Episode Transcript
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Brandee Gaar (00:00):
If you're
constantly buried in
client work, saying yes toeverything and feeling like
you have to hustle, notstop, just to stay afloat.
CEO, there is a better waybecause here's the truth.
Scaling your wedding businessshouldn't mean working more.
It should mean working smarter.
It should give you morefreedom, more profit, and a
business that runs withoutyou being in the weeds 24 7.
(00:26):
Hey there, CEO.
You're listening to the WeddingPro CEO Podcast, the podcast
to help you grow and scale yourprofitable wedding business.
I'm your host, Brandee Gaar,and over the last 17 years,
I've built one of the largestplanning firms in Orlando,
Florida, grossing morethan $6 million in revenue.
In today's episode, I'mbreaking down exactly how to
scale your wedding business tosix, multi-six, or even seven
(00:47):
figures without burning out.
We're talking systems pricing,and the biggest shifts you
need to make right now to stopbeing overworked and to start
being the CEO of your business.
Okay.
So step one is to realizeyou are the bottleneck
in your business.
Hey, it's me.
I'm the problem.
It's me, right?
And once you realize thatin your business, I promise
(01:08):
you that's when the scaleis gonna start to happen.
So often when new wedding proscome into Wedding Pro, CEO, one
of the first things we have towork with them on is the mindset
of understanding that theyare not the best at everything
that they do in their business.
And this is a really big hurdlebecause you start your business
and you create the systems,you create the processes,
you do all the things.
And so you're so afraid tohand those over to someone
(01:31):
else because you're like, whatif they don't do it like me?
What if it's not as good?
What if things fallthrough the cracks?
here's the reality.
Things might fallthrough the cracks.
They might not do it as wellas you, but you know what
actually starts to happenis they have a different
diverse skillset than you do.
And.
Often what I see is that newteam members actually bring
(01:53):
brilliant ideas to the table.
They might not do thingsthe way that you do.
They might have evenbetter ideas than you had.
They might do it better thanyou and dare I even say that.
Most of the time.
What we see is that becausethey are now focused on the
one job that you gave them,or on the few tasks that
live on their plate, theyare so much better at it
(02:15):
because they're laser focused.
On those tasks, whereas you,as the business owner, as
the CEO, are juggling somany things at once, you're
often swatting, it flies.
That's what I like to callit in our business when I see
someone on our team or myselfeven, where I'm just trying
to get things off my plate.
So I do the minimum viableproduct and I just need it done.
I need it done.
And instead, we're notdoing it well, right?
(02:37):
This is a big onefor customer service.
I often see that when A CEO,a business owner comes into
Wedding Pro CEO to work withus, and they're overwhelmed,
customer service is the thingthat is the most stressful
for them because they knowthat their clients aren't
getting the best of thembecause they're being pulled
in so many directions.
So once you realize that you arethe bottleneck in your business.
(03:00):
I promise you that you canstart to then delegate tasks.
You can hire people, youcan create systems to take
things off of your plate sothat you are more focused.
One of the things I tell myteam all the time is that if
there is any process or anytask in our business that
has my name attached to it,it's going to get stuck at
that part of the process.
And that's not because I'm lazyor because I'm just like, oh,
(03:23):
I'm too good for that process.
It's the simple realityof I can manage people.
As the CEO, I wanna beable to manage our team.
I wanna be able to mentor them.
I wanna give them all thetools and resources that they
need to do the task, to do theprocesses, but I simply don't
have time in my day to day tomanage the daily tasks that
(03:43):
have to happen in our business.
And what happens, and I'msure you guys have felt this,
if you're listening rightnow and you're just like.
How does she speak into my head?
It's because I havebeen where you are, CEO.
And what happens is that allthese tasks start to pile
up and you know you need toget to them, but the reality
is there simply aren'tenough hours in the day.
And so they take longer andlonger and longer to do or
(04:04):
they never get done at all.
And that's where the customerservice starts to fail.
