Brian McGovernMarketing For Professionals

How did one event planner / caterer go from working out of her basement to running an event empire … during a recession?

Catering & Event Business Grows in Recession. A Recipe for Success

This year, some catering businesses will close their doors forever.

After years of struggle and hard work - the business they poured their lives into will be gone. And most, will blame the recession.

Most catering and event companies will have lower revenues this year. They too, will blame the economy. This year is awful, they say.

But some event companies will grow.

They will attract more customers.

They will take home more money. They will hire more staff. They will buy new equipment, new homes. They will make more money than 90% of the competition.

Hold on, you say. Make more money in THIS economy?

How can one event planning / catering firm make millions when others are failing?

I decided to ask Martha Kostyra from Jersey City. She was crazy enough to start a catering company out of her basement when the world was falling apart.

Now she’s worth millions.

Is This a Good Year For the Catering & Event Business?

Record high unemployment. Rocketing fuel prices. Economic crisis. War in the Middle East. Uncertain times, for sure. But, that did not stop Martha Kostyra.

She went on to grow that catering company into an event empire and became a multimillionaire.

The year she started was 1976 - and Martha Kostyra was now known as Martha Stewart.

Rich Planner / Poor Planner

Martha Stewart was and is a master of marketing. She knew how to attract the right clients - the ones who let you make a profit - the ones who host many high-end events.

She knew how to listen to her clients. She knew how to exceed their expectations.

Martha didn’t focus on the bad economy. She focused on growing a world-class catering company.

You can grow a successful catering company this year too.

First, stop imitating the mediocre masses. Most of your competition doesn’t know how to market. So don’t copy them. Only model excellence.

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Learn how to market your business. You may call yourself a caterer, photographer, event planner, wedding planner … but your real job is marketing.

To be successful in the catering & event business you need more than good service. You have to master marketing.

If you want to start quickly attracting more catering customers and you don’t want to spend any money to do it, make sure you download a free copy of  “More Clients Now.” This report reveals 10 powerful ways to promote your business.

I hope you feel a little bit more inspired for reading this - but more importantly I hope you take action. Make your dreams happen. Good luck.

Why are so many event businesses in trouble? The recession is only partly to blame.

Homogeny.

Because of the Internet, your customers can easily find lower-priced competitors faster than ever before. If you only provide generic event services that any other company can sell, you are a commodity. Take DJs for example, an industry full of copycats. Same song list, same equipment, same party favors, same everything. If the only thing that distinguishes one DJ from another is price then the lowest priced DJ wins the business.

The same can be said of caterers. Too many imitate and not enough innovate. As a result, the typical catering company’s proposal is almost indistinguishable from any other. Too many caterers let their customers control the quality and originality of their bookings. The majority of customers are too inexperienced at planning events to have the confidence to do anything original. Customers want to play it safe. So they imitate the last 10 parties they went to.

Therefore, most events are bland, generic and instantly forgettable. No one at the party needs to get your card because your service is invisible. You can’t stand out if you mirror other me-too event companies. You, as the event professional, have an obligation to your client into your business to be bold and memorable. If all you do is provide the same service that anyone else can, your event business is destined to fail.

Barbarians at the Gate

The barriers to enter the event services industry have never been lower. 10 years ago, a DJ had to invest thousands of dollars to build a music library. Equipment was more expensive, harder to find transport and required skill to operate. Now any knucklehead with an iPod thinks he’s a DJ. A song list is easy to pirate and play with a cheap laptop and inexpensive speakers.

Ten years ago, Event Planners would painstakingly build a Rolodex of high quality vendors. Now anyone can assemble there A- list of event professionals after a few hours on Google.

In the good old days, finding a good caterer took a long time. Advertising a catering business required a business address, a business telephone and an expensive Yellow Pages listing. Thanks to the Internet, almost anyone can throw up an impressive website for next to nothing.

Want to book bigger and better events? Download a free copy of “More Clients Now.”

Category Creep

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Now that things have slowed down you see more and more vendors that used to specialize in one event service branch out into many. The florist now does balloons, invitations and party planning. Now the photographer is a videographer and books entertainment too. Event production companies are renting audiovisual equipment, selling staging services and are becoming destination management companies.

Stuck Off the Web

Most of event services professionals are clueless when it comes to online marketing. The companies that grew and matured in the last 10 years did so using antiquated marketing. They relied on print ads, Yellow Pages, cold calls. They depended on unsophisticated and unknowledgeable buyers. Just a few years ago, it was too difficult for the event shopper to compare vendors. Information was harder to come by. Now that has all changed.

To be successful in the event services business today you must have a powerful online presence. Today’s customers are shopping online. Today’s customers are comparing service providers. Requesting and comparing proposals from dozens of your competitors used to take days and now can be done with a few clicks.

To be successful in the event services business today you must have a powerful identity. You can’t afford to be fungible. A fungible event services company is exchangeable or replaceable in whole or in part, for another of like nature or kind. You must invest in innovation and create a unique identity for you and your company.

Hard Act to Follow

If you’re not a hard act to follow, expect someone else to get all your applause. How difficult is it for a competitor to replace you? What unique value do you offer that is next to impossible to replicate? Now is not the time to imitate.

Create a strong brand online. In my free report, More Clients Now, I share with you 10 powerful, effective and free ways to get more customers. Whether you are a caterer, event planner, wedding planner, photographer, DJ, designer, makeup artist, decorator … if you are in the live event industry I urge you to download a copy of more clients than before your competition does.

