April 1, 2025 • 22 mins
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Q1 is officially behind us, and if you're running a real wedding business (not a hobby), it's time to assess the numbers that actually matter.
In this episode, I’m sharing the 3 key metrics every wedding pro needs to review right now—so you can re-forecast, realign, and make 2025 your most profitable year yet.
No fluff—just strategy to help you ditch the overwhelm and run your business like a true CEO.
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Episode Transcript
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Brandee Gaar (00:00):
All right, CEOs, quarter one is officially in
the books and because we arerunning our businesses like
legit wedding businesses andnot some solopreneur hobby, it's
time to check in on the numbers.
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.
(00:20):
And over the last 17 years,I've grown one of the
largest planning firms inOrlando, Florida, grossing
over $6 million in revenue.
Today I'm breaking down thethree key metrics you should
be measuring right now to makesure that 2025 is the most
profitable year you've had yet.
Forget the fluff.
We're talking actualsales numbers.
Revenue numbers,and staffing levels.
(00:42):
Because if you don't know whereyou stand, how can you grow?
Okay, so let's get into it.
the first metric that we aregonna be looking at is your
actual sales per month versuswhat you had projected in
sales each of those months.
Now, what happens alot in quarter one,
because it's engagementseason and everybody's.
So excited.
It's booking season.
We're writing contractsso fast, right?
(01:03):
That's the goal.
I have a lot of wedding prosthat will drop into my dms,
and maybe just a couple weeksinto the month they'll be
like, oh my gosh, Brandee.
February's been so challenging.
I've only gotten two leads.
I haven't closed any sales.
I'm freaking out.
And I'm like, well,how was January?
And they're like, January wasfine, but February is terrible.
And I'm like, okay.
But that's like a snapshot ofsuch a short period of time.
(01:24):
so what I want you toremember is that while you
should be checking yourmetrics every single month,
what's most important isto kind of see a pattern.
Because often what happens iswe'll freak out after maybe
like two or three weeks ofdown sales and we think we
need to fix so many things.
In reality, it's just ablip in the system, right?
So why it's so important thatwe assess this after quarter
(01:46):
one is because now we havethree months of metrics to
help us to understand whetherwe need to make a change.
What went right,what went wrong.
What do we really needto edit about our system?
Or even just make alittle bit better.
Maybe you hit all your goals.
But we need to just makethings a little bit more
refined so we keep scaling.
so that's why now, insteadof just having those panic
(02:08):
moments after two or threeweeks, now we have three full
months of metrics that wecan look at, and we're gonna
really dig into those numbers.
So this first one, actual salesversus what you projected in
sales is gonna be the value ofthe packages that you booked.
Now in the wedding industry,we might book a service
for, let's say, $5,000.
That isn't happening formany months or even a year,
(02:31):
and so we only take in theretainer when we book that
client, but your salesgoals are based on the actual
value of the package booked.
So that full $5,000 iswhat we're looking at.
So we wanna make surethat we understand that.
Sales goals is the fullpackage value, so not what
you took in for the retainer,but the entire amount.
So we wanna look at howmuch did you say that you
(02:52):
were gonna book for January?
What did you think you weregonna book for February
and the same for March?
we wanna see, did wemeet those sales goals?
Were they under, were they over?
What does that look like?
So what are the metrics thatI'm actually looking at when
I'm looking at our sales goals?
I wanna look at theentire quarter, but I
also wanna see by month.
did we maybe budget 50,000for January, but only hit.
(03:13):
30. But for February wemade up that difference.
Right.
So now we're even, andthen March we were even,
or maybe a little over.
Right.
So that's what I wanna lookat is was it just mixed?
Like maybe we had a downJanuary, but we had a
great February or Marchoverall for the quarter.
Where are we?
Are we.
Under our sales goal.
Are we over or are we spot on?
(03:33):
That's the first thingthat I'm looking at.
I wanna know where we camein relation to what we
projected, what we actualizedversus what we projected.
The second thing I wannalook at is if we were
over, I wanna celebrate.
I wanna be excitedwith our team.
I wanna make sure that ourteam knows, Hey, we were over
our sales goal, we killed it.
That's an entireteam effort because.
Everybody on your team,regardless of whether
(03:54):
they're actually sellingor marketing, they're all
responsible for leads comingin because you're only as
good as your last wedding.
So make sure you share with yourentire team if you have one,
how you did on your sales goals,especially if you were over.
Now, if I'm.
Over my sales goals, or evenif I met it, that's exciting
and I wanna celebrate.
But I don't just wanna belike, okay, check mark.
(04:15):
Like let's move onto the next thing.
I really wanna lookat what went right?
I wanna look at did we getthe same number of leads that
we thought we were gonna getor that we got last year?
I always wanna compareto the same time
period as of last year.
So I wanna look and see.
