What Six Figure Wedding Businesses Have in Common

Each week I'll cover strategies, tips, 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 31.

Today we are going to talk about what 6 figure wedding businesses have in common. But first, let's talk a little bit about why wedding businesses in general are so awesome. Why they are the direct the most direct route to financial success, a dream life, one with lots of freedom, and doing a job you love. But here's the thing, entrepreneurship is not and will never be the easy path. So what exactly does it take to get there and what do the people that have made it have in common that the people that are still doing it as a hobby have missed?

What is the difference between the dabblers, the part time wedding business owners who are kind of doing it as a side hobby kind of thing? You know, this is you if you are doing it as a side business and you're a photographer, planner, whatever, and you're just kind of doing it for fun on the side. You wish you could make it a full time gig, but you can't quite get there. What's the difference between them and the 6 figure 6 to 7 figure wedding business owners, the ones that are booked out solid who have this company that is running, you know, on auto full time where it feels easy. So today we're gonna go in-depth about discussing four major differences between these two groups of wetty business owners.

The part time hobbyists, they're usually making like 10 to maybe $30,000 a year, and the full time dream wedding business owners who are generally 6 figure businesses or 7 figure businesses that are fully booked out. So if we are to like zoom out for a bit, there are key differences that set one group apart from the other. Things that you could start to implement and begin thinking about if your goal is to build a wedding business that feels luxurious with both time and a steady flow of income. So, what does that dream business look like? I was always super curious about this when I was first building my wedding business and nobody was talking about it.

And I'm fully open to being completely transparent about all of this. I wanna share with you the difference that I've experienced personally because I've been on both ends. So I know what it's like to be in that mentality of trying to figure out figure things out and struggling to make it happen, stuck in that twenty to thirty thousand dollar a year mark, and be on the other side of making a $100,000 or more. So when I was first building my wedding business for the first, I don't know, one to three years, it was all about the hustle. I felt confused, a little desperate, I felt stuck.

I felt like I was trying everything, literally everything, and nothing was sticking. I couldn't figure out how to best use my time and energy to reach potential brides and grooms. I couldn't find my couples, and not for a lack of trying because I was really, really trying. I was doing everything, but I didn't know what I was doing wrong. Struggling to book weddings, and I couldn't get any traction.

I was also working a lot on a lot of different things. A lot of stuff that I was working on just didn't matter. I was trying any and everything and I was determined to make it work, but I didn't really know what things were the best things to work on, so I was just doing it all. It felt like I was working constantly even though I wasn't doing a lot of weddings. I was just working on crap, like, all the time.

And I was super determined to make this work no matter what, but it was exhausting, overwhelming. I felt disappointed and unsettled and uncomfortable most of the time, but I stuck with it. And that's the difference. That's how I ended up getting to the 6 figures. And eventually, some of the things started working, but if I zoom out, I can see now, you know, in hindsight, what things actually made the difference.

What worked and what was a complete waste of time. But at the time, when I was in it, in the muck of it, I had absolutely no idea, and it was like throwing spaghetti at a wall, hoping that something would stick. But the good news is that if you throw enough spaghetti, some of it will stick. It has to. And that's where I ended up winning with this is because I was, like, determined.

I was gonna just keep on throwing spaghetti at the wall until something worked. And eventually, something did work. Lots of things ended up working. It just took a long time for me to figure it out. So life back then, it it felt like all of the weddings I was taking, they were not my ideal couple. I was willing to work for basically nothing for peanuts. I didn't know my value. I was undercharging. I was over delivering. I was taken advantage of.

I didn't really feel in a groove of any kind. I wasn't really confident on going all in on anything because I was barely making enough to make this a full time gig. I would just book any and every wedding that came my way. Anyone that was willing to pay me money, I would work for them. I never, never turned a wedding down.

I was undervaluing myself, my business, and the experience that I was giving couples. And I used to work all the time. I used to work a lot. And on wedding days, I would I would work sometimes fifteen plus hour days for a wedding, and it would be so bad that my feet would be throbbing. I remember I would get home and my feet would just be throbbing in bed all night, and the next day my feet would still be sore.

