The
2-Second Commute
Based
on the
highly-successful Virtual Assistant training programs Chris Durst and
Michael Haaren developed
for the US Armed Forces and the US Department of State, The 2-Second
Commute:
Join the Exploding Ranks of Freelance Virtual Assistants
brings
you the
knowledge without
the classroom!
Training
program
participants have billed
over $30
MILLION since our training programs started in 2002. Now YOU can learn from Chris
& Mike,
too, and start your own successful VA business!
2-SECOND
COMMUTE
CHAPTERS
Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1
Why
Become a Virtual
Assistant?
- personal &
professional
reasons to
explore this
industry
Chapter 2
Exploring
Virtual
Assistance
- virtual assistance defined
- industry demographics
- services, fees, and trends
- why businesses work with VAs
- international outlook
Chapter 3
Reality
Checks &
Self-Assessments
- exploring important
considerations -
motives,
lifestyle,
family, children, etc.
- entrepreneurial self-assessment
- VA readiness self-assessment
- Spouse With a Mouse™
-
from our
Department of State
and US
Armed Forces training programs, a special section to help your
"significant other" understand what it will be like to have a business
in the house.
Developing
a "Service
Menu" That You Can Live and Grow With
- inventory your values,
interests,
and
skills to
determine
your most marketable skills
Chapter 5
Estimating
Costs and
Setting Fees
- projecting your costs, picking
your
"salary", setting
your hour, and our special formula for calculating a reasonable
baseline fee
- comprehensive fee survey (see
what
other
VAs are
charging)
- getting paid -contracts,
credit
cards,
invoices,
retainers, etc.
Chapter 6
Setting
Up Your
Business and Your Office
- naming and registering your
business
- forms of business ownership
- permits and licenses
- insurance
- home office setup
Chapter 7
Building
a Healthy
Foundation for Your Business
- defining your ideal client,
interviewing
clients,
partnering with clients
- the art of virtual
communications
- SWOT analysis - discovering
your
Strengths,
Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats
- the benefits of "niche
marketing" -
identifying your
target
market
Chapter 8
Let
the Marketing
Begin!
- image is everything
- talking about what you "do"
- marketing and email
- your Web site - your "global
billboard"
- press releases
- harvesting the local "business
crop"
- leveraging the media
- guest lecturing
- our 5 favorite marketing
techniques
- the Strategic Marketing Plan -
your
blueprint for
building
a successful business through effective marketing
Chapter 9
Pulling
It All
Together and
Keeping It There
- a collection of tips, tool,
techniques,
and pointers
for
making your business a success
Chapter 10
The
VA Toolbox:
Resources and Information
- VA trade groups, email lists,
certifications and
training
programs
- specialized resources for
homeschoolers,
"trailing
spouses", work at home parents, and people with disabilities
- resources and other
information for
the
"frugal VA"
--
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Work from home as a
Wedding Planner / Bridal Planner
[Contributing Expert: Linda
Kevich]
 The niche in a nutshell:
A
Wedding Planner is someone who plans and coordinates weddings on a
professional basis. Wedding planners help save the couple time, offer
creative input and ideas, and through their contacts in the industry,
can often save the couple money as well. Wedding planners may be
hired to plan the entire wedding from concept to completion, or
depending on the couple's needs and preferences, may be hired to
assist only with select areas, such as sourcing vendors, developing a
theme for the event, or being on hand on the day of the wedding in a
supervisory capacity to ensure that everything unfolds smoothly. Most
wedding planners are self-employed and work directly for the client
(the bride and groom), but some planners may work for reception
venues, churches or chapels, resorts or even cruise ships as
independent contractors or, occasionally, as employees.
