Wedding Pro CEO | Building Profitable Wedding Businesses
Dive deep into the wedding industry and learn actionable tips from host Brandee Gaar and guest wedding pro CEOs that will enable you take your wedding business to new heights!
Uncover the proven strategies, insights, and stories of successful wedding professionals who have built thriving businesses in this dynamic and competitive market.
Each week, Brandee Gaar, a seasoned wedding industry expert and CEO of Blush by Brandee Gaar, brings you exclusive interviews with top wedding industry pros!
This weekly podcast is for wedding pros. Here from planners, venue owners, photographers, florists, caterers, djs, and more!!
You will gain valuable knowledge and practical tips on sales, marketing, branding, client management, and the latest trends shaping the wedding industry and the business leaders that create incredible events for a living.
Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, this podcast is your go-to resource for actionable advice and inspiration.
Get ready to elevate your business skills, learn from industry leaders, and discover innovative ideas that will set you apart in the wedding industry.
Become a part of the Wedding Pro CEO community connect with Brandee at brandeegaar.com
You will become motivated to transform your passion into profit, develop incredible processes and create unforgettable experiences for couples on their special day.
Are you ready to become the CEO of your wedding empire?
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Wedding Pro CEO | Building Profitable Wedding Businesses
307. Top 5 Beginner Mistakes Wedding Pros Keep Repeating
You didn’t start your business to stay stuck. If you're ready to finally hit 6 or 7 figures WITHOUT burning out — book a call with our team → https://weddingproceo.com/application
Are you accidentally holding your business back without even realizing it?
In this episode, I’m breaking down the Top 5 Mistakes that keep wedding professionals overwhelmed, overworked, and underpaid.
From mispricing your services to chasing the wrong clients—these are the things I see over and over again after coaching 1,000+ wedding pros.
The (FREE!)ASSUME Sales Training: 2x your wedding bookings in 30 days—step by step. Thousands of wedding pros have already used it to land more clients immediately! http://weddingproceo.com/freetrainingorg
A favorite book of mine: Profit First by Mike Michalowicz
Another favorite book of mine: Buy Back Your Time by Dan Martell
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EPISODE SHOW NOTES BLOG & MORE:
https://weddingproceo.com/top-5-beginner-mistakes-wedding-pros/
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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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Heads up, CEO! Some of the links I share may be affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission if you decide to purchase—at no extra cost to you. I only recommend tools and resources I actually use and love, and that I believe will help you grow a profitable, sustainable business you’re obsessed with.
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Mistake number five is the king of mistakes for new business owners, and it is the reason I see so many wedding businesses fail in the first couple of years, and it is Welcome back to The Wedding Pro CEO podcast. I'm Brandee Gaar, I'm walking you through the top five mistakes new wedding business owners make and exactly how to fix them so you can stop spinning your wheels and actually start making money. Most beginner wedding pros think being fully booked and hustling 24 7 is success, but behind the scenes they're barely hanging on. after coaching well over a thousand wedding pros, I can tell you this, the ones who stay stuck are repeating the same five mistakes and they don't even know it. Mistake number one is one of the worst, and it's because our industry has made this a total badge of honor. But thinking booked out is a flex. I see this on threads all the time where people are like, I am officially booked out for 2025, and I'm like, it's April. Like what? Why do we think that that's a good thing? So that means that for the rest of the year. You're taking no more bookings for this year and your revenue is completely capped for the year. Let's clear this up. Booked out is not a flex. If you're underpaid, overworked, and cannot take on any more high paying clients. You brag about being busy, but you're stuck in survival mode, and that's not the goal. What you need to do is raise your rates. Build in margin and hire a team so that you have capacity to scale. Booked out means capped out, and the reality is your business isn't scaling if you are booked out. The second mistake I see beginner wedding pros make is charging based on emotion not on math. Now, I personally did this for far too long in my business because I didn't understand how to calculate profitability of a service that really had very little. Overhead cost to it, right? And I would say things like, it's just my time. It's no big deal. But the reality is time is our most precious resource. and guessing what you should be making for each of those precious hours is leaving you burned out. You're guessing what your pricing should be based on what everyone else is charging and what feels. Fair, but that's not a strategy. That's complete chaos. If you're not doing the math, you're building a business on hope and not a paycheck. Instead, I want you to start with your expenses. I want you to understand exactly how much it costs you to service