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

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!

Owning your own wedding planning business lends you flexibility that is hard to find in other industries, you truly can be as busy/booked as you choose to be.  You have the option to run your business from your home a sole proprietor or maybe you strive to work from an office space and grow a team.  Choosing a path that fits your goals can challenging, so today we are talking more about the pro's and con's of growth and how to determine what path to take. 

You don't need a fancy office to build your business, but you do need to treat your business as an actual business in order to be successful!

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Every business has to establish core values, a mission statement and a business plan..otherwise you are operating a hobby without a real foundation.  What should clients know about your business, are they hiring YOU or are they hiring your brand and the team that you have built?

As a sole proprietor you "run the show" but you also have all of the work on your shoulders so if you choose to plan 25+ events you will need to have a detailed plan on how you would cover an event should you become ill or unavailable and also what your policy is for bringing on assistants on the wedding day.  Check your state requirements before hiring or offering independent contractor work to ensure that you are properly classifying workers.

Do the math - use a profit and loss calculation to decide what overhead expenses make sense for you including the costs of hiring labor (employees, independent contractors, interns etc.) Then once you are comfortable with the numbers set out to establish your key values so that when you do grow and bring people on board you know that your brand will be represented positively.

If you're still reading than you are already well on your way to thinking through these important steps in your business, remember it's not always glamorous but it is so important to truly know your numbers! Stay tuned for part 2 of the Choose your path blog post! 

Hello! My name is Veronica and if you're reading this, then know that I am beyond excited to finally work on this passion project that has been on my mind and in my heart for some time now.  You may be wondering why a wedding planner would want to work with other wedding planners to grow their businesses, but to me it isn't a crazy notion at all.  Wedding planning has been a blessing to me and it is a passion for so many, but there isn't really a solid business model out there to follow.

You can learn more about me and my experience as a wedding planner with my own planning company The 530 Bride which I founded in 2011.  I recently partnered with my biz bestie Delphine in order to grow and provide even more value for our couples, and we could write a whole book about how fun that process was!  While I am self-taught through hands-on experience,  I hope to save some time & frustration for prospective planners and ensure they start out pricing themselves fairly rather than working for free to get experience.

Over the years I have invested countless hours (and dollars) in education that didn't seem to fit with my specific goals, and have been completing a business management degree as well.  I've noticed there are so many tutorials, podcasts, and resources for wedding photographers but not a lot of options for wedding planners.  My goal is to bring some tangible solutions to the table.

I would love for you to follow along in this journey to curate educational resources, tips and services made uniquely for wedding planners so that our industry can continue to grow and thrive.