That's where things in yourbusiness start to fail.
That's when sales start todecline because you're not
doing follow ups quite enough.
You're not gettingback to people quite.
Fast enough, we don't want this.
We want you to understandthat your business will scale
when you start to put the teamand the processes into place,
(04:26):
because that is when you canstart to have the freedom
to bring on more clients,bring on more clients, and
to serve them so, so well.
So in this first step, what Iwant you to realize is you are
the bottleneck in your business,and we absolutely have to fix
that to be able to scale yourbusiness without burning out.
Step two is to assess yourpricing for profitability.
(04:46):
Now, this one is such a bigdeal inside of our programs.
We work with our CEOs inside ofour programs on their pricing
very, very early in the game.
Because here's the thing,we can help you get.
10 times the leadsyou're already getting.
We can help youdouble your revenue.
But if the profitabilityisn't there, it really
doesn't matter how many eventsand weddings that you're
(05:07):
booking because you're stillnot gonna make any money.
Like if you're only making$10 per event that you
book, that's not enough tosustain your business and
that's actually the problem.
So I want you to reallylook at the profitability
of your packages and to makesure that you're making
money beyond covering costs.
Now, one of the things that Isee most often be the killer
of this is that you, as thebusiness owner, have not
(05:30):
created a line item in yourbudget for you to be paid.
Typically, we say, oh, ouroverhead isn't much at all,
because I just have a fewsoftwares and like a va, right?
And I'm like, okay, but.
You have to be paid something.
And I hear all the time,well, I just get, I just
take what's left overat the end of the month.
And I'm like, well that'sactually the problem.
'cause there's neverany leftover at the
(05:51):
end of the month.
Right.
Or there's a very small amount.
The reality is you are anexpense of your business.
Your business would cease toexist if you didn't exist.
So if you can't pay yourselffrom that business, you
shouldn't have a business.
That's a hobby, that'snot a business, right?
So I want you to determinewhat is a fair amount
for you to be paid.
(06:12):
Every single month.
Now that can be differentdepending on the stage of
business that you're in, right?
I'm 17 years into my business.
I'm certainly payingmyself a full-time wage.
I pay my husbanda full-time wage.
The only income thatcomes into our home is.
This business, these businesses.
'cause we have multiple now,but that is how we get paid.
We don't have any other wayto get paid, so we have to
(06:33):
make sure that our businesscan pay us every single month.
Right.
Otherwise, we're not gonnabe able to pay our mortgage.
We're not gonna be ableto put food on the table.
There's a trickle down effect.
Right.
But in the early stages ofmy business, I paid myself a
very small amount, but fromthe very, very beginning, I
always paid myself somethingevery single month because what
I wanted to see in my budgetwas a line item for me as the.
(06:55):
Business owner, just simplyfor being the business owner.
I want you to not thinkabout like, oh, I can take,
you know, $60,000 a year ifI take this many weddings.
No.
How much is a salary foryou, whether you take a
single wedding or not?
That should be your salaryjust for running the business.
Now, that can be small.
Maybe you pay yourself athousand dollars a month just
(07:15):
for running the business, andthen you take a commission of
every wedding that you plan.
That's great.
I'm so proud ofyou for doing that.
But here in this step two,what I want you to just
understand is that you arean expense of your business.
Every single one of yourservices must be profitable.
Can't just bring in alarge amount of revenue.
We need to make sure thatthere is enough profit
to run your businessmonth to month, including
(07:37):
paying yourself a salary.
And number three is tospend more time doing
what actually moves theneedle in your business.
This is a massive downfall ofbusinesses that stay small,
is that you don't actuallyunderstand on a day-to-day
basis what makes moneyfor you and your business.
So let me give you an example.
(07:58):
A lot of times when I'm workingwith a new business owner inside
of Wedding Pro, CEO, and Istart to look at sales, right?
Because sales is obviouslywhat drives your business.
