Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / Do you need a freelancer in your wedding business?

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Do you need a freelancer in your wedding business? · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

0:00
Becca: Do you ever look at your to do list and feel totally overwhelmed?
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It feels like a never ending list of tasks.
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Put on top of that a busy wedding season where you're out delivering
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and delivering things for couples.
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All of a sudden, you just can't understand how on earth you're
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going to keep this business going.
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How can you keep doing all of the tasks, all of the marketing
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and keep your customers happy?
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Well, if that's where you're at, perhaps it's time to consider Freelancer.
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That's what today's episode is going to be all about.
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I'm Becca Pountney, wedding business marketing expert, speaker and blogger,
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and you're 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
0:41
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.
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Using freelancers in my business has been revolutionary.
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I cannot tell you how much it's helped me.
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And it may be that you need to start considering that for yourself as well.
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So in today's episode, I want to talk about freelance work, how you
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know when you might need someone to come and help you out and be a
1:13
freelancer for you, how to find them.
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And how to pick the right one and also how you can sort out the tasks that they do.
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So if you've been thinking about a freelancer or perhaps it's not
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even on your mind, but you're just feeling overwhelmed, then this
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episode is going to be for you.
1:28
Now I think there's a few different stages when it comes to your wedding business.
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When you first start out, you're really fresh.
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You have this idea of starting a business.
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You throw everything into it because you don't have any clients yet.
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So you've got time to build your portfolio, time to post on social
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media, time to build out this beautiful website, write blog posts.
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All of the things that we say that you should be doing as a marketer
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trying to market your business.
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Now, the great thing is that when you put that work in, it starts to gain
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traction and you start to get some work and the weddings start coming in
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and you keep on doing the marketing.
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The weddings are coming in.
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Now you've got to deal with wedding administration, contracts, payments, and
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then of course delivering on the day.
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And before you know it, you go from someone that's got very few clients just
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starting out with all of the time in the world to do your marketing to being
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so fully booked or so busy servicing your clients that all of a sudden
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the marketing falls by the wayside.
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Now, the problem is if we let it go entirely because we're busy because
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of the nature of the way the wedding industry works, because we're
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always working on seasons, if you're letting your marketing go now, then
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that's going to have a knock on.
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Impact in a year or two years time in terms of couples booking
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you because they're not knowing that you're out there and visible.
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So if that is you, if that resonates and you're now at that stage two of
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your journey where you've got bookings coming in, you've got frequent work, but
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you're doing everything on your own, then maybe it's time to think about hiring a
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freelancer to help you in your business.
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Now, when is the best time to hire a freelancer?
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This is a question I get all of the time and I think often
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people leave it too late.
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I would say you need to hire a freelancer when you feel like your to do list is
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constant, you've got business coming in, and you're still doing all of the tasks.
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Because if you leave it until you're absolutely desperate, you just
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won't have the headspace to train someone up, you won't have the time
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to bring them into your business.
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And then you're kind of on this hamster wheel where you're just keeping going
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because you don't have time to bring anyone into the business, but you
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also don't have time to do everything.
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So sometimes we need to take it a step earlier and think, right, actually,
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I want to hire someone now as a freelancer so that I can teach them,
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get them up to speed on my systems.
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Cause I can see next season is getting busier and busier and It's important to
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know that when you hire a freelancer, that just frees you up to do more of
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the activities that you're good at.
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So I think you need to know when you want to have one is when you've got tasks that
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you're doing all of the time, they're taking up a lot of time where actually
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you could be using your time better spent elsewhere, bringing in more work,
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delivering the work that you've got, or even looking at raising your prices.
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So if you decide that you want to use a freelancer, where
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are you going to find one?
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So when it comes to this, there's a few different options.
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Now, some people will go straight to a website like Fiverr and try
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and find something really cheap.
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I have tried this in a few different ways for things like one off projects,
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graphic design, and it is cheap, but it is also very hit and miss.
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So this probably wouldn't be my number one option.
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Instead, I would suggest that you've got three different options.
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Number one.
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Speak to your colleagues in the industry and find out if anyone else is using
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any freelancers and get recommendations.
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Post in my free Facebook group wedding pros who are ready to
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grow, or if you're in my members lounge, feel free to ask in there.
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Often the best recommendations come from our fellow wedding pros.
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They then know that they can trust that person.
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And that gives us more confident that that freelancer might work for us.
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So that's the first place.
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The second place is using an agency, just like I set up.
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So I set up the Wedding Pro Agency to solve this problem, to help you
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find freelancers that I can trust, that I've trained up, so I know that
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they're going to do a good job for you and at an affordable rate for you.
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So you could come to me by the Wedding Pro Agency and I will
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set you up with a freelancer, one of my team to work with you.
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The third option is to just go out there and find someone for yourself.
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So you could advertise on your local Facebook pages, local Facebook
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groups, and just say that I'm looking for someone approximately this many
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hours a week on a freelance basis.
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If you're interested, apply directly.
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Now, of course, this comes with its own hurdles because you're then
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going to have to do a full interview process, find the right person, work
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out all the contracts, et cetera.
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So it's not necessarily the.
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Easiest option, but it can be the most flexible because you
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get more autonomy over who you get and what you want them to do.
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So there's three main options.
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Ask other people come to me at the wedding pro agency or an
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alternative agency or thirdly go out and find someone for yourself.
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Now, it's really important to understand the limitations when we're talking about
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freelancers, because sometimes I think people think if I hire a freelancer,
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I'm hiring someone to work for me.
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And that's not strictly true.
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You have to be really careful that you're not acting in a way that's not ethical
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and perhaps trying to do something called cloaked employment, which is where
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you're trying to employ someone as a freelancer just so that you don't have
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to do all the things like sort out the maternity leave and pay tax and all of
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the things you'd have to do if you're an employee or if you had an employee.
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So if you are going to use a freelancer, it's really important that you are
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not expecting them to be an employee.
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So if you're to hire a freelancer, for example, they can choose their hours.
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They are self employed themselves.
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So you couldn't say to someone, you need to work for me every
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Wednesday between nine and 11 a.
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m.
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because that's an employment contract.
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The other thing is they need to be flexible where they work from a
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freelancer is their business, they can work from where they want to.
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So again, it's working from their own home, their own
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bedroom, in their own hours.
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So you could say to them, for example, you know, I'd love you to work approximately
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four hours a week for me, but then it's up to them when those four hours are.
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So you can't expect them to be available at your beck and call.
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The other thing is with a freelancer, they don't have to work with you exclusively.
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Again, it's their own business.
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They are self employed freelancing for you.
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So therefore they may have multiple clients that they're
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working for, as well as you, and you can't stop them doing that.
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It would be unfair because they're a freelancer, not an employee.
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If all of these things feel like, Oh, that's a lot of rules.
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And that's not why I want to stick to, then perhaps it's an employee
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you need to look at rather than a freelancer, but that's a whole nother.
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ball game.
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So at this point in this episode, all I'm talking about is freelancers.
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So the kind of contract you would have with a freelancer is you'd say,
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right, I'm going to take you on to do my social media as a freelancer.
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It's going to be four hours a month at this amount of money.
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hour.
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And as long as it gets done at the end of the month, then I'm happy whenever
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you work and wherever you work.
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And they then invoice you at the end of the month for the hours worked.
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Or if you come through the agency, I would invoice you for the hours worked.
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And then that's it.
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You pay that.
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And then they, as a freelancer are responsible for their tax and
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declaring their income because they are self employed as their own
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business as a freelance contractor.
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So that's what you need to understand if you are going to take on a freelancer,
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you do need to be clear on these things.
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So you've decided you want to find someone, maybe you've put an advert
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out, maybe you've come to me at the agency, what are we looking for when
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it comes to hiring a freelancer?
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Now I've put a few things down on a list here and they may
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not be the things you expect.
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Because in my experience from working with a number of freelancers and some amazing
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people over the last four or five years, is it's not all about past experience,
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although that can sometimes help.
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For me, it's much more important that they are easygoing, that I get on with
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them, that there's no friction there, that they're not difficult to work with.
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And I think you can get that impression from someone quite early on.
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Another thing that's really important to me is that they're a self starter.
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The whole reason I want to have freelancers working for me is because
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I don't have time to do everything.
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And so if they have to come and ask me before they do every task, that's
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not actually saving me that much time.
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So I'm always looking for people that can just get on with it, who are.
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Take what I say to them and run with it and can bring in their own
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creativity and ideas into that as well.
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I'm also always looking for a good communicator.
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I want someone who replies to my emails or messages fairly quickly, doesn't just
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go off grid, is willing to tell me if there's been a problem or if they're not
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feeling very well, or they're going to be delayed, or they're going on holiday.
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All of those things I really rate because it's much more important that
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you have good communication with your freelancer and they're honest with
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you rather than someone that just disappears off the face of the earth.
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And again, you can tell that beforehand how quickly they respond to any
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emails or messages you talk about when you're talking about maybe
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giving them an interview or asking for pricing, that kind of thing.
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So look at how well they communicate with you.
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And then I do want someone savvy.
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Now, tech savvy comes in all sorts of different forms and it
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is going to depend on what tasks you want them to complete for you.
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But for me, I don't need them to know everything.
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I just need them to have an idea.
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So for example, I don't necessarily need a freelancer who is totally.
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trained in Instagram and Facebook, but I do want someone who uses the
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platforms, understands the platforms, knows how to navigate them, knows
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how they work as a consumer.
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Now, why am I saying that?
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Well, for me, I've got the ability to train them in the areas and train them
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in the way that I want them to do things.
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So as long as they've got a good understanding of Instagram I can
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then train them on how I want them to post for me as vicinity weddings,
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or for me as part of the agency, I can talk to them about the hashtags.
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I can talk to them about the scheduling and I can teach them all those things.
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They don't necessarily need to know that before they start the role, but
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they do need to be easygoing, easy to get on with good communicator and have
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a bit of tech savvy about them as well.
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So I recommend looking for similar kinds of things.
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Don't base it all just on employment they've had before.
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I think the culture and the personality of the person is the most important thing.
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If they're willing to learn and willing to be creative and passionate
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about what you do, then they're going to be a great fit for the team.
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So once you've found the right person, the next thing you really need to think
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about is the tasks that you want them.
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to do.
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Now, I believe this is an exercise in itself for you to do before you go ahead
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and take someone on is to work out what on earth are they going to be doing?
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How can they help you on a regular basis and alleviate things from your plate?
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Now, one thing before I go into the list of tasks they could be helping
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you with, one thing you need to think about is this, just because
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you can do a doesn't mean you should.
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Sometimes we think we can hire freelancers for things that we don't know how to do.
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So for example, we might hire someone to do our SEO because we
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just can't get our heads around it.
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But things like social posting or sending emails or replying to
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inquiries, well, that's easy for us.
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We can do that.
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So why would we hire someone else to do that?
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Well, actually, just because you can do it doesn't mean it's a good use of your time.
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So I want to flip that round and say, Actually, in your business, you would be
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better off speaking with clients or going live on Instagram or going out for client
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meetings or meeting with venues to try and be recognized rather than being behind a
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computer and doing administrative tasks like uploading posts to social media or
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perhaps sending email inquiries back to people who've inquired via a directory.
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That is a task that somebody else could definitely do for you.
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So the kind of tasks I want you to identify that could be
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done by a freelancer, first of all, are repetitive tasks.
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Anything in your business that is repetitive and happens regularly is a
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great thing to get a freelancer to do because you can just teach them how to do
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the process once and then they can get on.
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and go ahead and do it.
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For example, in my business, obviously I have my podcast and I have a
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freelancer who edits the podcast.
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It's a repetitive task because the podcast comes out every Thursday.
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I upload it, they get it from their Google drive, they edit it, they put
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it back in the Google drive and then he sends it to me and he is phenomenal
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and amazing and it saves me time.
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It gives him work and All is well.
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Now, if I was only to do a podcast once a year, then that
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wouldn't be a repetitive task.
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But because it's happening every week, it's a great thing to get
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a freelancer involved and doing.
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Perhaps you're getting lots of inquiries into your inbox
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via a directory every week.
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That's a repetitive task where you're having to go through them
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and chase them up and email them.
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Or perhaps that's something a freelancer could do for you.
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Or as we said, social media posting, social media posting is one of the
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easiest things I think to outsource to a freelancer because it does
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take a lot of time and it allows you to be visible constantly.
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Which shows that you're open and available to couples, even when you're
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in the depths of wedding season, because they can see your social
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media, they can see things going out.
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Therefore they make the assumption that that's you posting it and you're available
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and out there and ready to talk to them.
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So social media posting can be a really good thing.
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Now I am going to caveat this because I actually think social media posting
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is a good thing to outsource and by that I mean posting on the grid.
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In the agency, we will take on your Facebook posts, your Instagram posts
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for your grid will post you five times a week using your content, using your
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messaging, using your calls to action.
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But we also recommend that you are still there on the account, doing things like
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stories behind the scenes while you're at events, showing yourself, bringing
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some personality into your account and also Instagram reels as well.
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So.
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That doesn't mean that you can't outsource half of it and keep the other half either.
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So consider outsourcing the grid posting part of your social media, but keep
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hold of that personality injection of the stories and the reels as well.
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Have a look through your tasks at anything that's not customer facing.
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Start with everything that's customer facing probably needs to fall to you
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because there will be some things that you can do and should do better than someone
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else in your business at this stage.
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So have a look through your task list, write down everything that you do on
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a weekly and monthly basis and look at the things that are not customer facing
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that perhaps someone could do for you.
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For example, drawing up contracts or inputting data into a piece of
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software or sending out a weekly email newsletter, anything like that.
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There's not customer facing that's that could be done by someone
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that's not you is the perfect thing to outsource to a freelancer.
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And then the other thing that you should consider aside from all your daily
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work tasks is actually you can get a freelancer to do other things in your
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life that are not business related.
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So, for example, what about.
16:11
Hiring a cleaner.
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I've talked on this podcast before about how having a cleaner has been one of
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the best things for me in my work and my business, because it would have taken me
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a whole day to clean my house as well as she does it in a couple of hours and I
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can continue doing my work tasks while she does what she's really great at and sorts
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out my house and everyone's happy for it.
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She's happy because she's got a new client and she's earning money.
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I'm happy because I can get my work done and be productive
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and me and the family are happy because our home feels clean and.
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So, there's other areas of your life that you could hire a freelancer for,
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such as that, perhaps it's for you, it's ironing or laundry, perhaps it's childcare
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you need a little bit of help with.
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Sometimes we think all freelance things need to be admin tasks in
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our business, but actually if we're super busy and overwhelmed, we can
16:59
outsource other things and there's absolutely no judgment for that.
17:04
The other thing that you can hire a freelancer for, which is slightly
17:07
different, is for a one off project.
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Again, this is something we do at the Wedding Pro Agency.
17:13
So for example, if you've got a wedding show coming up and you want to set up
17:16
a form that people can fill in on the iPad, you want it to automate with maybe
17:20
three or four email replies that go out to people after the wedding show.
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And you know you want to do that, but you just don't have the time to go ahead
17:28
and sit down and write all that up.
17:30
Well, that's the sort of thing you could outsource as a one off project.
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So you could come to me.
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the agency.
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Explain that to me.
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I would give you a price, approximately 150 for something like that.
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And then you would send me the details.
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We would do the work for you.
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And while you're busy doing something else, Hey, Presto, it's built for you.
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You now have that ready to go to use the show to make sure your response
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times are really fast because they're getting auto followups.
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And you can now just relax and enjoy being at the show and chatting to people.
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So if you do have one off projects like that, like updating things on your
18:03
website, maybe it's a blog post once a month that you need to help with,
18:07
then you can also hire a freelancer or a freelancer via our agency to do
18:12
those kind of one off tasks for you.
18:14
So it doesn't necessarily have to be something that happens.
18:17
every week and it doesn't necessarily have to be a long term commitment.
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Okay, so now we've decided we need the freelancer.
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We know what we're looking for.
18:26
We found the right person.
18:28
We've identified the tasks.
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How can we get the most out of that person?
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How can we make sure this relationship really works and how can we make sure
18:37
this Business relationship is benefiting you, the business and the freelancer.
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Well, the first thing is that you need to try and train them in those tasks well
18:49
so that they don't need constant input.
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So have a look at that task list of things you think, yeah,
18:54
these are repetitive tasks.
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So for example, writing a blog post, train them in how you would do that.
19:00
Show them the system.
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Show them practically how you would do it, how you would upload it, how you would
19:06
write it, if you want them to write it, how you would source images for it, if
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you want them to source images for it.
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Demonstrate it to them once, then give them the task.
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Explain to them you need a blog post written once a month.
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It needs to go out on the first Saturday of the month.
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It needs to be approximately this many words.
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Here's a list of topic ideas and let them run with it.
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Yeah, you might want to check them the first couple of times they do it.
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Yes, you might want to check them every time, but you need to just.
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Give people a really clear instruction and then let them run with it.
19:34
The second way you're really going to benefit is finding
19:36
really streamlined systems.
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So this is something I've learned over my years of having freelancers
19:42
is the more streamlined the system is, the better it's going to work.
19:46
So for example, I've got lots of Google sheets, Google documents, Google
19:49
drives with things that help me and my freelancers communicate with each other.
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So for example, one task that I have on my list of things for
19:57
freelancers to do is to add new.
19:59
people, new suppliers onto vicinity weddings.
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So if someone applies to be on vicinity weddings, now they fill out an
20:06
application form, the application form auto populates into a Google sheet that
20:11
I can see, and my freelancer can see.
20:13
When I go into that Google sheet and look at the applications, I still want to
20:17
decide who makes it onto the site and who doesn't, I want to keep standards high.
20:21
So I go through that list and I either color code everyone on that sheet.
20:24
Green or I send them red.
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Green means yes, put them on the website.
20:28
Red means no, unfortunately not.
20:31
Now at any point, my freelancer can go into that sheet in her own time and she
20:35
can see the ones that I've made green and then she can do her part of the
20:38
tasks, which is taking that information out of the sheet, putting it into
20:42
vicinity weddings website, and then she comes back into the Google sheet,
20:45
marks it blue so that we know it's done.
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Now that might sound long winded and complicated, but actually
20:51
it's a really simple way.
20:53
That I've communicated so that we can both just get on with our
20:55
tasks as and when we get time to do them without having to constantly
20:59
message each other back and forward.
21:00
And I don't have to say to her, Oh, have you done this?
21:03
Have you done that?
21:03
Cause I can go into the sheet and I can see whether it's done or not.
21:07
So if you set up systems for the tasks that you want people to do, for example,
21:11
like I talked about the podcast, if you have templates that you want them
21:15
to send out to inquiries, have them saved on a Google drive somewhere or
21:19
a Google doc somewhere where they can.
21:22
contact them or set up a Google sheet where they can input customers and explain
21:26
how many times they followed up on that customer for so that you can go into that
21:29
sheet at any time and see where they're at, what they've done and what's going on.
21:33
And they can be autonomous and get on with their work in their own time.
21:37
So streamlined systems really, really do help for our social media management
21:42
that we do at the wedding pro agency.
21:44
Each client.
21:45
So each of you that comes on board with us, we set you up a Google drive.
21:48
We explained to you how to use it.
21:50
You put all of your content, your branding, everything into that.
21:53
My freelancers can then access that and they can pull from that to
21:57
create the content for you, which then goes out on social media.
22:00
So you're not having to tell them every single post you want written.
22:03
You're not having to tell them what you want to see all of
22:05
the time on your social media.
22:07
Yes, of course you can have input, but also the whole
22:10
point is to free up your time.
22:11
So instead you can just let them take the information from you and
22:15
get on with it and then just give feedback as and when you need to.
22:20
The third thing to get the most out of your freelancer is to give autonomy.
22:24
I think it's really important, especially because they're freelance, but also
22:27
just to respect them as an individual, that you don't try and micromanage them.
22:32
I know it's difficult because we know our businesses inside out and they are
22:35
our babies and we want to protect them.
22:37
But sometimes we have to let go and realize other people will
22:41
be able to do the tasks the same as us or better than us.
22:45
Sometimes, and that's okay.
22:47
And we need to just lean into that because we can't do all
22:49
of the things all of the time.
22:50
For example, I know I can write really great blog posts.
