Did I find it or create it?
My Background
I work as a User Experience Designer and a Front-End Developer. I’m also a Business Integrator — I help small wedding businesses and wedding industry entrepreneurs build a better wedding business through an enhanced user experience. Branding, design, marketing, developing processes and efficiencies — you name it. I also code, develop business strategy, plan and run ads, develop social media campaigns and I am constantly working toward my goal of being both an SEO expert and Google Adwords certified. I have experience working in and improving startups, large corporations, and family businesses.
My Goal
I want to create a product from my knowledge to help others optimize their wedding business websites. My goal is to create an offering I can sell for $500, deliver in just one week, and have time to do 5–10 of each week.
The Thought Process
When developing Build a Better Wedding Business, I figured I’d find my niche by starting broad and asking the market what it needed. I have over a decade of experience in both business and weddings, so I asked some questions about what people needed. As it turns out, the answer is “everything.”
My driving force is helping people, so I took a lot of small jobs doing many different things. Each of those turned into more work, but every day was different, and it became difficult to streamline my workflows or create replicable processes. This obviously doesn’t align with my goal of creating an offering that allows me to work less and be more efficient.
I need a product to get from “everything” to “optimizations that really make a difference for a wedding business.”
Like everyone else, I want to make large amounts of money without spending large amounts of time. In particular, I want to offer something I can charge $500 for and do multiple times each week.
I came here to build efficient processes and help people.
When you’re charging for consulting, all you need to do is make sure that what you offer creates more value than it costs the user. So what can I do that shows obvious value to wedding businesses and entrepreneurs?
There are far too many factors in SEO and general marketing to guarantee value to my customers. The wedding industry itself is too vast, and their customers cover every possible client metric you can imagine. So what can I do for these service businesses to increase their income?
Running ads is the first thought, but there are too many factors that can affect the success of any given ad. Improving the conversion rate on their website, however, will nearly always make a business more money. Can I improve the website conversion rates enough to justify my consulting rate?
With wedding business website optimization, I can justify charging my chosen rate, because my clients will continue to see increased returns long after the consulting is over. Is it feasible to create a $500 productized consulting offer if I can increase a company’s of interested prospects by 10–15%?
For most wedding businesses, there is a finite number of bookings they accommodate. How do I justify the cost of my services? Do they want leads or do they want to convert high-paying, excited customers? Do wedding businesses on that level need website optimization? Are they already well optimized?
I looked at the websites of several small businesses and entrepreneurs in the wedding industry. Could I optimize their operations enough to charge $500?
I decided I could bring them a lot of value, so I tried it.
It turns out that I can optimize almost any website in some way, especially in the wedding industry. It’s been tremendously rewarding because I get to use my knowledge from different industries and disciplines, but I get to more narrowly focus my process and product. In other words, I’m no longer doing things I can offer in bulk or that you’d find in a list of articles or opt-ins. I have a tested, templated and streamlined process that I can apply to all of my clients.
I feel like it should have been so obvious sooner to pursue this as a niche and my passion. My ultimate goal of helping people to BE and DO better is being realized every day, and I’m getting paid for it.
Do you have a small wedding business or are you a wedding industry entrepreneur who would like to make more money without increasing your ad budget? Let’s talk about your wedding business website. I only take a job if I know I can make a difference. Send me your website URL (email me directly here), and I’ll rate your page for free in five key areas: Imagery, Layout, Copy, Design, and User Experience.