Top 5 Services Provided in this
Niche
- Vendor
and Product Sourcing / Recommendations
- Theme
Development and Wedding Detail Coordination
- Management
of Planning Schedules, Time-Lines, Itineraries
- Budget
Management
- On
Site Wedding Day Coordination (Known as “Day-Of”
Services)
|
Top 5 Hiring Markets
- Bridal
Consumers
- Reception
Venues
- Resorts
- Cruise
Ships
- Churches
/ Chapels / Ceremony Venues
|
Pay Range for this Niche
The average independent wedding
planner in the US or
Canada earns between $2,000 to $3,500 per wedding when providing full
service (£1,200 to £2,500 in the UK) .
High-end wedding planners serving
upmarket clientèle often earn considerably more. Wedding
planners working as contractors or employees for reception venues,
resorts, cruise ships, or ceremony sites are generally paid by the hour
at rates ranging on average between $9 and $20 per hour.
Pay rates vary depending on the
type of employer (a small wedding chapel, for example, will typically
pay less than a large hotel chain) and on the consultant's credentials,
training, or experience.
|
Recommended Skillsets
Persons
considering this type of work should posses the following skills:
- Strong interpersonal skills
- Ability
to multi-task
- Good
organizational ability
- Communication
skills, both written and verbal
- Research
skills
- Be
good at problem solving / trouble shooting
- Be
good at project management
- Be
a
self starter; ability to work without supervision
- Creativity
and resourcefulness
- Detail
oriented
- Visually
inclined
- Genuine
passion for weddings
- Patience
and level-headedness
- Good
judgment
|
Niche
Overview
Being
a wedding planner may sound like a lot of fun, glamor and excitement,
but from a purely practical perspective, there's also a very
sound
business case for entering this field. Professional wedding
planning (also known as wedding consulting) is currently the fastest
growing sector of the $58.5
billion* wedding
industry.
Weddings
are big business. In
2006, the cost of the average wedding was over $27,000 in the US and
Canada (and over £20,000
in the UK).
I
compare this to when I launched my wedding career in 1991 –
at
that time the typical wedding cost half that. Wedding
spending has increased by a full 100% in the past 15 years.
Wedding
consulting is still a relatively new concept, with plenty of
opportunity to offer. Just twenty years ago, the terms
“wedding
consultant” or “wedding planner” were
generally
unfamiliar to the typical bride. Today more than half of all couples
are hiring the services of professional wedding planners. We expect
this figure to continue rising steadily over the next 10 years.
The
field is also growing dramatically on an international level.
In a
survey done by The International
Institute of Weddings, in association with SuperWeddings.com
74% of soon to be married or recently married couples who didn't use
a wedding planner stated that they would indeed hire one if they
could do it over.
Who
Hires a Wedding Planner and Is There Really a Market for This
Service?
While
in decades past it was mainly the elite who hired wedding planners,
today more and more "average couples", with average
budgets, are enlisting our services. Because we can often save the
couple money, time and aggravation, increasing numbers of couples are
recognizing the practical justifications for hiring a wedding
planner.
Today
there are wedding consultants who cater to every budget and every
segment of the market. There are consultants who plan high-end
affairs, others who serve career couples who have more more money
than time, and also those who specialize in helping people plan
breathtaking weddings on very small budgets. This is where I
specialized very successfully in the early days of my career back in
1991. My niche was helping the "budget bride" plan her
dream wedding because this segment of the market was entirely under
served, and clients flocked to me - so forget the
misconception that only the wealthy hire wedding consultants.
Regardless of the profile of your local area, with the right business
approach, combined with appropriate knowledge and/or training, you
can successfully operate a wedding consulting business in any city -
large or small. The key to success is in tailoring your business to
the particular market you are in.
Why
Do People Hire Wedding Planners?
There
are several basic reasons people hire wedding planners:
- Not
enough time to tend to all the details themselves
- They
want
their wedding to be perfect, so they enlist a professional to bring
ideas, input, and expertise to the table
- Are
overwhelmed or stressed by all the planning logistics and details
- Are
aware
that consultants can often save the couple money
- Are
planning
a wedding from a distance
- They
want an
independent third party involved to help prevent wedding-related power
struggles within the family
Societal
changes
also help explain the growing demand for wedding consultants.
