You Only Need These TWO Softwares To Run Your Wedding/Event Planning Business!

There are so many softwares available when choosing the right technologies to run your business and the most common problem I see is when people get shiny object syndrome and end up creating multiple accounts on various different platforms. This is a huge waste of money and time because it then becomes overwhelming & time consuming trying to teach yourself all of the features each software offers and if it offers all of the capabilities to fulfil your needs.

I have been a service based provider for over 5 years now, and after a lot of experimenting with numerous softwares, I have discovered that you only need two softwares so that you can:

1. Keep track of all of your leads in one location so that you can convert your prospects into paying clients.

2. Manage all of your client project action item task & to-do lists in a logical and streamlined system.

3. Create a simple and high converting marketing funnel to grow and scale your business.

So to start off, you need a good CRM software.

This is why you NEED Dubsado.

Dubsado offers an all in one solution to keep track of your leads so that you can seamlessly transition them into paying clients.

Stage 1:

Once a prospective clients comes across your business either via your website or social media pages, its essential to be booking them in for a private 1 on 1 virtual call to meet with the client so that you can both get a feel for if you are the right fit for each other and to give them your best sales pitch!

Dubsado's scheduling tool can easily:

• Book onboarding sales appointments without the back and forth.

• Connect your calendar & set your availability.

• Clients can see your availability at a glance and your connected calendar avoids any scheduling conflicts before giving clients dates & times to choose from.

• Gather appointment details with attached forms to collect more details from your client so you're fully prepared come appointment time.

• Integrates with virtual conferencing softwares such as Zoom & Google Meet to automatically add these platforms to your client's scheduled calendar invite.

How it works:

Once a client selects to book in for a FREE call via a button on your website, a calendar schedule link will pop up as demonstrated in the video below where they can select a date and time at their convenience.

The lead will then be prompted to fill out a short form asking for their name, email, phone number and a couple of other custom questions that will enable you to pre-approve them for your services.

Once they hit the 'submit and finish' button on the form, a contact card will be added for that lead in your projects pipeline in Dubsado.

Stage 2:

After a call with a potential lead has occurred and you have determined that you would be a suitable fit for the job, it is now your responsibility to create and send a proposal, contract & invoice to your potential customer.

I have come across many people who have decided to take a manual approach to this to try and save money, but believe me when I say, this is not the area you want to be skimping in.

I spent years creating a custom proposals for each of my clients and then once they had come back to me with their selection, I would then have to draft a new contract in Google Drive, download it as a PDF and then send it out via Docusign so that the client could add their e-signature. Once a signature was added, I would then have to manually create an invoice (or invoices, depending on their selected payment plan) and then manually email it to them for payment.

Now, don't get me wrong, this wasn't hard to do in the beginning when I only had a couple of active leads to keep track of. However, once my business began to grow rapidly, I had wished I had a better system in place.

By this point I was now having to pay for an electronic signature software and a seperate accounting software and neither of them interfaced to speak to one another. Which ultimately meant that I was falling behind and forgetting about leads as I was never sure what stage they were at in the pipeline. For example:

• Have they signed their contract?

• Did they pay their invoice?

• When did I followup with them to remind them to sign their contract or pay their invoice?

Until I found Dubsado & I realised that it can also:

• Create contact cards for each lead that provides you with their details and stores all of their information under their client card.

• Display each lead's progress so that you always have a quick overview of where each lead is located in the sales pipeline.

• Create impressive and custom proposals containing your service packages and client information for a personalised touch.

• Attach contracts and invoices to your proposals so that you can eliminate unnecessary, back and forth emails.

• Easily receive electronic signatures on contracts and generate invoices split into different payment plans (eg. 50/50, 3 equal payments, pay in full etc...).

If there is one piece of advice that I can give to you its this:

Create your systems around where you want your business to be, and not where it is now!

The reason I say this is because once you have a unique value proposition and lead magnet system that is attractive to your potential buyers, you will most likely find that leads start flooding in and you will begin to become extremely overwhelmed with your sales process.

Stage 3:

Hopefully by now, your client will have selected a package from the proposal you sent to them, and they will have electronically signed the contract and paid their invoice. You will most likely now require an additional automated workflow process to collect additional client information and assets so that you can begin carrying out your services.

As a wedding or event planner, it is now a great idea to create a client pre-work questionnaire asking them a range of questions including:

• Event date/time

• Event location

• Number of guests

• Total budget

• Event vision board

• Venue choices

• Types of vendors required ie. flowers, catering package, car services etc...

