There Is No “Resting On Your Laurels” As An Entrepreneur

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One reason that people quite their day jobs and start their own business is because they are sick of the 9-5 game. Everyone knows how things work at most jobs. You show up on time, clock in, get the priorities done, talk to co-workers, and watch the clock waiting for the day to end. Entrepreneurs don’t have that luxury which is actually a good thing.

When you treat your business like a normal 9-5 job you have a much higher probability to long term failure with your business. Why is that you ask? Because running a small business and being an entrepreneur is like sports says Brandon Steiner in his awesome article on Young Entrepreneur. If you start getting ahead and think that means you can relax you will end up losing focus and find yourself falling behind and unable to catch up when it really counts.

Running your own business means that you aren’t going to be watching the clock just putting in your time. Instead you have to stay a step ahead of your competition, not letting anything slip through the cracks. This isn’t a bad thing. In fact having to stay on top of things all the time can be exhilarating, making you excited to come back day after day watching your progress and success as your business grows.  What do you think? Is running your wedding business exhilarating?

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Why Introspection Is Critical To Growing Your Business

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Anytime you’ve got a business that is stuck at a certain point and not growing you’ve got to ask yourself what you want. If you don’t grow, you die. That’s all there is to it. Since you’re here you obviously want to see growth. However to grow requires change, and that sometimes means change that you might not initially like.

Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses and that good. That is why we call in someone else to help us when we hit something that just isn’t our thing. However sometimes the most helpful change is what we can do ourselves. What is it that you are dreaming of? When you think of your wedding business as a success, what does that look like? You have to answer that question to answer the next one from David Neagles article on Forbes “Here’s the outcome I’m visualizing. What’s different between what I’m currently doing and what would produce my desired outcome?”

In order to achieve change you’ve got to know what it is that you really want. Not just some fuzzy pie in the sky dream, but a real life goal. Figure that out and then do what it takes to create the stepping stones to reach your goal. Be willing to change and grow with your business. If you keep running into the same problem over and over ask yourself where that problem is coming from. Don’t create your own problems, tackle them head on and move on and upwards with your business. What do you think? 

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Filed Under: Attracting Ideal Clients, Personal Development, Wedding Business, Wedding Business Income Tagged With: , , , , ,

It’s Okay To Take A Break Especially If You Want A Successful Wedding Business

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In my business I typically have a million things going on at once. As a result any time my body decides I need a break I tend to overreact and get stressed, which I might point out just contributes to the problem. The temptation to just keep going, regardless of whether I’m sick or just plain old tired sometimes wins out, and boy let me tell you, it is so not worth it!

Every person has limits built in to their body. When you consistently push past those limits you might see some good results, at first. However as time goes on you aren’t giving your mind or body the time to heal itself through rest. Work starts feeling harder and you’ll find that it takes longer and longer to complete a task. As James Wedmore points out in an article on his website you have to spend some time being lazy in order to see progress in your business. Laziness used to mean doing nothing, all the time. Nowadays people equate taking a 15 minute break, or sleeping at least 8 hours as being lazy. Guess what? You aren’t being lazy if you give your body a break. What you are doing is keeping your body and mind healthy, enabling you to do more in less time. What do you think? 

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How To Get Everything Done In A Day

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Although feeling overwhelmed with your wedding business may be considered normal, that doesn’t mean you can’t take control and come up with a sane scheduled to get everything done. It’s actually super easy to do and will make your business run much more smoothly.

The first thing you need is a calendar. Whether it’s Google calendar, Outlook calendar, or a paper calendar the bottom line is to have one and use it. If you’ve already mastered that step the next thing you need to do is write down everything you have to do in a week and schedule it into that calendar. Again, this isn’t hard to do.

Now comes the slightly harder bit. Once you’ve created a schedule and put it on a calendar you have to actually follow it. Don’t just move things around all the time and tell everyone that of course you have time to help them. Create blocks of time to meet with brides throughout the week, or times for those extra projects and mark them as “Available.” This might seem like a no brainer, but if you haven’t put yourself on a schedule you won’t get everything done. To learn more about creating a block calendar make sure to read the article by Ron Dawson.

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Why You Need Small Goals In Order To Reach The Big Goal

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Every business has in their mind that moment. You know the one. That moment that you know you’ve succeeded and made it in business. While goals are good, it’s also good to realize that you need a bigger dream to go after once you’ve made it to that point. On top of that Steve Gadlin points out in the article written by Shawn Graham that you have to be prepared to fail. This gives you the humility to go forward and appeal to both brides and potential investors.

So how do you reach that first moment of knowing that you’ve made it? First you need to cut your goals into bite size bits. Smaller goals motivate you to move towards the bigger goal faster because it makes you realize the progress you are making. Building a wedding business takes time. No one makes it over night, or even in a couple of months. If you’re going to make it as a wedding business you are in it for the long haul, not the short fix. What do you think?

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Marketing Lessons from the Movies: Moneyball

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I didn’t want to watch this movie. I’m not a sports fan, and baseball movies just don’t light my fire. So Jeff had to twist my arm to get me to watch Moneyball with him.

Here’s a brief plot summary for you:

The manager of the Oakland A’s has to build a team with ZERO budget. Using only computer analysis of statistics, he cobbles together a team of “budget” players who start a winning streak against all odds and advice.

Yes, it’s an inspiring story of believing in yourself, where there’s a will there’s a way, never give up on your dreams…

But what I really took from this is the power of numbers.

It’s All About the Numbers

Numbers? Numbers are boring!

I might have agreed before I learned about their power.

