Busy vs Profitable

A full calendar can feel like the ultimate sign of success in the wedding industry — until you notice your bank account doesn't reflect it. In this episode, we sit down with Matt Mitchell, co-founder and CEO of The Event Ledger, to talk about the quiet money problems that talented wedding planners and coordinators face when their business grows faster than their financial systems. Matt brings a rare combination of experience — years in high-net-worth finance and firsthand experience running his own wedding planning company — and he makes the numbers feel human instead of intimidating.

We get honest about why profitability often lags behind demand: pricing on gut feel, ignoring real operating expenses, and treating owner pay as whatever's left over. Matt walks us through a more grounded approach to pricing, starting with what you actually need to take home, then layering in expenses, taxes, and realistic event capacity. We also get into the practical side of bookkeeping — how separate accounts for operating, taxes, and owner pay can instantly change your decision-making, and why consistent tracking beats a once-a-year scramble.

If slow season makes you panic, we cover the tools that smooth it out: a yearly budget, a cash flow forecast, and reserves that build month by month. The takeaway is simple and powerful: your numbers are data, not a verdict — and you can't fix what you won't face.

For information about the Wedding Planner Certifications and membership options with the CWP Society visit CWPSociety.com

www.cwpsociety.com | info@cwpsociety.com | IG: @cwpsociety | FB: @cwpsociety

Transcript

Coffee Shop Setup And Introductions

SPEAKER_03 0:00

What if being busy is actually the thing keeping your business broke? Today I'm sitting down with someone who went from award-winning wedding planner to the person planners and coordinators call when they finally want to get their money right. And he's got opinions, so let's hop in.

SPEAKER_04 0:39

Now let's jump right in with our host, founder and CEO Lori Hartwell.

SPEAKER_03 0:43

Hey friends, welcome to the CWP Society Podcast. Grab your drink and pull up a chair because we've got a good one for you today. Today we are setting the scene in a coffee shop. A quiet little nook in the corner by the window with some nice jazz music playing in the background. And that's where we're inviting you to settle in with us today. And let me tell you who I'm sharing the table with. Matt Mitchell is the co-founder and CEO of The Event Letter, a bookkeeping and advisory firm built exclusively for wedding and event business owners. And what I love about Matt's path is where it started. He came up in finance first, spending over 13 years working with ultra-high net worth families and helping them with wealth and estate planning. Then he spent eight years running his own very successful wedding planning company. And it was there watching talented planners around him just struggle with the business side and the money side that the idea for the event ledger was born. And now he's bringing all of it together, working with wedding planners, coordinators, and event pros nationwide to help them get financially organized, pay themselves properly, and build businesses that actually last. And he knows this industry from the inside, and he knows exactly what a healthy business is supposed to look like from the numbers up. He is a master certified wedding planner as well as a certified industry educator here with the CWP Society and a very familiar face around our community. Matt, we are so glad to have you here. Welcome.

SPEAKER_05 2:13

Well, thanks for having me back, Lori. It's always a pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

Awesome. So now, of course, I have a very, very important question to kick all of us off.

SPEAKER_05 2:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 2:23

What coffee or tea is your favorite? What are you putting in the cup this morning?

SPEAKER_05 2:27

Yes. So, well, it's we're currently recording in the summer months, so I always go to an iced coffee. So the drink of choice is an iced latte. And if I'm feeling a little extra special, we put a little lavender in there. So it's either an iced latte with oat milk or with lavender and oat milk. So yeah, that's my that's my order.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

I like your oat milk latte softy, is what I'm hearing to say. Yeah. Okay. Oh, I've got mine too. I'm drinking a cappuccino dusted with just a little bit of cinnamon because you know I think you've got to start every day with a little sweet. But now before I just pepper you with a ton of questions, we're starting a new tradition here at the Wedding Planner Society podcast where I let my guest actually flip the script on me and put me on the spot first. So, Matt, I think you've got a crazy fun question for me. What is it?

