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How to Have a Productive Off Season
28 Plays2 months ago
Show Notes
Show Sponsor: Markel Insurance
Introduction: Welcome back to "The Business of Wedding Planning" podcast! In this episode, Amber Peterson explores effective strategies to leverage the quieter fall and winter months in the wedding industry. This time can be pivotal for reviewing the past season, preparing for the upcoming engagement season, and setting the groundwork for a successful year ahead.
Segment Highlights:
1. Wrapping Up the Season:
- Vendor Appreciation: Amber emphasizes the importance of sending thank you notes to vendors to nurture and strengthen professional relationships.
- Client Feedback: Implementing a satisfaction survey for clients to gather valuable feedback and identify areas for improvement.
- Gather Assets: Collecting images and testimonials from recent events to bolster marketing efforts and attract new clients.
- Tie Up Loose Ends: Ensuring all invoices are settled and any outstanding issues are addressed, allowing for a fresh start in the new season.
2. Season Assessment:
- Performance Review: Analyzing what strategies were successful and which areas need adjustment.
- Staffing Needs: Evaluating whether new hires or changes to the team structure are necessary.
- Operational Changes: Identifying potential improvements in operations to enhance efficiency and client satisfaction for future events.
3. Preparing for the Holidays:
- Gift Planning: Deciding on thoughtful gifts or cards for clients and vendors to maintain strong business relationships.
- Schedule Ahead: Organizing the distribution of holiday greetings in advance to ensure timely delivery and reduce stress during the holiday rush.
4. Gearing Up for Engagement Season:
- Update Marketing Materials: Refreshing pricing, portfolios, and promotional materials to reflect the most current services and successes.
- Strategic Planning: Crafting a marketing strategy aimed at capturing the attention of newly engaged couples, including digital marketing efforts and participation in bridal shows.
5. Planning for the Next Year:
- Event Scheduling: Setting realistic goals for the number of events to manage in the coming year.
- Time Management: Proactively scheduling personal time or vacations to ensure a balanced work-life dynamic, which can boost overall productivity.
Conclusion: Amber wraps up the episode by underscoring the significance of using the off-season not just for rest, but as a crucial period for strategic planning and preparation. By addressing these areas, wedding planners can set the stage for a prosperous and less stressful year.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Are you a wedding planner just starting your business or have you been in the industry for just a few years? Do you want to build a profitable and enjoyable planning business that you're excited about every day? If the answer is yes, then you're in the right place. Welcome to the business of wedding planning podcast.
00:00:21
Speaker
I'm your host, Amber Peterson. I was a wedding planner for 10 years, a marketing strategist for service-based businesses, and now the owner of Planner's Lounge. I know what it's like to work so hard as a planner but not see the growth and profit you dream of. I also know that while you can be the most talented planner in your market, if you don't have the business foundation, it will be hard to continue growing.
00:00:45
Speaker
I have seen so many talented planners burn out because they become frustrated with things unrelated to wedding planning, like finances, marketing, team growth, and operations. This is where the Business of Wedding Planning podcast and Planners Lounge come in.
Supporting Wedding Planners
00:01:00
Speaker
Our mission is to help you learn what it takes to build the business of your dreams with simple digital product solutions, educational content, and the support of our free community, the Very Important Planners Lounge, or VIP Lounge for short.
00:01:15
Speaker
I understand what it's like to work in this unique industry while having a lot on your plate. During my time as a planner, I had three daughters, bought and moved to two new homes, and launched two other businesses. I am excited to combine my education, industry experience, and passion to help you reach your business goals.
00:01:37
Speaker
Today's episode is proudly brought to you by Markel Event Insurance. Markel's One Day Event Insurance is an easy and affordable solution to help ensure your client's event goes off without a hitch. With policies starting at just $75, make sure you recommend adding a Markel Insurance policy to your client's wedding or special event.
00:01:57
Speaker
For further details, including how to obtain free event brochures for your business that outline the simple steps your clients need to take to secure coverage, visit Markelle.com slash planner.
Seasonal Reflection and Preparation
00:02:10
Speaker
Hi, friends. Welcome back to the Business of Wedding Planning podcast. I'm your host, Amber Peterson. And today we are diving into a topic that is important for success and sustainability of your wedding planning business. And that is making the most of the offseason.
00:02:26
Speaker
As I'm recording this, it is late September in western Washington, so for our area, weddings are starting to wrap up. September and October are big here, but by the end of October, you're getting some free weekends back.
00:02:41
Speaker
So for us and for many other places in the wedding industry, fall and winter offers a bit of a slower pace, which provides the perfect opportunity to reflect, regroup, and prepare for the upcoming busy engagement season and next year's busy wedding season.
00:02:57
Speaker
It's so important to enjoy some well-deserved downtime during this time period, but I know from my own experience, there were years where I would plan my last wedding and I was so exhausted that I would literally put my business on the shelf and then come mid-December, I was scrambling to prepare for wedding shows and booking season.
