5 Tips for Improving Your Wedding Business

It’s something we all strive to do, day in and day out: improve. We want to be better than we were last week, last month, last year. We want to be better than our competition (there is nothing wrong with that!) and better FOR our clients. Improvement is what keeps us motivated.

It can also burn us out. But we’ll get to that. First, here are my top 5 tips for improving your wedding business.

1 – Set goals
Oh c’mon, you knew that was coming! However, this really is proven to be the most effective way of improving yourself and your business. The trick is to do it right. Here are some considerations for each goal that you set.

• Timing: Is this a short term or long term goal? Break it down even further: I set goals for this week, this month, 3 months, 6 months, 12 months, 3 years and 5 years.
• Purpose: What is the purpose for each goal? Does it tie into your overall vision for your company over the long term? Understanding the purpose behind your goals will go a long way towards helping you accomplish them.
• Metrics: Is your goal measureable? How will you know when you’ve achieved it? It’s critical to put some very specific metrics behind each goal so that you are able to analyse how close you are to accomplishing it as you go along.
• Efficiency: Is your goal a smart use of your time? Sometimes I feel that we set what I call “busy goals” – goals that make us feel productive in our businesses, but don’t actually help us to improve in areas that are substantive and tie into our overall business strategy.
• Immediacy: What can I do TODAY to get closer to achieving each goal? When you make your to-do list every day, match each task up to a specific goal that you’ve set. You’ll be surprised to see how much you actually accomplish towards your goals each and every day.

Now…Write them down. Yep, you knew that was coming too. Write them down, and keep them where you can see them and review them often.
Find an accountability team. I love Mastermind groups. My Mastermind group is constantly challenging my goals and pushing me to work towards them week after week. They keep me accountable and humble. Revisit your goals often – they can and will change as your business evolves. And most importantly – CELEBRATE your accomplishments. Whatever that means to you – for me, it usually means a night off and a bottle of wine!

​2 – Stop the quest for perfection.

This one was and still is HARD for me. My business is my baby, and I want to do everything I can to ensure it is as perfect as it can be. But perfection is a HUGE roadblock when it comes to efficiency. And efficiency usually creates more time and energy for focusing on the things bring more business your way. If you are spending 2 hours working on the layout of a template that is internal and your client will NEVER see, you are being inefficient and it’s costing your company money. There are cases where perfection is in the best interest of your business – doing a styled shoot, for example – and cases where it can be the death of you. Make sure you have a clear strategy when it comes to determining when perfection is appropriate in your business. I usually filter things through three lenses: a) does the effort I’m putting into this provide value for my client? b) will the effort I’m putting into this translate into additional profit? c) will the public be seeing this (and therefore does it affect my brand identify?). If I can’t answer “yes” to at least one of these, then I have to let go of my perfectionist tendencies and focus instead on just getting things done. Sometimes “good enough” is actually good enough!

3 – Don’t live in a bubble

The wedding industry is massive and at times overwhelming. There are endless wedding inspiration blogs, wedding information blogs, wedding shops, wedding shows, wedding organizations… whew! It’s crazy, and AWESOME! But I do find that sometimes it helps move you forward when you step out of the bubble and spend time networking with and learning about other industries. You might be surprised if I told you that some of my most successful business strategies came from attending conferences and webinars on things like home building, interior design, and social media. I’ve learned so much about pricing, advertising, client care, software, promotion, fashion, blogging… the list goes on! all from stepping outside of the wedding industry and always thinking “how can I apply this lesson to my business”?? Get out there and make connections and always be open to lessons for your business that aren’t directly related at first glance.

4 – Always be marketing

Gone are the days of so-called “passive marketing” when you could put up your website and wait for the phone to ring! There is way too much competition out there now, and Brides/Grooms (customers) are extremely savvy when it comes to doing their research. Having a good website isn’t good enough – you won’t get heard in the noise. My business coach once gave me a great piece of advice: he said, your time should be divided into two areas: marketing for new clients and taking care of current clients. Having a detailed and strategic marketing plan is what will help you stand apart from your competitors and ensure that you are consistently receiving inquiries. You should be ACTIVELY marketing your business every single day. Schedule time to focus on it – with continued and consistent attention, you will see a dramatic increase in your inquiries within weeks. So many planners focus on what to do when you have clients… which is very important, of course! But if you don’t focus on what to do to GET clients, what to do when you have them isn’t going to matter much because you won’t have any.

5 – Keep Learning

I’m a firm believer that you can never have too much education. Whether you are attending conferences, seminars, reading business books, participating in workshops, taking e-courses, researching online… no matter the platform, when you keep learning, you are constantly increasing your value to your clients AND you are challenging yourself to continue improving. There are endless options out there and the benefits are too numerous to even list when it comes to opportunities for taking your business to the next level. Not only that, I find that when I seek out new opportunities for learning, it keeps me motivated – it keeps that spark lit. It is far too easy in this industry to burn out. Believe me, I’ve been there! But when you have a mastermind group to cheer you on, or spend an evening each week learning about floral design, or attend a conference and go to even one of the dozens of inspirational sessions, it will keep you moving forward and most importantly, it will keep your passion for your business alive and well. Set a goal (see #1) to dedicate 3-4 hours each week to learning something new or learning how to improve what you already do. You’ll be amazed at the result. And be prepared to invest to achieve this! Ensure that you include professional development/education in your business budget each year, and start setting aside a small percentage of your earnings to allocate towards it. I recommend 4-5% be put aside – it will accumulate quickly and you’ll be on a plane to your first conference before you know it!

Above all, the most important aspect to improving your business is to have a little bravery and a lot of faith. Don’t be afraid to take risks, to ask for help, to invest in yourself. And you have to believe! One of my favourite sayings is “leap off the cliff and believe you’ll grow wings”. When you give yourself and your business the tools to succeed, it’s easy to have the (sometimes blind) faith that is so critical when it comes to moving forward. You can do it!!! Go, be unstoppable!

Mary Swaffield is a Wedding Business Coach who provides creative & strategic marketing for Wedding & Event Professionals, through her company Mary Elizabeth & Co.

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