Over the year’s I’ve been a skeptic, rolling my eyes at all of the posts and magazine articles that I’ve read that were telling me I needed to do yoga or get a massage..you know “me-time.” It didn’t seem realistic or even feasible with my schedule as a mom and busy wedding planner.

To keep it real with you it was only recently that I gave myself a reality check about trying to do it all. Honestly, I spend so much time organizing other people’s stuff that I had let a lot of things under my own roof slip like our guest room being overtaken with some of my extra wedding decor from over the years. It wasn’t until I started taking walks, and even investing in a membership at the gym which has a childcare area that really helped me carve out two hours when I need it during the week for me time.

I won’t tell you to eat greek yogurt and take up essential oils but I will tell you to seriously give yourself some grace and take time to just breathe or read a book. This time will allow you to de-stress and become more present with those around you, and who doesn’t want that?

What activities help you feel calm and relaxed? Feel free to drop a comment below with your favorite zen time!

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!

If I could have gone to a mentor 7 years ago when starting my own planning business, I have no doubts that I would have changed my approach, pricing structure and ultimately my ideal client.  You know what they say about hindsight though, and to be fair I do value the challenges that I had to overcome on the way to having a profitable company.  If you're reading this you may be in the same place that I stood wondering what the best direction is and how to get started.   The Wedding Planner Education site was created to bring curated educational courses, resources and tips from industry pro's to one place.  

Photo by Matthew Lim Photography 

For those who have always loved the idea of being a wedding planner but would like to get more experience in planning, a good avenue to explore would be to shadow with a local wedding planner as either an assistant or intern. Sometimes this can be tricky if your intent is to start your own business but if you are transparent about your intentions you should be just fine! Research your state's requirements on working as an independent contractor/vs being an employee and then set out to get your feet wet in this crazy world we call wedding planning.  Be sure to have open weekend availability in order to get started.

We've also created a Wedding Planner Mastermind Facebook group, a community of wedding planners who can freely ask questions and share resources.  We also cover mini mastermind topics such as bridal show strategies, pricing, staffing & retention, risk management and more.  To learn more, or to ask a specific question feel free to reach out or fill out the contact form.  

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!

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! 

Guilty as charged.  I have about 10 tabs open on my laptop and my multi-tasking is probably not what it used to be with so many apps & notifications these days.  That's just it, with so many apps coming out offering solutions for just about everything; how to actually focus on one task and see it through?

Block scheduling was a game changer for me, not only did it force me to have a system of how and when I was going to complete different tasks throughout the day but it made me more mindful of how much time I was devoting to certain aspects.  So now I go to the gym before I open my laptop in the morning as a general rule.  This way I am guaranteed to get at least a 45 min to an hour block of time for myself before I get too far into client work or returning emails.

Eliminate the tools and apps that you aren't using - start with those you are paying recurring charges for to ensure you aren't spending any money on things that aren't actually useful.

Integrating tools to talk to each other can save you steps in between your workflows and ultimately keep you organized.  If you find yourself getting lost in sticky notes or getting double-booked with dates on your calendar than consider test driving a few different tools to see which ones can help you become more efficient and ultimately more profitable! Click below to download our free guide: The 4 Steps to Productivity!  

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.