Did we get the same numberof leads or did we get
more leads, but book less?
So that's somethingthat I wanna look at.
Or did we get lessleads but book more?
(04:37):
So always just little thingsthat I wanna know about my
sales funnel compared to thesame time period as last year.
Did I get the same amount ofleads or was it different?
Was it the same number ofbookings or was it different?
because if you've raised yourprices, you wanna know, okay,
well did I get the same numberof bookings of number of events?
Or did that decline, but becausemy revenue, my prices were
(04:58):
higher, my revenue was up.
Right?
These are all the littlethings that I wanna look
at, and you guys might behearing this and think.
Oh my gosh.
Brandee like this is so muchdata you guys, I'm telling
you, I do this exercisewith my students constantly.
We're getting ready todo this exercise together
inside of Wedding Pro, CEO,with our students because
this data tells you so muchabout how you're going to
(05:19):
run the rest of your year.
So that you make sure thateverything in that sales funnel
is really running smoothly.
Now, if your sales weren'tas high as what you expected
them to be, then that'swhere I want you to really
look and say, okay, what wasdifferent from last year?
Did I get the same number ofleads that I did from last year?
Did I get less leads?
(05:40):
So now I need to lookat marketing, right?
If I got less leads coming in,I need to look at marketing
and say, what were we doingdifferently last year that
made us get more leadslast year than this year?
Did we get the same numberof leads, but I booked less?
So was there something going on?
Was I so busy doing client workthat I wasn't doing follow ups?
Or this is the same questionI would ask your sales team.
If you have someoneelse selling, you wanna
(06:01):
really look and see whatmade you miss that goal?
Don't just look at it and say,oh, we missed buy $5,000.
Not that big a deal.
Let's move on.
No, I want to understand whatmade us miss the goal, right?
So that you can fix itgoing into quarter two.
then the last thing I wannalook at is if we just completely
missed the mark, right?
Like maybe you had an aggressivegoal for this year and you just
(06:22):
completely missed it, like itwas way off and you were just
like, wow, we were way, way off.
I want you to assess that salesfunnel, but this is the point
where I also want you to look atthe rest of your year and think.
Do I need to reforecast mysales goals for the rest of the
year because now we have threefull months under our belt.
So if, if you're listeningto this and you are one of
(06:44):
those CEOs who was like, I'mgoing for it in 2025, like,
I'm putting a 40% markup.
I'm putting a 40% growth on myyear, like I'm going for it.
And maybe you missed thatmark, quite significantly
in quarter one I want youto consider re-forecasting.
The rest of the year, maybeyou pull your sales goals
down for the rest of the year.
And that's not because we wannalower our standard or lower
(07:07):
our goal, but we're runningbusinesses so you can keep on
a vision board somewhere whereyou want your sales to be,
but to budget the rest of theyear, we need to be realistic
about what we are able to do.
this is the point where ifI've missed the mark for
the first quarter, I'm goingto adjust what I think the
rest of the year should be.
(07:27):
And on the flip side, I havemany, many students who are
like, you know, I forecasteda 20% growth, but we knocked
that outta the park likewe were way, way over.
I also am gonna encourage themto reforecast up for the rest
of the year, and that's again,just because we're running.
Legit businesses and businessesrun on numbers that are as
(07:47):
closely forecasted as possible.
So we wanna constantly,after each quarter be
re-forecasting the year.
So if you are way up orway down, I want you to
consider re-forecasting yourprojection for the rest of
the year for your sales goal.
Okay?
So this first metric that we'relooking at is sales goals.
And remember this.
Is the value of thepackages that you sold.
(08:08):
So it's not revenue thatcame into the bank, it's
the actual value of thatentire package that was
sold, regardless of whenthat wedding is gonna happen.
Okay, so number two isversus projected revenue.
So this is where that retaineris coming into play, right?
So the key metric number onewas our sales goals, which was
the entire value of the project.
(08:28):
But key metric number twois the actual money that
came into our bank account.
And this can get kind ofconfusing because of the
two different numbers.
So it's.
That's why it's reallyimportant, I want you to
hear me when I say keymetric Number two is revenue,
which means it's the moneythat hit your bank account.
So if you sell a wedding for$5,000, that's next year, and
(08:49):
you took in a $1,500 retainer.
The only amount that we'recounting in this key metric
number two is that $1,500.
Now, the really easy wayto run this number is to
run an actual versus budgetfrom your financial system.
Or if you have a bookkeeper,your bookkeeper should be
giving you this number.
So if you did a budget lastyear, if you're part of Wedding
(09:11):
Pro CEO, you definitely dida budget with us last year.
We do budgets with ourstudents every single
year inside the program.
Um, so you shouldhave that budget.
If you are not part of WeddingPro CEO one, I wanna invite
you to apply to join usinside of Wedding Pro CEO so
you can start running yourbusiness like a legit business.
