Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / 6 mistakes you are probably making in your wedding business!

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6 mistakes you are probably making in your wedding business! · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

0:00
Becca: If you're listening to this in real time, you will know we are in the
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middle of crazy busy season right now.
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It's the beginning of August.
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As I record this, it's crazy out there.
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There are so many weddings going on, which is a blessing after 2020.
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And also if you're like me and have kids, the kids are off
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school and it's school holidays.
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So everything's a juggle, but here I am recording a podcast.
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Just for you whilst my kids are in their swimming lessons.
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So maybe a little bit shorter than usual, but today we're gonna be talking about
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the six mistakes you're probably making in your wedding business and how to fix them.
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I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business, marketing expert, speaker, and blogger.
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And you are listening to the wedding pros who are ready to grow podcast.
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I'm here to share with you actionable tips, strategies, and real life
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examples to help you take your wedding business to the next level.
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If you are an ambitious wedding business owner that wants to take your passion
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and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business, doing what you
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love, then you're in the right place.
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Let's get going with today's episode.
0:59
If you are a long term, listener to this podcast and you find it helpful.
1:03
You enjoy listening to it while you are out for a walk or a run or in the car,
1:06
or you just like the information that I'm sharing with you and have found
1:09
it have an impact on your business.
1:11
I would love you to help me out.
1:13
Perhaps you can go ahead and share it with a wedding industry, friend, or
1:15
colleague, maybe share it in an industry group that you are in right now and tell
1:19
people it exists and that it can help them grow their wedding business for free.
1:23
All they need to do is search wedding pros.
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We're ready to grow in their podcast.
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Player, whether that's Spotify, Amazon, apple, or somewhere else.
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And they'll be able to find all of the episodes, including
1:33
this one it's summer holidays.
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And I just don't have loads of time to market it.
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So anything you can do to help people find the podcast and hear
1:40
these great resources is amazing.
1:42
The other thing you can do, which massively helps me out is
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Who's already done that for me.
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And again, if you're not a long term listener and you're new to this, make
2:02
sure you've hit the subscribe button.
2:04
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Every Thursday, a new episode is released a mixture of interviews and chats
2:09
with me and all sorts of other things.
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So do go ahead and subscribe.
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So you never miss out on.
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Okay.
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Without further ado.
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And before my kids suddenly return from their swimming lessons, let's
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dive into the six mistakes you are probably making in your wedding
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business and how to fix them.
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Now, if you're new to my world, you probably won't know that we are a
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little bit open and honest here.
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So.
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Even if you feel like, oh my goodness, me, I'm making all of the
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mistakes Becca's just mentioned, please, don't beat yourself up.
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In fact, reach out and let me help you let other people in the community help you.
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We're not here to pretend we are perfect.
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We're probably all making some of these mistakes and there's
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always way we can improve.
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We are all on a journey and you are on that journey too.
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So it doesn't matter whether you are at the beginning of that journey, or if
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you've been on the journey for a while.
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Always mistakes that you're making that can be improved upon.
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So let's dive in then to number one.
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Now, number one is not having a sales plan, not having a sales plan.
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This surprises me so much.
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When I talk to people, I ask them what their goals are for next year,
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what their goals are for the rest of the year, how many more weddings
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they need to their fully booked.
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And sometimes they just stare at me kind of blankly and don't
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know what I'm talking about.
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Now, if we were.
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Industry as in a proper job, not that your wedding business, isn't a
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proper job, but imagine you're in a big office, you are in a sales team.
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You've got a boss above you.
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You couldn't just say to that boss.
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Oh, I don't know how many things I'm gonna sell next month because
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they would've set you a target.
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They'll sell to you.
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They'll say to you that you need to sell this many of whatever it is
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that you're selling, and you need to do it by the end of the month.
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They'll be tracking it through the month.
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And if you don't hit that target, you'll be having to give them an answer as to
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why you're gonna have to make a plan.
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You're gonna have to work out how you're gonna sell those items, whether it's cars,
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shoes, radio, advertising, whatever it is.
