In this day and age, we don’t have to start from scratch when it comes to running our business. We’ve got tech and tools to do just about everything in our day-to-day lives so why not take advantage of these time-saving platforms to streamline your business operations as well. Everything from your inquiry workflows, email campaigns, brochures, timelines, questionnaires and much more - but the question is what Customer Relations Management (CRM) Platform is best for you?

Honeybook

This powerful platform has completely changed the way that we work through inquiries, send contracts, communicate with our clients and collaborate with other creatives. I love how streamlined the whole system is and that it is very mobile friendly. Recently, I was able to send a proposal and have a signed contract with payment back from the client within about 6 minutes all while I was in the airport security line. Mindblowing! You can sign up for a free 7 day trial and 50% discount with our referral link here.

Aisle Planner

Once our planning company consistently managed more than 15 projects simultaneously, we knew it was time to find a better way to organize our projects. In comes Aisle Planner to the wedding industry scene to completely revolutionize the tools available to planners. We’re talking master timelines, budget tracking, RSVP Management, Design & Layout Tools,.. yep pretty much the dream stuff right here. You can sign up for a free trial to give it a spin by using our referral code ozhf for a free 30 day trial and 25% off for your first three months.

Dubsado

Dubsado is a multi-faceted hub that allows you to create a very fluid workspace for not only your business but for your clients when they access shared information. What we also love about Dubsado most is their amazing customer service and support team who are always adding new features, the ability to manage multiple brands and users under one roof. Dubsado can be customized with your unique branding for a cohesive user experience. You can sign up for a free trial allowing you to have up to 3 clients/projects before needing to upgrade to the paid plans. you can lock in a lower rate before December 3rd by using our referral link.

Pops of Confetti

Who else is a fan of confetti? (raise hand emoji). Then you’re going to love my friend, Serena’s new offer through @popsofprettystock. The CONFETTI CLUB! This membership experience exists to make social media fun again! 

• Imagine always knowing what to post across your platforms

• Imagine knowing how to “hack” the algorithm and actually reach your target market

• Imagine not spending hours paralyzed with worry that you’ll post the wrong thing

• Imagine not being confused by stories, highlights, saves, collections and impressions

• Imagine showing up on the first page of Google 

• Imagine actually booking business from your social media

Shed the stress, spend more time celebrating your business and join a community of wedding pros and creatives that believe social media can be fun again.  

The Confetti Club membership experience includes: 

• Monthly social media training and tips from a wedding industry veteran of 15 years. 

• Weekly office hours via Private Facebook Group  + Voxer) with social media expert, Serena Waller of Delegate & Elevate - a social media strategist + manager that works exclusively with wedding pros over the last four years. 

• Expert advice from seasoned pros on the topics of branding, work-flow, systems, and more for your growing business

• Exclusive stock-photo galleries to use in your online & offline marketing

• A community of like-minded entrepreneurs 

• More surprises along the way!

From curating powerful hashtag lists and how to get strategic with your content to understanding your social analytics and optimizing your social platforms, you’ll finally have your go-to resource to help you make sense of it all in the rapidly changing social media space! You can join the Confetti Club with our referral link here!

You can have the fanciest name tags, and best Instagram feed but if your client experience is lacking it can put a wrench in even the most well-oiled business machine. What is it all for if your clients aren’t feeling the love?

Photo by Trizza Gerhart Photography

As wedding planners I strongly believe that we actually have two sets of clients - the couples themselves and the creatives they are booked with. When either one of those clients aren’t happy it can de-rail the direction of the event or takeaway from the overall success of the event despite months of hard work. So what does it take to have stellar customer service and a client experience that gives everyone the warm and fuzzies? Let’s dive in!

I actually am not a big warm & fuzzy type gal but instead I love efficiency and showing up when it counts. Celebrate the milestones with your clients and cheer them on authentically; when you say you will do something do it. When implementing changes to your client experience approach, here are my top tips:

• Identify potential touch points in the client’s planning process from on-boarding to post event.

• In addition to your standard on-boarding process, are there any mid-way check-in’s that you can add a little extra special attention to? These can be as simple as light hearted emails to handwritten cards or gifts etc.

• Utilize client questionnaires or dig deeper in consults or planning sessions to ask client’s about their favorite hobbies, favorite snacks, what does date night look like for them? Keep these notes handy!

• Add calendar notes on your CRM (Aisle Planner, Honeybook, Dubasado etc.) that are visible to the client (Such as Catering Tasting-Yum!) Sleep extra tonight (before rehearsal - because let’s be real who sleeps well on rehearsal night)

• Take photos or videos with your team and/or your clients on site walks, planning sessions or other milestones to document that your team is invested in their day.

• Sending thank you cards or having a process for post-wedding communication with your clients to end on a high note, determine if this will be right after the event and then a final when the client receives their images from photographer

• Tagging them on Social Media when posting photos of their event

• Anniversary mentions on Social Media or sending cards/emails

What we know client’s don’t like: Feeling like just another date on your calendar or feeling like the communication is automated/generic. While you can create templates to be more efficient, be sure to customize or personalize so that communication feels more authentic.

