UKAWP - THE LEADING INDUSTRY BODY FOR THE UK WEDDING PLANNING MARKET

Archive for November, 2009

Get Covered….

Wednesday, November 25th, 2009

Setting up a Wedding Planning business, like any other, requires careful thought and planning. Diane Malone of Diamond Insurance www.diamondinsurance.net provides some insight for new businesses wondering where to start..

 

 

When starting a new business, it is imperative that you consider both your legal liabilities and the eventualities that could cause financial hardship to you and your business.  I

 

Employers Liability cover, even if you are employing somebody on a part time, temporary or even a voluntary basis, is a legal requirement. 

 

Public Liability covers your, or your employees, negligence to others, such as someone visiting your premises, or you visiting theirs. Perhaps you leave a box of samples on the floor, and they trip over them: they could hold you responsible for the injuries, loss of wages if unable to work, and possible hardship caused. 

 

Commercial Combined cover - many businesses fail after a major event because they have inadequate insurance cover. Stock, goods in transit, money cover, fixtures and fittings, liabilities for work away (including manual labour such as decorating a venue for a wedding) can all be covered on a combined policy.  Be it working from an office, from home, or from a shop you should also consider loss of profits or the additional cost of working following something like a fire, to cover the cost of working from alternative premises, or indeed paying someone to reinstate lost data.

 

Professional Indemnity Insurance: if you are advising a client you should consider this to protect you and your clients

 

Motor insurance should include business use for yourself and anyone else whom you expect to drive the vehicle for work. 

 

If working from home your household insurers should also be advised: they are likely to restrict cover to your contents if you have visitors to the premises.

 

Insurance is a very complex area and you should always use the services of a professional, after all if we get it wrong we are well insured!

 

 

Manchester Training Course

Monday, November 16th, 2009

course-41

I just spent the weekend with a delightful bunch of ladies, all keen to start careers as independent wedding planners. Many thanks to Andrea Swift, our Regional Representative from the the North, who, as always, helped me out.

People came from all over the UK from a variety of jobs. Everyone was keen to learn and to stay in touch as they move forward with their businesses.

course1

On Day Two students had fun cutting and pasting to make design boards for mock brides.

Many of the ladies will be back with me in three weeks time for our Step By Step course, after which I anticipate seeing some launches quite soon!

PR - Back to Basics

Thursday, November 12th, 2009

Your Press List

 You are only as good as your press list. You can put together the most fantastic press release, but if the wrong people see it, it’s worthless.

Putting together a press list is something my clients struggle with because, well, it’s boring. But it has to be done, so my suggestion is to get on with it, or delegate it to an assistant, confident teenager or intern. Here are some suggestions which might make it easier.

1. Who is Your Target Market

 Is it local? Who are you aiming at - brides? Venues?

 2. Build A Library

 This could be the local papers, national newspapers, local newsletters and magazines, radio stations, what’s on and listing websites.

 Get copies of any that are printed.

 If you’re stuck on titles, The Guardian Media Directory, available from the Guardian website, is a good investment at under £20.

3. Set Up Your List

 This could be on a simple Excel sheet, or a newsletter service such as www.constantcontact.com. The advantage of the latter is that you can track clicks so that you know which releases get the most attention.

 You may have more than one target name for each publication. In the case of a local newspaper you may have the News Editor, a family writer, women’s page editor and Features Editor.  On a radio show you may be contacting the Assistant Producer, Forwarding Programming and Researcher.

4. Get To Know Your Publications

 Good PR is not just a case of sending out press releases to everyone and hoping that one of them will stick. Looking at publications or listening to radio shows and coming up with ideas and angles that suit them is vital.

If you have a team you can assign particular publications to particular people.

Boosting Your Press List

 Media Requests

 These are requests for case studies or quotes from journalists. They sometimes post them in Internet forums or send out to networking groups.

 I have a service at http://www.doyourownpr.com/products/divine_pub.asp where I gather media requests and email them to clients. One of the users of my service is Susan Heaton Wright of entertainment company http://www.nsn-productions.com who has been in Essentials, Prima, Leith FM, The Secretary, a number of trade hospitality publications and an over 60s publication in matter of months, simply by responding to requests.

 Susan has been doing well, but she admits that it’s been a bit of a learning curve. “I started off only approaching smaller titles, but I’ve learnt that you have to just pick up the courage and go for it.”

 What About Freelancers?

 Freelancers are hard to find.