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However, when it comes to our wedding business, we seem to
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forget about this kind of system.
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We just think, well, we'll just wait and see what comes in and hope for the
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best I'll book, as many weddings as I get inquiries for and can convert.
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And that is true to a point, but actually there's a lot of proactive
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work we can do to put it out there.
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And also we can end up overbooking ourselves if we're not careful.
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So it's really important.
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You think about how many weddings you want to book we're in the middle of August.
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Now, if you're listening to this in real time, while you've got a few more
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months left to the end of the year, September, October, November, December.
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So how many weddings do you want to sell in those few months?
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And as you look forward to 2022, what would fully booked
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look like for you financially?
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How many weddings do you need to take on how much money do you need to
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make, to break even to make a profit and to be happy and content for 2020.
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Three, not 2022.
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It's really important.
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You set yourself goals and targets and not having any kind of sales
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plan can mean you just kind of drift along and never actually get
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proactive and get anything done.
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So if that is you it's okay, but start thinking about a plan.
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Now, if you need help doing this, you can do it one to one with me, reach
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out to me via Instagram on a DM, and we can look at a one-to-one session or.
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Booking some time in your diary to sit in a quiet place, go through
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your finances, look at how much it's costing you to run your business.
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Find out all of the packages that you sell and how much
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that you are charging for them.
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And start to do the numbers, crunch some figures and work out.
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Okay.
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If I wanna earn this much, once I've paid off all my expenses, then this is how
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many weddings I need to take for 20, 23.
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Uh, it's as simple as that.
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And then you can start breaking that down through the year.
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How many inquiries you need to make to get that many bookings, et C.
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But don't go into the next year or even the last few months of this year
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with absolutely no plan whatsoever.
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The people who do this can then say, actually I'm fully booked and
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then they can close their books.
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It doesn't matter whether fully booked for you is five weddings or 500 weddings, you
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need to work out that number for yourself.
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But the most important thing is make sure you have a plan.
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Okay.
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The next mistake that I see people making all of the time is over on social media.
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So my second mistake today is being too pretty and never selling yourself.
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I know many of us don't think we are too pretty do we?
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We're very hard on ourselves, but I'm talking about your
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business, not actually you.
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Now, what I mean by this is when it comes to your social media
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posting, have a look through your last couple of weeks of posts.
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How many of them.
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Been just generally inspirational or real weddings or pretty.
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And how many of them have actually had a clear call to action or a sales
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message in them now in the wedding industry, we like to be nice and pretty
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because that's what people buy, but ultimately if we wanna sell a product
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or service, at some point we have to do some selling and we can get to a point
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where we're doing too much entertaining and showing people inspirational
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and pretty things and not enough.
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So, if you are not selling regularly on your account, have a look through
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your recent posts and think about how you could have added a clear
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call to action onto some of them.
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Now, I'm not saying every post you make should have a clear call to action
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and sales message cause you don't wanna sell all of the time after all
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social media is for being social, but.
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But we don't wanna go too far the other way, which lots of you do, which is never
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actually telling people what to do next.
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So calls to action can be as simple as if you still need to
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book a Florist for your wedding.
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Send me a direct message now.
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Or if you still need to book your wedding cake, why not book a consultation, the
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links in my bio, or to book us for 2023.
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Send me a message, whatever it is that you want someone to do, give them a clear
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call to action and ask them to do it.
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Sometimes if you give them that call to action, they may just do it.
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Even if it's a call to action, you did a month ago or even three weeks
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ago, someone different might see it.
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Someone may be in a different place in their buying journey
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and ready to take action.
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If we never ask people will never do it.
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So make sure that occasionally through the week, two, three times a week
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on your posts, you have got clear calls to action and sales messages.
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If you wanna sell more weddings in winter 2022, over the next few months.
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Tell people on social media say you've still got availability for this Christmas.
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Say you've got availability this winter and had people considered having a
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winter wedding say, if you're still looking to book your wedding cake or
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your wedding flowers or your wedding dress for this Christmas, get in
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touch with me via direct message or.