SPEAKER_05 3:21

Yeah, let's uh let's see what you do with this one. So, Lori, what's something that you were obsessed with as a kid that you've never really admitted to until right now?

unknown 3:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

So when I was eight to ten years old, my parents had a really big game room. Uh, and in that game room was this laundry closet with double wooden doors. And I used to grab all of the chairs that were around the game table. It was probably like eight chairs, and I lined them all up in front of those double wooden doors. And I would get my chalk out, and I would pretend that I was a school teacher. And what I would do, my mom had a ton of those good housekeeping magazines and all these magazines. So I would, you know, greet my students, my invisible students, uh, and I would give them each their books, their workbooks, which were just amazing magazines that I would be obsessed with reading too. And then I would just talk to these non-existent humans in the chairs, and I would draw all over my mom's double wooden doors. I was so grateful she didn't care because I mean I was it there were ruin. She would try to clean them. The chalk was so built in because of how much I spent so much time, how much chalk ended up in that inside of all the little crevices of that was so hilarious. But so I guess I wanted to be a teacher from a very young age, and I didn't even think about that until probably a few years ago when I was like, oh, you know what I used to do? And so it's just kind of funny. And but yeah, I talk to invisible humans all the time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 5:00

Hey, yeah, we're doing that right now. I mean, they're real, but they're just not here right now.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

They're real. So so, Matt, tell me, you know, about yours.

SPEAKER_05 5:11

Well, yeah, I might cheat a little bit. I've mentioned this to you before, but this is the first time that anyone else is hearing it. So I've always been fascinated with lights. You would think that I would have probably been a DJ rather than a wedding planner because of how obsessed I am with lights. I mean, just growing up, whatever I mean, I could do, you know, back in the day in the in the 80s and early 90s, it was all black lights, you know, like we had the inflatable chairs and the the neon things that glowed, or even the the stars that you could put on your ceiling and put in the black lights and they'd glow. So I've always been fascinated with with lights. So that's my obsession. But I I will I'll share share in my silliness uh with everyone else that I've shared with you is that when people used to ask me, since you talked about wanting to be a teacher, when people used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said a an ambulance. And they were like, Oh, you mean an ambulance driver? And I was like, No, no, I want to be the ambulance. I want to be the thing that has the flashing lights and the siren, and everybody moves out of the way for. Yeah, that was me. That's what I wanted.

SPEAKER_03 6:22

I forgot that you told me that. And it's just, I love this so much that you wanted to be a vehicle. Right. And that's not common. I feel like it actually puts you in a very unique spot. That's a niche, Matt. That's something really special. Uh, I love that you loved that so much that you wanted to be big flashing lights and you wanted to drive down the street just letting everybody know that you are here. This explains so much about me. I love it. I love it. Well, thank you for sharing that hilarious little piece. What how old were you, would you say?

SPEAKER_05 6:59

Oh gosh. Uh, probably five, six. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

So sweet. I can picture little baby Matt saying something so cute like that. Well, I know everybody's just waiting for us to kind of dive

Booked And Busy Vs Profitable

SPEAKER_03 7:12

into this. So I want to kind of start today with a misconception that I think a lot of wedding planners and coordinators fall for. And it's that idea that having a full calendar automatically means that we have a healthy business. And I'm sure you see this all the time. So a lot of people are thinking that being busy means being profitable, and they think that's the same thing because so many planners are they're booking weddings left and right, and they're feeling so successful because of it, and they're exhausted, but a lot of times they're exhausted in a really good way. But see, their bank accounts telling them a completely different story. So, Matt, I want you to talk to me and help me kind of understand where this idea gets twisted and what's really going on between a packed calendar and an actually healthy business.

SPEAKER_05 8:01

Yeah, I think the wedding industry has a funny way of measuring success. The first thing that happens typically when you walk into any networking event, within the first five minutes of you speaking with someone, they're asking already, how's your season shaping up, or how many events do you already have on the book? So a full calendar or being what the industry usually calls booked and busy is basically the industry's report card. And I understand why. In a business that's competitive, or should I say an industry that's competitive and seasonal, visible demand does mean something. It could mean that your marketing is working, it could mean that your reputation is growing, or it could be some other factor. And while a full calendar tells you how the front of the house looks, it doesn't really tell you what's happening underneath the hood. So um what we see all the time in our bookkeeping work is that financial story underneath. And it is almost always different from that calendar story. It's not always bad, but it's certainly always different. And I think a big why is what I often call pricing on vibes. I've probably said on this podcast a few times, and it's where planners are setting their rates based on what they think, you know, a client would pay or what they would pay as a client, what the planner down the street is charging, or just making incremental round bumps. So, like, I don't know, an extra $100 sounds good here, maybe $250 here or $500 here. But what they're not doing is working from actual numbers. What are their real expenses? How are those expenses moving within a year or even year over year? And what do they actually need to charge to build a healthy business? So when pricing isn't anchored to that real data, a full calendar could just be a sign of impending burnout, as we know is very prevalent in this industry versus a business success.