Most of the time we make decisions based on how we “feel.” But when it comes to business, you need numbers to back you up. After all, profit is the Big Number that determines the ultimate success of your wedding business, right?

You simply need to know your numbers to find out what’s working and what isn’t for your wedding business.

So many times wedding vendors buy advertising or try a new marketing method without tracking their results. How many leads did you get from that source? How many of those leads ended up booking you?

Or they set a goal of “making more money” or “booking more weddings.” ONE PENNY is technically more, and I doubt that’s what they have in mind.

If you want to have any hope of hitting your goals, you need a specific number. Otherwise, how will you know if you’re going to hit it or not?

Years ago, Jeff and I set a goal for our wedding business: $500 income per month. We posted it on signs all over the house. We stared at those numbers wherever we looked.

Guess what? We hit that goal, so we set another: $1,000. Then $5,000. Then $10,000. Then $20,000.

We hit them all. That is the power of knowing your numbers.

Finding Your Power Numbers

In Moneyball, Coach Billy Beane ignores conventional wisdom and logic to build an amazing by focusing only on numbers. He didn’t care if they got more bases by walking or if he ended up with a team full of losers; as long as the statistics looked good, they made the team. And it worked.

In your wedding business, you need to focus on what brings you results regardless of how it looks to anyone else. What brings you more leads, more booked weddings, more income per event, more money in your bank account?

Focus on your numbers. Ruthlessly. Relentlessly. Just like Coach Beane did.

This might mean that you don’t follow the herd into the marketing fad of the moment, or you might end up doing something that to most people looks completely ridiculous. It doesn’t matter, as long as your numbers prove those RESULTS.

Whipping Your Team Into Shape

If you don’t know your numbers, here’s where to start.

  • How much money do you want to make per year?
  • How many weddings do you need to book at your current rate to make that much?
  • How many meetings will you need to book that many?
  • How many leads will you need to get that many meetings?
  • What do your numbers look like right now?

These numbers are the key to your success and essential to know whether your business is on track or off. Start paying attention to them and you will automatically start moving towards your goals.

What do you think?

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Filed Under: Bridal Marketing, Home Page, Personal Development, Wedding Business, Wedding Business Income Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Tenacity and A Diverse Background Help Build A Successful Wedding Business

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While a normal career background isn’t going to hurt you in becoming a successful entrepreneur, a more varied background is more likely to be helpful according to an article by Jon Burgstone. What exactly does this mean for you?

An entrepreneur faces a lot of different challenges. They have to know how to do every single aspect of their business, and need a strong backbone to keep going in the face of major challenges. When you have a background of more complex experiences it makes building a business easier for you to handle.

But what if you don’t have that in your background? Does that mean that it is likely that you will fail building a successful wedding business? Absolutely not. Just realize that you are going to need more business training, and that you need to work on developing an underlying tenacity behind everything that you do. Success in business doesn’t come out of dumb luck; it comes from knowing what to do, doing it, and sticking to in spite of opposition. What do you think?

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How To Be Successful While Building Your Wedding Business

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The early days of any business are hard. Even businesses who have made it big such as Ben and Jerry’s had to go through some really tough times when they started out. So how did they make it through, build a successful business, and not give up on the way?

Some would say that it takes sheer obstinacy to build a business. In a way they’re right. If you don’t have the ability to stay calm and keep carrying on when things aren’t going well, you’re not going to make it. But there is more to being successful while building your wedding business. A tip from the Young Entrepreneur Council in their article is to first know yourself well. Know your strengths and weaknesses and work with them. If you don’t know what you’re bad at you will make a lot of mistakes that could sink your business. At the same time knowing your strengths lets you capitalize on them while working on your weak spots or outsourcing the work you can’t do well.

This feeds into another thing which is to avoid unneeded expenses. It’s easy to look at a larger company, see what they are doing and mimic it, even if you can’t afford to do so at this point in your business. Realize that there are some things that will eventually be a great help to your business, but might be too much of a financial drain right now without providing enough of an increase in income. Success in the early days of business can be defined as determination moving your business forward while being able to balance expenses in a way that allows for future growth. What do you think?

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Knowing How and When To Move Forward In Building Your Wedding Business

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There is a way to know how and when to move forward building your wedding business if you are having trouble figuring it out. While there is no magic point for the perfect time, you can look at where you are at and figure out when you should make the next move.

There are several things that play into this decision. The very first thing you have to figure out is your budget. If you can’t really afford to do something, then you need to put it off and budget it in for the future. Second, you should ask yourself if it both helps you, and helps brides. If the idea might not meet the needs of either of you, you shouldn’t do it. Also, always think through whether the new idea meshes with the goal of your business, and is something that you are comfortable with. Make sure to read the article by Sara on Startup Biz Blog for more tips on knowing when to move forward with a new business idea. What do you think?

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Where Does Income Come From While Building Your Wedding Business?

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When you are starting your wedding business one the biggest, if not truly the biggest issue you will face is the break between steady employment and building your business to a point where you can support yourself on your own income.

Each person has a different way that they’ve found to deal with this issue with wedding business income. Some people have saved money ahead so they have 6-12 months of savings to live off of while they build their business. Others start building their business while they are still working for their previous company.

According to Alex Fitzpatrick there is a new law being considered which would allow entrepreneurs to draw unemployment for 26 months while building their business. The obvious risk of this would be for entrepreneurs to tap into this too early and have their businesses go under. The main benefit would be the ability to draw in money for living expenses while building a solid business. What do you think? Would the new law have helped you when you were starting out, or would it have created too many problems?

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