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Fill in the form on my website, wherever your clear call to action is, but you
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have to give people that clear call to action if you want them to act.
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So that's your task.
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Go back, look through the last couple of weeks of posts on your social
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media page and look at what percentage of them are just pretty posts and
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what percentage of them are actually having a clear call to action.
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Asking people to do something to make a sale.
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We don't wanna be too pretty and never be selling, but also we don't wanna
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be selling every single day either.
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So make sure you've got a balance.
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Okay.
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The third mistake that I see people making all of the time is ghosting.
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Now I'm not talking about ghosting as in clients ghosting you.
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Oh no.
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I'm talking about a problem where wedding pros ghost their own.
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Clients not me.
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You say I would never do that.
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Well, honestly, I think all of us do it from time to time.
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We have all of the best intentions, but then sometimes we just
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forget to reply to emails.
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I know I've done it myself.
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And if you are out there and I've not replied to your email, I'm so sorry.
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Send me another email because I honestly don't mean to ghost you.
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It's either gone into my spam or I've just got too busy and forgotten
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and there's no excuse for it.
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So send me another one.
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Now you might think you never ghost your clients, however, All
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do it and we need to avoid it.
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There's nothing worse than emailing someone and then not getting a response,
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especially when we're trying to inquire or book or pay the money for a service.
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I recently was trying to book a pizza van for an event that I was
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running and I contacted them via email, via social media and by phone.
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And they never got back to me.
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And if I'm honest, it left a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.
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Now it may be that they're really busy.
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They didn't have time to do my event.
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They also felt like maybe they didn't wanna do my event.
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They weren't interested in me.
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I tried multiple forms of communication and I never got a response.
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Do you think I'll ever try them again?
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Absolutely not.
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Will I ever recommend them to someone else?
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Definitely not.
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And would I tell people like I am on this podcast?
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It's not great service.
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Yes, I would.
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Although obviously I'm not gonna name, check them here,
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because that would be unkind.
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Now I know people have different things going on in their lives and you do as
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well, but it's really important not to ghost people and to keep in communication.
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So, for example, if you go away on holiday or you're gonna be slower to reply than
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normal, why not pop on a little out of office onto your email so that people
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know why you're not replying to them.
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If you see an email and you can't do the date of the wedding, have
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something saved in your drafts where you can email back and say,
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thank you so much for your enquiry.
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Unfortunately, I'm.
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Already fully booked for this date.
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If you change the date, let me know.
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If not, here's a couple of other recommendations of people who may be
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available on your date, although you can't do the wedding, that's super helpful.
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You've been in communication and you've helped them out.
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So they're gonna remember you now, if they do change their date or they want your
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services on another date, then they're much more likely to get in touch with you.
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If you've ghosted them entirely.
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I promise you.
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They're never getting back in touch.
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It is so frustrating as a consumer when people ignore you.
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So make sure you're not ignoring people.
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If you can't respond quickly, put on that out of office, let people know,
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or send an automated response or have something saved in your draft.
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That just says, thank you.
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We've received your email.
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We've got a big backlog of inquiries, but we will be with you
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within 14 days within seven days.
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If people know.
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What they can expect from you then you won't annoy them when you
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just don't say anything at all.
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Well, it's kind of frustrating.
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Now on the flip side of this, I know that sometimes our replies can go to junk
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mail, which can be difficult as well.
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So maybe someone's inquired with you.
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You've replied to them and your reply has gone to junk.
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Now, one way to avoid this, um, is try and send things directly from your.
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Email now Hotmail email addresses do have a particular problem with this.
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So if you're sending an email to a Hotmail, just beware
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that it might go into junk.
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If you've got any other way with communicating with people, if they've
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left a phone number, uh, or if they've got their social media handles or anything
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like that, then maybe try and drop them a message on an alternative channel.
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And even maybe put out a post or a story occasionally on your social media
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saying just like I did earlier, if you haven't heard back from me, I'm so sorry.
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Sometimes my emails go into junk.
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Send me a message on here and let's chat.
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So you're giving people alternative options, but the most important
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thing is don't ignore people.
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Don't make that mistake.
