Some of the wedding planners whom I mentor are not new to weddings. For example, they have already been a consultant in a bridal shop, or a they are caterers. They decided to change what they were doing and be a planner, or add wedding planning to their services. However, one thing seems to stand out with all of them, they don’t place high value on what they know and can do for a bride and groom. Therefore, they are often offering a lot of free services or giving deep discounts.

Yes, you need to plan some weddings for free or a nominal fee until you get the experience you need. But once you have developed your skills, you need to start charging fees that allow you make a profit and stay in business.

Make a list of the knowledge, expertise, and experience you offer brides. I find many planners don’t realize how much they really have to offer because they are on “automatic.” Planning weddings can be so second nature that you won’t realize all you know and can do until you write your list.

Now, take a look at your list. Do you still believe you should be offering those time-consuming services for free? Remember that doing free services takes your time away from doing paid services.

What about those deep discounts that you offer at bridal shows, might you be selling yourself short?

I know you love planning weddings and want to help all the brides you can, but you deserve to make a profit for doing what you love.

If the brides you have been attracting cannot afford to hire you unless you give away free services and deep discounts, it’s time to change to your niche and your marketing message.

You want brides who value high-quality wedding planners not brides who select based on price.

Wedding season is just around the corner and if you are a new wedding planner who has found yourself suddenly booked solid, you may be so focused on on doing a great job for your brides, that you are ignoring your health. If this is you, remember that you will not be able to enjoy your success if you aren’t healthy.

Here are 5 tips for staying healthy while running your wedding planning business:

1) Get plenty of sleep

You need to be well-rested in order to be able to think clearly when things don’t go the way you had originally planned. Organize your days and nights so you have downtime and can relax and get a full night’s sleep.

2) Exercise

This will give you the stamina you need to withstand long hours of work. You don’t have to go to a gym, put on walking shoes and grab a friend to walk with you at the start or end of your day.

3) Have a healthy breakfast at the start of a long day

I’m sure you encourage your brides to eat before their weddings, you need to take your own advice. On a busy wedding day, you have no idea when you might be able to take the time to eat, so as least start the day with a good meal.

4) Skip the fast food

It’s easy to visit a drive through and grab a hamburger when you are out running errands, but it is also can be an unhealthy choice for you. If you must visit a fast food restaurant, opt for low fat, low sodium, and low sugar selections from the menu.

5) Hire good  help

If you are busy, you can’t do everything alone and expect it all to turn out well. Hire assistants to support you. Find the best ones who possess the skills that you need and make sure they keep themselves healthy also.

Did you start a wedding planner certification course but haven’t taken the time to complete it? Have you started updating your website or blog but can’t find the right photos to add to the site, so it remains unfinished? Worse, did a bride ask you for a proposal and you never responded because you didn’t get it done?

As a new wedding planner and business owner, you have probably started a lot of tasks, but unless you finish them, they will always be nagging at you and perhaps causing some sleepless nights. And unfinished projects hold you back from having the success you want.

Here are 5 tips to help you finish what you start:

1) Forget about perfection

I know you, you want everything to be perfect and it causes you a lot of stress, I can be that way too. Let go. Strive for excellence and being the best you can be. You don’t need a perfect grade for a certification. A website and blog can be easily be changed if it isn’t right the first time. If you are not able to put together a proposal you believe is right for a bride, you may need to go back and ask her more questions, but do it right away.

2) Recall why you started the task

For example, why did you start that certification course? Chances are you wanted to not only learn to be a wedding planner, you also wanted a certificate you could show to potential clients, and you wanted to feel a sense of accomplishment. Remembering why you started a project may help you recommit to getting it done.

3) Break the project down into small, quick tasks

If you have a project that might take a few hours or days, or longer, to complete, break it up into smaller tasks that you can finish quickly. This will help you feel a sense of accomplishment and motivate you to finish.

 4) Give yourself a deadline

Schedule the tasks that will lead to the completion of your project, then write down a date in which you can commit to being done. It you are delaying  finishing a wedding planner certification, check the terms of your course, some have a date in which you must complete the course or you don’t get a certification.

5) Plan to celebrate or reward yourself

Always give yourself recognition for the things you accomplish.

If you still can’t motivate yourself to complete a project, it might mean it’s no longer important to you. If so, it’s time to let it go and move on to things that you feel are worthy of your time and energy.

Spring is the season of rebirth and renewal, so renew your energy towards making the changes in your wedding planning business and personal life that will make the rest of 2012 your best year ever!

