Posted by Terrica on May 22, 2009 – 9:25 AM
We had a great question posed on the iWED boards—How do you get ready for a consult?
An overwhelming number of iWED members said that they get ready by playing music that gets them energized, focused and fabulous. What’s on your success soundtrack? What gets you ready to show up and show off?
Fridays are the wedding industry’s start days– so as you get prepped for your weekend’s events, I encourage you to turn on your theme music and conquer the world.
What gets you excited and ready to go?
Photo :: Paulo Correa
Posted by Terrica on May 20, 2009 – 2:58 PM
A king lost his voice. Because of this, he had to rule and direct with written instructions. However, he never allowed his subjects to learn to read, so he also lost his kingdom.
This was a story I shared on Twitter during the Staff Service tweets a few weeks ago. This is something we discussed in the internship WEDCHAT– keeping your employees and interns engaged enough to keep their interest, developing strong work habits and lengthen their retention with your company.
Holding back with your staff can prove to be more problematic to your company than beneficial. You could risk losing it all like the king above, in an misguided effort to prevent your staff from gaining knowledge. If you increasingly find yourself preventing your staff of doing their jobs effectively and creatively under the guise to protect “proprietary information”, you will end up losing good employees and interns. There is so much enthusiasm when newcomers enter into this industry. Don’t worry about someone running off with your information and starting their own company. They will certainly do that if they are not kept engaged and productive. Being able to share your knowledge, harness that enthusiasm and cultivate talent is what will make your internship and employee programs a success.
How secure is your kingdom? Could it better locks or just some oil on the hinges to make sure that everything works together for a common purpose?
Posted by eliana on May 18, 2009 – 5:22 PM
Join our weekly Wed chat as we discuss all topics relating to Outsourcing. Outsourcing is new to some in the wedding industry since most of us are small boutique companies; we are used to handling all aspects of our business ourselves such as billing, blogging marketing and so on. Join the round table discussion as we discuss:
- What can be outsourced?
- Where to find quality help?
- Is there such thing as sharing too much information?
- Success stories from our peers who are currently outsourcing.
The chat is open to all wedding industry professionals. We would love to hear the prospective from planners, photographers, venues and all other categories.
Just log into i-wed.org on Tuesday May 19th, 2009 at 8pm EST to join the discussion.
Please note that Wed Chats are hosted every Tuesday evening at 8pm EST. Stay tuned for the schedule of upcoming chat topics.
Posted by Terrica on May 18, 2009 – 8:30 AM
Monday. A new day. A new week.
It’s here.
What will you do with it?
As creative professionals—be it planners, photographers, florists, bakers or invitation designers, our professions allow us to express our creativity and imagination. Don’t let the “competition”, the economy or anything else put a damper on your creativity.
Get out there.
Get excited and make things!
Get excited and make things happen.
Get excited and make things possible.
Get excited and make things come alive.
Get excited and make things yours.
Have a great week!
Posted by Terrica on May 13, 2009 – 10:30 AM
:: picture courtesy of the Merlin Mann Blog ::
I loved this web page so much, that I use it as the “Home” page any time I open a new browser tab or window– so I really have to ask myself, is what I’m doing right now really what I need to do? Tough question. Tough answers.
Owning your own business gives you the freedom to eliminate the boss constantly looking over your shoulder. The problem is that you have the freedom to eliminate the boss constantly looking over your shoulder. It is amazing how willing we are to be complicit to helping someone else meet their goals or bottom lines, or stay focused on their stringent timetables, but as business owners we can become so distracted from our own.
When I used to peddle lipstick many moons ago, we used to talk about IPAs. IPAs stand for Income Producing Activities. When you had so many IPAs, you could noticeably see a change, or shift, in your business– be it in sales, growth in team members, or other incentives. The key was to keep you accountable and to keep you working. I’ve modified an IPAs sheet for you to use as you will– make a copy for each week to keep yourself working and accountable. For each day of the week, write down the letter for the IPA you participated in for that day. Set a reasonable goal for yourself: how many IPAs can you participate in per day, per week? How many IPAs do you need to do to meet your goal? Whatever your goal is, the only way you can reach it is by staying relevant and staying productive. Download the IPAs worksheet and let me know how it works out for you!
Posted by eliana on May 12, 2009 – 10:58 PM
It was so great to see so many of you come out and discuss your struggles and successes when trying to obtain an intern. This discussion was not only great for those that is ready to obtain an intern, but to also spark ideas for professionals that currently have interns.
Some of the key points discussed were:
- Places to find interns as well as connecting with local college administration
- What duties should be given to interns?
- Are they paid or unpaid?
- Evaluations at the end of projects
- Turning interns into assistants
- Getting interns that are not only event specific but marketing or business
Many additional ideas were shared. I encourage those that attended to please comment with any key points that they received from the chat.
I also would like to thank all that participated. We will be conducting these discussions on a weekly basis always followed by a recap for you to refer too at your leisure.
If you have any ideas for an upcoming chat or would like to be a guest speaker, please email info at i-wed dot org.
Posted by eliana on May 11, 2009 – 8:26 PM
As summer time quickly approaches us, now is the time to fill those internships slots. Join our weekly WED chat to learn how to get this done successfully. Some of the topics will include but are not limited to:
· What to look for in an intern?
· Where should you look for an intern?
· Do interns actually get paid?
· How to turn the perfect intern into an associate
This chat is open to all wedding industry professionals. We would love to hear the prospective from planners, photographers, venues and all other categories.
Just log into i-wed.org on Tuesday May 12th, 2009 at 8pm EST to join the discussion
Posted by Terrica on May 11, 2009 – 9:50 AM
Twitter has become a marketing gold mine for companies across the globe. It makes companies, their brands and philosophies more accessible to loyalists and potential consumers. In an effort to become more savvy with social media,wedding planners have become enthralled with the concept. When you think about it, it’s quite genius.
Twitter allows potential brides to (but not limited to):
- Get to know you and your brand on a different level
- Find out about company news, press, specials
- Stay up-to-date with blog posts
But with all the good, there must be some bad—and unfortunately, it runs rampant in our industry. Instead of building relationships and sharing, there are some unfortunate souls who make it a chore to follow them. As wedding planners, we work at such a personal level with our clients, that it is important to maintain a sense of propriety that is reflective of our brands and service to them.
That being said:
- Avoid using twitter as your company’s personal RSS feed. Don’t think if you constant talk (broadcast, really) about your business, headlines and deals that you’ll get a throng of customers to follow. People like connecting with people, not egos. Throw a bone to people. What was your coffee order?
- Seriously– do not twitter about your clients, their family and friends or their choices. If you want a quick way to destroy the trust factor with potential or current clients. No one wants to feel as if their wedding, drama, etc. is being put on display for someone else’s benefit or amusement.
- Also, don’t complain about vendors. If something is wrong, awry or not to your liking, Twitter is the last place this should be discussed. Current vendors feel threatened and potential vendors won’t touch you with a long handled spoon.
- You protect your updates. This goes back to the point I previously made about trust. You do not want clients to feel as if there is a barrier between the two of you or that you are talking about them behind that barrier. If people have to ask your permission to see what you’re talking about or interact with you, you’ve missed the point. Turn off the computer. Try again tomorrow.
- Conflicting messages. If your tweets conflict with your brand, don’t tweet under your company name. Open a private account.
- You talk, talk, talk, but don’t listen. And vice versa. Twitter has sparked many a great conversation—but conversations only work well when both people are talking and listening.
Here are two great posts on social media and Twitter. Check them out.
http://www.thesocialpath.com/2009/05/seven-deadly-sins.html
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/
How has Twitter helped you?