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I've given you loads of alternatives, so there's no
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excuse for ignoring them anymore.
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Okay, let's move on to mistake.
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Number four.
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Now I realize we are jumping all over the place and this is a marketing mistake.
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I see many of you making now what happens, especially when we're early
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on in the wedding industry is obviously we're taking all kinds of work.
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Perhaps we're taking whatever work we can get, because we
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just need to pay the bills.
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But in our head we have an aspiration.
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We have an ideal couple.
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We know we want to be doing more destination weddings or
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more weddings in Manor houses.
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Perhaps we wanna be doing big London weddings rather than local hotel
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weddings, but we have a problem.
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The problem is right now, we are doing the weddings that we are doing and
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not the weddings that we want to do.
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So when we are posting on our social media, we're showing footage and,
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and pictures of the weddings that we're working at because we're
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busy and we want to show people.
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But instead of showing people the weddings we want to do, we're showing people, the
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weddings we're currently doing, and guess what that attracts it attracts other
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people having similar kind of weddings.
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So for example, if you're doing loads of weddings at the holiday Inn in
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Milton Keynes, and you keep posting about being at the holiday Inn and
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Milton Keynes at these kind of weddings, chances are other people getting
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married at a similar kind of venue will see your pictures and think, great.
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They look like a photographer for me and get in touch.
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Now there's nothing wrong with doing weddings at the
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holiday inn in Milton Keynes.
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Of course there's not.
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But if you are actually wanting to do weddings in Greece, or you're wanting to
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do weddings in London, or you're wanting to do high end luxury weddings, then from
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a marketing perspective, you have to show people what you want them to buy from you.
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So this is where style shoots can be amazing.
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If you want to do a certain thing and you haven't been booked
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for that kind of wedding yet.
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Well then why not create it for yourself?
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Create a style.
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In that style of wedding work with venues in that style.
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Go ahead and second shoot for someone who's already working
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at those kind of weddings, make sure you credit both people.
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There's all sorts of ways you can do this, but the most important thing is
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you have to show what you want to sell.
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Now I used to work with a fabulous photographer, um,
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who was a member of mine.
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And she went and did a style shoot abroad in Mexico.
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And that got published in a number of places.
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She shared it all over her social media, and guess what started to happen?
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People started inquiring about whether she could come and shoot their wedding.
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In Mexico.
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Now, before that shoot, she'd never had those inquiries.
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Why?
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Because people didn't know that she was happy to travel abroad, happy to
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travel to Mexico, to shoot your wedding.
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However, when you start putting stuff out there, people see the gorgeous photos
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of you taking photos in Mexico, and they're planning their wedding in Mexico.
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Guess what?
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They're more likely to reach out to you.
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So you have to show people what you want them to buy from you.
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So if you're sitting there feeling like you're stuck in that rut right
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now, then you need to write down.
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Actually you want to achieve from the weddings that you want to shoot out,
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or that you want to make cakes for or flowers or whatever service you have and
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work out a way that you can start showing that in your marketing, even before
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you've been booked for those weddings.
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Now that doesn't mean you don't take on these other weddings that maybe don't
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fit into that category, but it means you don't necessarily use them all in
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your marketing or use them in a clever way so that it's still showing people
15:56
that aspirational side of your business.
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It's really important.
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If you wanna move your business forward, that your marketing reflects that before
16:04
you get booked for those weddings, otherwise it's like a chicken and egg.
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You'll keep saying I'll change my marketing when I get booked to X, Y,
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Z, but you'll never get booked to X, Y, Z, because your marketing's not
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showing people that you want to be.
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Okay, we've gone through the first four mistakes.
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Hopefully you are feeling okay.
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If you've made all four of these mistakes, please, don't panic.
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It's a learning process.
16:26
Don't rip everything up and change everything.
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Now just change one thing at a time.
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It's okay to keep getting these things better and better and better.
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Being in business is a journey we're always learning
16:37
and none of us are perfect.
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Okay.
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So the fifth mistake I wanna talk to you about, and again, I see this all
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of the time and it drives me crazy is not automating enough in your business.
