Setting goals can be a powerful accelerator of your business growth.  In addition to motivating us to take action, they focus our energy and effort, help us look past distractions, and enhance our determination and persistence.

Well, that’s true if those goals are properly structured so they actually motivate us!

Enter “SMART Goals”. The ‘S.M.A.R.T.’ acrostic is intended to help us remember the important characteristics (or structure) of our goals. Here’s what each letter stands for:

• S - Specific
• M - Measurable
• A - Actionable
• R - Realistic
• T - Time bound 

Specific

It’s important to ensure that our goals are specific. This characteristic of a goal provides the focus and clarity we need to ensure we’re taking the appropriate amount of action.

For example, if our goal for 2020 is to ‘grow our business’, that might be a reasonable objective, but it’s not specific. So, it doesn’t...

Why Setting Goals is a Valuable Exercise 

A survey of graduates from Yale University in 1953 (yes, that’s a LONG time ago) found that only 3% of them had written down goals for their lives. The survey team followed up with those people 20 years later and found that the 3% who wrote down goals had accumulated more wealth than the other 97% combined. (Now, we’re not saying that wealth is the only important measure of success. It was simply the one being used in the study, and one that’s fairly easy to quantify). This survey shows the value of goal setting.

I (Dale) learned the value of goal setting relatively late in my career. For much of my career, I would simply focus and work on the things that other people told me I should. And because of that, my career was not focused or directed. I was what Zig Ziglar calls a ‘wandering generality’. I tended to bounce from one thing to another. 

Image Credit: Jonny + Liz Photography

WHAT GOAL SETTING...

Be Thankful for the Challenges

We Learn and Become Better Because of Them

This is certainly a time of year that our thoughts turn to the things we’re thankful for – wonderful friends and family, good health, opportunity, etc. Gratitude is a magnificent and powerful emotion.

How often are we thankful for the things that often help us learn and grow the most? You know, the challenges, the struggles, the mistakes, and the failures. Yes, you read that right. It’s our failures, mistakes and struggles that help us grow. Or at least they give us the opportunity to grow.

When things go well, we continue to perform, but we don’t get any better. We continue to just ‘do’. It’s only in our struggles that we pause and look for different, new and better ways to perform. And that’s when we grow. It’s that growth that makes it possible for us to do and accomplish more in the future. It’s what makes us better at what we do.

So, we...

Due to the natural slowdown in work with clients or prospects, this time of year provides wedding professionals with the opportunity for two wonderful activities. We can choose to either take time to relax, recover, and re-energize. Or we can take the time to work ‘on’ our businesses because we finally have the time.

We aren’t recommending one over the other. After all who doesn’t look longingly forward to spending time with our own ‘nutty aunt Mary’ for a change, rather than our clients’ nutty aunt Mary? Rather, we’re suggesting that we all make the intentional choice to do one or the other (or a combination with clear boundaries).

JUST BE INTENTIONAL

We’re all in different places – in our businesses and as business owners – so we don’t feel there’s one right answer. Nor are we in any position to offer our recommendation of which is right for you. We just encourage you to decide which you want to do and...

Activity Doesn’t Equal Accomplishment

As wedding pros we never advance to the point where we no longer need to prioritize. It something we must keep doing whether we’re running a large conference, managing a mid-sized catering business, or running a one-person photography business. We always run out of time before we get everything that needs-to-be-done, done. Our time continues to be our most valuable (and limited) resource. So, we need to prioritize what we do with that time.

One of the challenges we have as business owners is the number of things we could do with our time. Most of us get hit with a barrage of demands, requests, offers and ideas every week that fill our schedule. We could be busy doing what others want us to do…forever. That’s why we need to prioritize where we invest our time based upon the value of the activity.  

BUSY DOESN’T EQUAL PRODUCTIVE

Just because we’re busy, doesn’t mean we’re getting valuable...

Be Sure to Show Up

It’s an Integrity Thing!

We’ve all been there.  Honestly, the week isn’t going great.  A bunch of things came up that weren’t on the schedule which ended up taking way too much of your time.  That new couple that was so interested in working with you now keeps putting you off.  And now you just remembered tonight’s the night for that new networking event you said you’d attend. Ugh! 

You just don’t feel like going and talking to people you don’t even know. You’re already tired, drained, and don’t feel like being ‘social’. Besides you only told one person that you’d attend. Certainly, they would completely understand if you just decided to stay home and relax. You can just talk with them tomorrow and explain everything.

Photo Credit: We are Matt and Jess

SO, WHAT DO YOU DO?

You Go! If you told ANYONE that you were going to show up, then you need to show up. For so...

Exceptional Client Experience…

Know and Provide What They Value MOST!

As vendors in the wedding world we’re always busy, am I right? That ‘busy’ can often be caused by our desire to be everything to everybody. We try to do everything we can to satisfy our clients, give them an over-the-top experience. And it’s that ‘everything’ that causes us anxiety, stress and all those sleepless nights.

By the way, something we need to understand about being busy. Study after study have concluded that ‘busy’ is the #1 enemy of accurate thinking and sound decision-making. In other words, that fact that we’re busy hampers our ability to make good decisions and necessary adjustments in our business. (You know, the whole “I’m so busy I can’t even think straight!” In fact, that’s proven physiologically. Like, in our brains.) Instead, we simply work harder and harder doing exactly the same things over and over...

Be Easy to Work With…

to Get More Referrals and Have More Fun!

As wedding pros, we’ve chosen to work in a crazy-complicated industry, haven’t we? 

Let’s take a second and think about what we are all a part of…a multi-day ‘live performance’ of a huge team of separate vendors and professionals.  We do this in front of, and sometimes including, an audience of often hundreds of people from all walks of life. Each personal (vendor or guest) has their own unique wants, needs, desires, worries, fears, expectations, abilities, personalities, etc. 

We confidently step right in the middle of all the dysfunctional family dynamics, unrealistic expectations, and decades-old squabbles that have nothing to do with us. Yet, everything we do is expected to be expertly orchestrated, well-coordinated and each of us must execute our role professionally and flawlessly. Or we all risk getting poor reviews and ratings! The behavior and performance...