Happy Easter and Happy Spring!

Now that you can send and receive email not only on the computer in your office but also on your smart phone and tablet, you can easily and frequently connect with brides via email.

Here are 7 tips that will help your emails make a good impression on brides:

1) Fill in the “Subject” line with a statement that reflects your content and influences the bride to open your email

The subject line is the first thing a bride sees in her inbox so make sure it captures her attention. Please don’t leave this line blank, it might send your message into “Junk Mail” or make a bride delete it before she reads it because she thinks it’s spam.

2) Use an appropriate greeting

Don’t  launch right into your subject, start with a greeting. You want to be professional, but friendly, so start you email with a salutation such as, “Hi,” “Hello,” or “Dear” and the bride’s name or the couple’s names. Greetings such as “Hey,” “Hi Guys,” or “Hey There” are too familiar and inappropriate for use in business.

3) Don’t write in all lower case or all upper case letters

All lower case looks too casual and all upper case makes it look like you are shouting. Both make it appear that you are not taking the time to write seriously.

4) Stick to the topic

Don’t ramble. A bride doesn’t have time to read a long email with information she doesn’t need. If you have a lot of information to give, call her.

5) Check your spelling

Make sure you have correctly spelled the bride’s name and run a spellcheck on the body of your email. It’s easy to have typos, especially if you’re writing from your phone.

6) Mention the next step

If you, or the bride, needs to take action after the email, mention what happens next. Are you going to contact her with additional information? Should she contact you? Tell her what she can expect or what she needs to do.

7) Have a sign-off

Choose something that matches the subject and tone of your email and your professional personality such as, ”Best Wishes,” “Kindest regards,” ”Warmly,” or “Thank you for this opportunity,” and don’t forget to sign your name.

Email is a great way to stay in touch with a bride, use it as an opportunity to impress her with your great email communication skills.

In my last post I wrote about ditching “done-for-you” wedding marketing packages.

Today I’m writing about ditching contract samples and templates that you find on the Internet.

I know from experience that  many new wedding planners, looking for help with writing contracts, often turn to the Internet for templates. Cho Phillips, founder of The Wedding Planning Institute, wrote about this very thing in the February/March 2012 issue of Event Solutions magazine. She commented that in contrast to new planners, experienced professionals hire lawyers to finalize individual agreements with every client.

It is definitely easier and less expensive to use a template contract from the Internet, but it is also very dangerous.  It doesn’t take into account how you run your business or the services you are offering, nor does it take your bride’s concerns into consideration. Your contract needs to specify the services you are offering, when and where you are providing these services, and you payment terms. Your bride should know exactly what she is getting from you and how much she is paying for you services.

I know I’ve said this before, when it comes to legal agreements, don’t take a quick and inexpensive route. Invest in an attorney who can help you write a contract that protects you and your business.

You probably back up your computer everyday because you don’t want to lose information about your wedding planning business, the weddings that you plan, or your brides.

But have you backed up your website? Do you regularly back up your blog? How about your Facebook profile?

You spend a great of time and energy writing content and posting photos online to market yourself, so you need to make sure you have copies of your sites. If a site comes down because of an error made by your web host, your site gets hacked or hit by malware, or, like me, you try to add a plugin to your blog and you crash it, you need to be able to get up and running as soon as possible!

To back up your website you can download a free copy of FileZilla and download all the files to the hard drive on your computer. If you can’t do this yourself, your web host can tell you how to back up your site or ask your webmaster to help you. (I always call my webmaster, Toolie, she has helped me out of many jams.) 

Regarding your blog, if you are on Blogger, you can go into “Settings” and “Export your blog” and download a copy to your computer.

If you have a Wordpress self-hosted site, there are many plugins you can install that will automatically back up your files according to your schedule.

For Facebook, you can request a download by going to Account then Account Settings using the top right menu.

Scroll down to Download a copyof your Facebook data and click on it. On next page, read the information on the page and click on the Start My Archive button.

Facebook will send a download link to the email address associated with your account. You click on the link, enter your Facebook password, and click on the Download button to download a zip file that has all of your Facebook profile information.

You can also use a service such as Backupify that allows you up to back up three social media accounts for free.

Don’t risk losing your hard work, make and keep updated versions of all of your online information.

If you are new to wedding and event planning, you are probably just realizing how busy the holiday season can be for you. You may be planning and organizing holiday events, working with brides on their early 2012 weddings, meeting newly engaged couples to talk about your services, planning a booth for the January bridal shows, and working on business goals for the new year. All of this in addition to planning your own family holiday celebrations.