If you don't have sales,you don't have money, you
don't have profit, you don'thave revenue, all the things
that you trickle down effectyour business is gonna fail
if you don't have sales.
So we start looking at sales,and I am thinking, gosh, they're
getting a good amount of leads,a good amount of consults.
(08:20):
I'm confused why wedon't have higher sales.
And so when I start digginginto it, what I learn is that.
This business owner islike, you know what?
Honestly, we're only closingthe people who reach out
and then say, yes, I wantto book you because I don't
have time for follow-ups.
And I'm like, but you'rethe business owner.
What do you mean you don'thave time for follow-ups?
(08:40):
And they're like, I'mdrowning in client work.
I'm dealing with payroll.
I'm hiring people.
All the things they'rewearing, all the hats.
so what is getting putto the back burner sales?
The very thing that actuallyis needed is necessary for
your business to exist isgetting put on the back burner.
And this is somethingthat I see so, so often
(09:01):
in our industry is sales.
And I would say marketing arealso the two biggest things that
are the crux of your business.
Like if you don'thave these things, you
don't have a business.
Those things get pushed tothe side because you're.
Buried in client work oryou're buried in just like the
day-to-day bookkeeping, makingsure that your books are clean.
Like all of those thingsactually cost you an obscene
(09:22):
amount of money because you'relosing sales, because you are
not focused on the things thatactually move the needle in your
business as the business owner,as the CEO, your job, your
number one job, and I would.
Almost adventure to say youronly job in your business
is to be focused on growthand scale of your business,
which comes down to marketing,sales, and team development.
(09:46):
Those are the only threethings that you as the business
owner should be focused on.
The second you can outsourcebookkeeping, the second you
can bring on a VA or anotherlead in your business.
You should be doing that andyou should be considering it an
investment because every timeyou get something else off of
your plate, you as the businessowner are gonna be able to make
more money for your business.
(10:07):
I promise you, you are somuch more valuable than the
$15 an hour task that you'redoing seven hours a day.
You need to get out ofthe day to day you need
to spend more time doingthe things that actually
make your business money.
CEO.
If you feel like you're alwaysworking, always overwhelmed
and never making enough, thisepisode is your wake up call.
(10:28):
You do not have to runyour business like that.
You can scalewithout burning out.
And here's your action plan.
Step one, systematize and hire.
Step two, assess your pricesand make sure that your services
are actually profitable.
And step three, spendmore time on what.
Actually moves theneedle and makes you
money in your business.
If this sounds like whereyou are and you are so ready
(10:50):
to scale your business in2025, y'all, we are seeing
the craziest wins comeout of Wedding Pro CEO.
Right now we have studentsthat are hitting a hundred
thousand dollars months.
We have students thatare vacationing and.
Italy, why their company hastwo X'd their revenue, because
their team, their systemsare all working for them.
It is absolutely crazy what ishappening with our students.
(11:11):
I'm obsessed with the winsthat are happening over there.
If this is you and you'relike, yep, that's it.
This is what I want for 2025.
I wanna take back my business.
I wanna make the money.
I want to learnhow to be the CEO.
I want to invite you to book agap assessment with our team.
This is where we're gonnadig into your business.
We're gonna see.
Where things are fallingthrough the cracks.
Is it marketing?
Is it sales?
Is it profitability?
(11:32):
Or do we need to startscaling your team?
This is a completelyfree appointment.
We are changing the waythe wedding industry
does business, y'all.
We are over it.
We are done with theoverworked and the burned
out our coaching team ishere to say, let us help you.
This is a completely freeappointment if we know that
one of our programs willbe a good fit to help you
(11:52):
hit this scale this year.
We'll talk about next stepson how to do that and how to
be part of Wedding Pro CEO.
But to book that appointment,I just want you to head down
into the show notes below,grab a time that works for
you, and tell us a little bitabout your business, and our
team will reach out to get thatgap assessment on the books.
CEOs, thank you so much forbeing here every single week,
and I will see you next time.