each of your packages. Then I want you to think about your. Income goals, how much do you want to make from your business this year? And how many hours does it take you to service each of those packages? That's how you're gonna understand how much you should be charging for each of your hours. And the last thing I want you to think about is how many events do you personally want to work each year? All of these things are gonna help you to back into your pricing so that it's not emotional and based on what everyone else is doing. It's literally math. And when you understand the profitability of your packages, it also helps you to sell from a way more confident price and your sales start to go.. Mistake number three is not And you guys, I feel like I talk about this until I'm literally purple, but you say things like, I'm just not booking enough. But have you ever asked why? Where's the leak? Where's the breakdown? Is it your inquiries? Is it your response time? Is it your consultations? Is it your follow up? Most new business owners never track this. If you're not auditing your sales funnel at every single step of the funnel, you're guessing and guessing doesn't pay the bills, it makes you feel completely out of control. Instead, here's the fix one. Look at your numbers. How many leads are coming in, and how many of those leads booked a consult? Number two, how many of those consults actually say yes, find the leak and then fix it? That's the way successful scaling business owners run their business. Okay. Mistake number four, I think pretty much every single wedding pro has done in the early days, that's saying yes to every client. And the reality is, while this is a mistake, and I wanted to put it in this episode because it's something I want you to grow out of quickly, I almost feel like in the beginning you kind of have to say yes to everyone so that you can know who you. Don't want to work with anymore. And so in the beginning you're saying yes to all these different types of clients, and some of them will literally make you wish you never started your business. But then you can look at the qualities of those clients and say, yeah, I don't think I want to work with that type of client again. But the mistake piece here is that too many wedding pros sit in this stage. For way too long and it's keeping you stuck. You're afraid to say no because you think money equals success. But not every client is worth the headache. The wrong clients drain your time, your energy and your reputation and saying yes to the wrong ones blocks the opportunity. You have to book the right ones. So here's the fix. Qualify your leads. Say no to red flags. protect your time like it's your most valuable asset because it is, again, we all do this and I think there's a time and a place for this mistake to actually be something you need to do, but quickly learn. What kind of clients do you love And what kind of clients make you hate the business you're building quickly start to qualify your leads. so you're only booking those dream clients. And the last one Mistake number five is the king of mistakes for new business owners, and it is the reason I see so many wedding businesses fail in the first couple of years, and it is not spending enough time on marketing. Marketing isn't optional. It's not what you do after you do all of the work for the day. It is the work. As a business owner, You're great at your craft, but if nobody knows about it, you're literally invisible and invisible doesn't scale. I know this saying is almost cliche at this point, but it is so true and I want it to get in your gut. CEO. If you're listening to this right now you're doing something else, tune back in because I am so passionate about this. Someone out there in your market. With half of your talent is booking your dream clients because you decided that you weren't great at social media or that you didn't have time to get online, or you did everything else in your day before you made time for marketing, and so you never got around to marketing. You are invisible. It doesn't matter how talented you are, how good you are at your craft, if no one knows about it. So get loud, get visible post reels, send emails, collaborate with other vendors. Go to networking events. Share your value daily. The businesses that grow are the ones people see. Over and over again. these mistakes are common, but you don't have to stay stuck in them. Just the fact that you're here listening to the strategies that we teach on how to build and scale a successful business means you care enough about learning how to build your business to get out of these mistakes. From this episode, I want you to pick. One of these mistakes that you might be stuck in, and I want you to dig in and get out of this beginner stage of business. Get out of doing this mistake Start treating your business like Hmm. And start treating your business like the CEO it needs you to be. And if you got anything from this episode, want you to hit the subscribe button and like, and comment on this video that helps us so much to be able to reach even more wedding pros as we're sharing these strategies on how to grow and scale your wedding business. And if you're feeling super generous today, I would appreciate it so much if you would take. Two minutes to leave a five star review on whatever platform that you're listening on. Our goal is to change the way the wedding industry does business so that we can actually start to ditch the overwhelm and build profitable, successful businesses. Thanks so much for being here, and I will see you next time.
