If you’re starting a wedding venue business from scratch and wondering if you need a business plan for your wedding venue, maybe you’re searching for advice about wedding venue business plans online but not finding the answer you need.
In my opinion, a wedding venue business plan is a waste of time. The only time I would suggest spending all of your time and energy on creating a business plan for your new wedding venue is if you need a business loan from the bank or an investor.
Business plans are great for big corporates and large-scale companies, but for a wedding venue (and remember this is my opinion), you just need to know two things – How much money do you want (and need) each year and how many weddings do you want to host?
Once you know the answers to those two crucial answers – you will be in your own driving seat and will have everything you need to create a successful wedding business in the wedding venue niche.
Should You Get a Business Plan for Your New Wedding Venue?
As I mentioned above, business plans are great tools and in most circumstances, and solid requirement for those seeking a loan or investment for their wedding venue business.
If you want to start and open a wedding venue but don’t have the funds to do so, then yes, you will need to get a business plan for your new wedding venue.
This business plan will need to have certain criteria and information that will provide the bank or the investor the confidence it needs to trust and invest in your wedding venue business model.
How to Create a Wedding Venue Business Plan?
You can find more details about business plans for wedding venues and wedding venue business templates all over the internet.
I’m not going to go into that here today, but for your own peace of mind, I would suggest doing some in-depth research on business plans for wedding venues before making your mind up about whether or not your wedding venue really needs one.
Unlike every other book you’ll read with titles like “How To Craft The Perfect Business Plan in 89 Incredibly Simple Steps”, this book is different. It’s a simple “How To” guide for creating a Business Plan that’s right for you and your business and also an easy-to-follow workbook.
The main purpose of a business plan is to aid YOU in running YOUR business. So the workbook has been designed for you to write the information in and refer back to as needed. If you need to supply your Business Plan to another party, such as a bank if you’re looking for finance, then it’s simple to type up the various sections for a professional document.
Your Wedding Venue’s Business Model
What’s your wedding venue’s business model? To me, that feels like a really overwhelming question.
I mean, if someone asked me what my business model is, I’d have to say – I have no idea. I just follow a strategic sales and marketing plan based on my time and money goals.
Every wedding venue is unique and is run by different people with their own ideals of what their success will look like. Some will only feel successful if they are fully booked all year round. Others will only want a limited number of wedding bookings per season.
Creating a wedding venue business plan is not as easy as it is for regular companies with ongoing customers.
The wedding industry is a seasonal business, there are no client-for-life or repeat customers in this business and so our plans need to be modeled on that understanding rather than what you’ll find in the usual business plan world.
What I Would Do?
This is presuming that I could start a wedding venue business today with no need for a bank loan or an investment of any kind. As I said above, if I needed a bank loan or investment, then I would have to go down the wedding venue business plan road.
However, let’s just presume that I was in a good enough position to start my wedding venue without any loans etc, what would I do if I was starting a wedding venue today?
If I was just starting my new wedding venue – this is what I would do to ensure that I had a successful wedding business for years to come:
- I’d add up how much I needed to run the wedding venue for the year (taking into consideration any utilities, staff costs, and so on.
- From there, I’d work out how much profit I wanted in my bank account each year.
- Then, I would add the two together to get to my JOY NUMBER or the amount of money I needed to earn from weddings or any other events for that year.
- After that, I would then grab my calendar, and cross off any days or weekends that I didn’t want to work on.
- Then, I’d work out how many Saturdays I had available for weddings/events.
- I would then take my Joy Number and divide it by the number of Saturdays I had available for weddings and events.
The number that I get by dividing my Joy Number by the number of Saturdays I have available is what I like to call my minimum rate.
Now that I knew what my minimum rate was, I would then create my pricing guide with 4 value-packed packages.
Once I had this in place, I would then be able to concentrate on every other part of the puzzle and align my wedding venue business around the life and lifestyle I wanted.
What About the Costs for Fixtures and Fittings?
I don’t think about business in the traditional way. To me, everything you buy and put into your wedding venue is all in the startup costs (capital) and should be forgotten about until you decide to sell.
Everybody harps on about ROI and their return on investment which in my opinion, can completely disable your ability to grow and succeed as a wedding venue business owner.
Instead, you should put that initial startup cost to the back of your mind and move forward with a clean slate. Again, this advice only really counts if you’re not getting any outside investments or loans with the bank.
Do You Want to Know More?
I know my way of thinking is a bit wayward from the normal business coaching world, but I have my reasons!
Success is a mind and money game. If you’re already starting off with an old-fashioned business plan – you’re probably going to fall down at some point in the future.
Your wedding venue business needs to be created around YOU and what YOU want. If you don’t start off this way, you will end up working too many hours for too little money on too many weddings and resentment will soon follow.
I offer unique wedding venue consulting/coaching for any wedding venue business owners looking for advice, guidance, and a roadmap that works. If you’d like more info, please feel free to get in touch with me.
Conclusion
Wedding venue business plans can be useful for some new wedding venue owners, especially if you’re seeking financial assistance in the form of a loan or investment. But, in my opinion, if you’re ready to get going – I’d recommend you spend your time on a different plan.
A plan that designs your wedding venue business around you and what you want. Ignore startup costs, ROIs, KPI, and any other useless information that will leave you feeling paralyzed and rather focus on strategies and plans that work.
Marketing Your Wedding Venue
I have several articles on my blog that will help you with starting and marketing your wedding venue
Until the next time,
