Wedding Consultant - own brand or franchise?

A wedding agency is a company that apparently has a low market entry barrier. It's enough course, laptop, telephone, car, company registration in the Office and head on the nape of the neck (detailed equipment of the position of the Wedding Consultant will be prepared in the next post) That is why so many wedding agencies are created each year, but unfortunately almost two more end their activities.

Dlaczego?

Everything seems simple on the surface. Complete the course, open a business and… act. Unfortunately, customers in this segment are very demanding and check exactly what is behind each company. Therefore, companies that are just starting out and do not have a portfolio or references on their account, do not have a large and proven base of subcontractors that they can always count on, unfortunately in the first years, but they may have a big problem with getting enough orders to survive or even recover invested funds.

What is the advice?

There are two ways. First option is to treat the profession of Wedding Consultant in the initial period as an extra occupation. It is possible but only provided that the first occupation is flexible enough to provide us with full availability for clients and subcontractors. As I wrote in the post: How to become a wedding consultant? 11 Requirements availability is one of them.

I do not recommend that you apply the dumping policy in the first years, i.e. prices that are much lower than the market ones, because you might get a lot of orders this way, but this first season on the market will be very difficult for you. Due to the fact that it will not be followed by financial success (since the prices will be much lower than the market prices), there is a high risk that at the very beginning this work will overwhelm you so much that after the first season you will be completely burned out.

Second option to joining the franchise network, where for a license fee, which will be returned to you after organizing about 3-5 weddings and by transferring an average of 10% of your revenues to the network, you will receive everything that you would have to work for at least several years under your own brand. So in a nutshell: professional training, permanent access to Mentor care that is an experienced Wedding Consultant who has us under her wings and provides advice and assistance in every situation. By buying a license for a branch of a given agency you are buying access to all the know-how of this company, to checked database subcontractors, schemes work with the client, model contracts and other documents, e-mail correspondence templates, and above all to complete company image. From the beginning you will have a beautiful and rich in content website and all other image materials such as business cards, folders, engravings, business cards, letterheads, white umbrellas ... Often you will immediately become part of a wedding blog, Facebook profile that has already existed for many years and you will be recognized on the market from the very beginning. But all this is not so important as the fact that you will become part of the organization, you will belong to a group of fantastic people (usually women) who have a common business goal, who want to develop together, work, invent and implement new projects, introduce new services.

Personally, I have two friends who have joined a franchise network and one who creates such a network. I remember how enormously I envied them for this support, this "phone to a friend" in every situation. When I had to face all my problems alone, they became a wall.

I found this out the most painfully how difficult it is to work as one branch, even more so without a partner, even as I am hiring a second and third additional Consultant to assist when 2 weeks before the wonderful 2-day wedding, prepared for 3 years, I broke my leg. The second time it struck me when I found out that almost all of it pregnancy must lie, and there is no work at all. No one who has ever gone through it can imagine what effort it was for me to deal with these random situations and how much money and stress it cost me. If I were part of a franchise, I could always count on the support of consultants from other departments who are trained, ready to help and above all act in accordance with the strategy and philosophy of our brand, which we create together.

I try to learn from each difficult situation, that's why I decided to create my own franchise network. You don't even know how my eyes laugh at the thought of this wonderful group of women (or maybe not just women?) Of business that we will create!

I am very curious how do you perceive the work of a consultant? Would you rather work for your success from the beginning or join a network of a well-known agency?

Other posts from the series "How to become a Wedding Consultant":

1. How to become a wedding consultant? 11 Requirements
2. Is the Wedding Consultant a seasonal job?