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We are all busy people.
16:51
We're busy in life.
16:52
We're busy and work.
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Some of you are juggling a full-time job alongside your wedding business,
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perhaps alongside a family or pet or other activities and hobbies, all sorts
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of things are going on in our lives.
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And yet we are not helping ourselves.
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By automating more things.
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Now there's a ton of stuff that you can automate in your business
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to make life easier for you.
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It could be your booking process using a software, something like studio
17:16
ninja or light blue, or, uh, Dubsado so that it takes people through your
17:22
contract, in your booking process and makes life simpler for them.
17:25
It could be that you automate the sign up emails when people sign up
17:29
at a wedding show so that you don't have to sit down that show and start
17:32
writing all the emails to everyone.
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It's all automated through a.
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It could be.
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And this is the most important one that you automate people
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booking in for a call with you.
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If you don't currently have some kind of calendar, Calendly is a good example
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or perhaps another software that you use already has a calendar integrated.
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Please think about setting it up.
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One calendar on Calendly is free and therefore it's a no brainer.
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You don't have to pay for it and it's really simple to set up.
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Now, the reason this is so good is because anytime someone wants to book
18:04
a call with you or book an appointment with you, you can just send them the
18:08
link to your calendar and they can choose the time that suits them, that it
18:12
also shows what time you're available.
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So they can't book in when you're not available.
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Now, this saves you so much time going backwards and forwards on email
18:20
saying, could you do next Tuesday?
18:21
No, I can't do next Tuesday.
18:23
Can you do next Wednesday at 10:00 AM or no?
18:25
Sorry.
18:25
I'm at a doctor's appointment.
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Could you do Thursday at 3:00 PM?
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And before, you know, you've wasted loads of time going back and forward.
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However, if you send them a link where they can quickly and
18:34
easily see your diary, match it up with theirs and book in.
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Oh my goodness.
18:38
Me.
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It's gonna save you so much time.
18:39
If you haven't already got this set.
18:41
I urge you go away after today and get it set up.
18:45
Then you can send this every time someone inquires with you and you
18:48
wanna move them onto the next stage.
18:49
You can have this link on your website, so people can just book
18:52
straight in for a call with you before even sending an email.
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It shortens the process and it makes everything easier for you.
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And for them also, if you use something like Calendly you can integrate it
19:03
with your calendar on your phone.
19:05
So you can put in appointments and it'll block out your unavailability
19:08
and you can also set it up.
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Automatically links with like your zoom account and sends them a link to join
19:14
you on zoom, you can send follow up emails to remind people about the call.
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There's so many ways you can save time doing this.
19:21
So if you haven't already set up a Calendly link so that people
19:24
can book an appointment with you.
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Please consider doing that.
19:27
Now I promise you it will save you so much time and then have a look
19:31
at other areas of your business.
19:32
Are there other things you could automate?
19:34
Are there other ways you can do things which are quicker and slicker?
19:38
Perhaps it's using QuickBooks to send invoices rather than
19:40
manually making invoices and having to chase them all the time.
19:43
There's loads of great systems out there.
19:45
They don't have to cost you a fortune, but make sure.
19:48
Automating more things in your business to free you up to do the things you love.
19:52
You don't wanna be sitting on your email all day and all night
19:54
trying to arrange meetings.
19:56
So set up that calendar link.
19:58
And if you're stuck with it, send me a message and I will help you.
20:02
Okay.
20:03
That brings us on then to the final mistake and good news.
20:06
My children are not back from their swimming lessons yet, but I know
20:09
that we are running out of time.
20:10
So the final piece of information, the final mistake is don't
20:15
confuse your customers.
20:17
So mistake number six, don't confuse your customers.
20:21
Now I'm gonna tell you another story about where someone has gone totally
20:25
wrong in this area, and hopefully you don't do anything as confusing as.
20:30
So I'm going to a wedding in a few weeks time, and I thought it'd be nice for
20:33
me and my family to stay in the hotel.
20:36
Now, the couple told me that there was a special rate.
