SLDC Strengthens the IT Infrastructure of Personal Touches by Jeanetta During the Pandemic
Jeanetta Hawkins began her designing career when she was six years old, decorating her elementary school gym for a play. “I always loved designing and being creative. I felt like I was born with a gift,” said Hawkins.
From these humble beginnings, Jeanetta’s gift of design grew to encompass high school auditoriums, nationwide galas, international conferences and even football stadiums.
Personal Touches by Jeanetta was founded by Hawkins in 1988. The unique embodiment of her creations has led her to become the #1 African American-owned Special Events Design, Production and Event Rental company in the St. Louis area and the top-ranked in the nation. Her clients have included the National Urban League, the St. Louis Rams, Bi-State Development Agency, Fleishman Hilliard, Slalom, St. Louis Business Journal and many more.
Personal Touches’ record of design experience reads like a history of significant events in St. Louis for the past three decades, including the official kickoff of the first Rams game in St. Louis, the Grand Opening of the MetroLink and the record-breaking National Urban League Conference and galas in St. Louis in 2007 and 2017. Before the pandemic, Jeanetta’s business was flying high, with her company producing several hundred events annually.
Then in March 2020, the winds of change came to the United States, and cities around the nation began to get shut down due to the pandemic. “The pandemic was truly a devastating time for my business. I literally lost every client in 2020,” Hawkins said. Despite this, Jeanetta’s tenacious spirit refused to give up on business. “In the first year of the pandemic, my staff and I worked on our extensive inventory, and I went out looking for COVID-relief grants and loans to keep my business afloat,” she said. Through the lean times, Hawkins pivoted Personal Touches’ business strategy into providing décor and floral design to funeral homes and producing outdoor press events for client organizations.
When the Omicron variant of COVID hit the area in 2021, Jeanetta was forced to lay off her staff. During this period, she connected with the St. Louis Development Corporation, which assisted her staff in producing a digital catalog of her décor inventory and a website. Fortunately, this period was short-lived, and Personal Touches by Jeanetta has rebounded perfectly, having produced more than 500 events in the past year.
True to her visionary abilities and entrepreneurial spirit, Jeanetta Hawkins plans to purchase and re-develop 15 acres of land in Old North St. Louis to expand her business to become the Northern Lights Land Development Project. This new $100 million development will feature a newly expanded headquarters for Personal Touches by Jeanetta, an Event Space and Conference Center, Bed & Breakfast, Wedding Greenhouse, Amphitheatre and Residential Development. “We are currently looking for real estate investors and partners to help make our dream a lucrative reality,” said Jeanetta Hawkins, President & CEO of Personal Touches by Jeanetta.