or drink."

Austerity, even just the appearance of it, is already a new priority. "Our clients are saying ‘we don't want to give off the wrong impression, as if we're spending a lot of money in economic times like these. Instead of an event for 500 they may be scaling it down to 200 or 250, and really making sure just the right customers are attending, instead of a blanket invitation. They were saying maybe their event would happen in their office instead of a particular venue or go to another city."

Battling Rising Costs

For its part, A Legendary Event is working on its own streamlining plans. Now housed in three separate buildings, it will relocate all its divisions to a single new 50,000 square-foot headquarters in Northwest Atlanta in July.  That offers the opportunity for more efficient interactions between components.

And, of course, cost savings on increasingly expensive fuel.

Recent eye-popping hikes in gas and diesel prices are an outlay Conway professes he's struggling to contain. "Instead of two or three vehicles going to an event, we are using maybe a larger vehicle and taking only one. Instead of doing a two to three day setup for a particular event, we are bringing a bigger staff and doing maybe a one day setup so issues like the fuel cost are better addressed."

He also concedes some of the tab may have to be passed on to clients and is considering adding a separate "fuel charge" for some projects, clearly separate from the actual bill for the rest of the event.

Staffing and scheduling too offer opportunities to run lean. The company now has some employees working longer days and four-day weeks instead of five- or six-day weeks, saving time and fuel on commutes.

Legendary finds itself vigorously working relationships with both suppliers and customers to wrangle yet another challenge, rising food costs. "We have daily meetings with our suppliers," Conway notes. "We're working to lock in guaranteed pricing as much as possible so clients planning things four and six months down the road don't get a surprise."

Fortunately from a customer relations standpoint, rising food and fuel prices are no secret. "Of course it's all over the news," he points out.  "I'm glad it's all over the place because that does make our clients aware of what's happening."

The NSBA's 2008 survey picks up a sharp dive in outlook among businesses. It finds 70 percent of business owners are now confident about their futures, a 13 percent decline from only one year previous. Conway remains one of the self assured ones, insisting that what A Legendary Event provides is, if not indispensable, certainly important enough to keep paying for.

"Our clients are still putting their products out there in front of their clients," he proclaims. "They want us to make sure that their customers are still seeing the best product that they are launching because they've got to be creative and talented, competitive out there in their own industries"

But he does see vast variations by field. "I do think the non profits, where we do work for the charitable world, will see difficulty this year. We're cognizant of that and we're trying to help them create events where they're not spending as much, but can be creative and beautiful to attract those donors to be back."

Oh, The Irony

On the flip side, A Legendary Event is enjoying an ironic boom in business from one of the economy's highest profile disaster areas, the real estate industry. Flagging sales in condominiums in particular have touched off a frantic flurry of flashy get-togethers to draw potential customers into new developments. "We never did those before," Conway says, marveling. "Now, we've done significantly more of those events. The clients have said, ‘We're in a slump. Can you help us with this?'  So we're bringing events right into their hardhat development sites or into a finished product, or onto the 20th floor of something where you're seeing a spectacular view and ‘Wouldn't you love to live here?' That kind of thing."

And love, he says, always finds a way. "The wedding market is still a very strong market for us. The bride is still going to get married. Whether the bride and groom are paying for that and putting the money aside or their parents are putting money aside, it's still a personal thing and those things are still happening. That business is still strong."

With event bookings often happening six months or more in advance, Conway believes his field is definitely a lagging economic indicator. That, he suspects, means the worst remains ahead. "It is affecting us," he admits, "but not as much as I think it will down the road. I'm expecting that the end of the year is still to come and we could still see some downfall in our industry."

Nonetheless, in dark days he sees opportunity. "Seventy five percent of our clients are return clients who we've done business with over the years. We're partners in this together. When they've got to work on particular budgets, we understand that and we try to work on those budgets.

"There's always the saying that you're only as good as your last event. You are, but you want to build those relationships with those clients so they feel comfortable calling you, and they know you're going to help them no matter what situation they're in."