Own Your Business

FAQs about State of the Industry

09.04.2023 - By Sam Jacobson with IdeactionPlay

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Over 1,000 people have watched or listened to the State of the Industry panel I hosted a couple weeks ago. We’ve had a ton of good feedback from wedding pros. 

- Everyone said how refreshing it was to hear us talking about real numbers, rather than just what’s going on with a few businesses. 

- Many of you shared how comforting it was to know that you’re not the only one feeling a slowdown. 

- Some of you reached out in surprise that so many were so slow.

- A few wanted more specifics on why this was happening - and what you can do about it.

I’m pushing our regularly schedule programming back a week to do this episode, which will be like an FAQ follow-up for the State of the Industry panel. It’s also a peek into the kinds of conversations I’m having with my clients.

Here’s a tale of two consultations from this week: 

One client came to me because bookings were down. He felt maybe it was because the industry as a whole was feeling a decline. I’m glad he called, because an hour later, we’d identified a bunch of changes made to the proposal that needed to be tweaked, and packages and pricing that weren't communicating the value necessary to justify the higher prices. 

Later that day, I had a planning and design client reach out to me saying she just filled her 2024 calendar at $20k+ fees for the first time ever.

Why are some doing amazingly well? And others are on the struggle bus?

The numbers show weddings are a little down, we might be in an engagement, spending is down and so are guest counts. But I don’t believe that’s a reason - and certainly not an excuse - for bookings being off by 50%. Or even 20%. 

The macro-changes in the market are important to pay attention to. But as I’ll share, the cause of your success or concerns is likely what YOU have done - or not done - with your business.

The best part about that is you can impact a different outcome by doing different activities.

Tune in to find out what those are.

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