I have found that when I mentor new wedding planners and they start to do well, they tell me how lucky they are that they have gotten clients quickly and everything has fallen into place for them.

I like to point out to them that they actually made their own good luck. They took the time and made the effort to do the things they needed to do to open the door for opportunities.

Here are 5 things that are true for the new wedding planners who seem to have all of the luck:

1) They get out and meet lots of  people

I don’t mean just going to business networking events. These wedding planners belong to social organizations, are active members at their places of worship, and are part of small social groups such as book clubs. People refer and do business with people they know, like, and trust and some of the best ways to get to know people are by participating in social activities.

2) They create good relationships with other wedding professionals

Don’t just go out and shake hands with a few vendors and take a business card, spend some time getting to know them. Successful new planners create relationships and friendships with high quality vendors who work with the brides in their niche. They share referrals and together create fabulous weddings for their brides.

3) They have a website and/or blog that addresses their niche

Their websites and blogs aren’t necessarily fancy or the most beautiful, but they look professional. They are also filled with photographs of weddings they have done and brief testimonials.

Their blog posts are topics that are of concern to the brides in their niche. Examples: how to uphold cultural traditions, if that is of interest to their brides, or how to manage work, relationships and wedding planning when they are speaking to a career minded bride.

4) They speak passionately and positively about their clients

Wedding planners who are successful love what they do and speak about their work in loving terms. They also speak respectfully about their clients and always have a friendly, positive attitude towards everyone.

5) They don’t let themselves get discouraged

I’ve mentored wedding planners who have had health issues and all sorts of things unfortunate things occur in their lives while they were building their businesses. Sometimes we’ve worked together to change niches or offer different services to accommodate their personal lives. Their business might look differently than they thought it would, however, they always persevered and got the success they wanted.

If you haven’t felt like a “lucky” new wedding planner, it’s time to get out and start making some of your own luck.

A new wedding planner I was talking with told me she had decided to market to three niches instead of just one. She thought that by having multiple niches, she could make more money. She planned to reach brides in all three niches with the same website, blog, Facebook Fan page and Twitter account.

My question to her was; “How are you going to successfully market to more that one niche with the same marketing message?”

For example, if she selects a niche with DIY brides and one with brides who are corporate executives, they are not going to be interested in the same services from her. The DIY bride may be interested in creating most of her wedding herself and having a wedding planner coordinate her wedding on the “day of.” While the corporate executive bride wants to hire someone whom she can rely on to coordinate all of the details while she is busy at work. So the wedding planner with a “generic” marketing message could end up not having either of them as clients.

If this wedding planner keeps all three niches, she will have to create wedding services and packages for each different niche, create marketing and advertising messages that attracts each niche and create separate websites, blogs and social networking accounts.

You might see some celebrity wedding planners successfully working a lot of different niches and creating a wide variety of products but remember they have been in the business for a long time. Also, they have staff who can handle all of the different parts of their businesses for them. When you juggle multiple niches yourself, you spread yourself too thin and end up not being profitable in any area.

The bottom line for you, if you are a new wedding planner is – do research and select a profitable niche. Then create the services and packages the brides in your niche need and invest your time and energy in selling them.

Last week one on my blog posts gave you a list of questions you should answer about your ideal clients.

Here are 5 ways you can use that information:

1) Create the services, packages and products your ideal clients need and will buy

Knowing who your ideal clients are will help you decide what you are going to offer. For example, if you are targeting women in executive positions, you might see that it is important to them to have someone else take charge of the details of planning a wedding. So you decide to develop different levels of full service packages versus ones that allow brides to take care of a lot of details themselves.

2) Write targeted marketing copy

Now that you have researched and know details about your ideal clients, you can write to them in a way that attracts them. For instance, first time brides have different concerns about their weddings than brides who are about to get married for a second time and have children. When you know which brides you are speaking to, you can write in a way that addresses their concerns and makes them want to hire you.

3) Reach them on the Internet

Your research should have identified if they spend a lot of time on the Internet checking wedding and bridal websites for information, becoming fans of different wedding pages on Facebook and tweeting about their wedding plans. If so, you can make sure that you are highly visible on these sites by answering questions on wedding forums and boards, frequently posting useful information on your Facebook fan page and commenting on other people’s fan pages (please don’t make sales pitches, just contribute to the conversations). You become known as an expert and they will think of you when they need the help of a wedding planner.

4) Reach them offline

If you know where your ideal clients go, the organizations they belong to and the hobbies they engage in, you should consider taking part in those activities also. For instance, think of all of the men and women who have taken up the sport of golf to network and meet business clients. Do something similar. Don’t expect anyone to hire you on-the-spot, take the time to build relationships and trust.

5) Tell people you know who you want as clients

When you network with other wedding vendors or even when talking to friends and relatives about your business, don’t be afraid to tell people who you ideal client is. Also, this is important, tell people what you can do for your clients. It’s always important to tell the benefits of your services.