00:03:22
Speaker
So I came up with a way to relax, but also use the off season as a time to work on my business. First things first, as you're getting towards your last wedding of the year, make a plan for wrapping up this season. This means closing out all the events professionally and thoroughly. And these are the steps that I would take to leave no stone unturned. Number one, showing appreciation to the vendors I worked with.
00:03:52
Speaker
Send out a thank you note to all the vendors you've worked with. This shows gratitude, but it also helps strengthen those professional relationships. The next thing is client feedback. I had a pretty extensive post wedding survey that I sent out to all of my clients. And sometimes it took a little while to get them back because they're also decompressing from their wedding frenzy. So make sure that if you have sent them out surveys,
00:04:21
Speaker
and they haven't gotten back, send a reminder. But if you have gotten that feedback returned, then spend some time going through it. I asked questions like, what could I have done better? well I mean, not just like a review, but really dug deep into what their thoughts were. And a lot of times, there were some surprises that I probably would never have been brought to my attention, but it was great to get that feedback.
00:04:48
Speaker
You also want to gather all assets from each of event. So this means collecting images. This would be making sure you actually have a testimonial in addition to the feedback survey. And these are things you can use in your marketing efforts for attracting new clients. And then finally, just tie up the loose ends. Make sure all the invoices are paid. Any outstanding issues are resolved. And this allows you to close that file and be done with it.
00:05:15
Speaker
All of those things I just listed, even if the wedding is over, I don't consider the file closed until I've done all four of those things.
Improving Efficiency and Relationships
00:05:23
Speaker
The next area you want to spend some time on is just assessing the season overall. Once everything is wrapped up, take a moment and think about the past season. You want to reflect on what went well and what could be improved. Consider the following. One, performance reviews.
00:05:40
Speaker
Analyze the successes and challenges of the past season. What worked? What didn't? If you have a team, this would be where you could go through and actually give them feedback on their contributions during wedding season and spend some time thinking about their roles going forward. Next is staffing needs. Did you need more staff than you actually had or d are you overstaffed and you might need to reduce?
00:06:09
Speaker
This is also an area where if you've had an underperforming staff member, it might be time to let them go so that they're not thinking that they have a place in the next upcoming season.
00:06:20
Speaker
And finally, are there operational changes that need to be made? This means adjustments to efficiencies, client satisfaction, and all the things that are running behind the scenes to make your business move forward. I mean, these could be things like your CRM, your whatever tech stack you're using, all of those things. Is there anything that you need to change? Step three is preparing for the holidays.
00:06:49
Speaker
I loved the holiday time because I would always send out gift to my past clients. Send i my love language is giving gifts. So I would love to send things to vendors and referral partners that send me a lot of business. So the holidays are a great time to do that and planning ahead can make this very stress free. So as I mentioned, gifts, spend some time deciding on if you're going to do gifts, cards, what you're going to send to clients and vendors.
00:07:19
Speaker
little personal touches go a long way in maintaining strong relationships. And when you're working through all this, plan ahead. Don't wait until December 1st to figure out what you're going to do. Spend some time planning this out and you can even automate it. You can pre-order things that'll be shipped for you. There are so many ways that you can do this easily, but doing this in the early fall is a great way to just make sure that the holidays are taken care of.
Marketing and Planning for Engagement Season
00:07:51
Speaker
Another area you want to spend time focusing on is gearing up for engagement season. We all know that January, February, even November, December engagement season is really getting going. I think the statistic is Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day is the most engagements happen during that time or a a large number.
00:08:11
Speaker
If you need to do things like update your marketing materials, which means reviewing and refreshing pricing, portfolio, your promotional items to reflect current offerings, get that done before people are starting to reach out. And then also spend some time strategically planning.
00:08:29
Speaker
This means developing a marketing plan tailored to attract newly engaged couples and considering things like new digital marketing strategies, wedding shows, or potential partnership opportunities.
00:08:43
Speaker
Inside this area of gearing up for engagement season, you also want to think about those wedding shows. Are you going to be attending as a vendor? If so, do you have all your booth materials? Are you ready to go? As I mentioned at the top, I often was scrambling in this area and It kind of kicked off the whole year on a stressful level because right after engagement season and all the wedding shows, you're kind of already getting into early spring where your clients will be getting married during peak season are needing more and more from you. Getting a lot done in advance is very helpful. um
00:09:25
Speaker
And finally, planning for the next year. This is a time to strategically plan for your year ahead. That means figuring out how many events are you going to realistically take on and manage the next year, set clear goals, and that helps guide your booking process.
00:09:43
Speaker
and time management. Block off personal time, vacation time. Are there important events that you want to attend yourself like weddings of your own family that need to be blocked off before people start booking your services?
00:09:59
Speaker
You want to make sure that your calendar is pretty rock solid before you open it up to new weddings for the upcoming year. By spending some time tackling these tasks as you're in the start of your off season, you're really setting your future self up for success and for a less stressful new year. The off season is a great time to recharge, but it also is a time to prepare and pave the way for next year's successes.
00:10:29
Speaker
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. Next week, we are going to continue to talk about more topics that will help your wedding planning business and help you create the life that you're looking for. So I hope you come back and I hope you have a great week.