What steps have been integral for your client experience? Feel free to share here or within our Free Wedding Planner Mastermind Group on Facebook.

Around here we give a slight eye roll when we see the newest guru pop up with another course claiming to give you the ONE secret to making six figures in your business. Even for brand new planners - the more the merrier. Without hesitation I would tell you that any business that is even remotely near six to seven figures is doing more than just ONE top secret thing because success is a balanced ratio of several actions/systems/offerings and strategies to get to that milestone.

Recently, I participated in a survey of wedding planners nationally in a well known group who I respect so much. I too was disheartened to see the lower end of the net profits of what planners are taking home in our industry and I would love to see these numbers go up of course! Are we bringing enough home to cover taxes, overhead, staffing, marketing, insurance and so many other important elements to running a successful business? In 2018, I personally learned a lot about overhead and keeping expenses down. I learned first hand that I spent way too much on rent, staffing and cough cough - Starbucks* :)

Now, we don’t want to price fix or tell people what to charge but what I think we can do is help planners at every level avoid going through pitfalls that kill profitability in a service based business. My frustration in wedding planning education at large is that we only talk to the brand new planners or those who are serving a luxury market and are transitioning into course offerings/retreats or adding additional streams of income (florals. rentals, education etc.)

The Wedding Planner Mastermind Group was created for planners who have been in business a minimum of 5 years and who are planning full time with intentions to grow and scale their companies into more than a side hustle income. Topics like workflows, CRM tools (Aisle Planner, Honeybook, Dubsado etc.) Accounting/Bookkeeping, Staffing, Sales processes and more are super important conversations that we need to keep at the forefront of our industry rather than only focusing on styled shoots & Instagram feeds.

So what would I say to planners who are desperately wanting to take their profitability to the next level? I’d say pull up a chair because it is not a one stop action - its multi-faceted and let’s not try to re-create the wheel when we have so many accomplished industry leaders who can share wisdom in specific areas. Let’s shine a very bright light on that awkward elephant and bring it all into the light. I don’t think we talk enough about the real nitty gritty of business ownership like payroll, self employment taxes, contracts & risk management, labor laws and human resources that can have a ripple effect if you aren’t paying attention to federal and state laws.

If you missed our Finances over Feelings strategy session, drop a comment below with your email address and I’d be happy to send you a copy of the PDF file. Hope we’ll see you over in our Mastermind Group on Facebook.!

- Happy Planning!
Veronica

Leading a team doesn’t come natural to me, I am aware of my own tendencies to operate as more of a lone-wolf than a leader of an all women team of planners. For years I maxed myself out trying to do it all, and the stress of being a one woman show can really start to pile up on your shoulders.

Instead, I branched out to having an intern or independent contractors who would assist with weddings but still weren’t taking on much of the bulk of client work. So I found myself still planning all of the weddings, spinning my wheels trying to teach brand new staff and not fully trusting anyone to take on tasks. Fast forward to 2016 when I knew that my third trimester of my second trimester was going to fall right in the middle of our busiest season. I was lucky to find an eager assistant who had majored in Event Management and had a passion for events. After assisting and leading month-of weddings we established a great working relationships and her role grew into being essentially my other half when it came to marketing, bridal shows, booking clients and managing weddings.

Despite several industry warnings and hesitations in the business world we charted into partnership territory and for much of the time we were able to work seamlessly - dividing and conquering the tasks that we both felt were our strengths and communicating on those tasks that we needed help with. I was able to pass off much of the staff interactions because I viewed it as more her strength than mine. Of the many lessons that I learned over the year of partnership, you can share tasks with another member of your team but keep a system in place to stay on top of tasks and deadlines.

If you are reading this and can relate with having a few areas in your business that you wish you could just hand-off then this advice is for you. Definitely seek assistance from others and heck, even outsource parts of your business that are time consuming or draining - but ONLY if you have a system in place to have your finger on the pulse of that task. If you outsource social media - then have benchmarks and expectations in place of what your expectations are with that task. If you have an associate team and they are managing client work, have either a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly team meeting that you can stay up-to date on the progress of each of those events.

So how do we run a team? First, my staff are employees rather than independent contractors which means they have a handbook, training opportunities and policies to follow. Second, they have access to Aisle Planner and can see the back end communication of the weddings so they can stay updated with the events. Third we incorporated Trello for team communication, scheduling, tracking staff hours and sharing other details so that each staff member can have their own board to share with management as well as a team board. Our goal is to create a culture in our company where each planner has confidence and support from their team. This will continuously be improved as I learn and receive feedback from the team of how we can do better.

We have to keep working on those areas we see as our weakness and continually ask for feedback. Ask your team questions about their goals, what they enjoy most about the events they have worked on, what do they want to learn more of, and how their experience could be better as a member of the team. You will be surprised how much your team cares about the growth of the company! Next, visualize how you want your team to interact with clients and how this impacts the scalability of your company in years to come.