Many people think that their business is slow only because the economy is bad. However, I have to tell you that a number of my associates are doing quite well and making more money this year than last year because they know how to market better than 99% of their competition.

You can sit and wait for the economy to get better or you can take action now to grow your event business.  Grab my free report, More Clients Now and take control of your future.

Be bold, the daring, be different. I wish you success.

Brian McGovern

I met a wedding planner who told me she worked 100% by referral.  Who wouldn’t love that?

No need to promote? No advertising cost! No selling!

Turns out she only gets 5 jobs a year!

The reason she didn’t market and sell her services is because she didn’t know how to. She was terrified of selling. The process made her nervous. She was clueless about marketing.

What we don’t understand, we tend to avoid and even fear.  Marketing and selling your event business doesn’t have to be hard - if you have marketing systems.

With the right marketing systems you don’t have to “sell.” A well designed marketing system attracts the clients you want to serve. They don’t have to be “sold.”

Do you have a marketing system that works?

I posted a video the other day that describes a powerful way any event professional can quickly build up business - at zero cost.  I have received so many emails thanking me for sharing this idea. Watch it here.

And check out my idea for getting your business noticed by the people who matter most to your success fast.

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For example, today’s bride shops around online. If she can’t find you there, you’d better hope her mother is planning the wedding. The older population still responds to pre-internet adverting. But for how long?

Learn how to promote yourself online with free tools that are easy to use. You don’t have to spend money and you don’t have to be a techie to do it either. Download a free copy of my report, More Clients Now and start attracting new clients.

Why You Should Never Work 100% By Passive Referrals

If you wait and hope for referrals, you’ll fail. If you develop a system for generating referrals, and you work that system well - you can have more clients than you’ll ever want.

Here’s the trouble with saying, “I only work by referral.” It isn’t scalable and it’s risky.

A scalable business is one that is capable of being easily expanded or upgraded on demand. How do you demand more referrals?

Risky Business

A business that is 100% passive referral driven is 100% dependent on actions it can’t control. You can’t control your customers. They move, retire and die. If they go away, so does your business.

Referrals are a great way to grow, but don’t grow dependent on them. You can certainly grow with referrals and if you have a referral system in place

To scale your business you need to marketing systems that generate leads and a sales system to covert leads into buyers. When you want more business you increase the output of your systems. It’s really that simple.

So … before you go back to business as usual, CLICK HERE and grab your free copy of my report, More Clients Now. It’s full of great ideas you can use today to start getting more business.

“The God’s cannot help those who do not seize opportunities.”

Listen up my event & catering friends. Whether you’re an off-site caterer, a wedding photographer, event planner, DJ, designer …. you have a choice;

You can a) make less money and blame the economy - or b) make this your best year ever.

Yes, the  event & catering industry will generate lower revenues this year as compared to last year. But it doesn’t mean everyone in the business is going to suffer.  Just because your industry average is down - it doesn’t mean your business will sink too.  As with any average, there is a bell curved distribution.

Some will do much worse, most will do average and some will do much better.

FACT: Some businesses will fail this year.  And they will blame it on the economy.

Their owners will wait and hope for the economy to improve. They’ll hope “business will pick up” and the phone will start ringing again with orders like the good old days.  They’ll wait for their old clients to start making money again and hope that eventually those clients will start to spend.  They’ll wait for things to get better.

They’ll just keep plodding along with the “marketing plan” they followed last year. And what is the marketing plan of a failing business?  Advertise randomly, imitate the average, wait for the phone to ring and drop prices and margins in order to book any  job they can.

FACT: Most catering and event companies will struggle and make less money than last year.

FACT: A certain percentage of our industry will not only survive - they’ll have their best year ever. Why?

Their owners will take an honest appraisal of their strengths and weaknesses. They’ll actively look for the opportunities that their competition doesn’t see, and they’ll take action.

Instead of waiting for the phone to ring with orders, they’ll create a compelling reason for clients to call.

Instead of hoping old clients will return, they’ll help new clients in new markets.

Instead of winging it, they’ll create a strategic marketing plan that diversifies their revenues.

You can wait for opportunity or create your own.

Are you still using the same old marketing ideas? Have you finally realized that your customers are online - shopping for solutions - and if they don’t find you first - you’re losing out?

Too many businesses think the phone ain’t ringing ’cause the market is bad. Meanwhile, their marketing is to blame. Customers are still shopping - don’t believe otherwise. But they’ve changed the way they shop.

• If you don’t know how many visitors your website gets everyday - don’t blame the recession.
• If you’re not optimizing your site to turn visitors into leads - don’t blame Obama.
• If you still think today’s customers are still looking for you in the yellow pages - don’t blame Bush.
• If you don’t have a current, printed and regularly reviewed marketing plan - don’t blame the economy.
• If you think SEO is an 80’s rock band - don’t blame the mortgage meltdown.
• If you’re not using free online tools to promote your business worldwide at the click of the button - don’t blame the credit crunch.
• If you still haven’t downloaded a free copy of my ebook, More Clients Now - don’t blame me!
• If you haven’t spoken with your best clients in the last 30 days - don’t blame anything or anyone but yourself.

Please - don’t sit and wait for “things to get better.”  Go and find better things and make your business better.

Only you can make your business a success. I wish you great success.

PS. Take action right now. Learn how to promote your business with free online tools. Grab your free copy of More Clients Now.

“Wise men make more opportunities than they find.”