Is Your Wedding Business Stuck in Time?

‘Tis the season to start thinking about how to improve our business for next year.  To help us out, Andy Ebon, Wedding Marketing Expert, shares his knowledge, experience and thoughts with us in a two-part series:

Is Your Wedding Business Stuck in Time?

I am less impressed with the how many years a person or company has been in business.  I used to be.  I often confused ‘years in business’ with experience, growth and innovation.  It’s not the same.

Now I ask: “Does that person/company have 25 years of experience or 1 year of experience 25 times?”

People don’t generally stop learning or growing after their first year in business.  Maybe it’s five years.  Maybe it’s seven.  It’s different for different people, but stay one place or one mindset long enough and it does happen.

The tunnel vision – “We’ve always done it this way”– factor kicks in, at least temporarily, for many.

People are blaming their present woes on the economy, competition, and other assorted issues.  I suggest there may be other reasons.  The business climate simply exposes the weaknesses of companies, large and small.

Some things to consider:

• Is your business logo stuck in 1978?
• When was the last time you attended a local, regional or national conference, symposium or seminar on your industry specialty? (i.e. catering, balloon decor, DJ entertainment, etc…)
• When was the last time you attended a conference or seminar, specifically to improve your business, marketing and sales skills? (If you attended WeddingMBA, you get bonus points).
• If you are an owner or senior manager, do you subsidize continuing education for your staff?
• Do you have a paid consultant  or close confidants who will advise you in a truthful, useful, and helpful manner?
• Do you have time blocked out to construct a written wedding marketing plan for next year?
• Does your company have specific goals for product or service changes, growth, size reduction, operations improvements, or the like?

If you didn’t answer affirmatively to most of these bullet points, you and your business are probably stuck or drifting.  Your business could be running you.  Not the other way around.

Christmas ads are already visible.  It will be New Year’s Eve before you know it.

“What precisely are you going to do, so that next year is a better business year than last year or the year before?”

Please get back to me with some thoughts on that question by posting a comment.  In fact, I’ll be posting some of my plans for next year.  I don’t want to be, Do as I say, not as I do.

Andy Ebon
Wedding Marketing Expert
The Wedding Marketing Blog