As part of the Enterprise Nation team, small businesses are what I live and breathe, so when I was planning my wedding, I was excited to discover a whole community of entrepreneurs I hadn’t had much to do with before.
The whole experience was really eye-opening about how many small businesses are operating in the wedding industry, how they succeed and how they work together as a community.
Here are four strategies I discovered that all of the suppliers seem to implement and how you can adopt them to grow your business:
1. Referrals
I planned my wedding with quite short notice and when I was reaching out to potential suppliers (photographers, hairdressers, etc), ones that weren’t available sent me lists of other suppliers they’d recommend.
This was such a lovely thing to experience as rather than viewing each other as competitors, a lot of suppliers buddy up with each other.
Whether it’s photographers booking other suppliers to help them at bigger weddings or hairdressers with a list of people they’ve worked with before and want to recommend.
2. Tagging
There seems to be an unwritten rule in the wedding industry that when one supplier posts on Instagram, they tag all the other suppliers and the venue from the wedding in the posts to increase each other’s exposure.
Watch this webinar to discover how to grow your business on Instagram, with Martha Keith, founder of Martha Brook LDN, where I actually got my wedding planner from!