And once again, this can all be done internally through Dusbado's custom questionnaires and forms. And the best part is, all of their responses will be saved under their client card in Dubsado so that you now don't have to continue to search for this information in your overflowing email inbox!

Finally, Dubsado's automated workflows feature can now take all of your repetitive admin work off your plate with automated sales followup emails, confirmation emails, payment reminders, recurring payments and more.

No more forgetting which clients need a gentle reminder that you still exist! Your workflow will remind you when it's time to send the email (or it can send it for you.)

Ok, so Dubsado has now just provided you with an all-in-one solution for:

• Booking in a sales call

• Sending out a proposal and contract

• Collected client payments so that you can complete the service

• AND housed all of your client info in one location

Now you need to start thinking about a system that can keep track of all of your action items to complete your client services.

Welcome to the stage, ClickUp!

1. Here is where you are going to create a space in your ClickUp account called "Client Projects".

2. Within this space you are going to create a folder for each client you are planning a wedding/event for ie. Carly & Jeremy's Wedding.

3. Within each client folder you are then going to create a list for each element/vendor that will be required for your event ie venue, catering, officiant, music (band/DJ), entertainment (dancers, magician), photographer/videographer, hair/makeup, guests, car hire, accomodation etc...

4. Within this list, you are then going to create a structured and chronological list of all of the tasks you need to action in order to plan and manage each vendor before the big day!

To kickstart your workflow, here are some examples of what your venue task list should look like, to get the ball rolling:

1. Contact 3 potential venues and get quotes.

2. Book in a site inspection for each venue.

3. Create a venue comparison chart for your client.

4. Send your venue comparison to your client for selection.

5. Book the selected venue for the event date.

6. Let the other venues know that you will not be proceeding with their venue.

7. Send venue contract & deposit invoice to your client for digital signage & payment.

8. Schedule final invoice payments for the venue costs to be sent to the client with reminders.

From here, you can now assign each task to a person responsible (ie your event planner), add a due date for when each task needs to be completed by and use status fields to indicate at what stage each task is at before its completion.

Now, I know what you're thinking, this all sounds great! However I am nervous to dive in and start paying for softwares that I am not yet totally familiar with, and believe me do I get this! We are wanting to save you costs, not overcomplicate the process by diving head first into another software, adding your payment details and then falling back into your old ways and forgetting that you are paying for redundant softwares you signed up to once upon a time.

So that's why I want to talk software pricing

Dubsado offers a free trial for all new users who join the platform. Now I'm not talking about a timed trial where you have 7 chaotic days to now learn how to use and set up all of Dubsado's effective and productive features. No! I'm talking a free trial period that has no time limit, instead it is based on the number of projects you add to your account, and this limit is 3 projects. So until you sign on your 4th client, you don't need to pay a thing!

Once a payment is required from you, Dubsado offers a flexible payment option of either monthly or annual subscriptions, so that you don't need to feel pressured to pay a lump sum and be locked in for a whole year of the software. And here's where it gets even sweeter! The monthly paid subscription only costs $40/month, which in the grand scheme of things is incredibly affordable as it gives you access to:

• Unlimited projects & clients

• Invoicing & payment plans

• Form & email templates

• Scheduling

• Automated workflows

• Public proposals

• Multiple lead captures at once

• Zapier integration

Once I converted over to Dubsado, I was able to cancel my paid subscriptions with:

Calendly ($15/month)

Docusign ($34/month)

Quickbooks ($17/month)

Total = $66/ month

And I was now saving myself almost $30 per month on software expenses AND I simplified my systems by now using one software instead of three!

So let's talk about ClickUp's pricing, and believe me, this one is even sweeter!

ClickUp offers a lifetime FREE plan, and in my opinion, this is completely sufficient for solopreneurs who are running their own wedding planning business. If you are managing a team of people, I would highly suggest upgrading to their business plan for just $19/month, however until you have established a cohesive and well-structured system, don't worry about upgrading until absolutely necessary. Like Dubsado, ClickUp also offers monthly subscription plans for all the commitment-phobes who aren't ready to commit to a software for a full year.

I do have a discount code for Dubsado that will give you 20% off your first paid subscription month or year if you sign up for the free trail period here >

You can also sign up for your FREE Forever ClickUp plan here >

Should you have more questions regarding the set up of these two softwares to increase your profitable productivity, please visit our services page for more info or book in for a FREE 30 minute consultation call here >

I really hoped this helped you to understand why you should be switching your softwares to simplify your systems today!

Sarah 😀