Once
upon a time,
the bride and her mother traditionally took care of arranging the
wedding details. Today, however, not only is the bride likely to be
juggling the responsibilities of full-time employment, the
mother-of-the-bride frequently is also. Often, there simply isn't
sufficient time left over to put into planning the wedding they
envision.
We've
also become a
highly mobile society. Today it's very common for couples to reside
in one city while planning a wedding in another. This creates
logistical challenges when trying to pull the wedding details
together. Hiring a wedding planner in the city where the wedding
will take place streamlines the planning process.
Increasingly,
couples are feeling social pressure to plan an impressive wedding.
Regardless of their socio-economic background or the size of their
budget, everyone wants their wedding to hold it's own when compared
to the weddings of friends and relatives. Couples often look to
wedding planners to inject imagination, creativity, expertise or
ideas that will make their wedding stand out.
Is
Being a Wedding Consultant as Much Fun As It Seems?
Absolutely!
If you are passionate about weddings, this just might be the ideal
business for you. No two weddings are ever the same, so you'll
definitely never get bored. As one wedding consultant I mentored told
me recently, “Planning
weddings and coordinating them are like living vicariously through
each bride. I love it!”.
But
make no mistake, while this business can be exciting and glamorous,
beneath all of that, it is
still a business.
There's more to being a successful wedding planner than the glitz and
romance you see in the “finished product”.
Unfortunately,
this is something many newcomers to wedding consulting fail to
recognize, so we tend to have an unnecessarily high turnover rate in
this field. The right training can make the world of difference in
determining your success rate.
How
Do I Become a Wedding Consultant?
- Industry-Specific
Education & Knowledge
Education is essential to your success in this field unless you already
have a lot of professional experience in wedding planning. The fastest,
most efficient way to acquire that education is to enroll in an in
depth and comprehensive training
program with a solid track record like the one offered by The
International Institute of Weddings through home-study. In the interest
of full disclosure, I am the developer of this particular program, and
I personally work with every student as their mentor.
Some people think they can break into the business by finding an
established wedding consultant who'll let them
“apprentice” or “intern”
with them, without pay, so they can learn the business. This is one of
the biggest misconceptions about how to enter this field. While it
sounds good in theory, it's simply not realistic in most instances. The
few who successfully manage to get their start this way are the
exception rather than the norm. Weddings are a competitive business,
and the reality is that most established consultants have no desire or
interest in “training a future competitor”. Even
some professional
organizations that offer to pair novice members with well-seasoned
consultants sometimes find it hard to deliver on that, since their own
members are frequently reluctant to share their know-how and
trade-secrets with someone who may become their competition.
- Credentials
Having credentials will increase your credibility as a professional
wedding planner and will be beneficial in earning the trust and
confidence of prospective clients. Remember that you are asking clients
to entrust you with the details of the most important day in their
lives. A major concern clients may have is that anyone can call
themselves a wedding planner, so how do they know you are serious and
can be trusted with their wedding plans?
There are different types of credentials: A certificate from a
reputable training program, being a member of a professional
organization, having significant professional experience in wedding or
event planning, or a combination of these can help persuade prospective
clients that you are right for the role. Without some sort of
verifiable credentials it may be quite challenging to attract paying
clients.
- Marketing
Success in this field is closely tied to having an effective marketing
plan. Brides will need to know you exist. Your task is to ensure that
they do. Marketing in the wedding industry is not necessarily the same
as marketing in other industries. To do it well, it's important to gain
an intimate understanding of the wedding industry.
The
Wedding Industry Report is a free
resource that may be
helpful to anyone considering a wedding career. It's available free
of charge by subscription. Every report is packed with helpful
information about the wedding industry or the wedding consulting
field, including the latest statistics and trends, as well as
industry advice and tips.
Do
I Need to Take a Course to be a Wedding Consultant?
