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!