SPEAKER_03 9:50

I could not agree with you more. And I and I know that there are so many factors that kind of play into all of this. For instance, that is definitely one of the places where I feel like wedding planners don't start is what are my expenses? I don't even think that some planners look at their expenses, they kind of think of that as more of an afterthought. But we also, of course, need to make sure that we're balancing that with what our market can bear, right, Matt?

SPEAKER_05 10:15

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_03 10:16

And so when someone comes to you feeling so maxed out, I mean, they are you mentioned burnout. Yeah, they're feeling that, and the they're they feel like they're working so incredibly hard, because they are, and this is a tough job, as you know. And but their bank account is not giving them something that's like, oh, this is making it so worth it, let's

Cash Flow Guardrails And Real Expenses

SPEAKER_03 10:41

say. Where do you start with a planner who comes to you feeling that way?

SPEAKER_05 10:46

Yeah, when when someone comes to us and they're feeling that way, I typically attribute it to them not really understanding how money is flowing through their business. So they're not really knowing exactly what it costs to keep their business open each month. They don't really have a cash flow forecast for the year. Maybe they don't even have a budget for the year. So they know that there's gonna be these seasonal dips that are coming because it doesn't matter where you're located, just the nature of our industry is that there will be a dip. It may be different months for different actual pockets of the United States, but there's gonna be a dip at some point. And these give business owners anxiety, of course. But whenever they have those things like a cash flow forecast, whenever they do have a budget, whenever they do know how much it costs in order to keep their business open each month, that gives that business owner a guardrail. So without them, without those guardrails, it really becomes a guessing game. So they just freely spend in the in the busy months because they feel flush with cash. And then they start reaching for that credit card when things start to get quiet and they start to stress. So it really becomes that underlying issue of not understanding how the money is flowing through their business and having those, I guess, guardrails in place that we that we just talked about to make sure that they feel grounded in the decisions that they're making when the time comes that things are a little bit stressful or stretch-thinned.

SPEAKER_03 12:17

Yeah, you're right. And I I remember you telling me probably a month or two ago that one of the most common things that you're finding as far as you know, not really understanding how the money flows through the business is going out to dinner, going and grabbing all of these things and thinking, oh, I'll just write this off or what have you. You see that a lot, don't you, Matt?

SPEAKER_05 12:38

Yeah, yeah, I do. And I get probably the misconception is that, hey, this is considered a business expense. So, you know, I'll write this off on taxes. But what you don't realize is that meals and entertainment in the in the business world and the tax world is only 50% of that full piece that you did. So if you spent $100 at dinner, you only actually got $50 of the tax break. So you quote unquote wasted $50 more dollars that you could have invested somewhere else. And it's really important to kind of think through, you know, what is what do I want my money to be doing for me? Is it feeding me? Well, I mean, yeah, you do, but that comes in the form of a payroll, not necessarily as a business expense. So we need to make sure that business expenses are truly business expenses, not just a way to write off additional expenses for tax purposes.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

You got it. And that

Pay Yourself Like A Professional

SPEAKER_03 13:28

kind of leads me right into the next thing that I wanted to talk to you about, which is something that's pretty close to my heart because I think this is where a lot of planners and coordinators get kind of stuck in paying themselves, you know, actually taking home an income and not just covering their costs and calling whatever's left profit. So, why do you think it's so hard for creative business owners to wrap their minds around this? And what does it look like to actually price and pay yourself like a professional?

SPEAKER_05 13:54

Let's go to maybe why. I think I see a couple of things that's the reason why. The first, I think, is emotional. Most people who become wedding planners or in this creative field did so because they genuinely love the work that they do. And there's this, I think, unspoken narrative in creative industries that loving what you do is the reward. So that mindset, however subtle it may be, can make paying yourself feel almost uncomfortable, like it conflicts with the passion that drove you to do this in the first place. The second, I would say, is structural. And it often starts because the business doesn't really even feel like a business. You know, the wedding industry has a relatively low barrier to entry. So it frequently starts as a side hustle for many. And someone does a friend's wedding, it goes well, word spreads, and suddenly they're taking on clients, and the money coming in in that stage is almost like a bonus. It wasn't their primary income to begin with. But the problem is that that mindset doesn't always evolve as the business evolves, as they decide that they want to make this their full-time livelihood. So they're running what looks like a real business on the outside, but internally they're still operating with a side hustle relationship when it comes to owner's pay. But I don't want to single anyone out. So if the side hustle was not a part of their story, there's still another structural component. And they simply never built their own pay into pricing at the start. So owner's pay gets treated as whatever is left over after everything else is covered rather than a non-negotiable line item built into every single contract. So when business is slower or expenses run higher than expected, whatever is left over suddenly becomes nothing.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Ah, so is there a number or maybe a percentage or even just like a rule of thumb that planners and coordinators who are running their own business should be thinking about?