Happy planning!
Veronica

It’s been a minute ya’ll. Wedding season came swiftly and with a brand new team all of those time management and organization hacks that I’ve preached .. well those fell to the back burner. Instead I’ve been playing the wack-a-mole game with the more urgent tasks and treaded water with everything else. Can I get an amen? Add two kids & preschool/TK drop-offs & pick-ups to the mix and that polished approach is no more. So what can we do when we feel like we are constantly behind and burning the candle into the midnight hour? Re-set and give yourself some grace.

Why do we walk on egg shells for everyone else’s schedules but sabotage ourselves into exhaustion to please clients. If I remember back to the foundation of why I pushed so hard to create a business it was driven by the need for creativity and freedom in my daily schedule and it was because I didn’t want to be an absent parent in my children’s day-to-day activities.

So by re-set- I mean evaluate objectively on what is taking up the most of your time. Outsourcing or bringing on an assistant may seem impossible but if you were to able to free up some of the time you spend on emails, assembling day-of binders or files on your tablet etc. it could completely change the game.

What about administrative hours? Are you wearing all the hats and spinning your wheels when it comes to focusing on completing tasks.. consider block scheduling your week (one week at a time) and designate one hour for emails, one hour for follow-up tasks, on hour for you-time bonus points if that involves a walk or workout and blocks of time dedicated to social media, marketing tasks, blogging etc.

The next pain point that I know I have talked about is working with your ideal client - one who values your work. Well when the inquiries come rolling in are you sending proposals before reading into whether this client or project is a good fit for your company? I am just as guilty of filling up dates before stopping to evaluate the client’s expectations and budget so when it comes to executing their day we can see elements that are not aligning with our companies values.

Each and every lesson learned will help you in the future but only if you have the mindset of implementing change to ensure that you can grow from the experience. If any of this resonates with your experience we hope you’ll join us in our upcoming mastermind call in our free Wedding Planner Mastermind Group on Facebook. We’re going to dive into lessons learned, opportunities for growth and what steps we can take to align with our ideal clients.

Until then, Happy Planning!
Veronica

A planner is only as good as their communication & organization, and where would we be without the tools that helps us maintain these two important traits? Thank goodness for the tools we have come to rely on, and we are so excited to share them with you!

Systems and processes probably doesn’t sound like a fun time, but when you relate time to money and know that you are saving both - it is a win-win! Here are the top ten resources that have been a game changer for our planning company The 530 Bride. We wouldn’t recommend these tools if we didn’t use them every day in our own business, and we are glad that we found these resources through referrals of other trusted professionals in the industry. **There are affiliate links which pass on a discount to you if you are interested and we do earn upgrades and small perks for sharing with new clients. **

1. Aisle Planner - This was the first tool that I really felt was developed by a wedding planner for a wedding planner, meaning it actually had tools that planners use!! Timelines, Design Galleries, Notes, Budget Tracking, Checklist, Seating & Layout functions & much more. When you are managing the details for one client or 50 clients, this will keep you organized with a dashboard for each client & helps you add value to your packages because each client has access to their portal. Interested in trying it out? Your first 30 days are free plus, use my referral code below to get 25% off any plan for your first 3 months! Referral code OZHF
   

2. Honeybook - You can tell we are fan’s of dashboards, and once you are sending out invoices & proposals on the daily it is really a lifesaver to have a platform that feels so fluid for clients. Of course there are things about Honeybook that I wish Aisle Planner could do in order to streamline into one program but right now, we really use both systems throughout our inquiry & booking process. Enjoy 50% off of your membership when you sign-up with our referral link and all members also enjoy discounts from sites like Matchology, Greetabl, Gusto, Zenfolio, Expensify, The Contract Shop, and Showit.
   

3. Canva - We all know that our clients are visual people, they consume a lot of content on the daily so it is imperative that we can create visuals & graphics that stand out and that represent our brand cohesively. Canva is a wonderful alternative to designing in Adobe Photoshop, InDesign etc that might not be as easily accessible for sharing with a team or producing content that can be resized for any need you may have. Canva does a great job with staying on trend with the latest social media dimensions and settings and now offers printing capabilities as well. Click here to watch the free tutorials on how to get started on Canva
   

4. Google G-Suite - Because we effectively have three businesses under one roof I have really come to rely on G-Suite for being able to easily switch from one inbox to another or see all activity for all inboxes at once. There are a lot of great integrations and Google is constantly adding more features to keep the modern business owner organized. Google G-Suite Pricing
   

5. Wave - Let me just preface this by saying I am not an accountant or even remotely capable of understanding Quickbooks online for some reason, so Wave was a breath of fresh air. I currently use the free version of Wave which syncs with my banking institution and makes it so easy to upload receipts & reconcile transactions. You can create invoices in Wave as well, which are quick and easy to receive payment online. Visit https://www.waveapps.com/
   

6. Chase Bank - Banking is totally a personal decision type of thing so if you are loyal to the bank that you love just skip right on to #7 but I was ready to jump ship last year from my previous bank and I put in some research to find the best fit as a small business owner. What I love about Chase Bank is that the banking app is easy, customer service both online and in the branch have been great & there have been no crazy fees to worry about. Learn more about Chase Bank and the $350 bonus when you open a qualifying checking and/or savings account.
   

