How to make a success of your wedding business
Good quality facilities management is key to running a successful wedding venue that stands head and shoulders above the competition.
Running a wedding venue can be an incredibly profitable and rewarding business – after all, you’re helping couples to plan one of the happiest days of their lives. But it’s not all hearts and roses; managing a successful wedding venue requires commitment, creativity and sheer hard work.
First and foremost, you need to get the basics right – from staffing and catering, to cleaning and booking systems, and this requires good facilities management.
Administration and organisation
Good organisation and effective administration are key to running a wedding venue. In order to put these in place you need to first fully understand your venue; what are your assets and facilities? How many people can you accommodate? What extras can you provide?
With a full understanding of the business and your potential customers you can put in place the appropriate administrative and IT systems to help the venue to run smoothly and fully realise its potential.
Risk management and health & safety
Health and safety is vital for any business, and a wedding venue is no exception. As a business owner you need to be aware of your obligations to your employees and customers, and develop a detailed health and safety plan. This involves carrying out a comprehensive risk assessment and setting out measures to mitigate any potential risk, as well as providing staff instruction and training. A serious accident or safety breach could cause irreparable damage to your reputation and business, so make sure health and safety measures are built into all your business operations.
Customer service
To be a successful, award-winning wedding venue, you need to offer an outstanding level of customer service and, in the main, this comes down to staffing. Well-trained, friendly and knowledgeable staff can make all the difference to a couple’s big day and can really help you to stand out from the competition.
Other elements can also impact on your customer service levels, such as your enquiry and booking processes, your ability to be flexible and open to specific requests, and the cleanliness and condition of the premises, so paying attention to these areas of your business is imperative.
Catering
Catering is an important part of any wedding, and when it comes to your venue, could mean the difference between failure and success. If you are providing catering in-house, make sure you hire qualified, experienced catering staff with a good references, and work with your chef to create a delicious, appealing menu with good quality ingredients.
The bigger picture
You want your customers to have a seamless experience, from beginning to end, so when setting up your facilities management, don’t forget to consider the bigger picture. Areas such as external lighting, parking, and pick-up and drop-off points often get overlooked, but they can make a big difference to a couple’s overall experience. It’s also worth considering arrangements for emergency back-up power – the last thing you want is a power cut spoiling someone’s big day.
Marketing and promotion
In addition to the above, effective marketing and promotion is also essential to the success of your wedding business. When it comes to wedding venues, there is a huge amount of competition out there so, in order to stand out in a crowded market, you need to identify your unique selling points, or USPs. For some, such as this Essex wedding venue, that may be their historical links or quirky spaces, whereas others will make a selling point of their extensive grounds or luxury accommodation. It’s up to you to decide what makes your venue better than the rest.
Running a successful, award-winning wedding venue is no easy task. But with hard work, effective marketing, and excellent facilities management you will be well on the way to creating a credible and profitable wedding business that gives happy couples their perfect wedding day.
