17 Traits of a Successful Wedding Businesses Owner

Each week, I'll cover strategies, ideas, tips, and tricks that will give you your dream wedding business too. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Let's dive in. Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode 11.

Today, we are going to talk about 17 traits of a successful wedding business owner. This is going to be a fun one and a short one, but I wanted to go over some of the common characteristic traits that I see in all successful wedding business owners. This is something that you can try to build on or you probably have a lot of these traits already, but it would be cool to kinda listen through them and decide maybe I'm missing one of these, maybe I need to work on one of these, maybe I need to build on one of these. So here we go, 17 traits of a successful wedding business owner. Number one, relentless persistence.

This one is something I think every entrepreneur needs to have. You need to be like a bulldog, super persistent, relentless in your efforts to make this happen. Nobody gets a business off the ground without being really, really, really, really down to make it happen. That means you're going to do whatever it takes, you're not afraid of hard work, you're going to constantly be at it, trying everything you can, you have to be relentless because that is what it takes to get any business off the ground, and especially wedding businesses, you need to be all in. So that is something that I think every single entrepreneur and wedding business owner needs to have in their bones.

You need to be relentless and persistent and to be willing to go at it at all costs. You gotta have it in your heart that you're gonna make this happen. Number two, I talk about this one a lot, but professionalism, you need to be professional, and even when you don't feel professional yet, when you're just getting started, you still need to look and exude professionalism towards other vendors, towards brides and grooms, all the time. Anytime that you are representing your business, you need to be professional, and this is in how you speak, how you word your emails, how you pick up the phone, how you look. At all times, you need to remember, and this is true even if you're just getting started, but you are a professional.

You are a business owner. You are a representative of your business, and you need to look, talk, act that way at all times. And this even goes down to little things like not taking shots at weddings, you know, that you're working, not showing up sloppy, not just texting, you know, things to couples that you would be texting to friends. You wanna show up professionally at all times. Number three is a trustworthiness.

You are a trustworthy person. I think this is a big one. And how trustworthy you are shows up in your reviews. It shows up in how you show up to weddings, like being reliable, showing up on time, showing up to other people's other vendors' weddings, how you respond. They other vendors need to trust you.

The bride and groom needs to trust you. You build this trust through very different ways. One of them is testimonials and reviews. They need to see that you're trustworthy and once they do, that's how you grow your success and you may not have testimonials upfront, you had to work to get them, but the more you can prove and show your trustworthiness, the more your success will grow. Number four, personality.

You need to learn how to infuse your personality into your brand. So, into your social media, your website, show them who you are. And the more confident you are in yourself, in who you are, and you can sort of bring this into your business, the more your business is gonna take off. And this can be a scary thing when you're still kind of figuring out who you are and you think that all you need to do is is give the couple what they want, and you're, in the beginning, just copying what everybody else is doing. But what you need to do is infuse more of yourself into your brand, into your business, infuse more of your personality.

Because once that comes up, it's gonna feel more authentic to you and to the bride and groom. And the more authentic and genuine and real your business is, the more they're gonna connect with it. So infusing your personality into your business is a big one. Number five is every successful wedding business is very well connected so you wanna start building these connections early on. What connections have you made in the wedding industry?

Do you have friends that are wedding planners, photographers, officiants, videographers. You need to know people. You need to have people's phone numbers in your back pocket in case something happens and you need a replacement. You should be showing up to all of the wedding industry events and making these types of connections, making friends. You know?

Like, this is how you build rapport amongst the wedding industry and get other people to know who you are. You want other vendors talking about you. When a bride and groom reaches out to them and they're like, well, I was thinking about booking this photographer, you want them to say, oh, I know her. She's awesome. They need to have that connection, you know, built in over and over and over again.

And how you build that connection with brides and grooms is by making connections in the wedding industry. And this is also a fun thing to do because everybody in the wedding industry is in the same position as you. We are all in it together and we are all trying to book more weddings. It's not a competition. We're all friends.

So remember that and try and, you know, really connect with this group of friends because they are your people. Number six is showing up. So this isn't necessarily a trait of a successful wedding business owner, but it is a trait of a successful wedding business. Your business needs to show up. So your brand, your company, your business needs to be able to be found by the bride and groom.

It needs to show up on Google. It needs to show up in ads. It needs to show up on different testimonial sites. They need to be able to find you. And that seems like common sense, but if you're having trouble booking weddings and you're not showing up, like, people can't actually find you, that's your problem right there.

Maybe you need to work on your SEO, you need to work on your marketing, you need to work on your, you know, your listings. You need people to be able to find you before they're gonna be able to reach out to you. So that's one of the first things that every new wedding business needs to work on is showing up, getting your business to be found by brides and grooms. Okay. Number seven.

This is a fun one and something I think every entrepreneur has innately, like, inside of them is optimism. So what I mean is, like, when shit isn't working, how do you view it are you hard on yourself are you like nope this wasn't what meant for me I'm I'm out or are you like I I know I can figure this out I know I'm good at this I know I'm going to figure out a way to make this work, I can do this. You need to have this eternal optimism if you have your own business, especially in the beginning but throughout like always because there's always going to be highs and lows, ebbs and flows of your business. There's going to be times when it gets hard and you're going to have trouble finding couples. You're going to have to constantly reinvent your business over and over and over again.

