Jun 8 How to Sell Weddings on the Weekend (When You Happen to Work Weddings All Weekend)

Couples: "We’d love to meet with you on the weekend to plan our weekend wedding that only happens on one weekend of our entire lives."

You: "I’d love to meet with you sometime during the week because I work almost every weekend on weddings that occur only on the weekend."

I kid, but the struggle is real, for you and for your potential clients. You may not work every weekend or every day of the weekend, but let’s face it, you might want a weekend off every once in awhile or to recover from a long day by relaxing. It’s difficult to schedule meetings in this 9-to-5 (and exceedingly 9-to-9) culture when your business hours are slightly more ambiguous or the opposite of most of society's schedule. You also don’t want to fall in the trap of working seven days a week just to appease your clients, or neglect to schedule time off so you can recharge and get back to the grind the following week.

Apr 11

Apr 11 WeddingIQ Retrospective - It's Not the Economy, It's You, Revisited

Guest Contributor

Mindset

(Editor's Note: Throughout the month of April, we're continuing our look back at the most controversial, highly-visited and deeply personal posts ever written on WeddingIQ. On the hot seat today is Jen's post from April 2012, "It's Not the Economy, It's You.")

It's no secret that, in its early days, WeddingIQ could be a pretty rancorous place at times. (Okay, occasionally it still is.) I wrote my posts with a lot of passion, and often with a very black-and-white view of how things "should" be.

Apr 1

Apr 1 Meeting Techniques for Making the Sale

Guest Contributor

Sales, Clients, Guest Posts

(Editor's Note: We're closing out the week with this great guest post from Kevin Dennis of Fantasy Sound Event Services. Read more about Kevin at the end of the post, and be sure to check back Monday for a special announcement regarding WeddingIQ!)

These days, the bottom line isn’t solely about having great products or services and making sure people know about them. Sales play an incredibly important role in the conversion of “I like you guys!” to “I want to book you!”

In fact, selling starts as soon as a potential client shows interest- from the ease of contacting you to the look of your office when they first walk in the door (that’s right- time to find a new home for all those mason jars peeking out from around the corner!). It should be your top priority to make sure prospects look forward to your meeting.

Mar 18

Mar 18 Flashback Friday: Are You Honoring Your Own Contract, Revisited

Guest Contributor

Wedding Industry

(Editor's note: Today, we're rolling out a new semi-regular Friday post series, in which we revisit some classic WeddingIQ posts to see how our perspective may have changed over time, and/or to provide some updated insight and resources on topics that remain relevant today!)

This month on the blog, we've been sharing content on topics related to the legal, financial and operational aspects of your wedding business. Of course, these are perennial responsibilities that we as business owners have to maintain consistently (which, admittedly, is sometimes easier said than done). We were fortunate to have attorney Autumn Witt Boyd share her knowledge of the importance of effective client contracts earlier this week, and another of our attorney friends, Annette Stepanian, has created a great set of customizable contract templates (with an exclusive afflilate link for WeddingIQ readers here!)

Mar 16

Mar 16 Contracts 101: An Attorney's Perspective on on the Importance of Client Agreements

Guest Contributor

Guest Posts, Legal, Clients

(Editor's note: Today's guest post was submitted by attorney Autumn Witt Boyd, who serves creative business owners in a variety of capacities. We're thrilled to have her valuable contribution to our monthly content theme of legal and financial issues.Read more about Autumn at the end of the post!)

You already know you need a written contract with your clients, right?

Contracts help both sides work together more smoothly, because there are no questions about what everyone has agreed to. It’s all there in black and white. No one has that feeling in the pit of their stomach about what could happen if things go wrong – you’ve already talked about it, and you both know exactly where you stand.