Ideas for Starting a Wedding Planner Business
Have you ever coordinated a friend or relative's wedding and thought to
yourself, "I wish I could do this for a living!" Or you may already be
in the event planning business and just want to expand your business to
cover weddings. If you are savvy and well organized, then one career
path you might want to consider is becoming a wedding coordinator.
The first question you may be wondering to yourself is "Is there
really enough demand for wedding planners?" Saving money is a critical
skill for wedding planning. An experienced wedding coordinator can for
example, save a a lot of money on flowers or favors by negotiating with
vendors. Many folks are too busy with work and doing other things to
plan the wedding without outside assistance. You have the ability to
assisist them with more important projects such as selecting their
wedding site to the smaller tasks like picking their wedding favors.
Wedding coordinators also develop event planning abilities that give
them the ability to plan a variety of events. This gives you the
potential to expand your business to include assisting with bridal
parties, birthday parties, anniversaries, and corporate events.
Knowing that wedding coordinators are in demand, you may ask yourself,
"Do I have what it takes to be a wedding planner?" Here are a few
questions you should ask yourself: Do you like people? Are you
organized? Attentive to detail? Creative? Patient? If so, you are on
your way to becoming a good planner. A successful wedding coordinator is
all of these and more. You must also be skilled at locating the best
vendors and negotiating discounts. If sales, bookkeeping and overall
financial management is not your thing, you might want to consider
seeking a mentor or outsourcing to someone to assist you.
Next, ask yourself, "Do I have sufficient cash to get started?". When
initiating a business, it is wise to have at least one year or two worth
of savings just in case it takes awhile to get things going. You may
need to volunteer or find a mentor at the beginning so make sure that
you have enough cash on hand to survive for weeks when you won't get
paid in cash but in experience. Training also can cost anywhere from
$500-1,000 depending on where you go. Additionally, research on the
Internet, read books on the subject and network with other people to
figure out how much you need to save.
Now that you know you
have what it takes to be a wedding planner, the next steps include
getting educated and/or experience in this area. Look for books,
courses, and information on business and marketing in general. You
should also contact wedding vendors such as flower shops, caterers or
even other wedding planning companies and ask if you can work for them
so that you can learn the business. Go to any wedding events and trade
shows and be sure to have some business cards ready. Think about all the
marketing opportunities and consider possibilities like networking,
forming partnerships with vendors, and word of mouth. Network with
marketing professionals as well as to help you form ideas on wedding
planning and promotion.
Inform friends and family that you are
interested in becoming a wedding consultant and offer to assist them
with anything event related. If you are currently working full-time,
offer to organize your office parties and corporate outings. Remember,
any experience you get planning an event helps. Be sure to document all
the work that you performed to successfully organize the event. This
will help potential prospects get a good idea of your abilities.
Acquiring experience in event planning is a wonderful way to network,
learn about wedding planning and is a big move in the right direction to
becoming a successful wedding coordinator.
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