I would love for you tohead over to wedding pro
(09:32):
ceo.com/application andapply to work with us, apply
to be part of our team.
Our team will jump on a callwith you to assess where
you are in your businessand let you know if we think
that we can help you scale.
We take our client resultsvery, very seriously.
So we only accept students who.
Are ready to two x theirrevenue and to really
scale their business.
So if that's you and you'relistening to this and you're
(09:53):
like, I need this kind of like,support inside my business
because I want to run thislegit business, head over to
wedding pro ceo.com/application.
Fill out a few questionsfor us and grab a time on
our calendar to do that gapassessment and let's get
you inside of the program.
Okay, so we're gonna runthat budget to actual inside
of your financial program,your financial software, or
(10:15):
get it from your bookkeeper.
If you don't have a bookkeeperor a financial software,
then really all you're gonnado is you're going to just.
grab a bank statement fromyour bank for each month.
Compare what youractual revenue was.
I wanna know exactly howmuch money went into your
bank account each monthcompared to what you
budgeted to go into your bankaccount every single month.
(10:36):
Right?
And we're looking at the samething here in key metric number
two that we did in key metric.
Number one, was it up or wasit down to what you forecasted?
And then based on either one ofthose, why was it up or down?
If it was significantly up.
Some of the things thatI'd be looking at for us,
we're a planner and we dopercentage based pricing.
So did we have a client thatwe had under forecasted what
(10:58):
their final payment would be?
Right?
we may have a client who spentway more than we initially
thought that they would,and so we got a larger final
payment than we had expected,and so that might drive up our
revenue in one of those months.
It could also bethat we booked maybe.
Higher packages than we hadexpected to book, or our
sales were way up, so we tookin much larger retainers.
(11:21):
So there's lots of reasons youcould have additional revenue
coming into your bank, butyou want to understand what
that was because when yougo to make your budget next
year, you wanna understandwhy you had a really large
month or a really down month.
It's really importantto understand this.
Okay, now if that was.
Down if your revenue was downin the first quarter to what
(11:41):
you thought it was gonna be.
Again, I wanna look andsee why was it down?
Could it be that a weddingcanceled and so you were
expecting a final paymentto come in that didn't.
That happens a lot, right?
In our industry, more thanclients would like to believe
that it happens, right?
It could also be that your saleswere down and so you didn't
get as many retainers as youthought that you were going to.
(12:01):
Now, just like I encouraged youto reforecast the year based
on whether you're significantlyup or significantly down.
I want you to reforecast youryear for revenue as well.
Now, this is where, thisis gonna be really, really
important because if youdid a budget for the year,
which you should have done abudget for the year, if you
did that, then you have thenbased your expenses and you're
(12:24):
spending off of that budget.
Off of what you projectedto do for this year.
So if your revenue is downfor the entire first quarter,
we may need to re projectthe year in revenue and make
sure that we're gonna coverall the expenses that we've
thought we were gonna spend.
That's gonna be reallyimportant because as you're
spending throughout the year,you're gonna wanna know,
(12:45):
okay, did I make enough?
do I still think I'm gonnamake enough for the year,
or are there some expensesI may need to pull back on?
on the flip side, if you're way.
Up in revenue, youwanna consider that.
It may be time for you to startadding a team member or add
some additional software orbuy that piece of equipment
that you've been needing tobuy because now you can invest
(13:07):
in the growth of your company.
Being way up and not knowingit or being weighed down
and not knowing it are justas bad because if you have
a ton of money sitting inyour bank account that you
didn't realize was overwhat you needed, you're not.
Investing in thegrowth of your company.
So it's really, really importantthat you understand if you're
way up or what you're way down.
Now, one other thing, I sawBraden Drake actually post
(13:29):
about this on threads a coupleweeks ago, and I loved that
he mentioned this, whichis I want you to also know
when your down season is.
I'll give you an example.
My company, we're in Florida,and so our high seasons are
spring, march through May andfall October through December.
And in the summer it's liketumbleweeds, like there's no
one getting married 'causeit's hot, it's hurricane
(13:50):
season and there's a millionbugs in Florida, right?
So like we have very, veryfew weddings in the summer.
And so our summer months tendto be extremely, extremely
lean, cash flow wise.
So I count on having areally big first quarter
and second quarter so thatwe can store up that cash.
I kind of think about itlike storing up all the
acorns for winter, right?
(14:11):
I wanna store up as much cash asI can to get us through summer.
I wanna understand how muchof this extra cash I need to
get us through summer, right?
If I had a really big firstquarter, how much of that do I
need to get us through summer?
So I might not want togo spend that money.
I might be like, oh mygosh, I don't want to
eat ramen all summer andhave to skip payrolls.
(14:31):
I need to store that cash up.
To get through summer, right?
