The coronavirus and the wedding industry is a hot topic right now.
Our Inboxes are overflowing with coronavirus emails and right now it all seems a little bit surreal.
Having been in business with the Wedding Academy for 12 years and a further 10 running my own wedding planning and design business before that, it’s safe to say I’ve weathered a few business storms.
But nothing really compares to the coronavirus and the way it’s affecting the industry I love so much, the wedding industry.
Like you, I’m a small business person and whether I like it or not the coronavirus is having an impact on everyone I know in business, myself included.
As the educators for the wedding industry I want to help and offer whatever advice I can to hopefully let people see how they can survive this.
There’s no getting away from the fact that coronavirus is changing things.
I live in France and we’re already on partial lockdown with an iminent curfew being implemented and all non-essential shops closed along with restaurants, cafes, cinemas, sporting centres and anywhere with gatherings of over 100 people.
Weddings are being cancelled, flights are being stopped and any type of travel is becoming less likely to happen.
So how do we deal with the coronavirus in the wedding industry?
How can we weather the storm as wedding pros?
Well first of all, don’t over react. Take a long deep breath and think about how you’d want to be treated if you were affected.
As wedding pros we’re in a service based industry and now more than ever we need to remember that. Your bridal couples are going to be nervous, worried and looking for answers from you.
Remember to be empathetic…this is their wedding as well as your business. Think about how you can help them and what you can offer them through this time.
You may well get cancellation requests but is that really the best thing to do? Would it be better to postpone rather than cancel? Before you blindly hand out advice to your clients make sure you take some advice of your own.
Here’s are two links to some great legal advice and content from the experts:
- Contractual Facts Not Social Media Fictions For Wedding Suppliers
- Coronavirus Best Practices And Clauses To Have In Your Contracts
The way you handle your business in times of crisis says a lot about you as a business owner and about the longevity you can have.
Challenges in business will always be thrown at you and like anything in business you need to learn from these challenges and make sure you are ready for them if and when they rear their ugly heads again.
Be prepared.
This is the boy scout motto and for good reason, it’s always better to be proactive than reactive.
Right now one of the best things you can do is read up on how best to prepare and protect your business both now and in the future.
These three resources will definitely help so take the time to read them:
- Webinar hosted by Honeybook: Coronavirus & Your Business
- Coronavirus (COVID-19) and your Event Business from Sage Wedding Pros
- Covid-19 – A Practical Guide for the Wedding Industry
There’s no easy or quick fix here and nobody can really predict what’s going to happen or how long it will take before things go back to some form of normality. What you can do though is get rid of anything unneccessary and see what else you can do till things even out again.
Here’s two ideas to help your wedding businesses bottom line:
Put it through the membership test
How many unneccesary memberships do you have right now? And that includes unused gym memberships, software memberships, and anything else you’re paying for.
Do an audit on them now and get rid of anything that’s not essential to the running of your wedding business.
Get creative
Are there any other things you can offer right now to see you through?
As a wedding planner you have great organisational skills so could those be put to use in other ways? Are there any services you can add to your offerings?
Can you do anything online that will help bring in revenue?
The wedding industry is full of amazing, hard working, determined professionals and I know we’ll get through this like we’ve got through many other things.
Remember, together we are stronger so if you’re in need of an ear to bend or just want some friendly advice then come and join our Facebook Group for Wedding Pros.
Stay strong. Think positive. Be kind.