I'd wake up the next morning after I got home at like 1AM, and then I'd go and drop off their rental items for them. I would do shit like that because I didn't know how to say no, and I was willing to do any and everything to book a wedding. I was kind of being taken advantage of, but I was asking for it because I wasn't saying no. That's because I just wasn't confident in myself or in my value, at least not yet. Here's the difference.

This is what my wedding business is now. So fast forward, I don't know, 10, a little less than ten years. So it's smaller, it's cleaner, it's easier. I only work with a very specific type of couple. I know my ideal wedding really, really well and I only market to them and I only work with them.

I have an entire luxury experience set up just for this type, this very specific type of bride and groom And I know without question that my business is the best of the best for this specific bride. I turn down weddings all the time. Every week I turn down weddings because they're not a good fit. I turn down a lot of weddings and I do not feel bad about it. I'm not worried about missing out on the money because I have enough money.

I have a team that works under me. I have systems in place. I have couples reaching out to me and I book weddings consistently. I don't do paid advertising, I don't lower my prices, I don't offer discounts. Ever.

Why? Because I know, like, I really know in my heart that they need me and I know that they're going to get an extraordinary experience if they book me. I know that I over deliver. I'm very very confident in my value. So, what are the lifestyle differences between that old version of me and the new version of me?

So this is the difference in how I am living. Just to give you, like, a little peek behind the scenes. When I was first getting started and building my business, I I was still finding my way. I didn't own a house. I was a renter.

I was super cheap with everything. I was very cheap with how I lived because I didn't feel like I could afford to live any other way. I used to eat things, like, weekly. Things like like a hot this is gross. A hot bowl of tuna that I would warm up in the microwave with cheese melted on it, I would dip lettuce and crackers into it.

That was like dinner. It was good, but now I think about that and it's disgusting. My one treat to myself back then would be getting a haircut for about $80 I remember paying that much and being like, Oh, this is so luxurious. I got my haircut for $80 But I would only allow myself to do that one or two times a year. I never got my nails done.

I had never ever gotten a massage. I used to work out at home doing p 90 x because it was cheap and efficient. I shopped mostly at Forever twenty one. I used to drive a Toyota Tacoma, which I loved. I still that truck.

I just sold it. But I owned it outright, and I was super proud of that. But my life was in no way luxurious. I was probably bringing in 25 to 35,000 a year, and I worked constantly, probably forty to sixty hours a week. I don't even know why I was working so much because I was working on tons of shit behind the scenes.

I was blogging. I was doing all of this stuff, and it wasn't actually making me money. So, I felt like I was working all the time, but I was working on all of the wrong things. I never had a team, and I was doing it all myself. So, let's fast forward to today.

Today, it's very very different. I live very different from how I lived back then. I now own two houses in Hawaii. I have an in ground pool which I put in my backyard. I drive a Volvo XC90, the inscription model, the one with the fancy air conditioned seats and wooden panels inside. It feels very luxurious. I have a big ass diamond ring which I love. I get my nails done regularly. I have two hair people, one who cuts my hair and one who colors my hair. I pay for them separately.

I do that regularly. I get massages regularly, and I have a masseuse that comes to my house with a table and she massages me in my living room. I belong to a luxury gym, I have a personal trainer, I have house cleaners, a whole team that comes in and cleans my house, and I have yard guys, which is totally separate. I work on my wedding business probably about ten to fifteen hours a week. I make 6 plus figures and I have a team under me of four that I manage.

I feel like my life now, I have luxurious amounts of time and freedom. I surf a lot, probably two plus times a week, and I spend a lot of time with my three kids. They're still kind of little, so I want to be really involved in their life, and I set my business up for me so that I could be really present with them. So overall, I'm working way less. I'm making way more.

My life feels luxurious. And it's all because I set up a business to work for me instead of working against me, instead of me working for my business. I say all of this just to kind of give you a peek into what you could have, and not really to brag because I didn't grow up with all of this. I didn't even know what a life like this could be like, because I didn't know anybody with money. I didn't even think it was possible because I'd never seen it, I never experienced.

But, I just want you to know that a wedding business can give you this life. It can be set up intentionally to give you a life like this. And in fact, I can't think of a better business to allow you this kind of lifestyle than one in weddings. Wedding businesses are hugely profitable. They're never going to go out of business because people are always going to be getting married.

