It can be tricky to build a profitable wedding planning business. Too often, I find wedding planners focusing on volume. The more events they book a year, the better. While you do need to market yourself in such a way that once you fill your calendar comfortable, you are turning down potential new business, what’s more important is what you’re profiting per event – not how many events.
Also, there are a lot of hidden costs to running an event planning business – the last minute additional staffing needs when a wedding becomes a bit more complex than originally planned, or your bookkeeper needs to untangle a few unique expenses and bill you more money.
Here are two tips to built a profitable wedding planning business:
Strategize the Right Mix of Events
Loading up on coordination jobs makes you less money than booking a few less in number of full planning, for example. Look ahead and decide how many coordination, partial planning, and full you want to book in the coming year, and then develop marketing strategies to do just that. Write the goals down and check in weekly.
Large weddings like this one at Terranea, featuring over 500 guests, require lots of staffing; I factored this into my proposal from the beginning. Photo by John Solano, design and florals by White Lilac.
Protect Against Last Minute Costs
Client needs you to pick up their alcohol at the last minute – 1 hour from your office? Oops! Cousin Freddy invited his 50 friends, and the guest count shot up? Then the client has to pay more money in your direction. Have ‘change in scope’ and ‘additional services and fee menu’ sections in your contract. Mileage and staffing are hard costs and must be covered; also, your time is potentially a soft cost, but VALUABLE. These ‘little’ fees add up hugely, and can kill your profit or keep you from building a profitable wedding planning business till it’s too late.
I’m here to help you build a profitable wedding planning business!
Don’t hesitate to email me to share your thoughts, or pick my brain – I mean it! I offer a 20 minute consultation “discovery” call with anyone needing some insight or curious about consultation services – or just to chat! Absolutely no obligation. I’ve learned things the hard way and eager to share my hard knocks to help other entrepreneurs succeed.
Best wishes for a profitable enterprise. Happy planning!