It’s A Wedding “Business”

“So Then I Shouldn’t Let My 6 Year Old Answer the Phone?”

Ummmm, no. That question was really asked of me recently. Do some wedding vendors just not get that this is a

business or are they clueless as to what a business is?

I truly didn’t know how to respond to the question. Where do you start to correct something like this? The question arose after a DJ had asked me to take a look at his business card from a marketing stand point. He asked me if he should risk putting his cell phone on the card. I told him if he wasn’t around his business phone most of the day then yes.

“Oh no” he said, “That is my home phone. I don’t have a business line.”

How many of you have just fallen into your business? Printed up a few business cards and thought you were good to go? More frighten, how many of you did that 10 or 15 years ago and are still thinking that way?

Think Like a Bride is here to keep you up on the trends in our industry, keep you clued in to your brides heads and spew forth marketing advice. I can’t help you if you aren’t at least looking at what you do from the level of a professional. Today’s brides are disenchanted enough and jaded enough that if they suspect for one minute that you are not professional they are never going to give you the time of day; or if they do they are not going to do it for anything but bargain basement rates.

If on the other hand you want great weddings and larger margins you have to look, sound and act like a professional. If you want today’s bride to hand you over a large check she wants to feel like you have it completely together, not some basement Betty just fooling around on the weekend.

Today’s bride is used to a certain level of professionalism when she spends top dollar. Additionally most of our brides have been in or at least exposed to the corporate world. They know how it works. I fear that many of the vendors I run across today have never been in that kind of business intensive world.

Even the simple things like proper business phone etiquette or how to put together a professional looking proposal seem to have fallen by the wayside. Proper spelling and language use count. It doesn’t matter how pretty you bridal bouquets are if your proposal looks like a 3^rd grader typed it you won’t get the good brides. Details matter to these brides. I saw one on line the other day complaining that a caterer she sent an inquiry to misspelled her name in his reply. Her comment “How hard is it to just cut and paste?”

If you want to make a living in this industry in 2010 then you have got to be thinking about it from a business like point of view. We only have 52 Saturdays a year.

Before you even begin to start thinking about spending any money on marketing your business take a good hard look at the little things that make a business’ image. I don’t want you to come to me wanting a brand image makeover if you aren’t already doing the basic things that make you look like a pro. No amount of money spent on marketing is going to work if when they do call your 6 year old answers the phone.

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