Start Me Up! - Part Three
Wedding Belle Monday, November 30, 2009 at 7:20AM Hi everyone! To those of you that celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday, hope you had a good one and a great weekend!
This week I would like to circle back to something with regards to knowing your area and business environment. It helps to not only know what venues and vendors are around, but even more to know who your competition is, what they are charging, and what they are all about.
Depending how far you are into your studies or research, you likely know by now that there are several different pricing structures and services you can offer as a planner. You can specialize in weddings & unions alone, or you may choose to incorporate other wedding-related events such as bridal showers, brunches, guest activities. You could expand further and plan Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, anniversary parties, corporate events, golf outings - the list goes on. There are tons of different types of events and while most utilize similar skills to plan, some skills are very event-specific so keep in mind that you will likely have to do additional research to acclimate yourself to whatever services you decide to offer.
Please also remember not to bite off more than you can chew; it is a very common practice to start with only one, possibly two areas of focus, than as you and your business progress, you may choose to expand your service offerings. As I mentioned in my intro post, I have decided to stick with weddings for now. Even though I have planned other events in the past, I am really trying to enter the wedding market in this new area, with the hopes of establishing myself as an expert in the local bridal arena.
A factor that I found to be extremely helpful when working out my details was evaluating the competition. This can be a touchy subject and please do not mistake this as spying on the competition or attempting to steal their ideas, clients or trade secrets. That said, you should know if they are offering certain services that you have not considered, or if they stay far away from certain aspects of the business you were planning to focus on. This is not to say that you should mirror their decisions and services list, but it’s good to know. Perhaps you will find that day-of coordinating services are very popular in your chosen area - that might entice you to look into offering this option to clients. Maybe you uncover the fact that hardly anyone offers full service, but that nine out of ten planners in your area offer an hourly package. You could take a clue from this and do the same, or maybe you will decide that this is a perfect opportunity to offer something that is not readily available to clientele, and thus, they may flock to you if you are giving them what they need and have been looking for. Just think, someone somewhere was the first to offer a day-of service package right??? Don’t be afraid to think outside of the box. See what other planners in your area are offering, and also what they are charging. If you do some digging and discover that full service rates in your area are charging anywhere from $3,000-$8,000, you may think twice about sticking with your original plan to charge $15,000, or conversely, $1000.
In short, know your market. If you do stray from the average numbers in the area, just be prepared to back-up the methodology behind your pricing structure. Consumers can be wary and will want to know why you are $1,000 when everyone else is so much more. Perhaps you explain that you work from a home office and only hire staffing for events, which allows you to keep your overhead low and pass that savings on to the customer. Perhaps you are offering a partial planning service that allows the client to do a little more legwork with you merely guiding them and helping them to get started… just something to think about.
So, how do you get this info? I must remind you here that I am not recommending nor sanctioning, just passing along info that I know, have seen, or have utilized. I went about this research in two ways.
First, I am a big fan of the website/company The Wedding Report, www.theweddingreport.com. While I cannot attest to its percentage of accuracy, it offers some very helpful statistics on what average planner costs are, and what people in a certain state, town or zip code are spending on weddings and specific wedding-related services. Again, the numbers may not be spot on, but at least it’s something to work off of. The Wedding Report does charge a fee for some of their information, but there are different levels of membership at different price points. Additionally, if you do an extensive search online or in your local business bureaus and offices, you may uncover much of the same info, it just may not be in a nice, organized little package and you may have to do a lot more legwork.
Second, I have gotten many a phone call from other planners or associates of planners asking for information with regards to my rates and the types of packages I offer. Many may not admit that they have done this, but have. Again, I sanction nothing, but I have received these calls, and I have shared basic information. Besides, I have some package info and pricing on my website anyway so I figure if they are legitimate clients interested in retaining my services, they will usually set up a consultation to get more information.
That’s it for now, lots, see you next week!
xx,
Belle
Reader Comments (6)
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