7. Mailchimp - Email campaigns aren’t going anywhere because they work! Building your list may seem intimidating or daunting but once you set your goals it is easy to follow the guides to put together successful campaigns. As a wedding planner we have so much education that we can share with potential clients as well as use newsletters & automated emails packed full of tips to build value for our existing clients. https://mailchimp.com/
   

8. Squarespace/Blog Host - We use Squarespace for all of our websites because of the many built-in template & tools. Blogging has been an absolute catalyst in our planning company because it not only boosts your SEO organically which helps your Google ranking/page placement but it also helps to demonstrate your knowledge, personality and company values. Even if you aren’t ready to blog, being familiar with your website’s settings & tools will allow you to keep tabs on your analytics & site traffic so that you can determine your best traffic sources & data trends. Squarespace has a 10% off discount on their website for all plans.
   https://www.squarespace.com/coupons
   

9. Trello - Creating boards to organize your thoughts and tasks can help alleviate some of the brain fog and also cut down on all those crazy post-it note lists on your desk. I have personally found this free tool to be just what I needed for communicating with our team, organizing tasks and delegating work to our virtual assistant.
   We recommend checking out Trello to see if it is a good fit for you, while we don’t receive monetary rewards for sharing but we do earn extra “power-up” features that make it even more awesome! Check out Trello
   

10. Zapier - Choose the integrations and workflows that will save you time and bam you are on your way to zapping away! Use Zapier for tasks like adding a new subscriber to an automated email campaign to triggering an inquiry workflow or adding a task to your Asana board. With over 1,500 integrations available you are probably going to be doing a little happy dance very soon!
    Check out Zapier (https://zapier.com/apps/integrations/)

If you have questions about these tools, or would like more specific tips on implementing them into your processes be sure to drop a comment below or shoot us a message on our contact form at any time!

“It takes more than passion to be successful in any industry, but especially in the creative world of wedding planning.”

A writer can get writers block, an artist can lose their muse or become un-inspired to create. Our will to show up and to meet & exceed the expectations of our clients no matter how full or empty our cup is in our personal lives. The dedication that it takes to succeed in an industry where you can’t simply call in sick or lose focus, that is what set’s the successful business owners apart from others.

Photo by Arnel Hasanovic on Unsplash

With so many planners starting their business on the side of another full time job or perhaps after a major career change, the idea of being a planner can feel like this unicorn dream that you are chasing and someday you will get to be a full time, real-deal planner living the dream! I do believe this isn’t a dream, it is a reality for those who want to put the work in! We could talk all day about planners who are making over six figures and have grown a large team of associate planners, branched into florals & luxury design.. in other words killing it!

However that isn’t the focus of the post, because instead I wanted to talk about the un-sexy times of feeling the burn out and the self-doubt. Then how to get past those emotions and set yourself up for a path where you can have a long & successful career in the industry as a business owner.

• Set clear goals in attainable steps

• Focus on education & systems to improve efficiency

• Limit distractions - You have plenty of time for social media after you get those emails out!

• Don’t try to be everything to everyone - find your special strength or target in your industry & get to know your ideal clients that you work well with

• Be clear on boundaries with clients to avoid burnout, keep relationships with clients professional

• Under promise & over deliver - this advice will never get old. You can’t succeed if your clients aren’t satisfied with the end result

• Learn to not take things personally! You might have one wedding that feels stressful or that you learned a lesson the hard way but take the lesson and apply it to your next wedding without it messing with your emotions.

Of course self-care & mindset are going to play a huge role in leveling up, if you are constantly having self-limiting thoughts and not taking good care of your mind & body it will take a toll on your work. No one wants to have a wedding planner who comes across as frazzled or stressed. Clients look for confidence, so it is important to start building your inner confidence in order for that to shine in your work.

Find your tribe, good people both in and out of the industry who can help you stay accountable, connected and focused. It can be hard to relate to friends and family who work an 8-5 type job where they aren’t always feeling like they are on-call or needing to challenge themselves to keep reaching for the next level all on their own. We can create a network of people who inspire us and challenge us to keep charging forward.

The biggest take-away is that work is work! It isn’t always going to feel like a dream job, but your clients are relying on you. Set the expectation that as a business owner you will have late nights, a little extra worry here and there but a whole lot of gratitude when you look around at the business you have built from the ground up. The best things take time - you got this!
xoxo- Veronica

Does our mindset shape the way we interact in the world and our ability to be successful? Many industry leaders point to mindset and daily rituals that they absolutely live by to build their business and to build wealth. Are we limiting ourselves because of what was imprinted into our minds from a young age?