So I focus on that inquarter one and quarter two.
That's how we don't have thebig peaks and big valleys in
our payroll or in our cashflow in our business because
we know we need that extracash to get through summer.
Now, if I had a down firstquarter, and I need that
money to get through summer.
(14:51):
That's where I'm gonna haveto start really realizing
like, summer's gonna berough this year because we
didn't make enough to getthrough those summer months.
I want you to know what yourdown season is and make sure,
you know, do I need this cashto get through down season?
So again, all of thisare things that we work
through with our studentsinside of Wedding Pro, CEO.
So if you're listening to thisand you're just like, I love
(15:14):
this, and I, I feel confusedby it, but like excitedly
confused, I want to understandthese numbers better and I
want help with it, again, Iwould encourage you to get
inside of Wedding Pro CEO.
We do this constantlywith our students.
We want you tounderstand your numbers.
We believe it empowersyou to be a more confident
pro, and that is really thefoundation of how you're gonna.
(15:34):
Scale your revenue soquickly because you're gonna
understand it, you're gonnaknow it, you're gonna be
able to breathe it, liveit, sleep it, and it's gonna
make you such a much betterbusiness owner and operator.
let's move on to keymetric number three.
Key metric number threeis all about your team
and has really nothing todo with revenue or sales.
So let's talk about howwe're assessing our team.
(15:55):
After quarter one wherewe've gotten the bulk of our
bookings for this year, we cannow start to understand how
the year is gonna play out.
And I really wannaunderstand, do I have
enough ACEs on my team?
Do I have the right people inthe right places on my team?
Do I have enough team membersto make sure that we're not
all gonna burn out and befried by the end of the year?
(16:16):
Right now, of course you'restill gonna get more bookings
in the year for the year,but at this point, after
quarter one, it's much.
Fewer that you'regonna book in the year.
For the year.
I would say most wedding prosbook another 10 max 15 weddings
for the rest of the year.
In the year.
Most of your bookings atthis point are gonna be for
the following year, right?
(16:38):
So you have a really idea ofhow many events that you have
now this year, and I wanna bethinking about things like.
Do I need second shootersto be trained up?
Do I need, assistantsto be trained up?
Do I need to actually hiremore leads for the fall?
Do I need to hire more DJs?
Do I need to start trainingmore roadies, right?
Like all of the people andthings that you're gonna need
(16:58):
to run your busiest seasonsfor the rest of the year.
You're gonna need tostart training and
thinking about that now.
So assessing your staffinglevels after quarter one
for the rest of the year tounderstand do I need more staff?
Do I have too much staff?
Are there staff thatI need to move up into
different positions?
Do I need to completely hire?
(17:19):
Like I see a lot of weddingpros hiring right now
because it's a perfect time.
It's like, Hey, now weknow what we need for
the rest of the year.
It's time to start hiring so youhave time to do your training
before you actually need them.
But assessing your staffinglevels is something that I
really, really encourage you todo at this point because this
is going to be so important.
(17:39):
So you don't get caught withyour pants down all of a
sudden working 80 hour weeksevery single week because
you didn't hire in time.
The number one killer,people building teams,
why teams don't work.
Why new hires don't workout is because you wait to
hire until you're actuallydrowning and you have no
capacity to do the training.
And so they comeon, you're drowning.
(18:01):
You're just like, I don'tknow, throw me a life raft.
Like do something.
And they're like, do something.
What?
Like, I don't even knowwhat you need help with.
Right?
And so if we can train now,if we can forecast now what
we need for the rest of theyear, it's gonna help you
to bring that team memberon really, really well.
It's gonna ensure you have thecapacity to train them and that
they come on really, reallystrong, so that by the time
(18:21):
you're in your busiest season,that you can really rock and
roll with that new team member.
Okay, CEO.
So now you know what to measure,and because you are the CEO of
your business, because you aretaking your business seriously
and you're running a legitbusiness, I want you to, right
now, I want you to look at yourcalendar in the next two weeks,
and I want you to put an hour onyour calendar where you're gonna
(18:44):
sit, quiet, turn the do notdisturb on your phone and your
computer, and you're gonna pullthese numbers out and you're
gonna go back through thisepisode and you're gonna listen.
Okay, what do I need toassess first my sales?
What do I need to assess?
Second, my revenue?
What do I need to assess?
Third, my team.
And I want you to putthat time on your calendar
because you know what?
Your business deserves it.
(19:04):
Your business needs you to.
Step up and understand thesenumbers and to set that time
aside on your calendar to reallyassess how was quarter one and
what does it mean for the restof your year so that you can
ensure that 2025 is the mostprofitable year you have yet.
And if you didn't already applyto join Wedding Pro ceo, we
(19:24):
would love to have you do that.