Like, that's just fact. And they have the potential to give you tons of freedom if you set them up like I did. Bottom line is they're really fun. So there's some if you have to do a job, do one that you love, one that's really fun, and that is definitely what weddings is like, what working in weddings is like. So if all of this sounds like something you want, let's talk about how to get there.

What are some of the main differences between hobby wedding business owners and full time successful 6 plus figure wedding businesses? Well, here's one thing. 6 figure wedding businesses are really, really clear on their ideal wedding. They're really clear on their ideal bride and groom. They are not trying to cater to everyone.

They don't want to. They're not offering everything under the sun because they know that their ideal couple is looking for something very specific. They know exactly what their ideal couple wants, and they're only catering to them. They're giving this specific bride and groom the best of the best experience an experience that exceeds their expectations and gives them everything that they want and need and nothing more and nothing less. They are all in on this type of wedding, and it's usually a type of wedding that they love.

It's something that they're really good at. You will know what I mean. Once you've done a handful of weddings, you're going to feel kind of drawn towards one type of couple. You're going to love some weddings and hate some other weddings. Think about what kind of weddings do you love the most.

What type of couples do you love the most? If you're a photographer, what type of photography do you love the most? Why do you love it? What are you really, really good at naturally? These are going to be the types of weddings, the type of photography, the type of events that you should go all in on.

They're going to feel like you're naturally called to them, and you're going to naturally be the best at this. These are going to be your dream weddings, the ones that you'll be able to offer the best experience to, because you get them in a way that nobody else does. This is when weddings become a lot more fun, more luxurious, easier, simpler. You've got to get really clear on your ideal wedding and learn how to cater to them. The next thing, number two, is marketing.

You're gonna need to be very, very clear in your marketing on your website, specifically on your homepage and services page. It needs to be super clear, clean, very professional. 6 figure, 7 figure wedding businesses, if you look at their websites, they are not catering to every bride. They're not trying to appeal to everyone. They're only focused on one type of bride, one style of photography, one experience.

They're specifically marketing to her. They're specifically set up for her. Their website is not messy. It's extremely professional. It's attractive. It's beautiful. It's appealing. It hooks in her ideal bride and groom and gives them exactly what they need. They're not searching elsewhere for it. They don't have questions when they're looking at your website.

They're like, oh, this is exactly what I always wanted. This is exactly what I need. I need to work with her. That's how your website should make them feel as soon as they find it. Your website needs to promote trust, build connection.

It shouldn't feel overwhelming and, like, too much and confusing. It should be simple but very thorough. Your services page needs to be to the point, not vague because you're not confident in your pricing, and not overwhelming because there's just too much info on there because you're not confident in your value. It should be simple, clean, clear, and offering exactly what your ideal bride and groomer are looking for answering all their questions, reassuring them, getting them excited, creating connection before they even speak to you on the phone or reach out to you by email. Your website is pre selling them.

It's going to make bookings easy when it's done right. All the six-seven figure wedding businesses have websites like this. So spend some time looking at them because what do they have that you don't? What are they doing that you're not? How can you pick up some of what they're doing and implement it?

How can you get even more clear, more simple, build more connection? Okay, number three. 6 and 7 figure wedding businesses are set up like well oiled machines. They have a team and they have systems for everything. If you're thinking about building to scale like a 6 or 7 figure business, you cannot scale without systems.

You just can't. You can only do so much yourself. You have to be willing to spend some time learning how to build out systems within your business so you are able to scale. Especially for the tasks that you do over over again, you need to start thinking about setting up systems: email systems, consult systems, onboarding and offboarding systems, team training systems, tax paying systems, invoicing systems, payment tracking, bookkeeping systems, social media posting systems, sales and marketing systems. You cannot scale without first building out all these systems.

And they these systems and processes are what will allow your business to grow. You can't do it without them. So you're going to need to start implementing them a little at a time until they're all set up in place. And that is what took me eight years to figure out. And I started doing it a little at a time.

I didn't have all the systems set up at once. It was like, Oh, I'm doing this over and over and over again, and it's wasting my time. So how can I create a system for this? And at the time, there wasn't a company like mine, Wedding Pro Academy, that was telling me, Here's the systems that work best for wedding businesses. There was none of that.

I had to just figure it out on my own, and I did. Now that I have them in place, that is what allows me to have this luxurious amount of time and this freedom that I have while making a lot of money and not having to do it all myself. You need to start thinking about setting up systems as soon as you can. Okay, number four. What separates hobbyist wedding businesses from $6.07 figure businesses?