This week in the Wedding Planner Mastermind Group we’re focusing 100% on finances, money mindset, best practices and resources for experienced wedding planners. If you have 3+ years in business and are at the point where you are wondering what is next, it is crucial that focus on removing any limiting beliefs & hone in on the core of your business.

Limiting beliefs and negative associations with money can come from early childhood. A great article posted by Briana Wiest on Forbes references some tips by abundance coach Jenna Black, and Black explains that, “sometimes, the reason why we self-sabotage our earning potential is because we have some kind of attachment to playing small, or staying within someone else's concept of us.” The article shares some of Jenna’s thoughts on the top limiting beliefs that many of us can relate as well as tips for getting past fears or doubts that we place on ourselves.

“it’s important to know your why. Wanting more money for the sake of it is a pretty empty feeling, but wanting it to support your family, kill more debt, give back in a bigger way, leave a more remarkable impact, or lead in a way you’ve never been able to before... well, that’s motivating. “There’s a disconnect when people don’t know what they money is for. That’s when greed and guilt comes in.”

— Jenna Black

In our Wedding Planner Mastermind Group on Facebook, we asked the group to think back on influences from our childhood or early adult years and if these experiences had helped or hindered our relationship with money. Feel free to join in on the conversation!

Sunday’s are meant for rest, family, re-filling your cup in the best way possible and often we wait until Monday to tackle the work for the week, but I wanted to share a topic that I think is very important for the self-care movement that we see in the creative industry.

We simply have to start setting boundaries for ourselves and stop putting ourselves in the oppressed state of owning a business. Go back to square one on why you started your business, certainly it wasn’t to live in a constant state of self-doubt.. heck no! You are following a passion and sharing your craft/talent/gift or service with the world. So today I shared in our free Wedding Planner Mastermind Group on Facebook that we will dedicate the week to talking all about financial health. From talking about saving for taxes, profitability, budgeting for expenses, saying no to clients or work that doesn’t serve you; it all factors in to the financial health of any company.

If you haven’t joined the Wedding Planner Mastermind Group, make sure to request to join us on Facebook and we’d love to welcome you into a place where you can share questions, network with other experienced planners and find resources needed to help take the next step in your business.

No matter how long you have been in business you will experience up’s and down’s; from financial challenges to balancing your work load with your personal life - we have all been there. To be honest it seems to come in waves, one minute you are feeling like you need to book more events and the next you feel like you are going to need help to keep up with your workload. Through these struggles, we make decisions on what we feel is the next step for our business.

Whether it is adding more staff or training current staff to take more of active role with clients and become lead planners, outsourcing social media or other administrative tasks, raising your prices or expanding into new markets - these are all decisions that will bring pro’s and con’s but you have to evaluate the risk and benefit to determine if it is the best path for you.

When I hit 7 years into my planning business, something changed. Maybe it paralled with also having two small children at home but I began to value my time enough to start being much more selective to inquiries (learning to say no!) and to felt confident in the pricing that I was sending out in proposals. What I was looking for in education was something that went beyond how to start a wedding planning business, beyond how to grow my portfolio or how to price my services. I wanted to see into the backend of running a business - advice on the best practices for taxes, training staff and keeping everyone engaged, improving my client experience and really how to scale.

On this search for education, I came across a lot of great industry professionals who are killing it with courses and speaking engagements - each have a specific niche such as pricing for profit, social media, contracts, etc. Maybe I was looking for a unicorn of educational courses! The point is, the mission I set out on was to find these key business practices and apply them to the wedding industry. I am so excited to bring you the newest set of strategy sessions!

Before we get to the new strategy sessions I would love to make sure that you have joined our Free Facebook Group - Wedding Planners Mastermind Group so that you can catch up on our previous strategy sessions available in PDF format and you can watch some of our replays in the group as well. Stay tuned for the first Strategy Session in the Step-up Series next week, released on Monday March 25th.

If you have ever felt like you have been stuck in the scroll, meaning you lose countless hours during the week not sure what to post or how to ever compare to perfect Instagram accounts…keep reading.

First - please know that you are unique and bring value to your clients without having to fit the mold of every other Instagram account you see. Instead, focus on bringing that personality and unique value to your followers authentically & keyword —> Consistently!

So here is where outsourcing comes in! Consistency is key but so is trying to stay on top of everything else on your plate. We recommend outsourcing to business owners who are ready to free up some of their creative energy so they can focus on what they do best - serving their clients well!

Recently I had a chat with Delphine of The 530 & Co, and talked all about outsourcing tasks, you can watch our video below and you can also read Delphine’s full blog post here.

If you missed the 5 Day Visibility Challenge where we talk all about the opportunities to increase your online reach for your business be sure to check out the free course or drop a comment below with any questions that we can help you with!

