You made a big decision to follow your dream and become a wedding planner. You decided to do it right and created an action plan outlining the things you are going to do to get the skills you need to be the best and the knowledge you need to successfully market your services to brides.

Now, are you making the right small decisions everyday to support your dream and your plans?  It’s often said that it’s the small decisions that we make each day that determine the direction of our lives.

So small things like deciding what you are going to do each day, and how you are going to do it, will impact how successful you are at realizing your dream.

Here are 10 decisions that you make each day that you might want to put more thought behind in order to reach your goal of becoming a top wedding planner:

1) When you return a phone call or email from a bride

If a bride is inquiring about your services, you might want to make it a point to get back to her within a few hours, or at least by the end of the day.

2) How much time you spend on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking sites

It’s  important to spend time marketing yourself on these sites but set limits or hours will pass by before you get to other work.

3) What time you leave for appointments

Decide to always be on time or early to make a good impression on everyone.

4) How well you listen

Make it a point to listen more that you speak. Brides love it when you show interest in who they are and what their wedding vision is.

5) How much you gossip

When you talk about others, others talk about you. And, stay clear of people who gossip, whine and complain, they cannot be supportive of you and your dreams.

6) What you do at the end of your working day

If you make a list of your “to do’s” before you stop work for the night, you can be focused and ready to go when you get back to your office in the morning.

7) How much time you spend watching television

This can can grab your attention for hours at a time without you realizing it. Even if your office is in your home, keep the television off while you work.

8 ) Which programs you watch on television

You want to be a self-confident wedding planner with a positive attitude, make sure the programs you watch support positive thoughts.

9) How much sleep you get

Being rested will help you stay calm and clear-headed so you make the right decisions.

10) How often you express gratitude

Interestingly, when you decide to be grateful for what you have today, you will have more and more reasons to be grateful in the future.

What small decisions will you make today that will get you closer to what you want?

“I could be a wedding planner, if only I could quit my job.”

“I could get more brides to notice me, if only I could get one of my weddings into a bridal magazine.”

“I would have it made, if only I could plan a celebrity’s wedding.”

“I would be a better wedding planner, if only I could first work for someone like Preston Bailey.”

Have you heard yourself making comments like these?

It’s easy to believe that if one big, special thing happened to you, you wouldn’t have any problems being a successful wedding planner. After all, it does seem like this is what happens to wedding planners in the movies.

In real life, no celebrity or situation is  going to give you instant success.

You are going to be the one who makes yourself successful, and you can do it:

1) Start from where you are right now

Don’t wait for the “perfect time” to come along before you start your business. You can still be in school or working and start your wedding planning business part time.

2) Don’t let yourself procrastinate

It’s good to take some time to visualize your dream wedding planning business, but dreams can’t become reality without action. Make plans as to how you are going to have the success you want, then get going.

3) Serve the brides in your area

Sometimes new wedding planners feel a need to leave their area in order to find celebrities or people in a higher economic level.

There are local brides in your area and niche who need your services. Do some research, find out how you can best help them, then market those services.

4) Have confidence

Know that no one needs to rescue you in order for you to be successful. You can do it yourself when you take consistent action to move your business forward.

You spend everyday helping brides plan their big celebrations of love.

Today, take the time to celebrate love with those whom you love.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

When I have a mentoring appointment with a new wedding planner, I will ask him or her to email  information to me about their background and experience and to send me links to their website, blog, Facebook account and anything else they may be doing for marketing. I like to get a clear picture of who they are before we start meeting.

Almost everyone shares with me information about skills and experience they have, in addition to their wedding planning skills, that are very valuable “extras” to have as a wedding and event planner.

But none of the information is mentioned in their marketing materials!

Instead, they just have lists of their available services. But these lists don’t make them stand out.

Brides don’t know how talented they are and they end up not getting all of  the clients they deserve.

Are you also guilty of hiding some of your valuable skills and knowledge, thinking they aren’t directly about wedding and event planning, so they don’t matter?

For example, have you worked in catering or the restaurant business?

Then you know how to help a bride select a menu that will appeal to her guests while fitting within her budget.

Have you worked in financial services?

Most likely you know how to create a realistic budget and help a bride stick to it.

Have you been voluntarily counseling newly engaged couples at your place of worship?

Then you’ll be able to help couples not only plan their weddings with your planning skills, but also navigate successfully through the emotional highs and lows that often come during the months before a wedding.

Think about the knowledge, experience, and skills that you acquired when working in a job, or as a volunteer, that you can use as a wedding planner.  Then tell brides how they can benefit from what you know.

When they know the benefits, they will understand how valuable you are and realize how much they need you to be their wedding planner.

Did you spend the last week of 2011 thinking about goals for your wedding planning business and for your personal life? Goals can keep you focused and help you achieve what you want in life.