It's they have mastered marketing and sales, and this is something that you will have to do if you want to scale to the 6 figure mark. Most wedding businesses that are at that space, all wedding businesses at that space, they have processes that they've developed that helps them to close new couples at a very high rate. I can remember when closing couples was really, really hard for me, and I would meet with 10 different people and I would close like one. But now, my closing rate is like 80%, so I close most of the couples that I get on a call with, almost guaranteed, and it's because I have a very simple system that I use on new couples and allows me to build trust and connection with them. It makes them feel understood and puts me in a place of authority as the best of the best.

It's set up that way on purpose. I've done a lot of trial and error. I know what works. I know what they need to hear. I know how to build connection. I know how to set myself apart from everyone else. I know how to make them want to book me right away. There's a system for all of that, and sales happen more naturally when you're good at this. So, this is something that you're going to have to learn. You'll realize that sales starts before they even get on the call with you.

The call is just like the deal sealer. You just need to address very specific things while you're on the call, but you need to be nurturing your couples long before all of this with a series of very specific steps, which I teach in my Wedding Business Masterclass. Marketing and sales is very, very important, but it isn't something that came naturally to me. I spent years figuring this stuff out, learning messaging, learning how to build trust ahead of time, learning what elements needed to be in place in order for them to see me as an authority, learning how to build confidence in myself so that they would want to work with me. And looking back now, there are just a few things that I I needed to learn before my wedding business would be ready to scale, specifically in relation to sales and messaging, but I didn't know what those things were.

I didn't even know how to look for them. I didn't know what the hell I was doing, and I didn't even think being very specific in my marketing and sales was important because nobody teaches you that. Like, I I don't I just didn't know what the f I was doing. And so if you're there, don't, like, beat yourself up about it. It is something that you are going to need to figure out.

And there is very specific ways to market to brides and grooms. And you will learn all of this in my wedding business masterclass, or you can spend some time really diving into messaging. That's really, really important for all businesses to learn. It honestly, it took me eight years to hit six figures, and there were a lot of sixty hour weeks of working on mostly the wrong stuff. And now I just work five to fifteen hours a week because I have a business that is set up working for me and I'm working on the right things.

So this luxurious amounts of freedom, it didn't come overnight. It wasn't something that I just fell into. It is something that I really had to set up on purpose for me. And it's also what I love the most of my about my business. It's like the best part about having a wedding business.

It's being able to surf on Mondays and Thursdays without having to, you know, dive into a computer and answer emails. It's weekends that I get to spend at my son's soccer tournament and baseball tournaments because I get to be there for every moment because I want to be, and I get to schedule weddings around all of that. It's my ability to be home and have space and time when the teacher calls me and is like, Your kid's sick, you need to pick him up, and I can just go because my life is set up that way. I want this for you too, for you to have a business that gives you the life you want. That's what an awesome wedding business can do for you.

Wedding businesses are just spectacular. I just love my wedding business and I want other, especially mothers, females, women that, you know, I want you guys to have this experience also, and a wedding business can be set up for you in this way. So if you found this interesting, I have a free guide that goes into depth about all of this stuff, and it's called the five secrets of 6 figure wedding businesses. So secrets that 6 figure wedding businesses have in common. We went over a couple of them here, but there are more, and I go into great detail on them.

So you can grab that if you're interested at weddingproacademy.com backslash five, the number five, dash secrets. Again, that's weddingproacademy.com backslash five secrets. So if you're like me and not a fan of wasting time or energy on the wrong stuff, you also should consider getting into my wedding business masterclass because I'm gonna, like, guide you through all of the things that need to be in place that will set your business up to scale, to six figures and beyond. And it's a totally different approach, and it's very clear, very direct, so that you're not wasting time doing the things that don't matter. You don't I don't wanna see you wasting endless hours on stuff that doesn't move the needle, wasting years trying to figure out why this isn't working and why you can't get traction.

So, this course, it only opens up a few times a year. It's not open right now, but it will be opening soon, and if you're interested, just get on the wait list. You can find that at weddingproacademy.com. Hope you guys have a wonderful weekend. Happy Friday. I will talk to you all again next week. Bye for now.