Prior to coaching other female creative entrepreneurs, I founded and owned a wedding and event planning company for 11 years. It started with me and my computer and that was about it. I didn’t have a business plan or a background in event planning, but I was determined to create and maintain this amazing wedding and event planning business. As time passed and I became more successful, I began to feel overwhelmed and didn’t know how to keep everything running efficiently and effectively.
Four years after founding the business, I gained a business partner who bought 50% of the company. What we quickly realized was that we needed to streamline our business better and it was necessary to implement systems and processes in order to remain consistent and be efficient. We began implementing systems for email, blogging, project management, social media, and our entire client experience from when they contacted us on the website until we finished their event.
As we grew our team, it became even more apparent that we needed to update our processes in order to accommodate the entire team and determine what was working and what wasn’t. We delve into the internal workings of our company and decided what systems stayed, which ones were being deleted and which ones needed to be tweaked a little. After we included everything in our Guidebook, a document which includes all of your company processes and step-by-step details on the client process, we saw a big shift in how our clients viewed us…business savvy, consistent and established.
A few years later, requests from other wedding professionals all over the country started rolling in about how we streamlined our business and keep getting more efficient with our processes. We quickly realized that a lot of creative entrepreneurs did not have these systems or processes in their company and were continually reinventing the wheel, forgetting steps and not feeling as though they were giving the client the best customer experience.
Now, in my current business coaching practice, I not only help businesses create strategies to take their business to the next level, but I also help them create systems, automate as much as they can and delegate the things they are not good at. I find the best online services that are a good fit for their company structure and team.
Implementing these systems has allowed me and my clients to remain consistent, organized and get more clients, since we are not worrying about what step comes next or which online business service I will use. Your Guidebook includes your company information, your brand information, all of your teammates, your step-by-step process from inquiry to client and all of your online business solutions you use.
I like to think of your business as a house. If you don’t have the foundation built properly for your house, everything can start to crumble. The same goes for a business. You need the fundamentals and foundation of a business in order to get clients, keep them and continue to grow. Creating strategies and systems for your business are crucial to creating that solid foundation for your business to be built upon.