But many times when I work with new wedding planners, I’ve found that they have too many goals they are trying to accomplish at the same time. Their attention is scattered, they feel overwhelmed, and they end up not moving forward with any of the goals they set out to accomplish.

It’s not until we select two or three to focus on at one time do they start seeing success and, with it, gain the confidence and energy needed to move forward quickly.

Don’t let yourself get bogged down by trying to accomplish all of your goals at the same time, select two or three to start with first then move on as you beginning seeing results.

Here are 4 steps for selecting and accomplishing your first goals:

1) Start with the goals that excite you the most

If you start with goals that you feel you “have to do” or, worse, someone else wants you to accomplish, you will procrastinate and not get anything done. But when you start with something that excites you and makes a big difference in your life, you will quickly reach your goals.

2) Write them down, in detail with due dates

I’m frequently surprised by the number of wedding planners who keep their goals in their heads. Writing them down will help you clarify what you want and putting goals onto paper can make you feel more committed to getting them accomplished.

3) Schedule your tasks

Determine the tasks you need to perform to get your goals accomplished and schedule them on your calendar. Since you are starting with two to three goals, your list of tasks should not be overwhelming and your calendar should not be overbooked before you even start each day, which can happen if you are trying to do too much at one time.

4) Review your accomplishments

At the end of each day, review what you have done towards your goals and adjust your schedule for the next day, if necessary.

When you focus all of your attention on just a few goals at a time, you are able to have more clarity about them and will find them easier to accomplish in a shorter period of time.

Wishing you a healthy, prosperous, and successful year

 filled with an abundance of your ideal clients.

Happy New Year!

Sharon

Wedding and event designer Preston Bailey gives his expert advice in every issue of Event Solutions magazine. In the December/January issue, he answered a question about entering the wedding and event industry in Dubai. I thought his answer provided excellent advice not only for someone wanting to enter the business in Dubai, but anywhere in the world.

Here are 5 of the tips he offered to new wedding planners, I’ve added some comments:

1) Get experience

Even if you have a degree or certification in wedding planning or design, you need to get as much “real world” experience as you can. Plan events for family and friends, work as an intern for an experienced planner, florist, wedding photographer or caterer to gain insight into what brides want and how different types of wedding professionals work. The more you know, the more you have to offer to your brides.

2) Find out who the most successful planners are in your area

Learn what makes them successful and figure out how you can also be successful in your own, unique way.

3) Find out the price range for wedding planners in your area

What is is low in some areas might be considered high and out of the question where you plan to do business. Or the opposite might be true. You want to know the general price range so you don’t price yourself so low that people think you give poor service, or so high that brides in your niche cannot afford you.

4) Attend bridal shows in your area

This will give you the opportunity to mingle with brides and meet new vendors. You will be able to see what products and services attract brides at shows and “eavesdrop” into their conversations to find out what interests them.

Attending shows will also give you an opportunity to decide if you want to get involved in a show and be an exhibitor in the future.

5) Work daily on creating your unique identity

In order to attract brides, you will need to be able to stand out in a crowd. Learn what your greatest strengths are and develop them so you become an expert who can help brides with your unique abilities.

And if you want to learn more about becoming a wedding planner, sign in to get my free report, “7 Steps to Becoming a Top Wedding Planner.”

May the joy, beauty, and blessings of the season be with you and yours today and throughout the coming year.

Sharon

Thank you for being a part of my life.

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you who celebrate on this day.

Wishing everyone many blessings,

Sharon

Sometimes you have a bad day. You don’t get the client that you want, the bride you are working with blames you for problems that are not your fault, or all of the wedding planning you are doing today seems to be difficult. Your self-confidence goes down and you start to feel that maybe you aren’t cut out to do this. STOP! Don’t allow yourself to go down the path of low self-esteem.

Here are 5 ways to beat those blues:

1) Take a break

Listen to music, take a walk, dance, meditate, or read an uplifting book. Do something that will help you shift your your mind into a more positive state.

2) Ask yourself if all of those bad things you are thinking about yourself are really true

Haven’t you already helped brides and been successful? Haven’t you had days when planning has really gone smoothly? Or, other days when things didn’t go well and everything came out great in the end? In other words, shift your thinking to the times when you had success.

3) Remember the unique qualities that you offer your brides

You are one of a kind, no one can offer brides the same combination of skills, knowledge, and intuition that you offer. There are brides out there who are looking for someone with your talents.

4) Spend time with people who support you

You should only have friends who are supportive, help you think positively, and are a positive influence on you.

5) Fill your mind with positive information

Television and the Internet can be filled with news and images that are depressing and make you think that nothing is right in the world. Stay away from all of that and instead look for things that affirm positive beliefs about life and people. It will actually help you feel better about yourself.