Hey Wedding Pro: Stop Doing Everything Yourself, Outsource!

As an entrepreneur and small business owner, you wear many hats. You are the President, Secretary, Bookkeeper, Graphic Artist, Administrator, Contract writer, Social Media Manager, Marketing Director, and this is on top of your actual Wedding Professional duties! There comes a time when you will either need to outsource some of your many roles and responsibilities, or you will simply burn out.

Personally, Canva Pro has made my life so much easier! It saves me so much time editing and creating all the graphics for WPIC. From contracts, PowerPoint presentations, Instagram, ads, flyers, blog titles, to workbooks, and everything in between, it saves hours and hours! On the same note, purchasing pre-made templates to use on Canva, has helped to make everything more pretty, and again, save me so much time.

I asked our WPIC Alumni: “What business task do you outsource, or automate? How has it made your life easier? Is it a program, a book you’ve read, outsourcing to a company?”

Here are their answers:

I use Dubsado as a client management tool, and it has automated so many of my processes which I love! I used to spend hours on invoicing each month, contracts, proposals, forms, and notes all on different platforms. Dubsado keeps everything for each client in one neat place and makes it easy to automate each workflow as much as I want. It saves me so much time that I used to waste on admin, so I can spend more time client facing.  

Kristina Allen, Elysian Weddings & Events

I can’t say enough good things about Aisle Planner! Being able to automate the entire interaction with a client from lead through to wedding day has been very enjoyable for both my team and our couples! My favourite tools are the Contact List and Seating Layout! Every aspect of A|P has a cool feature that perpetuates the professional image a small business owner strives for, while it makes all of our lives easier!

(Be sure to use the 25% from WPIC if you are signing up, details in your newsletters)

Kirsten Rezek, Nóbl Events | Planning & Design

1. I love Dubsado. It’s made my life easier with sending automatic email reminder to clients. For example, sending info about how to get a Marriage License 90 days before the wedding. It saves so much time.

2. Also Boomerang for Gmail. You connect it to your Gmail and it will send you reminders if you don’t get an answer to emails.

3. Canva Pro has definitely upped my social media game. It great being able to brand all my marketing.

Vicky Nicholas, Perfect Planners

I outsource bookkeeping and accounting to another small local business. It is a win win as I am supporting another business, and I just don’t have the time or patience to take care of the bookkeeping myself, It makes tax time so much easier and stress free. I am confident knowing I have a professional taking care of all the numbers, so I can focus on what I do best.

Jessica Stacey, Bonafide Events Studio

I use Canva all the time! It helps so much when you need to create content. Really allows you to get as creative as you want!

Ashley Farrell, Velvet Bordeaux Events

Tailwind is a social media scheduling tool that has made our Instagram life so much easier. It’s the social media version of “set it and forget it”. Being able to create all of our posts for the upcoming week on a Saturday or Sunday night has saved us so much time! You also get to strategically choose your hashtags by a colour coordinated system that tells you how popular it is which assists you with picking the perfect ones for your post. Tailwind is also compatible for Pinterest.

Philomena Malika, High Society Creations

1. I use Social Tables to create floor plans, and initiate the design process. It has saved me so much headaches (mostly while planning COVID weddings; changes occurred on a daily basis)! It certainly allows me to give my clients a clear visual of what the set up will look like. I love it!

2. I also use Wave for invoicing and payments; although, a small percentage is taken off payments, it works wonders!

Jessica Saint-Dic, SaJess Events

I started using 17hats a couple of months ago to create templates and automate scheduling, emails, questionnaires, do online contracts, invoicing, etc. and it has made my onboarding process and client communication so much easier!

Kathy Arbuah-Bowser, Atseyie Events

I’ve outsourced bookkeeping from the very beginning and it’s such a relief not to have to figure that out myself every quarter and come tax times. Lifesaver!

Krista Olynyk, KJ & Co.

I love Canva Pro, but I also really like to use the Mojo App for making my social media stories 

Laura Chapman, Laura Chapman Events

1. Dubsado.com for all my design proposals, contracts and invoices. I also set payment reminder emails that go out two days before payment is due so I get paid on time and don’t have to run after them myself during busy season. I wake up and e-transfer has automatically deposited already. There are so many more amazing features that I haven’t even tapped into!

2. Onlypult.com to plan and schedule all my IG posts everyday. Paid version allows 7 social media accounts including Facebook and Google My Business. The price is the same as all other IG scheduler except others only allow 2 or max 3 social media accounts and limited to IG and FB. Pinterest scheduler will also improve as they develop.

Caryn Lim, A Timeless Celebration

HoneyBook. Helps with closing bookings and receiving payments on time.

Mariane Noh, Dukes & Daisies

I have outsourced all our website design and management because I have no idea what I’m doing when it comes to website design! It’s made life so much easier because I can just call or email my website designer to fix it.

Radhika Graham, Rad Occasions

Stress and overwhelm are a reality of entrepreneur life. Hopefully these systems, apps, programs, and ideas will be able to help you work smarter! Don’t forget to take time for yourself, here are some tips for self-care too.