You can head over to weddingpro ceo.com/application apply
to be part of Wedding ProCEO, where we are building
profitable wedding businesses.
you can jump on a call withour team, make sure it's a
great fit, and get inside ofWedding Pro, CEO so we can
help you work on these numbers.
You guys, thank you for beinghere every single week and
I will see you next time.
All right, CEOs, quarter one is officially in
the books and because we arerunning our businesses like
legit wedding businesses andnot some solopreneur hobby, it's
time to check in on the numbers.
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.
(00:20):
And over the last 17 years,I've grown one of the
largest planning firms inOrlando, Florida, grossing
over $6 million in revenue.
Today I'm breaking down thethree key metrics you should
be measuring right now to makesure that 2025 is the most
profitable year you've had yet.
Forget the fluff.
We're talking actualsales numbers.
Revenue numbers,and staffing levels.
(00:42):
Because if you don't know whereyou stand, how can you grow?
Okay, so let's get into it.
the first metric that we aregonna be looking at is your
actual sales per month versuswhat you had projected in
sales each of those months.
Now, what happens alot in quarter one,
because it's engagementseason and everybody's.
So excited.
It's booking season.
We're writing contractsso fast, right?
(01:03):
That's the goal.
I have a lot of wedding prosthat will drop into my dms,
and maybe just a couple weeksinto the month they'll be
like, oh my gosh, Brandee.
February's been so challenging.
I've only gotten two leads.
I haven't closed any sales.
I'm freaking out.
And I'm like, well,how was January?
And they're like, January wasfine, but February is terrible.
And I'm like, okay.
But that's like a snapshot ofsuch a short period of time.
(01:24):
so what I want you toremember is that while you
should be checking yourmetrics every single month,
what's most important isto kind of see a pattern.
Because often what happens iswe'll freak out after maybe
like two or three weeks ofdown sales and we think we
need to fix so many things.
In reality, it's just ablip in the system, right?
So why it's so important thatwe assess this after quarter
(01:46):
one is because now we havethree months of metrics to
help us to understand whetherwe need to make a change.
What went right,what went wrong.
What do we really needto edit about our system?
Or even just make alittle bit better.
Maybe you hit all your goals.
But we need to just makethings a little bit more
refined so we keep scaling.
so that's why now, insteadof just having those panic
(02:08):
moments after two or threeweeks, now we have three full
months of metrics that wecan look at, and we're gonna
really dig into those numbers.
So this first one, actual salesversus what you projected in
sales is gonna be the value ofthe packages that you booked.
Now in the wedding industry,we might book a service
for, let's say, $5,000.
That isn't happening formany months or even a year,
(02:31):
and so we only take in theretainer when we book that
client, but your salesgoals are based on the actual
value of the package booked.
So that full $5,000 iswhat we're looking at.
So we wanna make surethat we understand that.
Sales goals is the fullpackage value, so not what
you took in for the retainer,but the entire amount.
So we wanna look at howmuch did you say that you
(02:52):
were gonna book for January?
What did you think you weregonna book for February
and the same for March?
we wanna see, did wemeet those sales goals?
Were they under, were they over?
What does that look like?
So what are the metrics thatI'm actually looking at when
I'm looking at our sales goals?
I wanna look at theentire quarter, but I
also wanna see by month.
did we maybe budget 50,000for January, but only hit.
(03:13):
30. But for February wemade up that difference.
Right.
So now we're even, andthen March we were even,
or maybe a little over.
Right.
So that's what I wanna lookat is was it just mixed?
Like maybe we had a downJanuary, but we had a
great February or Marchoverall for the quarter.
Where are we?
Are we.
Under our sales goal.
Are we over or are we spot on?
(03:33):
That's the first thingthat I'm looking at.
I wanna know where we camein relation to what we
projected, what we actualizedversus what we projected.
The second thing I wannalook at is if we were
over, I wanna celebrate.
I wanna be excitedwith our team.
I wanna make sure that ourteam knows, Hey, we were over
our sales goal, we killed it.
That's an entireteam effort because.
Everybody on your team,regardless of whether
(03:54):
they're actually sellingor marketing, they're all
responsible for leads comingin because you're only as
good as your last wedding.
So make sure you share with yourentire team if you have one,
how you did on your sales goals,especially if you were over.
Now, if I'm.
Over my sales goals, or evenif I met it, that's exciting
and I wanna celebrate.
But I don't just wanna belike, okay, check mark.
(04:15):
Like let's move onto the next thing.
I really wanna lookat what went right?
I wanna look at did we getthe same number of leads that
we thought we were gonna getor that we got last year?
I always wanna compareto the same time
period as of last year.
So I wanna look and see.
Did we get the same numberof leads or did we get
more leads, but book less?
So that's somethingthat I wanna look at.
Or did we get lessleads but book more?
(04:37):
So always just little thingsthat I wanna know about my
sales funnel compared to thesame time period as last year.
