283. How to Scale Your Wedding Business Without Burning Out

Wedding pros, are you drowning in client work, hustling nonstop, and still not making enough? It’s time to shift from overworked to CEO. 

In this episode, we’re diving into the three key strategies to scale your business without burning out: systematizing and hiring, pricing for profitability, and focusing on what actually moves the needle.

CEO, scaling doesn’t have to mean burnout. It means building smart—so you can work less, make more, and actually enjoy your business.

I can’t wait to see you step into your role as CEO. Let’s do this! 

Book your free assessment now:

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EPISODE SHOW NOTES BLOG & MORE:

https://weddingproceo.com/scale-wedding-business-without-burning-out/

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Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the Wedding Pro CEO Podcast. If you find these strategies helpful, make sure to share this episode with your fellow wedding pros. And remember, in the world of weddings, it's all about building genuine relationships and showcasing your best work. Until next time, keep shining, CEOs!

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Have a question you’d like Brandee to answer? Ask here: http://bit.ly/3ZoqPmz

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Chapters

• 0:00 Feeling the Burnout?
• 0:57 Humble Yourself
• 4:42 Price for Profit
• 5:23 Pay Yourself
• 7:38 What Makes You (the most) Money?
• 11:09 Free Business Assessment

Transcript

Brandee Gaar: 0:00

If you're constantly buried in client work, saying yes to everything and feeling like you have to hustle, not stop, just to stay afloat. CEO, there is a better way because here's the truth. Scaling your wedding business shouldn't mean working more. It should mean working smarter. It should give you more freedom, more profit, and a business that runs without you being in the weeds 24 7. Hey there, CEO. You're listening to the Wedding Pro CEO Podcast, the podcast to help you grow and scale your profitable wedding business. I'm your host, Brandee Gaar, and over the last 17 years, I've built one of the largest planning firms in Orlando, Florida, grossing more than $6 million in revenue. In today's episode, I'm breaking down exactly how to scale your wedding business to six, multi-six, or even seven figures without burning out. We're talking systems pricing, and the biggest shifts you need to make right now to stop being overworked and to start being the CEO of your business. Okay. So step one is to realize you are the bottleneck in your business. Hey, it's me. I'm the problem. It's me, right? And once you realize that in your business, I promise you that's when the scale is gonna start to happen. So often when new wedding pros come into Wedding Pro, CEO, one of the first things we have to work with them on is the mindset of understanding that they are not the best at everything that they do in their business. And this is a really big hurdle because you start your business and you create the systems, you create the processes, you do all the things. And so you're so afraid to hand those over to someone else because you're like, what if they don't do it like me? What if it's not as good? What if things fall through the cracks? here's the reality. Things might fall through the cracks. They might not do it as well as you, but you know what actually starts to happen is they have a different diverse skillset than you do. And. Often what I see is that new team members actually bring brilliant ideas to the table. They might not do things the way that you do. They might have even better ideas than you had. They might do it better than you and dare I even say that. Most of the time. What we see is that because they are now focused on the one job that you gave them, or on the few tasks that live on their plate, they are so much better at it because they're laser focused. On those tasks, whereas you, as the business owner, as the CEO, are juggling so many things at once, you're often swatting, it flies. That's what I like to call it in our business when I see someone on our team or myself even, where I'm just trying to get things off my plate. So I do the minimum viable product and I just need it done. I need it done. And instead, we're not doing it well, right? This is a big one for customer service. I often see that when A CEO, a business owner comes into Wedding Pro CEO to work with us, and they're overwhelmed, customer service is the thing that is the most stressful for them because they know that their clients aren't getting the best of them because they're being pulled in so many directions. So once you realize that you are the bottleneck in your business. I promise you that you can start to then delegate tasks. You can hire people, you can create systems to take things off of your plate so that you are more focused. One of the things I tell my team all the time is that if there is any process or any task in our business that has my name attached to it, it's going to get stuck at that part of the process. And that's not because I'm lazy or because I'm just like, oh, I'm too good for that process. It's the simple reality of I can manage people. As the CEO, I wanna be able to manage our team. I wanna be able to mentor them. I wanna give them all the tools and resources that they need to do the task, to do the processes, but I simply don't have time in my day to day to manage the daily tasks that have to happen in our business. And what happens, and I'm sure you guys have felt this, if you're listening right now and you're just like. How does she speak into my head? It's because I have been where you are, CEO. And what happens is that all these tasks start to pile up and you know you need to get to them, but the reality is there simply aren't enough hours in the day. And so they take longer and longer and longer to do or they never get done at all. And that's where the customer service starts to fail. That's where things in your business start to fail. That's when sales start to decline because you're not doing follow ups quite enough. You're not getting back to people quite. Fast enough, we don't want this. We want you to understand that your business will scale when you start to put the team and the processes into place, because that is when you can start to have the freedom to bring on more clients, bring on more clients, and to serve them so, so well. So in this first step, what I want you to realize is you are the bottleneck in your business, and we absolutely have to fix that to be able to scale your business without burning out. Step two is to assess your pricing for profitability. Now, this one is such a big deal inside of our programs. We work with our CEOs inside of our programs on their pricing very, very early in the game. Because here's the thing, we can help you get. 10 times the leads you're already getting. We can help you double your revenue. But if the profitability isn't there, it really doesn't matter how many events and weddings that you're booking because you're still not gonna make any money. Like if you're only making$10 per event that you book, that's not enough to sustain your business and that's actually the problem. So I want you to really look at the profitability of your packages and to make sure that you're making money beyond covering costs. Now, one of the things that I see most often be the killer of this is that you, as the business owner, have