Setting Goals For Success In The Wedding Industry

Kristina Stubblefield: [00:00:00] Thank you you for tuning in to WebPro Business Solutions. I'm your host, Kristina Stubblefield, and today I'm going to be taking on the topic of setting goals for the upcoming year. But you might be thinking to yourself, wait a second. As the time of this recording we're only halfway through this year. You're exactly right.

But for those in the wedding industry, I don't need to share with you all. You're probably already getting inquiries, leads, booked events for the next year or the year after that, so it can be very tricky. At what time do you start setting your goals for the upcoming year? I share with a lot of my clients and when I'm doing speaking engagements that the wedding industry is very unique.

And I stand behind that. One of the ways it is, if you make a change right now in your pricing, in your packages, it takes a [00:01:00] while for that to take effect because you've probably already booked events, you have proposals or quotes that are already outstanding, so, the same goals for when you're setting your goals.

If we don't talk about that in advance, and you're already booking events for 16, 18 months or 24 months in advance, how can we be working towards something if we have not thought about it or put the time in to really set those goals? Why is it important? Well, planning early, honestly, that can really help you.

I know a lot of times people say, but it's busy. The wedding season is in full swing. Yes, but you owe it to yourself and your business to really dive into what is it that you want out of your [00:02:00] business for the upcoming year? Is that a certain number of events? Is that a certain revenue? A lot of times people think goals is just a revenue number.

It's what you make of it. If that you want that to be a certain revenue, great. If you want that to be a certain number of events. That's great as well. Whatever works best for you and your business, and I don't want you to miss out on opportunities or just have an unnecessary stress because you've waited till the end of the year to even think about the upcoming year and you're already halfway booked or fully booked.

And this comes into play. A lot of times I work with people on adjusting their pricing. they're leveling up their business and they have not broke down the number of hours they work each event or what all is [00:03:00] poured into an event. And when you start to dive into those numbers, work with a lot of people to increase their pricing or adjust their packages.

It's just part of that coaching and consulting experience as l doing that 10,000 foot view on a business, you're able to peel back those layers and really dive down deep to figure out what's going on. So allowing yourself the time to evaluate. Where is your business at this year? What goals did you have set for this year?

How many events are you going to do this year? What are you on target for as far as revenue? Now there's a big difference between revenue and profit, and this episode is not necessarily about that, but remember, those are two completely different things. But I just want you [00:04:00] to evaluate where you're at now and where you're going to be at for this year, and then what do you want to change?

And what do you want those goals to be for the upcoming year? And this allows you to be proactive instead of reactive. And that's a big thing for me is working with wedding professionals to be proactive. So many times we react to something, oh, I haven't gotten as many inquiries in this month or this quarter.

I need to make a change and we react to that. So that's why I want you to start to think ahead for your business. Honestly, setting goals helps you really focus in and set yourself up to move your business in a certain direction. It [00:05:00] allows you the space to have, what is that vision? To have a vision for your business.

And if you get specific about your objectives, then you get clarity on what actions you need to take to reach those goals. you want to make sure that these goals help hold you accountable. And you want to make sure that you celebrate yourself along the way. What it comes down to is goal setting provides a roadmap to success, to what you set out that you want your business to reach, the goals you want to reach in your business. And honestly, the other thing too that I like to share with people, you can make better decisions when you have mapped out. When you have that roadmap, you can make better decisions for your [00:06:00] business. So you're probably thinking to yourself, okay, I really haven't thought about this, this much in advance, or you could be listening to this and you've been one that thought, I don't need to set goals.

I just want to book what business I can and run my business. I want to share with you a few steps to get started for setting goals for the upcoming year. First of all, you can reflect on the past, evaluate what have you achieved this year. What are you on target or what are, what is the path your business is on to achieving this year?

And then honestly, I tell people to write this down. What has worked well for you in booking the events you have for this year? What hasn't worked well? And I know if you're like me, did something just cross your mind like, Ugh, there's something [00:07:00] about social media, social media changing and things like that.

It just, but what has worked well and what hasn't worked well, and this reflection can give you really important insights and honestly, keep you informed on your business. Then I would encourage you to figure out what your priorities are. What are the key areas that you want to hone in on? Is it that you want to increase the booked events?

Do you want to increase your visibility, which in turn will increase the traffic for your business, and then potentially leads and booked events. Are you wanting to make a change with your services or your packages? Are you wanting to focus more on your customer's experience? Whatever the [00:08:00] areas are that you want to focus in on, make note of those because that's where you're going to set the priority to work on those.

That's what's going to help you reach those goals. And then the other thing that I like to share with people is about setting smart goals. What are smart goals? They are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. So instead of setting a general goal, like you want to increase the number of booked events, You could set a smart goal that you want to increase the number of booked events by 20% through targeted campaigns by the end of Q2, the second quarter of the upcoming year.

So you're getting very specific. With your goals, smart goals. I feel like though that is one [00:09:00] of the best systems for also keeping you accountable, but keeping track of what you've achieved. I think that is so important in your business. So many times people can feel that they haven't done much in their business.

Well, that's because they don't, they haven't written a book and looked back through the pages and been like, oh my gosh, there's five chapters in this. And we don't give ourselves the grace to pause and say, wow, look at all of this. I accomplished. We don't, and we really should. A lot of wedding professionals out there work really hard and devote a lot of time, energy, and effort to their events and their clients and have probably for a number of years.

And it's really hard to take that pause and reflect back on how far you've come in the past year, the past three years or five years, [00:10:00] and it's hard to take that time and look back. The other thing that I would say is make sure you break down your goals into actionable steps. You have to know what steps to take to reach those goals Again, you need to be specific about the actions. This makes it an easier journey, and honestly, it makes it more manageable. At first, you could probably feel overwhelmed that if there's 20 steps in this process to reach this goal, but when you have them broke down and you can check them off, It's more manageable and we're back to that roadmap that you have to achieve your overall goals.

As I mentioned about tracking your progress, you want to make sure that you review your goals and take the time to track your progress. This will really [00:11:00] help you stay the course and make adjustments if needed along the way. And all of this comes down to staying focused on your overall goals and I share all of this with you because I've been fortunate to work with people over the years and see them really put down on paper, this is what I want. This is my goal. And to be able to watch them throughout the year, do the steps along the way, and not only reach, but surpass that goal, it is amazing. I'm very fortunate to have been part of that, those journeys over the years.

And as I said, I've done this for a long time, I know how important it is for setting goals, and I've also seen [00:12:00] firsthand how a person starts out and they've never really set goals for themselves and. They've done it, they've done the actionable steps, they've adjusted along the way and then they've achieved their goals.

And that's all I want for all of you that are listening. And I know it can be frustrating to think, to really say. I know it can be frustrating to really sit and think about, gosh, I'm only part of the way through this year and I'm having to really think in the future, but the industry you are in, that's how it works.

And the sooner that you start to think about this and start to get down goals and really drill down to what it is you want to achieve in that upcoming year for your business. The better direction, the better you can [00:13:00] follow that roadmap and be working on those goals for that upcoming year. So give yourself the space that you deserve to put thought into what you want for your business. What do you want to achieve next year? And then take the time to get specific. Utilize the Smart Goal system. It is a great system and can really help you in putting together that roadmap to achieving your goals. If you have not already joined my free Facebook group, please do.

You can find it on Facebook WebPro Business Community. I'd love to hear what are your goals? What are some of the things that you are thinking about for the upcoming year? You can go in the group and post it, or if you prefer, you can send [00:14:00] me a private message on social media or by email. Thank you so much for tuning in, and until next time, take care.