There
is no
regulation which mandates that a wedding consultant must complete a
training program, though you stand a much better chance of succeeding
in this field if you have received in-depth training through a good
program and have a certificate that verifies that. As this field
becomes more competitive, more couples expect their consultant to
have appropriate training. Books, magazine articles, and consumer
advocates recommend brides hire a wedding consultant that has either
completed a comprehensive training program or is already well
established.
Without
the benefit of training, it's becoming increasingly difficult to
attract paying clients - unless you are highly experienced. When
planning a couple's wedding, you are entrusted with the details of
the biggest day of their lives. That's an important responsibility. A
lot of clients simply won't hire a consultant who is self-taught
and doesn't have credentials in terms of either professional
experience or appropriate training. They want to see that wedding
planning isn't something you're simply dabbling in, but rather, that
you are serious and committed enough to have invested the time,
effort and money into becoming prepared for this role.
Bear
in mind that all courses are not created equal, therefore it's really
important to do your own thinking when selecting a training program.
Take a close look at any course you consider. Spending more doesn't
necessarily mean learning more. Use common sense and follow your
instincts. Choose a program based on what feels right to you. How
confident do you feel that the course will provide the level of
instruction you personally need? Remember, you are not taking a
course just for the sake of taking a course, you are doing it to be
transformed into a successful wedding planner.
Do
I Need a License to Be a Wedding Consultant?
The
field of wedding
consulting is un-regulated, so you don't need a special license to be
a wedding consultant, nor is there a licensing board to appear
before. However, in most jurisdictions you will need to have a
business license in order to operate legally.
Does
It Require Much Start-Up Capital?
Not
at all. I've
seen some crazy figures tossed about by various sources, but with the
right approach it really takes relatively little money to get
yourself up and running successfully, and generating income. I work
with new wedding consultants every single day who are doing precisely
that, so this isn't just theory, it's a well proven fact. Sure, there
are consultants out there who pour a lot of cash into getting
launched, but the bottom line is, that's their personal choice, not
a necessity.
Full
or Part-Time Occupation?
Wedding
Consulting can be either a full or part-time occupation. Many start
part-time, and then transition to full-time as their business grows.
It's usually not difficult to arrange consulting tasks around an
existing work schedule.
Suitable
as a Home Based Business?
Absolutely.
The
majority of wedding consultants get their start this way. Some
remain home based permanently, others move to office or retail space
as their business grows larger – it's a personal decision.
Keep
in mind that
this doesn't mean you'll be at home all the time. You'll need to be
out and about with your clients, meeting with vendors - and of
course, attending weddings!
Questions
About the
Business of Weddings? Ask
Wedding Expert Linda Kevich
Recommended Reading
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Tools of the Trade
- A
computer with Internet access and email account
- A
business telephone line with voice-mail or an answering machine
- A
fax
machine or computer-based fax capability
- A
vehicle
- Business
cards, brochures, and ideally, a website
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Organizations &
Associations
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Resource Links
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About
Linda Kevich
Linda
Kevich is an
internationally recognized wedding expert who has made weddings her
business since 1991. She is the creator and editor of
SuperWeddings.com, a popular wedding planning guide that has been
online since 1999, and the director of The International Institute of
Weddings, an organization that provides training and support for
professional wedding planners.
Frequently sought by the media for her
expertise on weddings and the wedding industry, she has been quoted
in hundreds of newspapers and magazines throughout the US and
world-wide, including USA Today, The Chicago Tribune, Consumer
Reports, Newsweek, Bride's Magazine, Reuters, The Boston Globe, The
Wall Street Journal, Niche Magazine, Cookie Magazine, Chatelaine
Magazine (Canada), Woman's World (Australia), Cnet, Yahoo Technology
News, and many others.
The developer of one of only a handful of
distance-education training programs for wedding planners, she has
personally trained and mentored hundreds of wedding consultants world
wide in successfully launching their careers since 1999.
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