As wedding professionals, there’s little hurdle to hanging your business flag. A business license, a logo, some creativity, and a lot of grunt work and -viola- you have a business! But many times, wedding pros skip some important foundational steps when building their business.
Skipping over these cornerstones often leads to apparent weaknesses once the business begins to grow and attract more attention. Investing the time and energy required in building a solid foundation for your business is the single most important decision a wedding business owner can make to guarantee longevity and growth year over year.
Understanding and following the requirement of your state for running your business is so important. You’ll need to register and license your business as well as register the business with the IRS. You’ll receive an EIN number and paperwork stating that your business is legally established in the state. Because there is some cost to this, many businesses skip over this step in favor of taking clients and making revenue. But this cornerstone is the single most important investment you’ll make in your business when you’re first starting out.
If you’re not using an iron clad contract with your clients, you’re leaving yourself and your business open to litigation or at the very least refunding. Be sure that you develop a contract that protects you and your clients and that it is reviewed by a legal professional. You may also encounter copyrights, trademark, and licensing issues that will need the help of a lawyer. By establishing that connection early in your business you’ll always have a legal backing in the case of unforeseen circumstances.
Waiting till after you’ve spent an entire wedding season collecting payments and making payments isn’t exactly the best time to try to get your finances in order. Don’t hang your sign until you have a business checking and savings account, a checking and balancing software, and an invoicing system. These few investments will help you to get your accounting and business financing on the right path before you begin accepting new clients. This way meeting the needs of your clients, while keeping impeccable records, will be easy for them and will put a professional foot forward for you.
Blueprinting your business is an essential step in creating an action plan and strategy. A blueprint lays out the plans and procedures you’ll follow in building your business. It establishes what steps you’ll take and what is required to build a successful business. When you skip the blueprinting step in your business you find yourself “playing catch up”. You’ll be learning what you should have done-- not necessarily what you had planned that didn’t work. Without a blueprint or plan for growth and structure in your business, you’ll find yourself trying many different tactics and not knowing what has or has not worked. Creating a business blueprint keeps you accountable to an action plan, gives you steps for growing your business, and create strategies for working within your zone of genius.
Does your business have a solid foundation? Are you ready to build up your structures with a firm foundation? If not, take some time and row backwards a bit. Invest time and money into the above cornerstones and you’ll find that growing and scaling your business will happen more quickly, be easier to establish, and will keep your business structure from crumbling.
Kellie Daab, owner of iDo Collective, is a wedding business architect. She is the creator of the Wedding Business Blueprint process and provides services specifically to wedding professionals. Kellie has been working in the wedding industry for 12 years. She has owned her own wedding planning and design firm, worked in high end hospitality, and produced events for a multi-million dollar catering company. Kellie is the host of the free Facebook group Wedding Industry Opportunities and Collaborations. Her work can be found on Huffington Post, Preston Bailey, Evolve Your Wedding Business, Wedding Business Workshops, Aisle Planner, Brides, The Knot and many more local publications. Coffee is her spirit animal and paper products are her obsession.