It was so great to put together the Free 5 Day Visibility Challenge with Valerie Pritt of The Engaged Wedding Planner Academy where we’re talking about the small steps you can take to instantly increase your personal and brand visibility! While we each work with wedding planners in different stages of their business, we feel the elements of this challenge can apply to anyone who would like to ensure they have their bases covered when it comes to your online presence. It’s not too late to participate in each of the lessons, so we’ve created a free course for you to join!

What is this 5 Day Visibility Challenge about?

In the challenge, we have created modules that will cover everything from creating a strong about page, social media profiles, blogging, networking with vendors and more. The focus is to give you simple action items that you can implement right away! In this post I will be covering just one of the many facets of increasing your brand visibility. Digital communication such as email and instant messaging through customer relationship management (CRM) platforms such as Honeybook, Dubsado, Aisle Planner or 17 Hats to name a few; really drive our engagement with clients and colleagues.

In this challenge we created a free course including a PDF workbook and tons of free resources for you to easily increase your online visibility. You will also hear us refer to the Facebook event group that we held the live challenge in. This is available to view here: https://bit.ly/2XALx0n but don’t worry if you missed out on the live group event, because with the free course these modules can be completed any time!

Should wedding planners participate in bridal shows and advertise in magazines? Here are some thoughts on the powerful tools you should be leveraging to market your business!

Watch the video below from our Visibility Challenge to see an overview on Facebook Page Manager and Ad Manager for the functions and tools you can use to make sure that your wedding planning business stands out on Facebook!

What has worked well for your business over the years?

What are your thoughts when it comes to determining your advertising budget for the year, have you decided to go the traditional route and stick to local bridal shows? Can you definitively show the return on investment (ROI) from participating in shows if you consider the time you allocate to planning out your booth, designing print materials, working the show and following up on leads after the show?
Personally, I believe that with Facebook and Instagram, among a strong email sequence you can not only reach the same number of people who would have attended the shows, but market to them for under 1/3 of the cost and capture the data much more effectively then having sign-ups in the bridal show booth. Now, I can already hear the wheels turning - what about the couples who want to meet us in person at the show? Won’t they just book another planner instead? If you have your ads ready to go the week of the show, and dialed in to the target demographic you can instead focus on meeting these couples after they have already viewed your website, social media etc and will be a much smoother sale in most cases!

{Join the challenge} If you’re looking for more tips on stepping up your social media game, check out the free 5 Day Visibility Challenge and join us in the Wedding Planner Mastermind Group on Facebook to meet your wedding planning peers!

December Accountability Check-in {Freebie alert}

If you’re like me, you’ve knocked out a few shows on Netflix and rummaged the shelves at Barnes and Nobles or perhaps took an extended vacation after Thanksgiving. Here in Northern California, we have had devastating wildfires and the Campfire was right in our backyard. Our town has become a disaster area with FEMA, Red Cross and many other resources coming to help distribute aid. So for me, I needed the time to be checked out and just be present with those around me and offer support in anyway that I could.

As I sit in the office catching back up on emails and picking up where I left off on some of the strategy sessions for our Wedding Planner Mastermind Group, I know that regaining focus will take some accountability on my part. So whatever you are going through in life or in business, try to find ways or even other people that can help keep your accountability for reaching goals.

December is full of shiny objects and yummy food, but don’t let that distract you when it comes time to get to work, think back to some of the challenges you faced this year in business. Were there changes that you felt were needed in your contract or staff handbook? Did you have a staff, or have you been going it alone? Now is the perfect time to put the gears in motion for making changes and avoiding the chance or repeating these bumps in the road next year.

The challenge is to be able to narrow down your focus into attainable tasks, and decide which ones are the biggest priorities. Here are some examples:
1. Review your contract and consult legal council for questions
2. Create or update client welcome kit and consultation packet items
3. Update website with current packages for 2019 and update gallery {with only your best work!} Remember the goal is to attract your ideal clients.
4. Update headshots, branding photos and contact information on website and all social media profiles.
5. Thank your team, vendors and your family - I say this because these are the people who cheered you on and worked alongside you. It is a great time to show them you appreciate their support!
6. Marketing plan for 2019 - Review what worked in 2017, where your best clients came from and how you can continue to grow that lead source. Prepare rack cards, business cards, bridal show hand-outs for engagement season.
7. Review your current workflow from booking all the way to post-wedding steps and determine any areas that need more efficiency

If you are a pen and paper kind of gal, you can download the December Freebie here or visit the new shop page, where I will be adding resources, courses and templates.

Stay tuned for the Bridal Show Prep post coming out next week, I will be putting together my best tips after 7 + years of participating in several area bridal shows. If you have questions that you would like included in the Q&A Section of the Bridal Show post - feel free to drop a comment below or email me your questions!

Ooh this is a touchy subject, well why wouldn’t it be - finances can get anyone a little riled up now and then. When you find a new path like starting a new wedding planning business you may be tempted to simply go out and offer wedding planning services to the first taker at the lowest price in your area. If you this sounds like you, please keep reading!

