What a mistake...
- William Katuramu
- Mar 22, 2016
- 2 min read
When starting up in weddings, many things may go wrong. But what can you learn from search events.
My first client resided outside the country of my operation and I agree i made a lot of mistakes on this. It took a lot of conversations, emails, and brochures winning her trust and being able to mend her dreams together. She Seemed to be fine with the pricing though her expectations were quite different. Many times once people have been away from home, they lose track of the exact pricings. It's a challenge in Africa considering the difference in the standards of living, people expect African prices to be lower.
My challenge was finding those vendors willing to work at a modest budget. I did find the majority, that's the only good news. More challenges revealed themselves one after the other.
Challenges
I had not asked my client for a deposit on my charges,
I had not asked the client for a deposit on the budgeted amount to make bookings,
I didn’t know how exactly her face looked like, I believe the worst.
At the end, I had to renegotiate prices due to my client failing to raise the budgeted amounts. I lost trust in most vendors, it has taken time to win them back. Worse, I had to offer my services for free to see through this wedding.
Lessons learnt,
As a wedding planner, i have learnt over time how important it is to build rapport with a client. Which is a good thing for the future of our business. But many times we fail to concentrate on what is important, MONEY. Money drives everything in the wedding preparations. Every vendor needs a deposit to make sense of your negotiations. You need money to be confident about your client. Why wait to ask for a deposit? After the first consultation many times which is free, ask for a deposit on your charge. Then draft a wedding budget estimate and ask for a deposit on the budget before you speak to any vendor. A 30% deposit is important to cover majority of costs. This seems obvious, believe me many planners out there can’t figure it out.
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