Did I get the same amount ofleads or was it different?
Was it the same number ofbookings or was it different?
because if you've raised yourprices, you wanna know, okay,
well did I get the same numberof bookings of number of events?
Or did that decline, but becausemy revenue, my prices were
(04:58):
higher, my revenue was up.
Right?
These are all the littlethings that I wanna look
at, and you guys might behearing this and think.
Oh my gosh.
Brandee like this is so muchdata you guys, I'm telling
you, I do this exercisewith my students constantly.
We're getting ready todo this exercise together
inside of Wedding Pro, CEO,with our students because
this data tells you so muchabout how you're going to
(05:19):
run the rest of your year.
So that you make sure thateverything in that sales funnel
is really running smoothly.
Now, if your sales weren'tas high as what you expected
them to be, then that'swhere I want you to really
look and say, okay, what wasdifferent from last year?
Did I get the same number ofleads that I did from last year?
Did I get less leads?
(05:40):
So now I need to lookat marketing, right?
If I got less leads coming in,I need to look at marketing
and say, what were we doingdifferently last year that
made us get more leadslast year than this year?
Did we get the same numberof leads, but I booked less?
So was there something going on?
Was I so busy doing client workthat I wasn't doing follow ups?
Or this is the same questionI would ask your sales team.
If you have someoneelse selling, you wanna
(06:01):
really look and see whatmade you miss that goal?
Don't just look at it and say,oh, we missed buy $5,000.
Not that big a deal.
Let's move on.
No, I want to understand whatmade us miss the goal, right?
So that you can fix itgoing into quarter two.
then the last thing I wannalook at is if we just completely
missed the mark, right?
Like maybe you had an aggressivegoal for this year and you just
(06:22):
completely missed it, like itwas way off and you were just
like, wow, we were way, way off.
I want you to assess that salesfunnel, but this is the point
where I also want you to look atthe rest of your year and think.
Do I need to reforecast mysales goals for the rest of the
year because now we have threefull months under our belt.
So if, if you're listeningto this and you are one of
(06:44):
those CEOs who was like, I'mgoing for it in 2025, like,
I'm putting a 40% markup.
I'm putting a 40% growth on myyear, like I'm going for it.
And maybe you missed thatmark, quite significantly
in quarter one I want youto consider re-forecasting.
The rest of the year, maybeyou pull your sales goals
down for the rest of the year.
And that's not because we wannalower our standard or lower
(07:07):
our goal, but we're runningbusinesses so you can keep on
a vision board somewhere whereyou want your sales to be,
but to budget the rest of theyear, we need to be realistic
about what we are able to do.
this is the point where ifI've missed the mark for
the first quarter, I'm goingto adjust what I think the
rest of the year should be.
(07:27):
And on the flip side, I havemany, many students who are
like, you know, I forecasteda 20% growth, but we knocked
that outta the park likewe were way, way over.
I also am gonna encourage themto reforecast up for the rest
of the year, and that's again,just because we're running.
Legit businesses and businessesrun on numbers that are as
(07:47):
closely forecasted as possible.
So we wanna constantly,after each quarter be
re-forecasting the year.
So if you are way up orway down, I want you to
consider re-forecasting yourprojection for the rest of
the year for your sales goal.
Okay?
So this first metric that we'relooking at is sales goals.
And remember this.
Is the value of thepackages that you sold.
(08:08):
So it's not revenue thatcame into the bank, it's
the actual value of thatentire package that was
sold, regardless of whenthat wedding is gonna happen.
Okay, so number two isversus projected revenue.
So this is where that retaineris coming into play, right?
So the key metric number onewas our sales goals, which was
the entire value of the project.
(08:28):
But key metric number twois the actual money that
came into our bank account.
And this can get kind ofconfusing because of the
two different numbers.
So it's.
That's why it's reallyimportant, I want you to
hear me when I say keymetric Number two is revenue,
which means it's the moneythat hit your bank account.
So if you sell a wedding for$5,000, that's next year, and
(08:49):
you took in a $1,500 retainer.
The only amount that we'recounting in this key metric
number two is that $1,500.
Now, the really easy wayto run this number is to
run an actual versus budgetfrom your financial system.
Or if you have a bookkeeper,your bookkeeper should be
giving you this number.
So if you did a budget lastyear, if you're part of Wedding
(09:11):
Pro CEO, you definitely dida budget with us last year.
We do budgets with ourstudents every single
year inside the program.
Um, so you shouldhave that budget.
If you are not part of WeddingPro CEO one, I wanna invite
you to apply to join usinside of Wedding Pro CEO so
you can start running yourbusiness like a legit business.
I would love for you tohead over to wedding pro
(09:32):
ceo.com/application andapply to work with us, apply
to be part of our team.
Our team will jump on a callwith you to assess where
you are in your businessand let you know if we think
that we can help you scale.
