Today I want to focus on is the bride a right fit for your business? The vendor/bride relationship is a 2 way street. It is just as much about the bride thinking you are the right fit for her wedding as it is you thinking she is the right fit for your business. A lot of factors come into play with this. Does the bride get your “art”? Are you on the same page with expectations and what will be delivered? Do you communicate well? We have all been guilty especially when you are new of taking the business even though you had a feeling the bride wasn’t the right fit and red flags were flying up all over the place. Now red flags don’t necessarily mean bridezilla it’s a matter of whether you click. But you took these brides for various reasons… because you were new and wanted experience with more weddings or you wanted an opportunity to shoot at a particular venue or work with a particular vendor or because you are competitive and wanted to get the business. You quickly learn though that the headache of partnering with a bride where you are not a good fit is not worth it in the end. You will both end up frustrated and that is not good for your bride or for your business. Now when I sit down with a bride I like to ask her as many questions as she asks me. I really work at understanding her vision for her wedding film. What she likes, doesn’t like and can we accommodate those wishes. The most important thing besides connection though is do we fit her style? In the appointment you can tell almost immediately if you are feeling the “love” for each other. With Videography the majority of our work is done after the wedding and you are with these brides for months so if you take on a bride that isn’t a good fit she is with you for a while. The goal is for the bride to leave completely satisfied and for you to continue to build your brand and business in a positive fashion. In the age of blogs and forums one bride who is dissatisfied can weigh pretty heavy out there in the blogosphere if she feels compelled to write a negative review. So it’s best to refer her to another vendor who may be a better fit rather than run the risk of the relationship going south and the bride being unhappy and that leading to negative ramifications on your business. Although it is hard to let go of potential business and send her into the arms of another vendor, potentially a competitor, I find that you almost always book the date with a bride who is perfect for you and you perfect for her.

The definition of “insanity” is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. The way many small business owners run their business during these tumultuous times we live in is exactly that “insanity”. It is imperative that you are adapting to market conditions and evolving your brand in order to stay in business and be relevant for what brides are shopping for in todays marketplace. You can’t be running your business exactly the same way as you were 5 years ago and expect to be getting bigger and better results because that again is “insanity”. So what are you doing to evolve? At Serendipity Videography we noticed throughout last year that we kept getting bride after bride calling and saying “I only have “x” amount of dollars for Videography can you work with this budget?” Often times this budget was $500 or more lower than our base package. Now I have such a passion for Videography and want EVERY bride to have a wedding film and their pleas would tug on my heart strings and for a split second I would be inclined to oblige. But knowing that we have worked very hard to get to our price point and that we have staff and bills to pay it wouldn’t be wise nor fair to my business to work for less money so we would have to send them on their way to who knows what Videographer and hope that they got something of decent quality. So we got to thinking what if we created something that fit this brides needs and captured this segment of the market? And in December 2009 Simply Cinema was born. Simplified Videography for the budget minded bride.

It’s a totally different brand, a totally different vibe, a totally different concept and it targets a totally different bride so as not to cannibalize Serendipity Videography a brand that we have spent the past 5 years building. This evolution has been beneficial to our business in so many ways but most of all it has allowed us to meet an unmet need in the marketplace and provide to brides a viable solution of quality videography at a budget friendly price without sacrificing our main brand Serendipity Videography.

At Serendipity Videography we get lots of questions from Videographers and Wedding Vendors alike about not only our style of Videography but how we market, sell and continue to grow our business and we want to share our knowledge with you. So book Serendipity Videography for a One On One session and tap into our experience and knowledge about what we do and how we do it.

We have 2 options available…

A One On One with Jeff our Director of Videography and Editing who has 20 years of Videography experience. He can help you with how you shoot, edit, your workflow, your style and help you take it to the next level.

Or we have a One On One session with Taryn our Director Of Sales and Marketing where we will focus on your business. We can cover what your brand is, your sales process, how you are marketing your business and what you can do to take things up a notch. We can do these sessions in person, via phone or via Skype. So get in touch by shooting us an email and let’s get started.

This is installment #3 of the Vendors Corner and this post is going to focus on working smart. As a wedding vendor there just aren’t enough hours in the day especially as a Wedding Videographer. The majority of our work is done after the wedding day and the editing takes sooooo long that we are constantly working on our efficiency and asking ourselves “Are we working smart?” and evaluating our workflow. As a small business we don’t have the millions to invest in hiring a staff of 50 so we have to be very strategic in our workflow. If you are that vendor who is a “one man band”? Don’t be. Being a “one man band” is going to be to the detriment of growing your business and you won’t be where you want or need to be in 5 years. In fact you will be burnt out and lose your passion because you aren’t working smart. I often have people say to me “Serendipity has grown so quickly in the 5 years you have been in business. How did you do it?” One of the key elements to our growth is that we were never a one man band. There has always been Jeff and I and then we built from there. We both have our own skill set and we each own a different side of the business and don’t do much crossover into each others side. This strategy has not only been good for business but led to a happy and healthy marriage since we live together and work together.

