Hello Shingle People!
Welcome to March Money Madness!!! This month is all about money snatching!
Bringing in clients is only one part of the picture. You have to learn to properly communicate your value to your clients in order to maximize your revenue. When you do bring in revenue, tracking it gives you a clear picture of how your business is growing.
Without a proper system in place, you will lose money. Simple fact. So, this month, I want to help you to stop leaving money on the table. I’m talking about properly pricing your services, deductions, business planning, seed money, business loans, paying professionals, keeping your records in order, the whole nine! That’s what my next guest did and she was able to go full-time just four years after starting her wedding planning business.
When Lacoya Heggie began Hello Love Events in 2012, she was sure of one thing: she was all in. It didn’t matter that she was working full-time as a systems engineer; she spent her nights, weekends, and even her lunch breaks, to build her business.
How She Did It
Lacoya built her business by being confident and developing a strong work ethic. From day one, she introduced herself as a wedding planner; she never used the words “part-time” or “side gig” when describing her business. She believes this attitude helped her break into the industry and make valuable connections. These are Lacoya’s tips:
be confident in both tone and body language;
clients can sense doubt and dishonesty;
lack of confidence can affect your ability to build relationships; and
confidence allows you to make a great first impression.
In addition to confidence, you must be willing to put in a tremendous amount of hard work. Even though she had a full-time job, Lacoya poured more of time into her business than she did working as an engineer. As a matter of fact, when I first discovered Lacoya’s Instagram and Facebook pages, based on how much she was engaged with her audience, I never suspected that wedding planning wasn’t a full-time job for her.
Managing Your Business
Lacoya knew early on that she wanted to someday be a full-time wedding planner. But in order to do so, she needed to know exactly how much money she was capable of making. She went from not having a system to keep track of her expenses to using a spreadsheet and then managing her business through Quickbooks accounting tools.
As a result, Lacoya noticed a few things:
she was spending more than 50% of her revenue on general expenses;
she was paying for subscription services that she wasn’t using;
she became aware of the types of purchases and expenses that were deductible and non deductible, which made her more strategic about her spending.
According to Lacoya, using Quickbooks changed her life. She now has a better handle on her finances. For example, she can run reports in Quickbooks that show her a breakdown of her revenue. This information allows her to prioritize certain areas of her business.
This episode is packed with encouraging words from Lacoya and a blueprint of exactly how she became a full-time wedding planner.
Enjoy!
Listen to Episode 9
Subscribe: iTunes
Leave a Reply