Monday, August 12, 2013

How to Start a Home Based Wedding Planner Business
There are over 2 million couples getting married each year and 15 - 20% of them are using the services of a wedding planner. Planning and organizing a wedding is a service that requires organization, personality, and professionalism. When starting a home based wedding planning service there are items that need to be put in place before the first client to be seen as a professional. Understand the business and become educated, prepare your business legally and your home functionally for starting a home business, and marketing the business.

Understand the Wedding Planner Business

Although there are no set educational requirement to become a Wedding Planner you need to know every aspect involved in a wedding and have the resources to fill those needs for the bride and groom.
Bridal shows are a good way to meet other vendors in your area that are caterers, photographers, seamstress, makeup and fashion consultants, florists, etc. Spend time at the shows, talk with these individuals, and begin collecting business cards.
There is a wedding planning eBook that would further your knowledge of planning a wedding and prepare you in all aspects of starting this home based business. (See Resource Section)
Become involved in any wedding that you can - friend, family member, co-worker, church member, etc. This will provide you first hand knowledge of what is necessary to plan a wedding.
There are Wedding Planner associations to join. These will provide up-to-date information for everything 'wedding'. Check out 'Association of Certified Professional Wedding Consultants', 'Weddings Beautiful.com', 'Association for Wedding Planners International', and 'JuneWeddingInc.com'.

Small Business Set-up

Although start-up costs are minimal there are legal items and home office needs to be taken care of (which all cost money).
Decide on a business name and register it with your state's Department of Commerce.
Decide if you will need insurance to cover any problems handling other individual's property.
Set up a place in your home for the office. This area is where you will work at but also use for consulting with your customers. You will need a desk or working area, computer with Internet access, phone (preferably with a separate line from the house phone), fax machine, copy machine, file cabinet and appropriate office supplies.
There are wedding planner associations you can join which will provide u[-to-date information in the field. These include

Wedding Planning Business Marketing and Public Relations

Every day you will have the opportunity to build your business and reputation in the wedding planning business.
Design business cards, brochures, and flyers. Give your business card to everyone you meet, provide brochures for those interested in your service, and place flyers at wedding related venues including reception halls, wedding fashion stores, wedding cake decorators, floral shops, etc.
The Internet is a 24 hour opportunity for marketing. Create a professional looking website and generate useful content in the form of wedding ideas, articles relating to all aspects of planning a wedding, and your specific services. Have a free gift or eBook for visitors to download in return for their first name and email address. You can then continue to market to them with deals, special events you will be at, and to be seen as the expert in the wedding planner field.
Create a profile on social networking websites such as LinkedIn and Facebook Place an ad on Craiglist for cities within your working radius.
Prepare a professional portfolio you can use to show potential customers. Include photographs of the flowers and the table settings to the catering and the choice of venue for all weddings you have helped to plan. Include letters of recommendation from satisfied clients, even if those individuals are family or friends.
This home-based business requires organization but also revolves around you and how you deal with people. Your face becomes the public relations tool you will use to create satisfied customers and generate new customers. Do your job well, communicate effectively, and be pleasant even when you encounter hard to please customers.

  • Costs To Start A Home Care Business

    www.homecarehowto.com/home-care-business-costs.html
    Starting a home care business cost. How much it costs to start a home care business. Home care franchises and memberships and independent agency
  • SMALL BUSINESS - Starting, Startup, Services

    www.businessnation.com
    START A SMALL BUSINESSS - Information for Starting a Small Business, Start-up Services
  • How to Do Desktop Publishing and Design

    desktoppub.about.com
    Explore free page layout and desktop publishing software tutorials, graphic design lessons, and articles for self-paced, self-directed training in all aspects of ...
  • How to start a Mini Cab / Private Car Hire Business

    www.cabmanagementsystem.com/How-to-start-a-Mini-Cab.htm
    How to start a Mini Cab or Private Car Hire Business Background. A taxi business is a potentially profitable venture that you can invest on particularly if ...
  • ROCK MY WEDDING, UK Wedding blog and planning website

    www.rockmywedding.co.uk
    The best UK Wedding blog for styling, decor, dress and groom ideas with vintage inspired, timeless, contemporary, modern, rustic and destination real wedding features ...
  • Wedding Planning Help and Wedding Ideas

    www.hitched.co.uk
    Our free wedding planning website and guides can help you with every aspect of getting married from the engagement through to your honeymoon. We have wedding ...
  • Invitations and Wedding RSVP Timeline and How To Reply To RSVP

    weddingwhoop.com/invitations-and-wedding-rsvp-timeline-and-how-to...
    Invitations? How's your Wedding RSVP timeline? When and how should guests reply to RSVP? We got the answers PLUS wording examples...
  • The Beehive Free help with money, housing, jobs, health and ...

    www.thebeehive.org
    The Beehive is a non-profit website with one goal: To help you improve your daily life with the latest and best free help, information and resources available on the ...

Tagged:

0 comments: