Latest / Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney / 7 things I couldn't run my wedding business without...

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7 things I couldn't run my wedding business without... · Wedding Pros who are ready to grow - with Becca Pountney

• 0:01
  Becca: Sometimes I like to think back to life before mobile phones and just think
• 0:06
  how on earth did people survive without being able to contact each other 24 hours?
• 0:11
  In my business, I also look back and think about how the tools I use
• 0:15
  on a day to day basis save me so much time and effort and how I just
• 0:19
  couldn't run my business without them.
• 0:21
  So today I'm gonna be sharing the seven things that I couldn't run
• 0:23
  my business without, and hopefully some of them will help you too.
• 0:28
  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
• 0:46
  and use it to build a profitable, sustainable business doing what you
• 0:50
  love, then you're in the right place.
• 0:52
  Let's get going with today's episode.
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  If you've been following along on my Instagram recently, you will have
• 0:59
  seen I've been incredibly busy up and down the country, and I know some of
• 1:02
  you have been really busy as well.
• 1:03
  Last week I was away on the wedding business retreat, the annual event I
• 1:07
  run with the fabulous Kelly Mortimer, helping wedding business owners and
• 1:10
  venues to improve their marketing.
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  And supercharge their sales.
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  It's an incredible week, but boy, it's tiring.
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  Then over the weekend I was in London at the National Wedding Show at London Excel,
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  and just this week I've been speaking away at an event for Guides for Brides.
• 1:25
  So it's been an incredibly busy time.
• 1:27
  Now, why am I telling you all this?
• 1:28
  Well, it's to give you a pre-warning that today's episode is gonna be a
• 1:31
  little bit shorter, so if you're busy as well and you just want a little
• 1:35
  short bit of information from me today, then this is the perfect episode.
• 1:39
  So today I'm gonna be sharing with you the seven things that I just
• 1:42
  couldn't run my business without.
• 1:45
  Some of them might feel obvious to you, but maybe some of them you
• 1:48
  don't actually have at the moment.
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  So let's dive in with number one.
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  The first thing I could not run my business without is my accountant.
• 1:57
  Now, hopefully you already have an accountant for your business.
• 2:00
  If you don't, I urge you to consider getting one.
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  Now, my accountant doesn't do all my bookkeeping.
• 2:05
  I do all of my bookkeeping myself through QuickBooks.
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  I upload all of my receipts.
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  My accountant just looks over my accounts once a year when I come round
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  for my self assessment, and she goes through those accounts and she makes
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  sure there's no errors, but most importantly, she knows what I can
• 2:21
  and can't claim for in my tax return.
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  She makes sure that I get my allowances for things like electricity from working
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  in my home office, a certain allocation towards my petrol, towards my phone bill.
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  She knows exactly what she's doing.
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  I totally trust her, and it's an incredibly important part of my.
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  I used to try and do my tax return myself, and then I went to a training
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  session one day where they explained why it's so helpful to have an accountant.
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  And let's just say ever since that session, I've always
• 2:50
  employed an accountant.
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  If something goes wrong with my tax return, if HMRC come back and query
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  something or question something, when you have an accountant, they go and
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  query that with your accountant and not with you, which is really, really
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  reassuring because obviously as long as your accountant knows what they're doing,
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  they're taking that on board for you.
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  I would never go back now to not having an accountant.
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  You don't need to spend a huge amount of money on your accountant,
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  especially if you're willing to do the bookkeeping yourself.
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  But the money it costs you to hire them to do that tax return for you once a year
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  is worth its weight In gold, often they can save you more money than it's actually
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  costing you to go through the accountant.
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  So that's my number one thing.
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  If you don't have an accountant yet, Absolutely make that
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  a priority and find one.
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  My accountant specializes in small businesses and she's really
• 3:39
  approachable, so if you want her details, drop me a message.
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  But do go out there and find an accountant.
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  Now, I don't know who's with me on this one, but the second thing I absolutely
• 3:48
  can't live without is my paper diary.
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  I know, I know I really should be going more online and I'm trying,
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  and I do have a digital diary.
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  I do use Google Calendar on my phone, but for me, there's nothing better than
• 4:00
  having pen and paper in front of me.
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  So every year I buy one of these big planners.
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  It's cost me quite a lot of money.
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  They're very pretty.
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  But what I love about it is I can write everything down and
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  I can see it visually in front.
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  In my planner, I can see the whole month, so I can see when I'm getting too busy.
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  I can see when I've got too many events booked in, and visually I can
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  make sure I pull back from my work.
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  Everything is in that planner, and yes, I am starting to transfer
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  some of it to being digital.
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  I do try and put all my events in my calendar as well on my phone, but for
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  me, there's nothing better than a paper diary if you are in that camp to send me a
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  message in Instagram and let me know that I'm not alone with my love of stationery.
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  Sometimes having that to-do list written down in my diary in my planner,
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  where I can physically see it and physically tick it off is so satisfying.
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  So for me, I couldn't live without my paper diary.
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  If anyone's got any other solutions, I'd love to hear them, but I just don't
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  think anything beats pen and paper.
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  The third thing I can't live without is something that I both love and hate
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  in equal measure, and that is social.
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  Do you ever have days where you just think, I'm gonna come off social
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  media, I'm gonna quit Facebook, I'm gonna quit Instagram, and then your
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  head reminds you that a lot of your business happens in that place?
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  That's me on probably a daily, if not weekly basis.
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  I find social media so incredibly frustrating, but yet I know it's a
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  necessary evil as part of my business.
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  I have to remember, it's a great marketing tool.
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  It's free for me to use and I can use it to reach people that would
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  otherwise not know that I exist.
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  But I get it.
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  It's hard.
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  One of the best things I've done in recent weeks for my social media
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  is to switch my notifications off.
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  I hadn't registered how often my Instagram was notifying me that
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  something was happening and how often that was interrupting my.
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  Since I turned the notifications off and I just go into the app to have a look,
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  I'm being interrupted a whole lot less.
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  So if you are like me and you struggle with social media sometimes, and you find
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  it's always distracting or taking your mind off tasks, then I urge you to go into
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  your Instagram, go into your Facebook, and make sure you turn your notifications off.
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  The other thing while we're talking about social media, because I honestly feel
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  like I couldn't live without my social media, and I know lots of you feel that
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  too, which is why it's so painful when someone comes in and steals it from you.
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  And we know there's loads of hackers out there trying to get
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  into our accounts all of the time.
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  So if you have not yet got two factor authentication turned on for your Facebook
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  and Instagram in the settings, that's the thing where it sends you a text code
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  so that you can get into your account or it sends you an email to check it's you.
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  Then please, please, please, before you get to the end of this podcast,
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  go into your Instagram or Facebook apps and turn that setting on.
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  That makes it so much harder for the hackers to get into your account and just
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  protects you from losing your account, which I know is really important.
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  A couple of people have come to me in the last few weeks to say they've lost
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  their account and it's devastating.
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  Neither of them had that turned on.
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  So if you haven't already got two factor authentication, make
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  sure you've got that switched on.
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  And I know social media is tough sometimes, but turn those notifications
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  off, get some breaks, and remember, it's actually a really positive
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  marketing tool that can get you in front of potential couples.
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  Okay, the next thing that I cannot live without, and again, I just don't
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  know how I would survive without it.
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  Is Canva if you've never come across Canva before.
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  It's a web-based graphic design tool and it basically allows you to do loads
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  of amazingly cool graphics that look really trendy and well designed with no
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  knowledge of graphic design or little to no knowledge of graphic design.
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  You can upload your brand colors, you can upload your logos,
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  you can upload your fonts.
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  There are so many templates to choose from, and you can make just about
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  anything in Canva these days, you can make a presentation, you can
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  make a photo slideshow, you can make an Instagram post, a Facebook post.
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  A real, there is so much you can do within Canva and for so many of these things,
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  you don't even have to pay to use it.
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  If you don't already use Canva, well, where on earth have you been?
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  Get on there C A N v a.com.
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  Go set up a free account and go and dive in there.
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  If you wonder how everyone else's graphics look better than.
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  It's probably because they're using Canva, and I really don't
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  think I could live without it.
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  There's also loads of great stock images that you can use in there.
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  There's just so many great tools that you can use.
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  You can make backgrounds go transparent.
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  You can resize posts so that you have something that fits Facebook, and
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  then you can resize it for Instagram.
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  Whatever you need to do in the graphic design world, I guarantee there's
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  a template on Canva to help you.
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  So if you don't already use Canva, then I've just changed
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  your life and your business.
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  So go and sign up for a free Canva account now.
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  Okay.
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  The fifth thing that I couldn't live without in my business
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  is my appointment calendar.
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  So this is a piece of software, something like Calendly or I use Kartra where I
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  have that piece of software synced up to my phone calendar, and this is why
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  I can't just rely on a paper diary and then I can send that out to my potential
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  clients for them to book in a discovery call or a podcast interview with me and
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  they can see when I'm available and book it without having to go back and forth on.
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  If you don't use something like this, if you don't currently have a calendar
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  for your couples to book appointments with you, then again, this piece
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  of software will change your life.
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  On Calendly, you can have one set up which doesn't cost you anything.
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  You can set it up for free, and all you do is you put your availability in
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  there, or you sync it with your Google Calendar and it can see your availability.
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  You set the parameters, so if you only wanna meet during the school day or
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  you only wanna meet in the evening, you can put that in there, and then
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  you just send that link to any couples and they can find the best time that
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  suits them and book into your Calendly.
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  They get into your calendar, it'll add it to your phone calendar.
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  Sometimes it'll even send them the Zoom link or wherever
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  you're gonna try and meet them.
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  Oh my goodness.
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  It saves so much time.
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  It stops that back and forth on email of, Are you available Friday?
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  No.
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  Are you available Thursday?
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  No.
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  Can you do next Wednesday at 10?
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  I can do next Wednesday at 12, and all those back and forth emails.
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  Whereas with Calendly, you show your availability.
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  They click and book the appointment, and then off it goes.
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  It also sends them a reminder so if they have forgotten or they're
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  no longer available, they can cancel that appointment too, which
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  means no more wasted time for you.
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  So if you don't already have this kind of system set up, Again, go and set it up.
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  Calendly is a great one, but there are other ones available as well, and you
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  might already have a calendar as part of a software that you already use.
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  So before investing in a new one, check and find out if that's a
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  feature of something you already have.
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  The sixth thing on my list of things I couldn't run my business
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  without is my mailing system.
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  When I set up my mailing system, it totally changed everything.
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  It saved me so much time because I can automate so many things.
• 10:40
  Have you ever got to the end of a wedding fair with a clipboard full of names
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  and email addresses, and then had to go home, try and type them all into your
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  system, trying and send them an email.
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  Sometimes you can't read their writing.
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  Sometimes it just takes forever and you don't have the time or energy to do it.
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  While a mailing system takes the pain of that away from you and saves you so
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  much time and energy, and there's loads of clever things you can do with it.
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  Now.
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  When I first started, I used Mailerlite.
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  It was a free account I could use.
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  Do loads of the features without having to pay, and it was perfectly
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  fine for what I wanted at the time.
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  And for most of you, mailerlite will be the perfect solution.
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  There's other systems such as MailChimp, uh, and loads more
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  different ones that you can use.
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  But if you don't currently have a CRM or a mailing system,
• 11:24
  have a look into it and consider it, especially before you use
• 11:28
  it at your next wedding fair.
• 11:29
  Instead of collecting people's details on paper, it allows you to set up a
• 11:33
  form that you can have available to them, either via a QR code on your
• 11:37
  stand or on an iPad on your stand, where they can come and fill it out.
• 11:41
  They give you the details.