not created a line item in your budget for you to be paid. Typically, we say, oh, our overhead isn't much at all, because I just have a few softwares and like a va, right? And I'm like, okay, but. You have to be paid something. And I hear all the time, well, I just get, I just take what's left over at the end of the month. And I'm like, well that's actually the problem.'cause there's never any leftover at the end of the month. Right. Or there's a very small amount. The reality is you are an expense of your business. Your business would cease to exist if you didn't exist. So if you can't pay yourself from that business, you shouldn't have a business. That's a hobby, that's not a business, right? So I want you to determine what is a fair amount for you to be paid. Every single month. Now that can be different depending on the stage of business that you're in, right? I'm 17 years into my business. I'm certainly paying myself a full-time wage. I pay my husband a full-time wage. The only income that comes into our home is. This business, these businesses.'cause we have multiple now, but that is how we get paid. We don't have any other way to get paid, so we have to make sure that our business can pay us every single month. Right. Otherwise, we're not gonna be able to pay our mortgage. We're not gonna be able to put food on the table. There's a trickle down effect. Right. But in the early stages of my business, I paid myself a very small amount, but from the very, very beginning, I always paid myself something every single month because what I wanted to see in my budget was a line item for me as the. Business owner, just simply for being the business owner. I want you to not think about like, oh, I can take, you know, $60,000 a year if I take this many weddings. No. How much is a salary for you, whether you take a single wedding or not? That should be your salary just for running the business. Now, that can be small. Maybe you pay yourself a thousand dollars a month just for running the business, and then you take a commission of every wedding that you plan. That's great. I'm so proud of you for doing that. But here in this step two, what I want you to just understand is that you are an expense of your business. Every single one of your services must be profitable. Can't just bring in a large amount of revenue. We need to make sure that there is enough profit to run your business month to month, including paying yourself a salary. And number three is to spend more time doing what actually moves the needle in your business. This is a massive downfall of businesses that stay small, is that you don't actually understand on a day-to-day basis what makes money for you and your business. So let me give you an example. A lot of times when I'm working with a new business owner inside of Wedding Pro, CEO, and I start to look at sales, right? Because sales is obviously what drives your business. If you don't have sales, you don't have money, you don't have profit, you don't have revenue, all the things that you trickle down effect your business is gonna fail if you don't have sales. So we start looking at sales, and I am thinking, gosh, they're getting a good amount of leads, a good amount of consults. I'm confused why we don't have higher sales. And so when I start digging into it, what I learn is that. This business owner is like, you know what? Honestly, we're only closing the people who reach out and then say, yes, I want to book you because I don't have time for follow-ups. And I'm like, but you're the business owner. What do you mean you don't have time for follow-ups? And they're like, I'm drowning in client work. I'm dealing with payroll. I'm hiring people. All the things they're wearing, all the hats. so what is getting put to the back burner sales? The very thing that actually is needed is necessary for your business to exist is getting put on the back burner. And this is something that I see so, so often in our industry is sales. And I would say marketing are also the two biggest things that are the crux of your business. Like if you don't have these things, you don't have a business. Those things get pushed to the side because you're. Buried in client work or you're buried in just like the day-to-day bookkeeping, making sure that your books are clean. Like all of those things actually cost you an obscene amount of money because you're losing sales, because you are not focused on the things that actually move the needle in your business as the business owner, as the CEO, your job, your number one job, and I would. Almost adventure to say your only job in your business is to be focused on growth and scale of your business, which comes down to marketing, sales, and team development. Those are the only three things that you as the business owner should be focused on. The second you can outsource bookkeeping, the second you can bring on a VA or another lead in your business. You should be doing that and you should be considering it an investment because every time you get something else off of your plate, you as the business owner are gonna be able to make more money for your business. I promise you, you are so much more valuable than the$15 an hour task that you're doing seven hours a day. You need to get out of the day to day you need to spend more time doing the things that actually make your business money. CEO. If you feel like you're always working, always overwhelmed and never making enough, this episode is your wake up call. You do not have to run your business like that. You can scale without burning out. And here's your action plan. Step one, systematize and hire. Step two, assess your prices and make sure that your services are actually profitable. And step three, spend more time on what. Actually moves the needle and makes you money in your business. If this sounds like where you are and you are so ready to scale your business in 2025, y'all, we are seeing the craziest wins come out of Wedding Pro CEO. Right now we have students that are hitting a hundred thousand dollars months. We have students that are vacationing and. Italy, why their company has two X'd their revenue, because their team, their systems are all working for them. It is absolutely crazy what is happening with our students. I'm obsessed with the wins that are happening over there. If this is you and you're like, yep, that's it. This is what I want for 2025. I wanna take back my business. I wanna make the money. I want to learn how to be the CEO. I want to invite you to book a gap assessment with our team. This is where we're gonna dig into your business. We're gonna see. Where things are falling through the cracks. Is it marketing? Is it sales? Is it profitability? Or do we need to start scaling your team? This is a completely free appointment. We are changing the way the wedding industry does business, y'all. We are over it. We are done with the overworked and the burned out our coaching team is here to say, let us help you. This is a completely free appointment if we know that one of our programs will be a good fit to help you hit this scale this year. We'll talk about next steps on how to do that and how to be part of Wedding Pro CEO. But to book that appointment, I just want you to head down into the show notes below, grab a time that works for you, and tell us a little bit about your business, and our team will reach out to get that gap assessment on the books. CEOs, thank you so much for being here every single week, and I will see you next time.