22:53
I wrote some really great blog posts in the early days of vicinity
22:56
weddings, but I just don't have the time to do that twice a week anymore.
23:00
And so I outsource that to somebody else.
23:03
That doesn't mean that I can't do that, or I'm not good enough to do that.
23:07
It just means I have.
23:08
My priorities in other places and there's other things in the business
23:11
that I should be doing and I can just allow someone else to do that.
23:14
And again, I give them autonomy.
23:16
I let them get on with it and then I just go in and have a look from time to time.
23:19
And the more that you go on, the more you trust them, then you don't need
23:22
to keep looking at all of the stuff.
23:24
And the business machine is wearing all of this great stuff is happening
23:28
and it's freeing you up to do other things and bring more money into the
23:32
business and service your clients better.
23:34
So do give them autonomy.
23:36
You don't want to be contacting them.
23:38
all of the time expecting them to reply to you straight away like an employee.
23:41
If that's what you want, you need to employ someone
23:44
rather than use a freelancer.
23:48
The next thing that I suggest is really think about how often you're
23:53
giving them work and have realistic expectations for your freelancer,
23:58
especially when they're starting out.
24:00
If you've been running your social media for six months and you get the occasional
24:04
Instagram message, if you suddenly get a freelancer to take over your social media.
24:09
to ease up your time.
24:11
It doesn't mean you're suddenly going to go get like a thousand
24:14
more inquiries into your business.
24:15
They're just taking the task that you were doing off of your hands and
24:19
continuing it on in the right fashion.
24:22
So don't expect miracles from your freelancer.
24:25
They're not there to sell for you.
24:26
That's your job.
24:26
They're there to take some tasks off of your hands.
24:29
And also have realistic expectations about how much they can do in
24:32
the time that you have them for.
24:34
So if you've said to them, it'll be approximately four hours a month.
24:38
Be realistic about what they can achieve in four hours a month, because it's
24:41
not that easy for them to just pick up and do everything in the short time.
24:45
And they're not expected to work outside of those hours.
24:48
Otherwise you need to compensate them for it.
24:51
So be realistic, set targets.
24:53
So for example, I will say to my freelancers.
24:56
This is the task I need you to do.
24:58
I expect it should take you approximately this many hours to do that task each week.
25:03
If you find that you're going over that by a long way, reach out to
25:07
me, let's chat, let's find out why.
25:08
But really, I should think you should be able to do it in that time or under.
25:12
And they almost always do.
25:14
So set expectations, tell them what you expect, but be
25:17
realistic with those expectations.
25:20
And the final thing, which is really important for anyone, really,
25:23
especially freelancers working for you, is to give them positive feedback.
25:27
We're giving them the autonomy, we're letting them go, and if you're anything
25:30
like me, the better job they're doing, the less you speak to them, which is
25:33
really good because we're so busy.
25:35
Actually, they can then start to worry they're not doing a good job, and we can
25:39
find that we're only ever reaching out to them to tell them when something's gone
25:43
wrong, because obviously, when there's a typo or a missing link or something
25:46
like that, you may have to reach out and say, Hey, I've just noticed this.
25:50
Can you change it for me?
25:51
Which they'll be happy to do.
25:52
But then it feels like we're only ever contacting them with negative things.
25:56
And actually we want to encourage them because if they're good, we
25:58
want them to stay working with us as our freelancer for a long time.
26:02
Some of my freelancers have been working with me for the last few
26:05
years and it's really important.
26:07
to remain positive.
26:08
Give them that positive feedback.
26:10
I'm trying to get into the habit of when my freelancers
26:12
invoice me for that month's work.
26:14
When I reply to say it's been paid to just say something like thank
26:17
you for your great work this month.
26:19
The posts you've done are amazing.
26:20
Thank you for all you continue to do.
26:22
It's been another amazing month to remind them of how great they
26:25
are and that I'm so pleased that they're doing that work for me.
26:28
So if you do have someone doing tasks for you.
26:30
Don't just speak to them with negative things.
26:32
Try and remember to give them lots of positive feedback and treat
26:35
them every now and again as well.
