Professional Marquee Quotes That Win More Business
South Coast Marquees replaced 100% manual quoting with GoodEvent Business. Stock is tracked in real time, quotes go out faster, and turnover has grown year on year.
Before & After GoodEvent at South Coast Marquees
Before
- Every quote was built manually from scratch - a slow and exhausting process
- Stock availability was a guesstimate based on a diary on the side of the desk
- Enquiries were piling up and business was being lost because they could not keep on top of them
- No component-level stock tracking - double-booking parts of larger structures was a real risk
- Running two businesses with fully manual admin was unsustainable
After
- Quotes are built in minutes - volume has increased significantly
- Stock availability is visible in real time - no more guessing
- Enquiries are responded to quickly and no business is lost to slow turnaround
- Component-level tracking prevents double-bookings on barrels, bars, marquee sections and more
- Admin is handled efficiently across both businesses
South Coast Marquees: From Manual Chaos to Year-on-Year Growth
South Coast Marquees is a Hampshire-based marquee hire company run by Becki and her husband AJ. With 20 years in the business, they specialise in king poles, Celeste pole tents, and stretch tents - working primarily on larger weddings and events along the south coast of England.
With two decades of experience behind them, they knew their craft. What they did not have was a system that could keep up with the business they were building.
The Problem: Manual Everything, Growing Nothing
Before GoodEvent Business, every single quote was created by hand. Templates were built from scratch. Emails were sent manually. There was no system - just effort, repeated, over and over.
"Before [GoodEvent], we were fully 100% manual - creating quotes, templates, and sending them out manually," says Becki. "As you can imagine, that was just a nightmare."
Becki and AJ were running two businesses at the same time. The admin load was unsustainable. Enquiries came in faster than they could respond. Business was slipping away.
Stock availability was the other pressure point. When a client called to ask what was available, the answer was never instant. It was a glance at a diary on the desk - a guesstimate, not a fact. "We didn't know what kit we had left available - it was always a guesstimate by glancing at a diary on the side of the desk."
At some point, something had to change. "We thought, if we need to grow the business and streamline it, we have got to get some software in place to free up some time."
What Changed: GoodEvent Business
GoodEvent Business is the operations tool built specifically for event hire companies. It handles quoting, invoicing, stock management, and CRM in one place - designed from the ground up for how marquee hire businesses actually work.
Quoting at Volume
The biggest immediate shift for South Coast Marquees was quoting speed. With GoodEvent Business quotes, Becki can build and send professional quotes in a fraction of the time it used to take. That speed translates directly into volume.
"I would say naturally, because of the volume of quotes I can now pump out, there has definitely been an increase in sales."
Clients noticed straight away. When South Coast Marquees first switched - over four years ago - the response from clients was clear. Quotes looked more advanced than anything else they were receiving. More professional. More modern. That edge helped win bookings.
"Originally, we were getting quite a few comments from clients saying, this looks great, and that it was way more advanced than anything else they had received."
Real-Time Stock Visibility
The diary-on-the-desk method is gone. Stock availability is now tracked in real time across every item - from full marquee structures down to individual components.
This is where GoodEvent Business earns its keep for a marquee hire business. Generic rental tools track units. GoodEvent Business tracks components.
Becki uses the example of an oak barrel bar. It is built from planks and individual barrels. If the barrels are booked for one event, the system flags that the bar cannot be hired out to another client - because the components that make it up are already committed. That intelligence prevents double-bookings at a level that a diary, a spreadsheet, or a generic stock tool simply cannot reach.
Component-level stock tracking applies to marquee sections, flooring components, linings, and any other item built from parts. Nothing slips through.
Cross-Hire Tracking
South Coast Marquees also uses the cross-hire feature to manage equipment brought in from external sources. When kit is hired in from another supplier to cover a busy period, that arrangement is tracked in the same system - keeping stock accuracy clean and avoiding confusion across multiple sources of equipment.
Industry-Built, Not Adapted
Becki is clear on why GoodEvent Business works where other tools do not: it was built for this industry.
"I would absolutely recommend it. I am sure people have other stock control systems, but the way you guys have built this specifically for the marquee hire industry makes a difference. You have really thought about the little things that help with the day-to-day running of a marquee business - things that other rental software will not have."
That industry-specific thinking is the difference between software that mostly works and a tool that actually fits the job.
The Result: Year-on-Year Growth
South Coast Marquees has grown its turnover every year since switching to GoodEvent Business. The link between the two is not complicated. More quotes sent faster means more bookings. Real stock visibility means fewer errors and more confident selling. Less time on admin means more time on the business.
"Good Event has revolutionised the way we work here at South Coast Marquees. It has saved us time, enabled us to respond quickly to prospective clients with a far more professional looking quotation system and therefore won us more business. Not only that but as an employer, we have been able to be more organised and professional - giving staff the accurate information they need to deliver a job," says Becki.
Twenty years in business. Year-on-year growth. No more guessing.
Try It for Your Marquee Business
If your quoting is still manual, or your stock visibility is still a guesstimate, you are losing time you cannot get back - and probably losing bookings too. GoodEvent Business is free to start. No setup fees. No training course. You can be quoting properly within a day.
Start a trial of GoodEvent Business and see what South Coast Marquees found four years ago.