As owner of Command Performance, Pressley works with clients to do everything from planning the budget, setting a theme for the occasion and coordinating the invitations, food, decorations and logistics for the event itself.

While she specializes in corporate events, Pressley also plans weddings, fund-raising events and social parties. She also has a side business planning romantic get-a-ways for busy businessmen who want to treat their wife or girlfriend to a special evening but don't know where to start.

Pressley's friends and the contacts she had made from her small catering business helped her business get started. After a few years in business in the social-event-rich Washington-metro area, Pressley was starting to grow her client list and had developed a strong network of vendors and people she could rely on.

"I still considered myself in the infancy stages," Pressley says. "But people were starting to call me, and I was starting to develop a reputation."

Among the events she organized were a recording artist Meet & Greet for Warner Brothers Records and a "Take Back the Night" march and rally for the DC Rape Crisis Center.