We take our client resultsvery, very seriously.
So we only accept students who.
Are ready to two x theirrevenue and to really
scale their business.
So if that's you and you'relistening to this and you're
(09:53):
like, I need this kind of like,support inside my business
because I want to run thislegit business, head over to
wedding pro ceo.com/application.
Fill out a few questionsfor us and grab a time on
our calendar to do that gapassessment and let's get
you inside of the program.
Okay, so we're gonna runthat budget to actual inside
of your financial program,your financial software, or
(10:15):
get it from your bookkeeper.
If you don't have a bookkeeperor a financial software,
then really all you're gonnado is you're going to just.
grab a bank statement fromyour bank for each month.
Compare what youractual revenue was.
I wanna know exactly howmuch money went into your
bank account each monthcompared to what you
budgeted to go into your bankaccount every single month.
(10:36):
Right?
And we're looking at the samething here in key metric number
two that we did in key metric.
Number one, was it up or wasit down to what you forecasted?
And then based on either one ofthose, why was it up or down?
If it was significantly up.
Some of the things thatI'd be looking at for us,
we're a planner and we dopercentage based pricing.
So did we have a client thatwe had under forecasted what
(10:58):
their final payment would be?
Right?
we may have a client who spentway more than we initially
thought that they would,and so we got a larger final
payment than we had expected,and so that might drive up our
revenue in one of those months.
It could also bethat we booked maybe.
Higher packages than we hadexpected to book, or our
sales were way up, so we tookin much larger retainers.
(11:21):
So there's lots of reasons youcould have additional revenue
coming into your bank, butyou want to understand what
that was because when yougo to make your budget next
year, you wanna understandwhy you had a really large
month or a really down month.
It's really importantto understand this.
Okay, now if that was.
Down if your revenue was downin the first quarter to what
(11:41):
you thought it was gonna be.
Again, I wanna look andsee why was it down?
Could it be that a weddingcanceled and so you were
expecting a final paymentto come in that didn't.
That happens a lot, right?
In our industry, more thanclients would like to believe
that it happens, right?
It could also be that your saleswere down and so you didn't
get as many retainers as youthought that you were going to.
(12:01):
Now, just like I encouraged youto reforecast the year based
on whether you're significantlyup or significantly down.
I want you to reforecast youryear for revenue as well.
Now, this is where, thisis gonna be really, really
important because if youdid a budget for the year,
which you should have done abudget for the year, if you
did that, then you have thenbased your expenses and you're
(12:24):
spending off of that budget.
Off of what you projectedto do for this year.
So if your revenue is downfor the entire first quarter,
we may need to re projectthe year in revenue and make
sure that we're gonna coverall the expenses that we've
thought we were gonna spend.
That's gonna be reallyimportant because as you're
spending throughout the year,you're gonna wanna know,
(12:45):
okay, did I make enough?
do I still think I'm gonnamake enough for the year,
or are there some expensesI may need to pull back on?
on the flip side, if you're way.
Up in revenue, youwanna consider that.
It may be time for you to startadding a team member or add
some additional software orbuy that piece of equipment
that you've been needing tobuy because now you can invest
(13:07):
in the growth of your company.
Being way up and not knowingit or being weighed down
and not knowing it are justas bad because if you have
a ton of money sitting inyour bank account that you
didn't realize was overwhat you needed, you're not.
Investing in thegrowth of your company.
So it's really, really importantthat you understand if you're
way up or what you're way down.
Now, one other thing, I sawBraden Drake actually post
(13:29):
about this on threads a coupleweeks ago, and I loved that
he mentioned this, whichis I want you to also know
when your down season is.
I'll give you an example.
My company, we're in Florida,and so our high seasons are
spring, march through May andfall October through December.
And in the summer it's liketumbleweeds, like there's no
one getting married 'causeit's hot, it's hurricane
(13:50):
season and there's a millionbugs in Florida, right?
So like we have very, veryfew weddings in the summer.
And so our summer months tendto be extremely, extremely
lean, cash flow wise.
So I count on having areally big first quarter
and second quarter so thatwe can store up that cash.
I kind of think about itlike storing up all the
acorns for winter, right?
(14:11):
I wanna store up as much cash asI can to get us through summer.
I wanna understand how muchof this extra cash I need to
get us through summer, right?
If I had a really big firstquarter, how much of that do I
need to get us through summer?
So I might not want togo spend that money.
I might be like, oh mygosh, I don't want to
eat ramen all summer andhave to skip payrolls.
(14:31):
I need to store that cash up.
To get through summer, right?
So I focus on that inquarter one and quarter two.
That's how we don't have thebig peaks and big valleys in
our payroll or in our cashflow in our business because
we know we need that extracash to get through summer.
Now, if I had a down firstquarter, and I need that
money to get through summer.