Here are 5 helpful hints for staying sane during this season:

1) Keep track of what you must do

The hectic holiday season isn’t the time to rely on your memory. Keep a notebook or journal handy to jot down a list of to-dos or speak them into a voice recorder, most smartphones have this feature, and refer to it often.

2) Schedule your tasks

Take your to-dos and fit them into your calendar. This way you know if you actually have the time to accomplish all you want to do or if you need to delegate or delete some items.

3) Take breaks

When you are busy, it’s tempting to grab a meal at the drive-thru and eat in the car between appointments or sit in front of your computer for hours at a time while you do something such as create a timeline for your bride. However, you will actually work better when you take breaks several times a day. You will come up with more creative ideas after you spend a few minutes taking a walk, listening to music, or just relaxing.

4) Get plenty of sleep

Eight hours a night is best. Sleep deprivation can cause memory loss, lessen your attention to detail, and make you feel overwhelmed and depressed. You need to be at your best when you have a great deal  to accomplish, so get the amount of sleep you need each night.

5) Think before you commit

As wedding and event planners, we have a natural desire to take care of everyone and make sure they are happy. But as a result of doing favors for people, we often find ourselves staying up late to finish our own projects or neglecting to do something that was important to us. Help others when you can, but don’t give up all of the valuable time you need to run your business and have a satisfying personal life.

As a wedding planner there will be many times when you will make appointments with potential clients and new vendors whom you have only “met” via email, the Internet, or a phone call. You will also find yourself running errands at different times of the day and night in unfamiliar areas in order to do business. While most people you meet with are good and most places you will visit are perfectly fine, it doesn’t hurt to take the steps necessary to keep yourself safe at all times.

Here are 5 tips for staying safe:

1) When meeting a bride or any potential client for the first time, do it in a public place

Don’t invite strangers to your home office and don’t agree to meet in theirs. Arrange to meet at a potential wedding venue or other public place that allows you to be seen by other people but also has a quiet place for you to talk privately.

If you have an office, make sure you are not the only one in the building. If you must meet after hours, ask someone to join you and wait in a nearby room so you are not alone.

2) Tell someone your schedule

Before you head out the door, let your assistant or family member know where you are going and how long you might be gone. Check in with them if meetings or errands take longer than you thought they would.

3) Prepare your car for your busy schedule

Keep you car in good repair and always have plenty of gas in your tank so you don’t have to stop at a gas station in an unfamiliar area.

Use a GPS to guide you when you drive or check directions before you head out so you don’t get lost.

Keep an emergency kit in your car that includes a pair of walking shoes, in case you need them. 

4) Carry a fully charged cell phone

Almost everyone has a cell phone but not everyone keeps theirs charged and ready to use, be sure you do. You need it not only to keep in touch with brides and vendors while you are on the road (of course, don’t text or talk while driving), you also need it for emergencies. Invest in a charger that plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter if you spend a great deal of time on the road.

5) Resist the urge to broadcast your whereabouts

Don’t go on Twitter and tell everyone where you will be and when you will be there. You could be putting not only your personal safety at risk, but also the safety of your family and personal property, if the information is seen by the wrong person.

Be safe!

As a wedding planner, the best time of year to meet potential clients is now through Valentine’s Day. Many engagements take place during this time (“engagement season”) and you have the ability to meet these newly engaged couples and their friends and relatives at holiday parties and networking events in December. Also, if you can keep your blog or website up-to-date during this time, the new brides in your area will easily find you when they search the Internet to get wedding planning help.

Unfortunately the holidays can also be filled with personal responsibilities and commitments.You might be considering putting aside working on your business “ for now” because the tasks you want to accomplish, such as building up your website or blog or putting together a marketing piece, seem too daunting.

But don’t put your business aside!

Each day that you delay working on your business leads to you delaying another day and another. Eventually you might not even be motivated to do the work you need to do to have a successful wedding planning business in 2012.

Take your tasks and break them up into small, manageable steps that can be done in 15 minutes a day. In 15 minutes you can do things such as brainstorm new ideas for your website, find and select a photograph or testimonial to use in your marketing, Tweet wedding planning tips that will help brides find and recognize your expertise, or write a list of the benefits of your services that you want to speak about when you meet a potential client.

Completing at least one short task every day will  help you stay connected to your target market and give you the sense of accomplishment you might need to help you stay motivated.