In the past few years, especially since the pandemic, I have noticed changes in the wedding industry both with suppliers and clients.
For the sake of this blog post I am going to talk about suppliers, of whom many are utterly overwhelmed right now and have been for two years as they were forced to play catch up.
I have been there so know exactly what the costs are and it was almost being hospitalized, breaking a thumb and not being able to get it seen until 5 days later are just 2 occasions I realised I had created a problem for myself.
As the pressure mounts during peak wedding season, many suppliers find themselves overwhelmed, struggling to keep up with marketing efforts and administrative tasks.
I did, it never occurred to me to outsource anything for years but now we have so much technology available to us to take the pressure off small creative business owners.
In a way the pandemic taught us many short cuts and being able to communicate without being in person. Whilst I still advocate networking and collaborations there are choices available now to help engage with others.
Tips to stay in Control during a busy Season or if your Creative Business suddenly grows
I work with creative business owners who are frustrated and often exhausted.
They are clinging onto their businesses and juggling. Actually doing their services or products, quoting and dealing with clients, accounts, remembering to post on social media or frantically throwing up a quick post, story, etc just to show they are still there. Get my drift?!
All their marketing goes out the window, I know as have done it, yet this was before the days of social media and I relied on my blog to get seen.
Because of my blog I was seen and before I knew it I was a supplier running around like a headless chicken so what did I learn?
Put my wedding Business prices up
The amount of work I had wasn't ever going to be sustainable and I wasn't making enough profit. This meant I couldn't outsource anything apart from hiring on the day assistants.
Once I had done this I could outsource all the jobs I hated, mine being accounts and clearing down weddings, I was a stylist at the time.
This also meant I could take on less weddings and choose which ones I wanted to do. It was during this time I decided I wouldn't work in August, it was far too busy and way too hot!
This was hugely beneficial as meant I could recover from spring/summer weddings and prepare for the autumn season, plus I got to go to the beach!
Time Blocking my weeks during Wedding Season
As a newbie I was keen to get to know others in the industry and my days seemed to be just popping out for a coffee and chat. I soon realised this was breaking up my week so I dedicated just one morning to meet anyone who had contacted me such as photographers, florists, etc.
Now I would rarely meet anyone who contacts me unless I like them!
I would set aside time to do all the orders for the season ahead having separated out my seasons into 3 month blocks. For me it was April, May, June and July then a break in August and back for September and October.
I would take time each month to make sure I had at least one blog post out there bear in mind this was my only marketing tool as well as networking.
I only opened my email twice a day, huge gamechanger!! Once in the morning and again at night, some may not love the night but this was when a lot of my emails were done as I had children.
These simple changes allowed me to become a lot more organised generally.
Outsourced Wedmin tasks
There were many things about my business I loved, but a few I didn't so learnt to outsource them.
Found a great accountant, used Google drive to drop all invoices, etc in so I didn't even have to take the paperwork to their offices.
Hired someone who went out the next day to collect decor, clean it and store it.
Outsourced all the stationery, printing side of the business. Whilst I loved doing it, it was time and my printers didn't love me when I was under pressure!
If I was still running that business full time I would now definitely have a whole system in place so I could hire a VA to take over emails, quotes, etc.
One planner I knew offered complimentary calls on her website and found every night she had discovery calls booked leaving her no time to be with her partner for dinner. This to me was insane! I learnt to qualify clients first before booking any calls.
Now I would just automate the whole enquiry stage using email and build out an email list automation to enquiries.
The Importance of Staying Organised during Wedding Season
Outsourcing and automation should be on every business owners mind when starting as you will become quickly overwhelmed as I have found out having mentored quite a few small business owners now.
It only saves time but also reduces the risk of errors, enhances your professionalism, and allows suppliers to dedicate more attention to delivering exceptional service.
Keep Marketing your Wedding Business
Ok so I have been stalking some businesses here this month and yet again I see it, last blog post in April!
I get a quick post on Instagram let's people know you are alive but once wedding season is over how is your website ranking on SEO?
Are other businesses now ranking higher than yours? If you don't have time during wedding season hire someone to write those blog posts for you or set aside one day a month to do yours.
Remember SEO is like building a house for your business and social media is fun but you could lose it, the story of the 3 little piggies always springs to mind when I mention this! If you don't know the story you can read it here!
Blogging and Pinterest are huge in keeping your marketing running during the wedding season.
If you would like to read more you download my Blog and Pinterest e-book right here.
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If you wish to get my eyes on your business just pop me over an email lauracbow@gmail.com.