26:36
Sometimes I will do that for my freelancers, buy them a little
26:39
Christmas gift or take them out for lunch, do something nice that
26:42
they're not expecting just because I'm thankful for all of the amazing work
26:45
they've done for me in the business.
26:49
So I don't know how you're feeling now having listened to that.
26:52
Maybe you're thinking, wow, having a freelancer sounds
26:54
like it would change my life.
26:56
Or maybe you're thinking this sounds great, but I can't afford it yet.
26:59
And I totally get that.
27:01
But again, you need to look at the business income.
27:04
If you are busy with customers, you must have income coming in.
27:08
So you need to look at where that's being spent, and sometimes you
27:12
have to speculate to accumulate.
27:13
So by paying someone a couple of hundred pounds a month to do some tasks
27:17
for you, you may have the time to be creative and to network and to get
27:21
out there and bring in more business.
27:22
That's worth way more than that per month.
27:25
It's not the freelancer's job to do that for you.
27:27
It's your job.
27:28
The freelancer is freeing you up.
27:30
order to give you that space.
27:33
If after this, you're thinking, yeah, this sounds amazing.
27:35
I definitely need a freelancer in my life.
27:37
And you're thinking about working with us at the Wedding Pro Agency, then I
27:41
would absolutely love to chat with you.
27:42
The Wedding Pro Agency was founded earlier this year, and it came
27:46
out of the fact that I have been working with these amazing
27:49
freelancers for the last few years.
27:50
And lots of people saying to me, I wish I had a freelancer like you do,
27:54
but I don't know where to find them.
27:55
I don't have time to train them, all of that stuff, or they're really,
27:58
really expensive because they're super experts in their field.
28:01
And so I realized, well, maybe I can do something to bridge the gap.
28:05
Maybe I can link you up as wedding business owners who don't have
28:09
loads of time with freelancers, people who are working for me in
28:13
my team that I have trained up.
28:15
So you don't have to, I have all the systems in place so you don't have
28:18
to get them going so that they can.
28:20
work for you via me and you know that you can trust it.
28:24
You know, you can speak to me if things aren't working out and
28:27
also it keeps it at a lower cost.
28:31
I've set up the Wedding Pro Agency as what I like to call a social enterprise.
28:35
So I'm trying to give work to people who struggle to get work in the real world.
28:40
So for example, people who are stay at home mums, or single parents,
28:44
or people with disabilities, or people who are trying to get...
28:48
Back into the job market or students who can't necessarily get a full time job,
28:53
but need extra hours, need extra income.
28:55
And I take them on, I train them up, I give them the skills so that
28:59
they can then go out and build their own business if they want to.
29:02
And they can go and get their own clients if they want to.
29:04
And they can work as part of my team.
29:06
I'll give them a reference if they go for a job and it gives them an opportunity.
29:11
And it also allows me to match you up with great people at a lower cost
29:16
rate than it would be to go out there and get some super experts to do it.
29:20
And it frees up your time because I'm training them as well.
29:23
And you can feel good about it because not only are you getting some free time
29:27
back, you're also giving work to someone that's struggling to get those hours.
29:31
And so that's a really great thing as well.
29:33
So that's the wedding pro agency.
29:35
If you'd like to work with us, I would love to chat.
29:37
with you more about it.
29:38
You can go and find us.
29:39
The link is in the show notes, weddingproagency.
29:42
co.
29:42
uk or reach out to me at Becca Pountney.
29:45
We do have a couple of spaces available from September, but not many.
29:49
So if you are interested in us managing your social media, helping you with one
29:54
off tasks, managing your email list, sending emails on your behalf, or any
29:59
of the things we talked about in this episode, and you sound, it sounds like
30:02
the wedding pro agency is the right way for you to go, do reach out to me.
30:05
I would love, love.
30:07
love to chat with you and hopefully give you some time back.
30:11
I hope you found this episode all about using freelancers helpful.
30:14
I'd love to know what you thought about it.
30:16
So do let me know.
30:17
And if you are a long time listener of this show and you haven't yet left
30:21
a review, it would mean the world to me if you would leave me a review
30:25
and let me know what you think of the show because it helps other people
30:28
find the show and that helps them build their wedding businesses too.
30:32
I'll see you next time.