If I could give new planners any advice it would be these four points:

1. Start with education

2. Network with local wedding professionals

3. Price sustainably

4. Continue investing in education!

{1 Start with education }
Knowing the general principles of what makes a solid timeline, how to communicate with vendors, managing rentals and decor details and learning key risk management points to protect your business and your personal assets is so worth your investment. Education will give you a great foundation to build upon, and set you up for a successful new career.

{2 Network with local wedding professionals}
A wedding planner is only as good as their communication with the event partners they are working with. The relationships that we build comes from understanding each vendors craft and what we can do on our end to make sure they are set-up for success at each event that we work together. At the end of the day we are an advocate for our clients, but remember that during any given wedding season you could work with these vendors multiple times so start off on the right foot by introducing yourself and building your network.

{Price Sustainably}
Even if you are a new planner you need to understand the general price point at which you can operate a sustainable business. Even with the lower overhead for those who work from home and don’t pay for a space, you should still be accounting for the time you spend on each event and factor in tax, general liability insurance, paying for an assistant (if needed) and savings.
So let’s take the scenario of a wedding management (also referred to as day-of) client whom you quoted for a cool $500.

Right off the bat, let’s assume you are needing to save 20% for taxes.
So now, we are at $400 and if you account for about 30 hours of work from the initial consultation, site walk and planning sessions. At $13/hour you’re already barely above minimum wage (at least in California) once you have factored in traveling to and from the event and paying an assistant.

Being aware of how much time an event will require, and how many assistants you need for the scope of work that you are being contracted for is important because you don’t want to get into a situation of over promising and under-delivering. Should you charge based on what others are charging in your area? Should you throw out random numbers until something sticks? No, but instead look at the numbers that make sense in order to be profitable based on how many events you want to book and your cost of doing business. I highly recommend Kristin Kaplan’s pricing workbook, or that you check out some of the podcasts I mention in this blog post for more tips on pricing!

{4 Continue investing in education}
I know, I know..we already talked about education in the first place but no matter how many years you have in the industry - things change. New technology comes out, trends change, laws change in the sense of business practices and you want to stay in the know with these important topics. Investing in education from industry leaders as well as a solid contract for your services will help to ensure you have a long & profitable future ahead of you!

I recently completed a Wedding Planner Intensive Course with Mary Swaffield and even after being in business for 7+ years I walked away with valuable information about efficient systems and processes that I can carry into my business moving forward.

If you are a new planner still working to build your portfolio, and not sure about the next steps please stay tuned for next week’s blog post all about establishing a solid gallery of work & references to attract your target clients.

Today we are joined by Delphine Winter of The 530 & CO. sharing 4 great tips on outsourcing in order to be more efficient, scroll down to see the full article!

Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

4 Reasons WHY Your Business Should Outsource: Social Media 101
by Delphine Winter

As a business owner myself, sometimes I wonder, why would I outsource when that is exactly what I do for a living? Here’s the easy answer, because TIME is MONEY. But here’s the longer answer:

As business owners, we are dedicated to putting our entire life on hold for our company. Which means, sacrificing sleep, family time, even eating! No one ever told us that we would never.stop.working, did they? But that’s the beauty of having our own business; we love what we do so much, that we don’t ever want to stop… until you burn out. Right?

I’m here today on behalf of my Creative Solution company, to tell you that it’s OK to outsource for certain tasks that are so tedious day to day.

1. Do what you know how to do.
As a social media “expert” you don’t see me going to houses fixing electrical circuits, do you? Do you see me building housing developments or fixing a leaky roof every day? I highly doubt it… If you did, it must be my long lost twin! My point is, is that sticking to what you know best is KEY to having and maintaining a successful company. For several reasons really.

For example, if you’re an artist, creating masterpieces, you didn’t go to school to then post it on social media right? No one taught you in Leonardo Devinci 101 how to post a proper social media post to your Instagram or Facebook I’m sure… and that’s OK. Why? Because you have a talent that most people don’t have! Meanwhile, companies like ours are looking to not only HELP you as an individual shine as an artist, but also as a company looking to sell those paintings and grow your online presence. As mentioned previously, time is money!

2. Allowing creativity to flow.
Having someone else involved in the creation of your content, or even just your copy allows your audience to witness different sides of your company. For example, if you are posting everyday on your business's page about how funny and cute animals are… then I come in and post recipes on delicious fall treats for animals, it’s a good mix between the two!

Our biggest motto within our company, is that we will always allow our clients to have full reign, as long as they trust our company to deliver good copy, and good content.

3. Outsourcing allows you to have a LIFE.
When outsourcing, you have time to not only focus on doing what you love, but it also allows you to have a life outside of your business! Not having to worry about when to post, what hashtags to post, what exactly to post, and how many likes you’ll get, sounds amazing huh?