(14:51):
That's where I'm gonna haveto start really realizing
like, summer's gonna berough this year because we
didn't make enough to getthrough those summer months.
I want you to know what yourdown season is and make sure,
you know, do I need this cashto get through down season?
So again, all of thisare things that we work
through with our studentsinside of Wedding Pro, CEO.
So if you're listening to thisand you're just like, I love
(15:14):
this, and I, I feel confusedby it, but like excitedly
confused, I want to understandthese numbers better and I
want help with it, again, Iwould encourage you to get
inside of Wedding Pro CEO.
We do this constantlywith our students.
We want you tounderstand your numbers.
We believe it empowersyou to be a more confident
pro, and that is really thefoundation of how you're gonna.
(15:34):
Scale your revenue soquickly because you're gonna
understand it, you're gonnaknow it, you're gonna be
able to breathe it, liveit, sleep it, and it's gonna
make you such a much betterbusiness owner and operator.
let's move on to keymetric number three.
Key metric number threeis all about your team
and has really nothing todo with revenue or sales.
So let's talk about howwe're assessing our team.
(15:55):
After quarter one wherewe've gotten the bulk of our
bookings for this year, we cannow start to understand how
the year is gonna play out.
And I really wannaunderstand, do I have
enough ACEs on my team?
Do I have the right people inthe right places on my team?
Do I have enough team membersto make sure that we're not
all gonna burn out and befried by the end of the year?
(16:16):
Right now, of course you'restill gonna get more bookings
in the year for the year,but at this point, after
quarter one, it's much.
Fewer that you'regonna book in the year.
For the year.
I would say most wedding prosbook another 10 max 15 weddings
for the rest of the year.
In the year.
Most of your bookings atthis point are gonna be for
the following year, right?
(16:38):
So you have a really idea ofhow many events that you have
now this year, and I wanna bethinking about things like.
Do I need second shootersto be trained up?
Do I need, assistantsto be trained up?
Do I need to actually hiremore leads for the fall?
Do I need to hire more DJs?
Do I need to start trainingmore roadies, right?
Like all of the people andthings that you're gonna need
(16:58):
to run your busiest seasonsfor the rest of the year.
You're gonna need tostart training and
thinking about that now.
So assessing your staffinglevels after quarter one
for the rest of the year tounderstand do I need more staff?
Do I have too much staff?
Are there staff thatI need to move up into
different positions?
Do I need to completely hire?
(17:19):
Like I see a lot of weddingpros hiring right now
because it's a perfect time.
It's like, Hey, now weknow what we need for
the rest of the year.
It's time to start hiring so youhave time to do your training
before you actually need them.
But assessing your staffinglevels is something that I
really, really encourage you todo at this point because this
is going to be so important.
(17:39):
So you don't get caught withyour pants down all of a
sudden working 80 hour weeksevery single week because
you didn't hire in time.
The number one killer,people building teams,
why teams don't work.
Why new hires don't workout is because you wait to
hire until you're actuallydrowning and you have no
capacity to do the training.
And so they comeon, you're drowning.
(18:01):
You're just like, I don'tknow, throw me a life raft.
Like do something.
And they're like, do something.
What?
Like, I don't even knowwhat you need help with.
Right?
And so if we can train now,if we can forecast now what
we need for the rest of theyear, it's gonna help you
to bring that team memberon really, really well.
It's gonna ensure you have thecapacity to train them and that
they come on really, reallystrong, so that by the time
(18:21):
you're in your busiest season,that you can really rock and
roll with that new team member.
Okay, CEO.
So now you know what to measure,and because you are the CEO of
your business, because you aretaking your business seriously
and you're running a legitbusiness, I want you to, right
now, I want you to look at yourcalendar in the next two weeks,
and I want you to put an hour onyour calendar where you're gonna
(18:44):
sit, quiet, turn the do notdisturb on your phone and your
computer, and you're gonna pullthese numbers out and you're
gonna go back through thisepisode and you're gonna listen.
Okay, what do I need toassess first my sales?
What do I need to assess?
Second, my revenue?
What do I need to assess?
Third, my team.
And I want you to putthat time on your calendar
because you know what?
Your business deserves it.
(19:04):
Your business needs you to.
Step up and understand thesenumbers and to set that time
aside on your calendar to reallyassess how was quarter one and
what does it mean for the restof your year so that you can
ensure that 2025 is the mostprofitable year you have yet.
And if you didn't already applyto join Wedding Pro ceo, we
(19:24):
would love to have you do that.
You can head over to weddingpro ceo.com/application apply
to be part of Wedding ProCEO, where we are building
profitable wedding businesses.
you can jump on a call withour team, make sure it's a
great fit, and get inside ofWedding Pro, CEO so we can
help you work on these numbers.
You guys, thank you for beinghere every single week and
I will see you next time.
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