The Highest Happiness on Earth is Marriage

Tomorrow, our country will vote for our next President, hundreds of members of Congress, thousands of state and local officials, and numerous ballot initiatives. For the wedding industry and the Certified Wedding Planner, propositions in Arizona, California, and Florida are drawing attention almost on par with the national election. In each of these three states, voters will decide whether or not to ban same-sex marriage.

As same-sex couples rush to the altar in the hotly contested California ballot race, commercials for and against Proposition 8 are airing multiple times each hour. Since the California Supreme Court decision in June 2008 that legalized gay-marriage, thousands of couples, including celebrities, have tied the knot. In the meantime, arguments for the societal benefits of traditional marriage versus equality for all have continued to be waged. In many cases the contest has become vitriolic.

William Lyon Phelps, early 20th century American author, scholar, and ordained minister, wrote that “the highest happiness on Earth is marriage”. In the view of opponents of same-sex marriage, their efforts are nothing short of heroic protection of marriage in the face of a threat to that happiness. For proponents of gay marriage, the fight is against discrimination and the right of everyone to pursue their personal happiness.

While recent polls have tightened to the point of a statistical tie, the battle is being fought on the Internet, at city halls, in churches, internationally, in homes, in labor unions, in schools, in political parties, and in movie productions. In an election where economic, foreign policy, health care, and energy concerns compete for our collective attention, the war over our subjective marital happiness will inevitably continue after tomorrow’s votes are tallied. Both sides of the issue are counting on your support to either protect marriage or protect equality.

For the Certified Wedding Planner, depending on your viewpoint, a defeat for Proposition 8 will either increase your business opportunities or someone else’s. To some, victory for the measure will protect their happiness by denying it to others. When deciding your position, perhaps another quote by Phelps, highlighted in the 1001 Smartest Things Ever Said, in need of slight paraphrasing for the 21st century, can be of some guidance:

"This is the first test of a gentleman: his respect for those who can be of no possible value to him."

Please remember to vote.

Turn Your Wedding Industry Expertise into Additional Revenue

The wedding industry has historically been resistant to economic downturns domestically and internationally. During the current global financial crisis, there are signs that even love and marriage is feeling the pain. As the wedding industry seeks solutions to fewer clients and decreased wedding budgets, it is imperative for your business survival to adapt to the needs of a slumping economy.

Interest in the wedding industry is reaching an all-time high around the world. For the Certified Wedding Planner and wedding industry expert looking for ways to increase income while doing what you love, The Wedding Planning Institute is offering the right vehicle for these troubled times. As a veteran wedding planner or wedding vendor, you can turn your years of experience in the field into a lucrative business helping others to learn more about your specialty.

Like many of our current instructors, also successful wedding industry professionals, you are asked frequently for advice, tips, and guidance from others getting started in your field. This program is your opportunity to earn money while you help others learn from your real world experiences.

WPI is currently accepting proposals from industry professionals who can communicate their expertise in the form of an online course. WPI will work with industry experts to develop their course utilizing the latest trends, industry best practices, and time-honored traditions to provide instruction and valuable information on to our worldwide network of students.

The Wedding Planning Institute is partnered with over 1,800 accredited colleges and universities. Courses will be offered through our partner colleges as online training programs and the Industry Expert will provide training, advice, and feedback to students through our online curriculum system.

As a WPI Industry Expert, you will earn tuition revenue, enhance awareness of your core business, and enjoy networking opportunities throughout the WPI system. The Wedding Planning Institute will also help make your course successful with various marketing efforts, such as press releases, advertisements, direct mail, and college course catalogs to give your course national and international exposure.

For more information, including frequently asked questions and course topics, and to submit a proposal, visit:

http://www.weddingplanninginstitute.com/instructor_partners2.html

Business Survival Means Aligning Your Services to Your Clients’ Needs

Monday’s Los Angeles Times featured a review, titled “Why you should look at your firm from the outside in”, of the book “Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs” by Craig Stull, Phil Myers, and David Meerman Scott. The main lesson of the review and the book is that to survive in today’s economic climate, businesses must learn to see things as your customers do and avoid the tendency to react to financial crisis by cutting back without a clear and accurate view of what your strengths and weaknesses will be in the upcoming market.

The author of the review, Alan Mitchell, a contributing editor to Marketing Week and the Financial Times of London as well as co-writer of “Beyond Branding”, a multi-author text that challenges businesses to have a human perspective that benefits people rather than manipulates them, highlights a six step recipe for overcoming this tendency detailed in “Tuned In”.

For the Certified Wedding Planner, there are specific lessons to be learned from this advice. Whether you are in your first year of business or your twentieth, your business is being directly affected by the fears and concerns prospective clients feel about the state of the economy. Only by truly listening to your market will you be able to fashion your services menu to meet the needs of a client base determined to do whatever it takes to make their dream wedding a reality.

First Step – Search for the problems your bridal clients want solved. This means going to bridal shows, Bridal Balls, or even establishing relationships with bridal stores. Directly observe what interests brides-to-be and listen carefully to what they have to say.

Second Step – Identify the various buying personas in your market. These are definable groups of brides who share the same problems and desires. They could include full service brides, DIY brides needing help in consulting or “Day Of” coordination, or somewhere in between.

Third Step – Get the hard data. Are your prospects prepared to pay for your services? According to The Wedding Report, for the over 330,000 weddings that are being professionally planned this year, brides and grooms are paying an average of around $1,500 for planning services. Your research needs to include statistics for your local market as well as information culled directly from your conversations with brides-to-be.

Fourth Step – Make every step of your client’s decision and planning process an experience that resonates, from discovering and contracting your services through your meetings, your performance, and your communication.

Fifth Step – Articulate your idea in a way that is about your bridal prospect’s beliefs and not about your services’ descriptions. Speak to the solution your brides want and not the need you have to sell a particular service.

Sixth Step – Communicate not by pitching your services, but by creating information that answers the questions posed by your different bridal buying personas.

Business survival in a recessionary market takes research, planning, and action. Get out of the office and meet with your potential clients. Listen to their concerns about wedding planning costs and logistics. Discover an innovative angle that will set your business offerings above the crowd. Learn from other planners to find out what is and isn’t working.

The days of boosting business with a charitable act or by figuring out how to get the groom involved may not be completely gone. But for your wedding planning business to survive and even thrive, you need to listen to your market and give them exactly what they want.