RESCUE YOUR BIZ
Rescuing people’s businesses – that’s what we do!
But really that’s only part of what we do. For the most part I kind of think we’re just rescuing people.
I know the name of our business is kind of funny. We get a lot of funny comments about it, especially from people that don’t really understand the wedding industry or what we do at all.
For whatever reason, I always get the stupidest comments from “random dude” when I’m at a networking or various other event, when they find out the name of our company. Then some stupid joke typically follows. I typically smile and try to be gracious. I realize that I take what I do very seriously and random dude always thinks it’s a laughing matter.
They Just Don’t Understand
Random dudes don’t understand that this business is full of moms and dads trying to live their version of the American dream and provide for their kiddos, just like I do. This industry is full of work from home moms and work from home dads, people with kids and those without, people that are working to support their own parents – it’s full of hard working people that work super long hours and give up weekends and holidays with their own families so that two people can have what’s supposed to be the best day of their lives.
“Random dude” has never sat in someone’s office holding a woman while she cries on your shoulder. And random dude has never walked into anyone’s office for a consulting meeting to find that the husband and wife that own the business are on the verge of divorce and this meeting (that you thought was about marketing training) actually determines the outcome of whether or not they keep the business or close up shop that day. Oh, and by the way, whether they get a divorce.
Sounds crazy when you read it, but this has happened to us on more than one occasion. The first time this happened to me I couldn’t sleep for two days and almost threw up the entire time.
So when I tell people that our business name is Wedding Industry Rescue – I mean it.
Sometimes we rescue businesses but most of the time we rescue people.
We rescue families.
How We Became Business People In The Wedding Industry
The wedding industry is a world full of creatives, which are not notoriously known for their fabulous abilities as business people. Sure, we can sell our goods and services and send out an invoice when we need to get paid, but beyond that a lot of people in our industry really struggle with the day-to-day of running a business. We have a ton of passion about what we do and love working with our clients but that’s about the end of what comes naturally for most.
One of the smartest things that Shea and I ever did in our business, when we first started as wedding planners, was to hire a business coach.
Not just any business coach though. It was someone who knew the industry and was also wedding planner, a very successful one.
We listened to every single thing she said, read every blog she wrote, watched every video that was available from her, bought her programs – you name it, we spent our money on it!
And it was money well spent.
We thought we knew how to run a business because we had a history of running a successful business, but there are nuances about brides and grooms that we had not quite began to understand.
Why We Hired A Business Coach
Our first paid event planning job was as a day of wedding coordinator for a bride and she paid me $750. I was elated! Seriously, I thought that I was really making some money.
I know all of you wedding planners out there are cracking up right now, because you know that there is no way that that is a logical way to make a living – charging $750 per day of coordination. And I learned that really quick. After having booked several of these, it became pretty obvious that the math not quite add up in my own business needed a little rescuing!
That’s when I started looking for help.
Looking for help was the key to transformation in our business and our lives.
Had I tried to figure it out on my own I probably still be floundering. But we knew that we needed help immediately, if we were going to continue in this business, so we went looking for it.
This is the thing that I see most in struggling businesses.
They’ve been struggling for a while by the time they get to us. Sometimes years! But, for whatever reason, they just couldn’t take that next step.
Is it fear? Are they afraid to say out loud that they’re struggling. Is it embarrassment? Are they too embarrassed to admit that their business is in trouble? Is it pride? Will sharing their failures and concerns devastate their psyche?
I think it’s all of these, and sometimes more.
It’s terrifying to admit their failing something, especially something you love. Or maybe you’ve gotten to the point where you don’t love it so much anymore because you’re failing. And it’s a real blow to your pride to kind of throw your hands in the air and admit defeat. It cuts. It hurts. Sometimes it ends in nights where you cry yourself to sleep.
Crying Yourself To Sleep
You’re not alone here – I’ve had nights thread cried myself to sleep.
I think most of us have.
While I think it will be really cool to stand in front of everyone and tell everybody how awesome I was from day one and I was a success from the very moment that I started this business, it would be a lie.
But I’m able to stand up in front of people and say is that it took me a very short period of time to realize that I needed to make some changes.
And instead of languishing in business for months or even years on end, I took immediate action to cause change in my business.
And I really think that’s the biggest difference between success and failure – immediately recognizing what doesn’t work and taking immediate action to fix it.
Are You Insane?
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different result.
Man is that ever true!
If the last bridal show went badly, why do you think attending one more, with the same booth, and the same strategy, is going to help you? Is it because the show promoter is better at sales than you and was able to sell you on another booth for another year on something that you know isn’t working for you? Probably.
But now that you’ve paid for and made plans for the next show, what will you do differently? The last one didn’t work for you.
What will make this next one different?
Will you seek out advice from someone who did well at the show? Will you read more books on marketing and sales before the next show? Will you attend the next wedding conference to help you improve your business?
What are you going to do today to change tomorrow?
You have that ability every single day and every single hour and every single minute. You can decide in the moment, “I’m going to make a change”. You have the ultimate ability to help yourself, to get rescued.
You know in your gut whether things are right or whether things are wrong. And if you feel in your gut that things should be different for you then you need to find a resource to help you.
That resource might be us, it might be a business book you buy on Amazon, it might be your local wedding and event professionals group. It might be all of these things.
But you need to seek them out.
Why We Rescue Businesses
While it’s true that we market and sell training programs and SEO to the wedding industry, in an attempt to help other wedding professionals reduce the amount of time from start up to success, we actually have a really selfish reason for why we do what we do as well.
You see, when we help you, and when we help the rest of the wedding industry do things like increase their sales, increase their rates, better understand who their true ideal client is, and things like that, we’re also helping ourselves.
We’re in this industry too – we have a very successful wedding and event planning business in Austin Texas.
And when everyone around us increases their success, our success increases as well.
When we rescue someone’s wedding business and we’ve saved them from failure and from being yet another statistic, we bring the entire industry up. Every time you give great advice to a newbie and they follow it and improve their business, you’ve helped rescue someone’s wedding business and saved them from failure and from being yet another statistic.
And you bring the entire wedding industry up!
You see, helping people in this industry isn’t just about us.
It’s about helping all of us.
Anytime we can build up our neighbor, we can build up ourselves.
If you have a solid understanding of who your ideal client is and you are marketing only to them, you will not have a competition problem.
You will not have a problem with someone undercutting you on price.
If you understand who your ideal client is and you market only to them, you will not have a competitor – you will have allies.
And when your ally calls you for help you will help them. And when you call your ally for help they will help you.
Let’s not be an industry of cattiness and infighting. Let’s be an industry of humans that lovingly support one another, even the ones we consider our competitors.
By helping rescue one another we can turn our competitors into allies.
If you feel like any of our blogs or resources are a help to you in your business, would you be a help to your fellow event pros and share it with them?
We Know You Are Creative, But Are You Ready To Become A Business Person?
If you’re tired of doing the same thing over and over and not getting the results you deserve, then it’s time to take action. Follow the button below and let’s get started!