I mean, even I have to do that now, and I've been in business for over a decade. And I'm constantly having to reinvent and make my business better and change things and move things around, and sometimes that can be discouraging. You're used to getting a bunch of people reaching out to you, and then all of a sudden they're not. But I'm not viewing that as things aren't working. I'm viewing it as what do I need to change?

What do I need to alter? How can I make this work? I know I'm good at this. So there's this belief of optimism that no matter what, you're gonna figure it out, That somehow is gonna work. I just know it is. That this is how things are for me. Things always work. So having that optimism is key. Number eight, attention to detail. I think everyone in the wedding business needs to be really, really good with details.

You need to be very detail oriented. Brides need to know that you're super organized and detail oriented. They need to know that you're not gonna miss anything, that you have gone through their wedding details with a fine tooth comb, that you're on it, that they can trust you. So being very detail oriented as a human, as a person is very important for any wedding business owner. And that includes officiants, you know, DJs.

We there's so many details involved in weddings, and we need to be on top of everything. Number nine, discipline. If you're gonna have your own business, if you're gonna be an entrepreneur, you need to be very disciplined. And that means showing up to do work even when you don't have weddings booked, even when you're not working on a wedding. There's a gazillion other things you need to be working on.

Is it marketing? Is it sales? Is it improving your website? Is it changing your packages? Is it doing marketing, you know, printouts?

Is it figuring out some back end systems that need to be upgraded? Is it bookkeeping? Is it invoicing? You need to be very, very disciplined in working on your business consistently and constantly, like, just always making it better and better and better. The more disciplined you are and when you have a schedule where you set time to work and you're always working on something, you have a plan, a bigger plan for your business growth.

That is done through discipline, so you have to be a very disciplined person. Number 10, responsiveness. I think this is such an underrated thing and one of the reasons why I get so many brides to book me is because my business motto is to be extremely responsive. I do wedding planning, but I think any wedding business should prioritize responsiveness. So this means replying to emails in a timely manner, replying to vendors in a timely manner, staying ahead of the schedule, being the one who is always what's what's next, what do I need to do to keep this process moving.

I can't tell you how many times I have had brides tell me. I am so impressed by how responsive you are. The fact that you respond to me quickly is the reason why I booked you. This is very, very important. Not only in the beginning of the planning process when you're trying to book a new bride or groom, but throughout the whole process.

When vendors know that they can reach out to you and you'll get them an answer right away, they're gonna start to trust you more. They're gonna start to like working with you more because they're not having to bug you for information. So being very responsive is a simple, easy thing to do if you prioritize it. Create a schedule where you have time every morning to do emails and make sure that you stick to it. You're not going days without responding because that's how other vendors start to view you as, you know, one of those annoying people that just doesn't respond.

So why do they wanna work with you? Why do they want to tell other brides about you? They're not gonna because they don't trust you because you're not responsive. Number 11, it's self awareness. I think every great entrepreneur, every great wedding business owner needs to be self aware.

That means knowing yourself, knowing what you like, what you don't like, what you're good at, what you're not good at, and then creating, designing a business around this. You don't wanna create a business around something that you suck at, something that you don't like doing because then your business is never gonna take off. It's never gonna be successful. I don't care if you think that other wedding businesses make money doing that. You need to create a business that is a reflection of the stuff that you're good at.

So it should you you need to take the time to think about who you are, you know, what it is that makes you special, what it is that you're really good at. And then can you infuse that into your business? And then, you should be reevaluating your business too. So, that takes me to number 12, self reflective. Being able to evaluate yourself, your numbers, your marketing efforts, your client experience, your team experience, always wanting to improve every aspect of your business and and remold it over and over and over again till it becomes this perfect little expression of you.

Your ability to reflect consistently on what is working and what's not working and then make changes, make little shifts to to make it better is what is going to make your business more and more successful. Number 13 is to be an innovator. So, think about what can I do that nobody else is doing? How can I improve upon this thing that everybody else is doing? Like, if I'm a photographer, what can I do differently?

What can I do to make my couple's experience extra special? What is it about me that I can infuse into this process that is gonna make it super fun for them? What can I do to make it easier for them? What can I do to bring more value to their experience? How can I make it better?

So being very innovative in and, like, taking the time to think about this all the time. What can I do to make it better? What can I do to make it different? That is what is gonna make you stand out. And I don't know where I came up with this needing to constantly be thinking about things like this, but I've always done it.

And there's little things you can infuse into your packages that is gonna make it unique, super special, and bring so much more value. But what is it about you? What is it about the way you work? What is it about the way that you do photography that is so much better than everybody else? And then how can you communicate that?

So trying to be super innovative in that way number 14 being a great communicator do you have the ability to put yourself in other people's shoes and see it from their point of view so can you when you're talking to a new bride and groom, can you put yourself in their place and talk to them like a real person and not just sell to them? You have to be able to communicate like that, like, in a real genuine way. You need to build an ability to communicate very professionally, but also very relate like, be relatable. How relatable and easy is it is it to work with you? If you are really good at communication with vendors, with your team, with couples, your business is going to be very successful.

