- Daniel Meursing is the CEO of Premier Staff, a luxury event staffing company in LA.
- He worked as server and started his own company living frugally at his mom’s house in the suburbs.
- Meursing had to learn to be honest with himself as a CEO to grow his revenue and scale the business.
This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with Daniel Meursing, CEO of Premier Staff. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
I moved to New York and signed with New York Model Management in 2015. I was 19 and worked for a catering company as a “model server.” The pay was $27 an hour, and it was a good side gig. I was also a brand ambassador for a friend’s staffing company working at pop-up events.
In 2019, I moved back to LA, to live with my mom in the suburbs. I had obtained my license as a mortgage lender and was working at a loan company.
Times were lean, so I also took gigs working for an event staff company in LA.
A guest at a party I was working at in LA approached me and asked if I could staff a couple of his art parties every month. He’d been impressed by my work managing high-profile guests at the party. I had some experience managing events, so agreed.
Within a few weeks of meeting this client, I had staffed my first party. I was nervous and had no idea what I was doing. I had to learn how to file invoices and pick a business name, Premier Staff.
Finding staff for these early events was hard, and I’d often ask friends to help out last minute. I was never confident staff would show up on time or in the right uniform. In the beginning, I led every event on-site.
The parties went smoothly because I would walk around the space like a madman, making sure everything was perfect.
I made about $22,000 in 2019 from managing my events and working for other staffing companies, reinvesting those wages back into my business.
I was also fired from my mortgage lending job that year. My heart wasn’t really in mortgage lending, and I was excited about my new opportunity. It felt like a sign.
I was eating McDonalds every day to keep costs low
I was living off credit cards and cobbled together $4,000 to purchase the website domain “premierstaff.com.” I spent six months building the website and creating the brand. I ate $5 meals at McDonalds and invested everything back into the business.
I launched Premier Staff in October 2019. I was young enough to afford the risk of starting a business and was fortunate to live with my mom.
One of the main things that helped me get a second client was optimizing my website to rank on Google and creating a Google Business listing. This is how my second client, L’Amour Events, reached out the following month. They produced weddings in Beverly Hills and hired me as one of their on-site coordinators.
People began calling to book events from my Google listing. When I started booking several events per day, I knew I needed to hire trustworthy people to lead them. I built an internal leadership training program to teach my leaders how to keep clients happy.
We provided luxury staff and helped coordinate event spaces, schedules, and timings. From October 2019 to February 2020, I was gathering solid momentum, and my revenue was growing.
COVID shut our revenue to zero
There was no work during 2020. It was disheartening. I got a job as a mortgage lender again. Interest rates had cratered, and the lending business was booming.
In 2021, My business was still shut down. But I got a call from a client asking to hire 50 people in a week’s time for a wedding. They must have found my website or Google listing.
I said yes, hoping I could figure it out. Other staffing agencies had closed down or were scared of COVID.
I contacted the managers at other agencies and asked them to help me. I figured that if I had good leadership, I could pad the rest out with less experienced staff. After that event, I was back in business.
This client ended up being a big wedding producer and loved our service. She gave us referrals and repeat business. In 2021, I expanded very quickly because I said yes to everyone and captured a lot of business quickly.
We made about $250,000 in revenue in 2021, even though it was half a year of trading. We worked on The Kid LAROI’s 18th birthday party, the week his song with Justin Bieber became No. 1 on the charts. They did a performance with pyrotechnics at the event.
Hiring my first full-time employee was a huge factor in our ability to scale. I hired a young, quick-texting micro influencer. She was naturally good at finding people to help me last minute and handling back-and-forth communications. I think the scariest part for entrepreneurs is hiring the first employee, but it has a big impact on the business.
In 2022 and 2023, we brought in around $950,000 in revenue. We focused on building infrastructure and internal systems and brought in just over $1 million in revenue last year.
You have to be honest with yourself as a CEO
If you want to be a CEO and lead, you have to reinvent yourself and be willing to learn. You have to have uncomfortable conversations with yourself about anything that may be holding you back. I’m a sole owner. I don’t have partners, investors, or formal business education. My business is just trial and error.
There was a point where I hit a cap in my growth. The company was doing well, but I wasn’t hitting the projections I’d envisioned. I could’ve blamed the economy and my team or made excuses. But, being honest with myself, I was taking on things I enjoyed within the business that weren’t helping move the business forward.
As CEO, I need to ensure the company’s growth. So, I realigned my focus to where I was needed most. Since I’ve done that, we’ve closed much bigger deals. In 2025, I hired a sales and marketing team and we’ve brought in $250,000 in revenue by mid February.