This picture says everything about us and is a perfect depiction of us as business partners and as husband and wife. Jeff is calm, cool, collected and laid back. I am a spazz and have an insane amount of enthusiasm and energy and I talk with my hands. Jeff is the creative genius. He is a typical artist who writes notes on tiny pieces of paper and leaves them somewhere then can’t understand why he can’t find them. He is the Director of Videography and Editing and handles all of the shooting, editing and equipment for Serendipity. He is responsible for our product and what it looks like. I am the business women. I handle all of the sales, marketing, client relations, vendor relations, and I run the joint. I love lists, structure, spreadsheets and sales projections. If Jeff were in charge of this element of our business we would be bankrupt in 5 to 7 minutes. Then we have an assistant and 2 full time editors and an intern. Each person has their role in our workflow and is vital to our growth. It took us a while to get to this point of having all of these people and quite frankly we held off on hiring people for a long time because we didn’t think we could afford it. Then one night it was around midnight we were working 7 days a week exhausted and we stared at each other and said “When is this owning your own business thing going to pay off?” It was then that we realized we may think that we can’t afford it financially but our brand can’t afford to not have more help. We were both being torn in so many directions and I didn’t want to make it to this level only to implode from the inside. I didn’t want to be known as the business that used to be great but since they got so busy their service really stinks and their product went to pot. Since we have expanded this last year our product has been taken to a new level our workflow is streamlined and we each have our role and Jeff and I have a life outside of Serendipity for the first time since we got started 5 years ago.

So how do you do this on limited resources? Well due to the recession there is no shortage of labor or people looking to break into the wedding business. We have found some of our best talent through our internship program that has pulled college graduates from both the ASU Walter Cronkite School as well as the ASU School of Theatre and Film. Another untapped resource is stay at home moms who are looking to get out for a few hours a week. These women are educated and have no interest in becoming your competition so they are awesome. The point of this post is that as a wedding vendor you need to focus on what you are best at and bring in some help to handle the things that you are not so great at so that you can continue to perfect your craft. Many wedding vendors are the artist, the bookkeeper, the sales person and the assistant.  Don’t torpedo your efforts and what you have built by not being able to return emails, return calls, finish quotes, etc. The competition is fierce out there so your business simply can not afford to not bring it’s “A” game in all elements of the business.

This is post number #2 in my new feature called the “Vendors Corner” that is meant to be food for thought and discussion for my fellow wedding vendors about sales and marketing in the wedding industry. I want to post today about diversifying your advertising during a recession and the necessity of it as well as its tremendous value. My entire professional career has been spent in sales and marketing so I am a HUGE believer in not just advertising but strategic advertising. I feel like one of the number one mistakes businesses make during tough economic times is that they put the brakes on their advertising budget and pull ALL ads whether its print, blog ads, etc. when actually they should be doing the opposite. I understand the fear and uncertainty and the feeling of needing to put away for a rainy day so you make some budget cuts. But explain this to me… Why is the instinct to cut the one thing that keeps your phone ringing and the inquiries coming in? How do you expect brides to find you if you are not longer visibly out there marketing your product or services? And most importantly how do you expect to stay afloat and pay your bills if you aren’t bringing in the one thing that pays the bills? About a month ago I sat down with a bride and she said to me “Wow you guys are everywhere! I feel like you are the only Videographer out there.” We are soooooo not the only Videographer out there but we are probably one of the most visible right now. Why? Because over the past 3 years as the economy has spiraled down I ramped up our advertising and really diversified it. It is not about spending tons and tons of money. It is about advertising in the RIGHT PLACES and being strategic with your ad dollars. The even better part is that a lot of the places I selected to spend our ad dollars did not cost a significant amount of money. That bride didn’t see me in every publication because we actually are only in 2 but what caught her eye is that we are in A LOT of DIFFERENT places which gave her the perception that we are everywhere. So while many of our competitors have pulled back their ad dollars we have surged our advertising spending and diversified it, again giving the impression that we are the only Videographer out there. Now it’s important to say that you shouldn’t take your ad budget and throw it at the wall to see what sticks because you won’t be effective. It takes a consumer an average of seeing your brand 3 times to actually create a call to action. So when I say diversify you don’t want to take your $5000 and spend $100 in 50 different places. You want to give your ad a chance to really work so you would be better off selecting 3 places to spend $1666 each. To sum it all up I recently read an article that said that when you advertise in a down economy your business will grow 256%. We have advertised heavily through this recession and I agree with the article. I don’t think that we will grow 256% but I can say with certainty that we are in an upward trajectory for 2010 while many are still trying to weather the storm. Now that things are starting to turn and all of the economic indicators are pointing up all of that advertising is paying off because we stayed visible through the tough times and built name and brand recognition. Now that recognition is turning into phone calls and inquiries.