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  You want their name, their email address, perhaps their wedding date,
• 11:44
  their venue, and then it puts it all automatically into your system.
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  It can then automatically send them an email to welcome them into your.
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  From there, you can do whatever you like with it.
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  You can tag them by certain things like where you met them or whereabouts in
• 11:59
  the country they're getting married.
• 12:00
  It's up to you how you tag them, but it will save you so much time,
• 12:03
  especially if you wanna follow up on some of those colder leads.
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  So no more typing up email addresses or using spreadsheets anymore.
• 12:11
  Get yourself a mailing system.
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  Mailer Light is the one that I recommend if you're just starting out
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  or you are new to this kind of thing.
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  And if you need training on it, there's some Inside My Wedding Pro members lounge.
• 12:23
  Okay.
• 12:23
  Finally, before we wrap up to today's episode, I'm gonna share
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  with you the number seven thing on my list and well, this one could be
• 12:30
  seen as a little bit controversial.
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  Number seven is something that I only introduced into my life and my
• 12:35
  business earlier this year, and I didn't realize the impact it would
• 12:39
  have and for me that's a cleaner.
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  I have a fabulous cleaner.
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  She's so lovely.
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  She lives in my village and she comes around to my house once a
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  week to clean, to do the deep clean.
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  Mop the floors and do all the things that I felt like I never had time to do.
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  Now, if you're anything like me, you're running from Pillar to post.
• 12:57
  I'm being super mum all of the time trying to get them to
• 13:00
  all their clubs and classes.
• 13:01
  I'm trying to run a business and I never have time to breathe.
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  And cleaning was falling to the bottom of my priority list, or I was having
• 13:08
  to stop working to get my cleaning done, and I didn't realize how much
• 13:12
  of a burden that was putting on me and how much guilt I was feeling when
• 13:15
  I wasn't keeping the house clean and.
• 13:18
  Since I employed a cleaner just once a week for a couple of hours, it's made a
• 13:22
  huge difference because that burden has been lifted off of me and actually I can
• 13:27
  use that time in those two hours to be really productive in my business, and my
• 13:31
  time is more valuable than the money that I'm having to pay out for her services.
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  I really didn't realize the impact this would have on my life and my business.
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  It's freed me up.
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  I love seeing her every week.
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  I love chatting to her and I love supporting her business because she's a
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  small business owner right in my village.
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  She's trying to get her cleaning business going, and I love to be her customer.
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  So if that is you and you're just struggling with the day to day trying
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  to get on top of all the housework, trying to get on top of your business
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  and you have some budget left in your business or your marketing budget,
• 14:02
  then why not consider even once.
• 14:05
  Thinking about whether that could free up some of your time and
• 14:08
  free up some of your head space so you're not quite so overwhelmed.
• 14:12
  Okay, let's recap then.
• 14:14
  The seven things that I could not run my business without.
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  Number one is my accountant.
• 14:18
  She is incredible.
• 14:19
  Number two is my paper diary, and I know I should be going more technical,
• 14:23
  but I'm just not ready for it yet.
• 14:25
  Number three, is social media love it or hate?
• 14:27
  It's absolutely essential to our businesses.
• 14:29
  Four is Canva, if you don't use it, go download it.
• 14:32
  Go get it on your computer.
• 14:34
  Now.
• 14:34
  Next is my appointment calendar, which saves me so much time.
• 14:37
  Number six is my mailing system.
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  I use Kartra, but I recommend Mailer Light if you're getting started.
• 14:43
  And finally is the fabulous Charmaine, my cleaner, who comes
• 14:47
  into my house and does an incredible job much better than I could ever.
• 14:53
  I know it's been a short and sweet episode this week.
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  I'll be back next week.
• 14:56
  If you wanna tell me what your things you couldn't live without in your
• 14:59
  business are, I'd love to hear them.
• 15:00
  Drop me a message on Instagram @beccapountney or send me an
• 15:04
  email becca@beccapountney.com and tell me what you couldn't
• 15:07
  live without in your business.
• 15:09
  I'll see you next time.