Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Become a Top Wedding Planner - 6 Ways to Expand Your Wedding Planning Business

Once your wedding planning business gets established, you may want to expand and offer additional services and products so you can help your couples with more of their wedding needs, create long term relationships with them, and bring in additional revenue.

Here are 6 ways you can expand your current business:

1) Plan wedding related parties

You may already be doing this. While you are planning a wedding, you can plan the engagement party, bridal shower, bachelor and bachelorette parties, bridesmaids' luncheon, rehearsal dinner, after-party or post-wedding brunch for the couple or their families and friends.

You can also plan receptions for couples who have gotten married at city hall, eloped or had small destination weddings and want larger celebrations when they return home.

2) Social events

Don't think that planning a wedding is the only event planning your clients could ever want. Many people hire event planners for anniversary and birthday parties, retirements, graduations, bar and bat mitzvahs, quinceanera celebrations and large holiday parties. Keep in touch so they remember you when they need help planning events for these milestones in their lives or the lives of their families and friends.

3) Teach wedding planning to do-it-yourself brides

There will always be some brides who want to plan their weddings themselves. Why not help them by holding classes and sharing some of your expert advice? You may even turn some students into clients when they realize how difficult it would be to plan their weddings on their own.

4) Offer products

Carry a line of invitations, favors or gift items. There are companies that sell these items and allow you to be affiliates and dealers. You can sell on your website or, in the case of invitations, you can carry wedding invitation albums to show your clients and sell them just like they do in stationery stores.

5) Rent out party items

Small venues and party rental businesses in some cities do not have the appropriate high-end chairs, china and other items you need for weddings. Therefore, you may want to purchase the items and rent them to your clients yourself.

However, if you do decide to do this, make sure you have the ability to transport the items to your events and have the space to store them. If you have to rent space, do some homework and make sure you are able to recoup the monthly costs involved in renting a storage unit.

6) Plan destination weddings and honeymoons

If you have done a lot of traveling and have knowledge of wedding venues and romantic vacation spots in other states and countries, you might want to learn the travel business and help couples plan their destination weddings and honeymoons.

Remember that you do not want to stretch yourself too thin when you decide to add services and products. Your couples deserve your full attention for their weddings, and you should not be busy offering services that you do not have the time or the expertise to do with excellence. Also, if you are beginning to think about expanding, it is also time to think about adding employees to your business.

By : Sharon_Hill

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