20:38
If you were going to their wedding, a special room rate where guests get the
20:41
room cheaper, which sounded great to me.
20:43
So I thought, great.
20:44
I'll treat us the family to a night in the hotel so we can relax at the wedding.
20:48
We can have a few drinks and we can stay.
20:51
So I asked the couple how I went about booking this room and they said, you
20:55
just got to contact the hotel, say you're coming to X and X's wedding on this date.
20:59
And they will sort you out with the special rate.
21:02
So I confidently phoned up the hotel and said exactly what
21:05
they told me on the phone.
21:07
And they said, we're really sorry.
21:08
We can't deal with this with you on the phone.
21:10
You need to send an email whereby they gave me the world's
21:13
longest email address to contact.
21:15
This is back in June.
21:16
I sat down, I composed an email saying all of the details, the
21:20
dates, the person who was getting married and asked to book the room.
21:25
No response.
21:27
I waited and I waited and I waited, no response.
21:30
Four weeks went past and I still hadn't had a response.
21:33
Or if I had, maybe my email had gone into their junk or maybe
21:37
their email had gone into my junk.
21:38
I know I thought I'll pick up the phone again.
21:40
So I went back to the hotel.
21:42
Picked up the phone rang again, got through to someone.
21:45
Now this time they said, oh, you need to speak to reception.
21:48
So they put me through to reception.
21:50
Great.
21:50
I thought we're one step closer.
21:52
Now, when I got through to reception, they said, we're really sorry.
21:55
We have to do this via email.
21:58
Here we go again.
21:59
But this time they gave me an alternative email address.
22:02
They promised me it would go straight through to them at reception and
22:04
they could deal with it immediately.
22:06
I asked them to acknowledge my email so that I knew that they had had it.
22:10
Yes.
22:10
They said, send us the email.
22:12
We'll acknowledge it.
22:14
Guess what?
22:15
I got off the phone.
22:16
I sent the email.
22:18
And no response, no acknowledgement and no response at all.
22:22
Now I'm getting quite frustrated at this point because I just wanna spend my money.
22:25
I wanna book the room.
22:26
I want it sorted and no one's getting back to me.
22:29
So I tried a different tact this time.
22:31
I decided to phone up the hotel another week later and go through to the
22:35
weddings department because I figured I'm going to a wedding, the wedding.
22:40
Uh, department of dealing with the couple, the couple have said they get a
22:43
discount as part of their wedding package.
22:44
Maybe the wedding department can help me.
22:46
So I went through to the wedding team and I spoke to a lovely lady.
22:50
She was really friendly, but then she said, we can only
22:52
deal directly with the couple.
22:54
Now, obviously a couple getting married.
22:56
Don't wanna deal with my room inquiry so this isn't going
22:59
to help me very much at all.
23:01
However, she said, you need to speak to reception.
23:04
Here we go again, to try and book your special rate.
23:07
Definitely be able to help you.
23:08
I explained that they hadn't helped me so far, but she assured me it would be fine.
23:13
She'll put me through to reception and they'll help me immediately.
23:17
And then she hung up.
23:19
Well, maybe she put me through to reception, but it
23:21
definitely hung up on me, and
23:23
there we go.
23:24
Now, six weeks after I sent the initial email and after all of these phone calls,
23:30
finally out of the blue, someone came back to me, however, They'd made the process so
23:36
complicated that by this point I'd given up, I'm not gonna be giving them my money.
23:40
I was ready to pay my money and book the room, but now I'm
23:44
gonna go for an alternative.
23:45
Why?
23:46
Because I don't want the hassle and they've confused me and
23:49
they've been complicated.
23:51
And to be honest, they've given me the runaround, which I don't have time for.
23:54
Now, why am I telling you this story?
23:56
Because it's so simple for us to get confused with our own processes and to
24:02
end up sending people round in circles.
24:05
Now, if you've got a customer that is inquiring with you, like I was
24:07
to the hotel and ready to give you some money, you want to close
24:11
that sale as quickly as possible.
24:13
Now, when I made the initial phone call, I would've paid there.