If you want more information about becoming a top wedding planner, get a copy of my free Special Report “7 Steps to Becoming a Top Wedding Planner”.

In my last post, I wrote about not starting your wedding planning business by handling weddings for celebrities. So, do you know who your ideal first clients are? It is important that you know who you want to reach so you can offer the products and services they need and communicate to them in a way that attracts them.

Here are some of the qualities and preferences about your ideal clients that you should know:

• Age

• Gender

• Straight/Gay

• Single/Divorced/Widowed

• Children

• Education

• Occupation

• Where do they live?

• Where do they shop?

• Where do they vacation?

• What hobbies do they have?

• What do they do in their spare time?

• What clubs or associations do they belong to?

• What kind of car do they drive?

• How savvy are they about using the Internet?

• How do they like to communicate with people? (By phone, in person, email, social networking, etc.)

• What kinds of newspapers, books and magazines do they read?

• What religion or customs and traditions do they follow?

• Who is paying for their wedding?

• What is the approximate wedding budget?

• Who is involved in planning the wedding?

• Who is making the major decisions about the wedding?

• What is their biggest fear about their wedding day?

• What type of wedding ceremony do they want? (religious or civil)

• What is the most important thing to them about their wedding day?

I know the first time someone told me to write down the characteristics and preferences of my ideal client, I brushed it off. I thought that I didn’t need to know all this information about them and as long as I had a picture of them in my head. But I didn’t get my ideal clients until I wrote this information down on paper. The act of writing it down seemed to give me the clarity I needed to create the services they wanted and would buy.

There is nothing wrong with selecting a target market, finding where they are and networking with them but I felt very uncomfortable with everything this woman was telling me.  She doesn’t have the experience and knowledge about wedding planning that she needs and she doesn’t have any plans to acquire it.  She recently moved into the area and doesn’t have any vendor contacts.  She is planning to suggest high-end services to give herself a large income.  She would be the type of wedding planner that gives the industry a bad name.

I told this caller that she had to have experience and education in wedding planning or she will not be successful.  She had to know reputable vendors and be able to negotiate contracts.  And, I do not recommend taking a percentage of the wedding expenses as pay.  Clients who are billed in this way often feel that wedding planners suggest expensive products and services just to make more money. 

I also told her that being a wedding planner does not mean easy money.  She has to be wiling to work hard to be successful.  If she isn’t willing to do that and if she doesn’t have a passion for weddings and for helping people have the wedding day of their dreams, she should try a different business. 

Please don’t become a wedding planner because you think it will make you rich and famous.  It might, but you are going to have to do a lot to make that happen.  And please don’t think that wealthy clients will help you become wealthy quickly.  Just because people have money doesn’t mean they are willing to spend it.

Professional women often have more money to spend on their weddings and have a lot less time. They are accustomed to delegating work and more likely to hire a wedding planner than someone who has not yet built a career and might find planning her own wedding fun. These women are also likely to be demanding. They don’t have time to surf the internet and do multiple interviews to find someone they want. Instead, they will look for referrals from friends and peers at work. They will expect their planners to handle the minutiae and rely on them to have good judgment. I’ve worked with many professional women and they are excellent clients.

If you think you would love working with the career-focused bride, do some research and create a marketing strategy that would help you capture this niche.

For information on gay travel in California for destination weddings, check these websites:

Los Angeles Area – http://www.gogaywesthollywood.com/

Palm Springs Area – http://www.giveintothedesert.com/listings/index.cfm?action=showListings&catId=107&metaid=93¬ify=1

San Diego – http://www.sandiego.org/article_set/Visitors/9

San Francisco – http://www.onlyinsanfrancisco.com/gaytravel/

Check out the weddings from previous years on their website http://www.vegnews.com/. Couples can apply to be featured in future vegan wedding issues by completing an application they download from the site.

• Find a bridal shop that sells wedding dresses of bamboo fabric, hemp silk or organic cotton and locate stores that sell vegan shoes.
• Hold the wedding and reception in the outdoors in the daytime to eliminate the need for electricity and lighting.
• Have the wedding and the reception in the same location or within walking distance. This will cut expenses for your bride by eliminating the need to decorate multiple sites and her guests will save money on gas by not having to drive to another location.
• Use soy-based pillar candles in glass hurricane lamps or bowls of colorful candies or fruit instead of traditional flowers as centerpieces.
• Select wedding favors that are useful after the event.

Wedding planning is already a niche within the event planning industry but you can get even more specialized. I mentioned the other day that those of you who have an interest in the environement might specialize in green weddings. Other ideas for niches; small weddings, theme weddings, weddings at wineries, destination weddings or maybe your unique service is planning fabulous weddings in less than 6 months.

Do some research, find out what brides in your area want, figure out a way to offer it to them and “get rich in your niche”.