Have you written a business plan for your wedding planning business? You might dread the thought of making a plan because you’d rather spend your time planning weddings. But, knowing what you want your business to look like now, and in the future, and planning how you can get there is important if you want to become a top wedding planner.
In my Q and A, I offer an easy, and hopefully, fairly painless, way to write a simple business plan.
Question
I am writing a business plan for my wedding planning business and I am having a little problem putting it together. Can you guide me?
Answer
If you’re writing a business plan to help you clarify your business goals and direction and are not planning to share it widely, it doesn’t need to be as formal as the intimidating business plan examples that you may have seen online.
Answering these 7 questions will help you create your plan and start a successful business:
1) Why do you want to have a wedding planning business?
Describe the passion that drove you to want to be a professional wedding planner.
2) What is your big vision for your business?
Maybe you hope someday to be a wedding planner for celebrities. Maybe you want to help the brides in your local area have their dream weddings. Maybe you see yourself traveling and planning destination weddings all over the world.
Whatever your vision is, write it down and describe it in detail. If you don’t know what you want and can’t envision it, you won’t be successful.
3) Who is your competition?
Venues, florists and caterers who have wedding coordinators on staff may be the competition in your area along with other wedding planning businesses. Check them out, see what they offer, who they target and how they promote their services. You don’t want to copy them, you want to learn from what they do.
4) What services will you offer and who will be the brides who will hire you?
Don’t just decide to offer high-end services to brides with large budgets. Do some research, determine a niche and find out the services they want, need and will pay for that your competition may not be offering.
5) What will your business look like?
Decide if you plan to work part-time or full time, and where you will work, at home or in a rented office. Note the number of hours a week you intend to work, the number of weddings you want to plan in a year and the number of assistants you plan to hire.
6) How much to do want to make?
Decide how much you will charge for your services (refer back to my blog post on how to determine your wedding planning rates if you need help) and how much you will earn per year.
7) What are you going to do to make your plan a reality?
Review the answers to your questions and write action steps for creating your successful wedding planning business.
Your plan can change as your business develops so don’t be afraid to write your current plan then make updates as your business grows.
If you’re trying to get a bank to give you a loan, your business plan will need to answer these questions and more. Talk to the loan manager about the type of format the bank requires. There are templates online and some excellent software that you can purchase to help you write a detailed plan. Also, local government offices often offer free classes for new business owners on topics such as obtaining a loan, marketing and bookkeeping. Do some research and see how you can take advantage of their free assistance.
And if you have a pressing question about starting or running your wedding planning business, you can send me an email at questions@sharonhill.com. I’ll answer them on this blog or in my ezine, “Wedding Planner Tips,” which you can subscribe to here.
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