24:15
And then on the phone for that hotel room, but actually they've lost
24:19
a couple of hundred pounds from me by sending me on a run around
24:22
their process is too complicated.
24:23
And nobody seemed to know how it worked properly.
24:26
They need to go back to the drawing board, simplify that
24:28
process and stop losing money.
24:31
and it's the same for you when someone inquires with you, they're
24:34
actually interested in giving you some money ultimately, and
24:37
buying your products or services.
24:39
So you need to give them a really clear route guided through.
24:42
From that moment, they make the inquiry right through to giving you the money.
24:46
It needs to be clear.
24:47
You need to give it to them one step at a time, and you need to follow
24:49
it too, so that you're not confusing your potential customers and possibly.
24:55
Out.
24:55
So think right now, what is your buying process?
24:58
If someone comes to you today and says, I've got some money and I'm ready to book
25:02
something with you, what do you do next?
25:05
Do you send them loads of questions on an email?
25:06
Do you say, sorry, I can't deal with you on Instagram.
25:09
You're gonna have to send me another email.
25:10
Do you say, sorry, I can't speak to you on the phone, but if you ring this
25:13
person, they'll be able to deal with it.
25:14
Do you tell them to go and send a form on your website?
25:17
How can you simplify it so that you don't give your customer the runaround.
25:21
If they contact you on Instagram messenger about booking, then chat with them on
25:25
Instagram messenger and try and get them to the point of booking a phone call
25:30
and then send them the link to book.
25:32
Don't tell them to go away and fill in a form somewhere else, because guess what?
25:35
They might not do it.
25:36
And you might just lose them, make your process and your booking
25:40
process as simple as possible.
25:41
You want that gap from the moment they inquire to the moment they give you
25:44
some money to be as short as possible.
25:47
Because the longer you leave it, the more likely they are to change
25:50
their mind, find someone else or go along with somebody else.
25:53
And the more work you are putting in which may not come to fruition.
25:57
So take a look at your processes.
25:59
Are you confusing?
26:00
Your customers is your customer journey too complicated.
26:04
And are you clear on it yourself?
26:05
Or could you tell me clearly in a few sentences, step by step, how someone
26:09
goes from making an inquiry right through to making a payment and a booking.
26:14
Don't be like that hotel and stop losing your customers.
26:18
Okay, before we finish.
26:19
And before the kids get back from their swimming lesson, let's quickly recap those
26:23
mistakes that you are probably making.
26:24
Again, first up, not having a sales plan and not knowing how
26:28
many weddings you even need to book for next year to be fully booked.
26:32
Secondly, being too pretty and not selling enough.
26:35
Are you giving clear call to actions and sale messages on
26:37
some of your social media posts?
26:39
Thirdly, ghosting your customers or your potential customers.
26:43
Are you getting back to people in a timely manner?
26:45
Are you replying to them?
26:46
Even if you're fully booked.
26:47
Go for it.
26:48
Don't ignore them.
26:50
Next up is showing people where you want to be, not where you are now.
26:53
So if you wanna be doing bigger and better weddings, you've got to be showing bigger
26:56
and better weddings in your marketing.
26:58
People can't buy what they can't see.
27:00
So you need to change it.
27:02
Number five is not automating enough.
27:04
Are you making your life more complicated than it needs to be?
27:07
Or could you be using some of these free or cheap tools to make life so much
27:11
easier for yourself and your customer?
27:13
And finally, mistake number six is being too confusing.
27:17
Having mixed messages about what people need to do next and not giving them
27:20
a simple plan to walk from a, to.
27:23
Now you may be making one or all of these mistakes, but it's okay.
27:28
I'm here to help you.
27:29
If you need help.
27:30
After this podcast, reach out to me via DM and I will talk to you and
27:34
help you work out what to do next.
27:36
Whether it's sending you a resource, giving you some advice over Instagram
27:40
or suggesting that you book onto one of my programs, I'm here for you.
27:43
Don't suffer in silence.
27:44
And most importantly, don't beat yourself up.
27:47
We're all on a journey and you.
27:49
Got this, I'll see you next week.