 Some groups of journalists like Travel Journalists, or the Circle of Wine Writers, have their own association and you can buy a list of journalists or members.

 If you see something written by a person you think is a freelancer, Google them. Freelance Journalists are business people and most of them have their own website, Facebook page or something similar.

 Some publications do print a freelancer’s email address at the bottom of an article. Often it’s a generic paula.gardner@telegraph.co.uk but it’s better than nothing.

 I have another Divine Publicity Club member, Kate, who hardly ever responds to requests but has been using the requests to gather a list of freelance journalists that she now communicates with via tips and press releases. She admits that it would have been hard and time-consuming to come by her list any other way.

 Paula Gardner of www.doyourownpr.com is a PR coach and trainer. Her Divine Publicity Club sends media requests into your inbox twice a week. It will also update you on new publications, blogs and websites you can add to your press lists. It costs £19.99 a month and - best of all - you get 15 mins of PR coaching with Paula once a month during regular PR clinics.

Member Focus: Isabel Smith

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

In our regular series, today we welcome Isabel Smith of Buckinghamshire-based  Isabel Smith Wedding Design www.isabelsmithweddings.co.uk

 isabel-smith1

Why did you become a wedding planner?

I fell into wedding planning by accident.  Having helped a boyfriend’s parents plan their silver wedding celebration and absolutely adored the rush when it all came together, I wrote to some hotels looking for some work experience when I left university.  I started a two week marketing role to find that the wedding planner there wanted to move into marketing and since I wanted weddings, we switched.  Within a month I knew I wanted to set up my own business but wanted to spend a few years gaining the experience and contacts to make me really stand out.

What’s your USP? 

My experience.  Having spent three years at some of the Country’s top wedding venues like Cliveden, I have had the privilege of being involved in well over 150 weddings at some stage of the planning or other.  I really know what can make a day run smoothly and elegantly both front of house and backstage.

Signature dish?

Mothers of Brides - I have always been good at getting along with people of all ages and from all walks of life and I invariably end up becoming as close to the bride’s mum as I do to her!

Do you have a favourite venue? 

Oh hundreds - Great Fosters or one of the Oxford colleges for classic and country weddings, any of the The Crazy Bear sites for a really funky/boudoir twist, The Landmark in Marylebone for city chic…the list is endless.

How would your clients describe you? 

Professional, passionate and knowledgeable.

Have you ever had a challenging client and how did you deal with it? 

I had a client who lived abroad and was staying in the area for one week to meet the registrar’s residency requirements.  We had just that one week to work together on the plans before she left me to source all the suppliers.  It was a late-lead wedding anyway so trying to get hold of everything at short notice, and then factor in the time difference when trying to get the final sign-off was a real challenge.  Luckily she was a star and knew pretty much exactly what she wanted so there were no problems that working a 100 hour week couldn’t fix!

How do you unwind? 

Feeding the shoe addiction works a treat, but when you just really need to be still and relax, there is nothing like a large glass of red wine in front of a classic movie - usually from the action/thriller genre.

 If you could plan a celebrity wedding (alive or dead) whose would it be? 

I have a real fascination for dedicated bachelors - if I couldn’t be the woman who pinned down George Clooney, being the woman to plan his wedding would be a fab second place!  The same applies to James Bond - fictional I know but imagine planning his wedding!

Which wedding planner’s work do you respect/admire and why?

I have the greatest respect for all planners but particularly the pioneers - be it the likes of Siobhan Craven-Robins for bringing the concept of a planner to the UK mainstream or Zoe Lingard for modernising the approach.

What’s your biggest achievement since launching?

Getting my first enquiry put me on top of the world as I knew then that all the preparation and hard work was paying off. 

What is your vice?  

See above - SHOES!  And Terry’s Chocolate Orange.   And Champagne.  And America’s Next Top Model. And…was I only supposed to pick one?

What trends are you seeing for 2009/2010? 

2010 is going to be a really exciting year.  I think the credit crunch has really forced a lot of ingenuity amongst planners and brides in terms of managing the budget and it will be great to see what form this takes as the economy picks up.

Colour-wise, I love that the 80’s are coming back - I bet nobody ever thought they’d see peach at a wedding again - but this time round it comes in a much softer, creamy tone and looks great highlighted with soft plum shades.

Pocket Positive X

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

“A positive thinker does not refuse to recognise the negative, he refuses to dwell on it. Positive thinking is a form of thought which habitually look for the best results from the worst conditions” Norman Vincent Peale