Why the Promise of the “Perfect” Wedding can be Bad for Business
Kelly Simants here. I’m sharing my thoughts today on why it’s important to set the client’s expectations in regards to having the “perfect” wedding. Watch here:
Kelly Simants here. I’m sharing my thoughts today on why it’s important to set the client’s expectations in regards to having the “perfect” wedding. Watch here:
We’ve heard your calls! You want us to head to Houston for The Simple Plan, our business planning workshop! This will be the only Texas workshop for the rest of 2013 (and likely thru 2014). So – get on in there!
We are doing a PRE-SALE for this market through Friday, August 9th. (This is a great chance to get a good deal on this workshop!)
In two days, we will work with you to:
September 16-17, 2013
9:30am to 4:30pm each day
Location TBD – Houston
Visit The Simple Plan website to learn more and to purchase tickets!
Note: With a pre-sale, we must sell a minimum of 10 registrations by August 9th. See website for full details.
I have 2 rules when it comes to business finances:
But, here’s the problem… most creative business owners don’t follow these rules. (A HUGE round of applause to you if you do! YAHOOO!) Most small business owners are use the “ATM receipt” approach to managing money. (This is the financial strategy of making financial decisions based on your most recent bank balance.)
I am here to help.
I’ve been working with small business owners on their finances for the last 4 years (my background is in corporate finance). I love helping wedding businesses get where they want with their money! (You can read some of their feedback at the end of this post.)
What I’ve seen is that before you get into the bigger financial planning, most people need help navigating just the daily stuff. Basically: you can’t begin to make financial plans until you have the nuts and bolts of tracking your transactions (knowing your numbers). So… I am offering 4 different financial services that will help you become better with your money, wherever you are in the financial strategy game.
Here are…
(with my help!)
This is for the person that has all of their receipts for 2013 in a HUGE box and is waiting until tax day to deal with it. (ZOIKS!) That’s so much catch-up to do! Plus, capturing all of your transactions only once a year doesn’t give you the ability to make intentional decisions every month (or every day). On the other hand: Quickbooks TERRIFIES you! That’s where I come in…
I will get you set up on Quickbooks. I’ll set up the file for you and train you on how to use it. (As always, I’ll use our easy-peasy methodology so that you ‘get it’ and can actually do it.) Find out more about our Quickbooks Setup here. (And, if you are looking to purchase Quickbooks, do so here.)
This for those of you that have Quickbooks setup but don’t want to manage the bookkeeping (monthly data entry of transactions). If you want to outsource your bookkeeping, then I will refer you to snowy orange. You can read all about the deal they’re offering thru this week… click here.
This is the “personal training” version… aka: getting financially fit. Here’s the thing: you get super busy servicing clients (and you should be!) But, you may not always make time to work on the business side of things. You may not look at your financial reports (profit & loss, profit by client, etc.) Or – you may not know how to assess your business financially. This is where I can help. (I’m like your coach!)
I will give your business a “Money Checkup” monthly or quarterly… you decide. Read more about our financial accountability program by clicking here.
This is for the business owner who has been in business for a minimum of two years (OR for a start-up with a new concept they want to test.) You know where you want to be but aren’t quite sure how to get their financially. This is my SUPER strong suit. I will help you create a financial plan for the next 2-3 years. This is something that is customized depending on the needs of your business. (Pricing usually ranges $1500-$8000 and depends on the complexity of your business and the financial planning you need. Email me for a proposal.)
As always… feel free to email me with any questions. Happy to help!
– Michelle Loretta
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Some of my financial planning clients share their testimonials:
Blair Delaubenfels, President of Junebug Weddings
Sage Wedding Pros has acted as an important partner in the success of Junebug Weddings. They’ve helped us plan for the future and stay on track to long term profitability, and their no-nonsense, easy-to-understand approach to common sense business has given us a new perspective on business planning. We give Michelle Loretta and Kelly Simants 5 stars for business savvy and we highly recommend them to any company who is looking to increase their profits and overall success in this highly competitive market.
Yes, I would recommend you hire Michelle- NOW! Ha! She has been an amazing help AND helped turn my business around!