4. Blogging is tedious!
Take it from me, I know how long and tedious writing a blog post is, but that’s why we love doing it for our clients! Did you know we outsource for our blog? That’s because we want to take the time to focus on our client’s blogs to help them grow their SEO (Search engine optimization). Blogging allows others searching the web to find you, so the more you post a blog, the more traffic your website will get!

Choose who you outsource to. Do they charge too much for posting simply on your Instagram for you? Do they have packages that include blogging? Blogging is such an important step when creating your online presence, which can be a whole other blog in itself!

Cheers!

Meet Delphine, as the owner of The 530 & Co. she is helping businesses within the community become noticeably more popular in the area! When she's not working on client's SEO and marketing, she enjoys running and watching movies with her husband and, adorable Chihuahua, Daisy. Photo by Diane Nicole Photography

Listen in the car, in between meetings or while you’re knocking out the dishes in the morning - whatever you need to do to get the inspiration flowing! Podcasts can help you tap into another level of business ownership because you are listening to another business owner’s experiences, their challenges and their wins. If you soak up this knowledge and apply it to your own business practices you will be amazed at how you can start to see the bigger picture.

Top 5 Podcasts for Wedding Planners & Creatives

Podcast link: Listen to personal stories, business-building strategies, marketing tips, how to use social media in your wedding business & more. From wedding planners to florists, from venue owners to calligraphers and beyond, no topic is off limits. Join us for community and conversation!

Podcast link: Process to Profitability: Tools and Strategies to Serve Your Clients and Grow Your Small Business is a weekly interview show featuring creative women who are growing their small businesses with a focus on serving their clients and customers well. We'll discuss tools, strategies, and processes that you can apply to your own business in a way that fits you

Podcast link: “With careful planning, the right mindset, and systems in place, we can work smarter not harder, to design a balanced life and profitable business that that both bring us joy.”

Podcast link: Rock Your Wedding Biz is hosted by Renee Dalo, Event Planner and Educator for the wedding industry, and Mindy Marzec, Blogger and Social Media Strategist. We believe in one simple principle – when one of us succeeds, we all succeed! So grab a latte and join in the conversation!

Podcast link: Join host Mary Swaffield each week as she interviews wedding industry experts, business experts, and wedding pros who are in the thick of it! Listen for in-depth insights and step-by-step training episodes designed to help wedding professionals build profitable and sustainable businesses.

Come on back and tell others your favorite podcast, or your biggest take away from listening to these inspiring business owners!

Pricing can feel like a personal decision, something that not everyone is comfortable talking about.. yet it is the difference of a business that is sustainable and a business that is failing. Your customers/clients want the best price based on the value they perceive your business offers, and that is the task at hand - showing your value.

Before we jump into that, I will say that I personally started out by just throwing numbers out on a quote without any basis or financial consideration. I coordinated a ceremony for $500 and actually lost money by the time I factored in how much time I was putting into the event. I wasn’t profitable but I was so excited to get my foot in the door that I ignored basic business fundamentals by doing so. This post is for all of those planners out there who either have been there or are currently pricing their services at random numbers - and I hope this will inspire you to invest the time to dive deeper.

After years into owning my wedding business and working around raising kids, I was ready to “go full-time” and needed to really hone in on the numbers in order to be profitable for the long term future. Comparing your prices to another planners prices won’t serve you well until you understand your expenses and your capacity for how many events you would like to plan. Figuring this out seemed easy enough, but it wasn’t until I purchased Kristin Kaplan’s pricing workbook that I was able to really work through each question and put everything together in one place.

Kristin’s pricing workbook is specifically for creatives who offer either a service or a product and it is broken down in an easy to digest pdf workbook that walks you through the steps of looking at expenses, package prices, the capacity/volume and helps you identify pricing that actually fits your specific business model. I can’t recommend this workbook enough!

While there are a ton of profit and loss statements and accounting tools out there to help you arrive at these numbers, the most important thing is that you keep chipping away to continually make your business profitable. As much as I love planning weddings it is a business at the end of the day and we as planners cannot truly serve our clients well if our businesses are not successful. Responsible pricing helps the entire industry, this starts with educating ourselves and our clients on our value & expertise that we bring to the table.

Wondering if you are on the right track in your business? Reach out for a free discovery call or check out our resources page for helpful courses, templates & links!

What can you accomplish this week? Set a small task that will motivate you to keep tackling your to-do list.  Whether your goal for the morning is to write & schedule blog posts for the week, or to finally request images from photographers for the spring weddings you completed.. you can crush it!

If you blogged today, take it one step farther and create a graphic for Pinterest. Pin your blog posts and keep an eye on web traffic.. you might be pleasantly surprised how Pinterest can attract a lot of views to your website.

Before you go to bed, write down one thing you want to accomplish for the next day so that when you wake up you already have an action plan for the day.  These routines can keep you focused and also give you some reassurance on days that you feel a little frazzled from trying to do #allthethings.

Have you joined the free Facebook community just for wedding planners? This is a safe place to ask questions, look for resources and just connect with your peers! Hope to see you there!