The wedding business is a booming industry that’s likely to be ever-lasting. Why? Well, there will always be someone who wants to get married! However, when it comes to planning a wedding, some can take to it like a duck to water whilst others, well – don’t.
Organizing a wedding is no easy feat and it’s why many couples tend to turn to professional wedding planners. Wedding planners are like angels sent from heaven to some couples who want to hand over the stress baton to someone who knows what they’re doing.
Have you been thinking about starting your own wedding planner business? Well if you’re seriously considering it and feel you have the talents, skills and calm attitude to try it, then here are some helpful tips.
Learn the ropes and gain experience
With any business or career that you go into, gaining experience and learning the ins and outs can be useful. It can create the foundations you need to build a successful business, after all.
Before setting up a wedding planner business yourself, it’s necessary to shadow someone or find a mentor whereby they’re doing what you want to achieve. There will always be someone who is willing to help because everyone has to start from the bottom when it comes to running a business.
With the industry itself being estimated at a whopping 300 billion dollars, there’s no shortage when it comes to businesses that operate within it.
Useful places to start when it comes to finding a mentor or work experience is through platforms like LinkedIn. There’s plenty of opportunity to connect with those that may be able to help you start off on the right foot.
You could also expand your search in the real world to networking events. These can be local to you or a little further afield. It can be a great way of connecting with people in-person and who knows who you’ll bump into.
Invest in yourself with courses and training
Investing in yourself and your business will pay back further down the line when you find yourself being booked up by couples that are dying to use your services.
In order to be at the top of your game and to be a reputable business within the wedding planner industry, investing in relevant courses and training is crucial.
There are lots of courses or training days that can be helpful in widening your skill sets when it comes to wedding planning. It can also be handy to learn from others and to find ways to better refine your craft. From organizational tips and tricks to business management and marketing, the list is endless.
Here are a couple of helpful courses worth looking at; Certificate In Wedding Styling or Certificate In Business & Marketing
When running a wedding planner business, many will tend to start off on their own and so your available time and resources may be limited. However, the more you know and can do yourself, the more you widen the potential profit you make from each and every client. After all, you’re able to reduce your expenditures as a result.
So with that said, the ROI on courses and training for your own benefit can be worth doing. If you have some extra funds available to invest in yourself, then do so. It’s also necessary to continue this training throughout your company’s existence. There’s always something to improve upon or learn.
Think about your business image and branding
In this day and age, business and brand image is essential. As mentioned by Harvard Business Review, you want to build brand loyalty on shared values that you have with the consumers. It’s not just about the interaction they have but the quality and reliability of that interaction.
As a wedding planner, your role is going to be very much customer-faced. However, before you can get to that point, you need to attract the potential leads to your digital doorstep. Creating a website for your business and social media platforms are just two of the many ways that you can get your brand out there.
Think about what your business image and branding is going to look like. This is important because it’s likely going to draw in a certain demographic of couples. Some may be after a specific specialism within wedding planning, whilst others are looking for one that’s more generic in it’s approach.
With brand image, make sure you’re spending the time and money in design. This could be through online design tools that you can use yourself like Fotor or Canva. Alternatively, you may wish to seek the help of professional designers to bring your visions to life.
Set goals that are realistics
Goals are often only attainable when you make them realistic. There’s nothing more demotivating than struggling to tick off goals or objectives for yourself or your business.
As a wedding planner, being organized is part and parcel of the business. Tasks and timelines also come with the role of a wedding planner, so goals aren’t that much different. Goals can help provide the motivation you need when you’re having a bad day.
With wedding planners, clients may be plentiful one month and then dry up the next month. This is especially common in the early days of any business. Setting goals can stop you from taking your eyes off the prize and it’ll keep you going through those times where new clients are nowhere to be found.
Start off with some short-term goals and then implement some long-term ones too. Keep them realistic and within your means but on the other hand, don’t set goals that won’t provide you with enough room for growth. Find the right balance and always look to update these goals as you tick them off along the way.
Protect yourself legally with Bonsai
As a business owner, you want to ensure that you provide protection for yourself but for your clients. That’s where a business contract comes in handy, more specifically a wedding planner contract. Contracts are a legally-binding document and therefore should you encounter any problems, the contract serves as evidence.
However, not everyone is clued up on the legalities of running a business, never mind how to create a contract from scratch. Bonsai however is one of the many platforms that can provide pre-made templates that you can download and customize to suit your brand’s tone of voice and style.
It certainly benefits to protect yourself legally. Even though you hope every client you work with is genuine and won’t try to negatively impact the agreements you have in place, it can happen.
Create a marketing strategy to get yourself out there
A marketing strategy is a part of your business that will hopefully get your business out to the masses. Many new businesses may believe that the secret to a successful marketing strategy is all done through paid advertising.
Well, 70-80% of users online will ignore sponsored results. That means there’s more to a marketing strategy than just paid advertising. Things like organic content, collaborations with other brands and monitoring your competitors are all necessary to creating as much noise about your business as possible.
Again, any new business or start-up is often made up of just one person or a handful. As a wedding planner, you’re going to have a lot on your plate beyond just the actual planning part of your job. Try to put a marketing strategy in place from the beginning and don’t stop marketing yourself, even when you have clients coming to you without any effort on your part.
Recognize the importance of building relationships
As a customer-centric business, it’s important to build relationships with your clients because the fruits of your labor are going to be on show when it comes to the wedding day itself. With many potential brides and grooms out there, it’s good practice to get friendly with your clients.
By providing your customers with the best customer experience possible, they’ll be more inclined to pass on the recommendation of using you to others they may know. Referrals are a great way to spread the word about your business. It’s productive to recognize the importance of building relationships and what this might provide for you in the future.
Keep up communications as often as you can and try to do things that are going the extra mile in order to make the experience as memorable as possible. The more you can provide for your clients, the more satisfied they will be and that helps your brand image.
Lastly, it’s important to trust yourself and to have patience when it comes to running a wedding planner business or any business for that matter. Success can take time and whilst it can come quickly for some, it might take longer for others.
Hopefully, with these tips, you’ll have everything you need to create a thriving, wedding planner business!
Author Bio: Natalie Redman (LinkedIn)
Email – natalieannredman92@gmail.com
Freelance writer for many clients across multiple industries. Natalie has two years of copywriting experience. Natalie has a wide range of experience copywriting for web pages for businesses across many industries. She’s also an owner of two blog websites and a Youtube content creator.