So, you need to constantly work on improving your communication and being consistent with it. So, being able to communicate when in a timely manner, like when it's needed, not putting it off. Number 15 is self belief. This one is so big and so important Because if you don't have self belief, you will never make it off the ground. You your self belief needs to be so freaking strong that nobody can knock it down.

Because there isn't gonna be anybody else encouraging you. There's not gonna be a team of people supporting you, holding your hand. You need to do that for yourself, and you need to get really, really good at doing it too. When nothing's working, when you feel like nobody can find you, when nobody's reaching out to you, when you don't know what the hell you're doing, when you're just getting started or you have a dry spell and you just don't have a consistency of weddings coming through, Where's your self belief at? Like, how are you gonna hold yourself through that?

Are you gonna tell yourself, like, it's it's hard. I know what you're going through, but I'm gonna make it. I'm gonna figure this out, and I know that because that's who I am I'm good at this I know that I'm gonna figure this out I know that I'm meant for this you have to build this self belief of encouragement of care of trust of loyalty to yourself throughout entrepreneurship and the stronger that gets the more successful you're going to be because everybody's going to have times when things feel out of sorts where things feel like they're not taking off. Even if you're you've been in business for ten years like I have, I have these moments too, but I can remember in the beginning when I had those moments, like, all the time. That's when you you start to build this self belief, and it just gets stronger and stronger the longer you're in business.

And that self belief needs to be so solid, so strong, like, unbreakable because nobody else is gonna hold it for you. You have to hold it for yourself. You have to hold it for as long as it takes until you break through that threshold where you're on the other side and you're like, oh, yes. It's working. You know?

Like, that is gonna happen. Eventually, it's gotta happen, but you have to hold the self belief until you get there. Number 16, you gotta be a team player. Every wedding business owner needs to know how to work with a team. That includes even people that do solo things like officiants.

You need to learn how to communicate with the team, work with the team, be a team player. The vendors that I like to work with the most are the ones that are the easiest to work with. We work together to make our brides and grooms days, you know, of the fairy tale. And the only reason it it plays out so perfectly is because we're working as a team. You need to be a team player.

You need to know that we're all in it together. Every vendor, every photographer, wedding planner, officiant, DJ, florist, we're all working together to make this one day so special for our couple. And the way that it goes off without a hitch is because we all have each other's backs, which means if somebody needs something, you better believe I'm gonna be there to help them. It doesn't matter if it's not my job. We help each other out.

We take care of each other. You got to be a team player. And last, number 17. You must love weddings. You don't want to get into a wedding business if you don't love weddings.

And it maybe goes without saying, like, everybody loves weddings, but that's not true. Not everybody loves weddings. You gotta be the kind of person that does love weddings, that loves love, that loves making things beautiful, that loves capturing beauty, that loves capturing moments of love. You have to feel super passionate about that because that's what's gonna get you through the times when things are hard, when you're not making bookings, when your self belief is, you know, not super strong. You gotta just love weddings.

And, I mean, lucky for us, working in weddings is such a great place because weddings are so awesome. Like, you can't show up at a wedding and not be happy. Even if you're working it. Like, it's just the best job. Seriously.

It's something that you will never regret doing. And, if you're just starting a wedding business and you're wondering, like, is this for me? If you love weddings, like, that's enough right there. That is enough to pull you through. Loving, just really genuinely loving every aspect of a wedding makes this job super fun.

So, let's recap. 17 traits of a successful wedding business owner. Number one, relentless persistence. Number two, professionalism. Number three, trustworthiness, being a trustworthy person. Number four, being able to infuse your personality into your business. Number five, connections, building connections within the wedding industry. Number six, your business has to show up. People have to be able to find it. Number seven, being optimistic, having a unwavering optimism.

Number eight, being very detail oriented, having a strong attention to detail. Number nine, discipline, being very disciplined in your daily activities. Number 10, responsiveness, being someone who responds to emails, to calls very quickly. Number 11, self awareness, being self aware of what you're good at, what you're not, and creating a business around that. Number 12, self reflectiveness, being able to reflect on what is and isn't working and adjust.

Number 13, being an innovator, knowing how you can do things better, do things different, add more value. Number 14, being a great communicator with vendors, with brides and grooms, being really good at communication. Number 15, having a strong self belief. Number 16, being a team player, being able to work with a team with all different vendors, with a bridal party, being a team player all around. And number 17, you must absolutely love, be very, very passionate about love and weddings.

So, there you have it, 17 traits of a successful wedding business owner. Hope you guys like that one. It was kind of a fun one. Don't forget to check out Wedding Pro Academy if you're looking to grow, scale, or start a wedding business and you'd like some help with that. I have tons of information there, Or you can shoot me an email at nicole@weddingproacademy.com.

I hope you guys all have a wonderful weekend. It's Friday, and enjoy the nice sunny weather. I don't know about you. I'm in Hawaii. I have sunny weather, so I know it's like really cold on the Mainland. But here, it's nice, and I hope you have a wonderful weekend. And until next week, bye for now.