I have handled the finances for my floral design business on my own for the past 4 1/2 years. Starting last August [2012], she spent about 6 months analyzing the last 4 years of my business in quickbooks. With the cash flow plan, she took figured from the last 4 years and turned them into target spending budgets in all categories of expenses AND projections for the next 2 years. Her numbers were very very detailed. She took a lot of time to educate me and my in-house bookkeeper (who happens to be my assistant turned quickbooks gal).
I could go on and on about how everyone in the wedding business should hire her! I highly recommend investing in her services.
Alex Quintana, Owner of Quintana Events in San Francisco
Sage Wedding Pros has been my best investment of 2011. Michelle and I worked closely together to come up with a customized package for my company. I received personal attention, and not given templates. Michelle not only challenged me but helped me grow as a better business man. I’m happy to report because of Michelle’s goal setting and forecasting, we have already hit some of our 2012 goals! I can’t thank Michelle enough!
Let’s talk about your ability to make decisions. Are you indecisive? Are you non-committal? Do you have a hard time choosing colors for your website? Wording for your blog posts? Where to meet a colleague for lunch? And so on…
Why are people indecisive?
It often stems from a need to have things perfect. BUT – it doesn’t have to be perfect. It has to be DONE. (Done exceptionally well is always better than done perfect… because perfect never comes.)
Sometimes people are indecisive because they lack confidence. They don’t feel strong about the choices they make. (Read up on 10 ways to gain confidence.)
Other times, people have a hard time making choices when there are too many choices. (This is discussed in the book “Paradox of Choice“.)
And – it could just be a generational thing. The US Chamber of Commerce report on Millennials shares that “When gathering information and making buying decisions, Millennials rely on recommendations from peers and friends more than from experts.” (Millennials are know to make decisions by consensus.)
Be a Decider.
When you hem and haw over the simplest decisions you…
… risk never getting ‘it’ done. (whatever ‘it’ may be at the time)
… waste time.
… create frustration when working with others. (people want you to decide)
… lose credibility and strength. (in a nutshell: it makes you seem flaky or wishy-washy… and weak)
Practice Decision-making.
If you struggle with making decisions, then get to work. Everything takes practice. Start with decisions in your daily life…
When asked where you want to have lunch, give your opinion. Make it a strong one.
When given 1000 fabric swatches to choose from for a client, narrow it down to 5. Limiting the volume of choices makes decision-making easier.
Give yourself a time limit. For things that seem “larger than life” (eg: colors for branding identity) give yourself a hard deadline to make a choice. Make that decision and don’t look back.
PRACTICE CONFIDENCE. I cannot stress the importance of confidence when it comes to decision-making. Be strong in your ideas, opinions, choices.
What are your thoughts on this? Have you struggled with decision-making? What has helped?
This week, we’ve been discussing how to train employees. Once you’ve got your employee in place and they are now in charge of all these fantastic responsibilities, how do you ensure they are doing a good job? Quality control is a critical piece of your business operations.
The Employee Review
The Employee Review is your key to ensuring you have quality control. We recommend that you have a formal review process with employees every 6 or 12 months. You will assess two things:
1) is the employee reaching his/her goals?*
and
2) is the employee meeting or exceeding expectations as specified by his/her position?
(* this assumes you’ve set personal/career goals with your employee)
Get it on Paper
We encourage business owners to get this process onto paper. Have 5-10 criteria in the review that are important in your line of business. Have the employee self-evaluate their performance. This is an opportunity for them to identify their strengths and weakness. Then, you will evaluate the employee’s performance. Emphasize their strengths. Give the employee an opportunity to continue growing on their weaknesses.
This can be very eye-opening. You may learn that they want more responsibility and want to be more challenged. It’s an opportunity for you to reflect on what they are REALLY good at and maximize their potential.
On-going Feedback
You can also do a more casual review after each wedding (or after every order that you ship.) This will ensure that all the checks and balances are in place. In my stationery business, each order was reviewed by 2 people before it was packaged for the client. (There was an actual quality control review checklist.) This ensured that each piece of stationery that left my studio was of top quality. AND – get this(!) – my employees were also responsible for reviewing MY work. Quality control runs both ways.
What do you do in your employee reviews? Share in a comment below.
We have employee review templates and a load of other tools for hiring, training, and managing. Make sure to check out The People Plan for HR at your fingertips.
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