ANYONE CAN DO WHAT YOU DO - BELIEVE IT AND GET USED TO IT!!!
We are living in a time where if you want to be a wedding planner - you can be one. You might not be a very good one, at least at the beginning - but if you want to do it, you apply for a business license and you BE a wedding planner. Crazy right??
Now, those of you who have been being a wedding planner for YEARS hate that sh*t ... but here's the simple fact:
ANYONE CAN DO WHAT YOU DO ... AND HERE'S HOW THEY DO IT:
Pick a business name
Hire someone to brand their business or they do it themselves
Take a workshop or two ... or ten
Have a website designed or they design it themselves
Plan a styled shoot or two ... or ten
Go to some networking meetings
Buy some ads online
Start networking on social media
Start an Instagram account
Hire a social media manager
Hire a PR firm to boost awareness
Now, all of ^^ that costs a lot of time and money ... it's not a joke ... but ANYONE with discipline, time and (yes) some money to spend can DO WHAT YOU DO. So, we have two choices as business owners:
HATE those newbies and get bitter anytime you see one crop up and doing something awesome because you were doing it before them and what right do they have to come into your territory!!??
LOVE that they push you to be even more awesome than you already are and use it as motivation to keep sh*t real for your business - forever adapting and never getting comfy - because getting comfy leads to getting left in the dust.
I PERSONALLY ALWAYS CHOOSE DOOR #2
I literally NEVER want to feel comfy in business ... Now, that can lead to panic and feeling scared that your business will fail and that sucks ... but the second I start to go down that path I mentally slap myself silly and have to remind myself of these things:
Newbies will never have my experience in dealing with the things that REQUIRE experience: There are some things that you can't just learn in a workshop. A lot of things that I now carry in my daily routine as a business owner are because I learned the hard way how to do it wrong. It took me making a MAJOR mistake to readjust the way I do it in the future - or when it comes to things like how the internet works and how brides search and move organically online, that was learned by reading actual analytics for 8 years straight when I was a wedding blogger << also not something you can learn at a workshop.
People coming up under me won't have the relationships I have grown for years: Relationships aren't things that happen overnight. If you have amazing relationships because of all your years of experience in the industry then you have GOLD right there. If you have been in this industry for years and don't have strong working relationships ... well, that's a problem. My real, true relationships mean everything to me. I value those more than anything else!! Relationships that are give and receive are rare and if you have those then hold onto them and nurture them with everything you have. Now, can the newcomers to this industry start growing them? Of course!!! And I hope they do! But when it comes to the things that make your years of experience valuable, one of those is your reach to all the people around you that you have been cultivating.
Feeling like you are getting old and the people under you are young and hip is never a good feeling. It's scary. The thought of being replaced as a business owner is one that none of us want to think about. And that's why you need to keep things fresh - keep moving in the right direction - wear your good ass jeans every day - don't let your worthwhile relationships fade. Those are thing things that your new competition can't take. And srsly never forget that:
ANYONE CAN DO WHAT YOU DO IF THEY WANT TO!!
I can't say that enough ... remember the 'list' I shared above ... so make yourself standout every single day ... adapt if you feel the old ways aren't working ... change up your brand if you feel the old brand is getting stale ... if you fail you have nobody to blame but yourself ... DO NOT GET COMFY IN BUSINESS!!!
Ok, have an amazing Saturday!!
XO~ Heather