SPEAKER_05 15:46

Yeah. Well, number one, I think that they need to make it a non-negotiable expense that they're building in from their pricing from the start. As far as an approach, the way that I'd approach it is to work backwards. So before you start talking about what you want to charge, uh what you you need to start thinking what you need or you want to take home. So what does your life actually cost? What income do you need to live comfortably or feel like your business is worth running? That's really the starting number. And from there, you layer in your business expenses and what does it actually cost to operate? Then you can account for your taxes because as a self-employed business owner, no one is setting those aside for you automatically. And given how many weddings or events that you can realistically take on in a year, and what does each one of those need to generate in order to get you that number that you need. So I think most planners that go through that for or just creatives in general, they go through that for the first time and find that that number is not in line with how they are currently pricing. And so it's important to make that a non-negotiable versus uh whatever's left over.

SPEAKER_03 16:48

Yeah. And there are also some planners that are struggling because they're pricing themselves too high and not getting the business. I think that that's another side of the coin that we should always be looking at. I feel like a lot of planners and coordinators are charging the same hourly rate as neurosurgeons. Um I actually did a huge study on this, and I that's what I found. I'm like, okay, so we need to look at this because there's so many wedding planners that are saying I switched, I listened to a pop-up educator or a webinar, and they said to change my pricing to this or to this structure, and now I'm not getting as many bookings. I thought I would, but and see what I'm finding, and Matt, I'm so curious if this is something you're finding too. But when there's these webinars, they're not talking to every single person that's listening. Like they're talking about some of the more the bigger cities. And what would work in a bigger city wouldn't necessarily work in more of a rural area or just your everyday town in America. So I worry a little bit about that because now if a planner is losing money because they're not getting as many bookings, they are then going to think to themselves, I can't afford to pay myself. So when we're working with wedding planners like that, when I'm coaching them, first I try to get their numbers right. But when I think probably when planners are feeling like they're not earning what they need to, they're they're afraid to pay themselves in a way. What do you say to wedding planners and coordinators in those situations?

SPEAKER_05 18:19

You have to pay yourself, right? I mean, this is not a charity, this is a for-profit business. And I think I've said this before. So you are usually 100% owner. You could have a partnership where you have a business partner, but technically, you are probably the owner of the business. So you are taking 100% of the liability that this company is taking on, right? So if something goes wrong, you ultimately have to step up for it. Now it depends on how your business is structured, all those things, but ultimately you're on the line for what's happening in your business. And as that person, that's it's just like other investments, right? The more risk, the more reward you have generally when it comes to investing. So the same would apply to this situation. If you're taking on the brunt of the liability for your company, you should be compensated for that liability. So we have no problem paying our contractors, we have no problem paying our expenses. But when it comes to paying ourselves, we suddenly think, oh, well, I don't have to do that. Like, you know, I might have a spouse that that has some money, so I don't have to pay myself. But when we get out of the practice of paying ourselves, then we don't start accounting for those things that we need to. It's like there needs to be a side item that you pay for yourself. But also if you are not being compensated for this work that you're doing, you're gonna find yourself burned out because you it may be subconsciously, you may think, oh, I love doing this, but that stress and that anxiety and and working so hard and not seeing a benefit for it can really weigh on you. And that's I've seen it, I see it all the time pop up on these Facebook um forums and stuff where people are they are literally burned out and they're asking, should I even do this anymore? I don't, I'm just ready to put my hands in the air. You know, so it's it's something that's very common in this industry. So I think it's important that people do pay themselves. It is a have to be an exorbitant amount, especially if if your books can't afford that currently, but it's important to get in the practice of doing it and get to a place where you are paying yourself a fair wage.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

So let's

Accounts Bookkeeping And Tax Readiness

SPEAKER_03 20:30

kind of get practical for the person who's listening, who's going, all right, listen, Matt, I hear you, but where in the world do I start? Because I want to talk about that the foundational habits that really separate those hobbyists from real business operations. It's kind of unsexy, and I get it. It's but having separate accounts and tracking everything and staying really ready for tax season is really, really important. So maybe walk our listeners through it. If if a planner or coordinator sets up just a few things this year to get financially organized, what would help them move that needle the most?

SPEAKER_05 21:08

Yeah, I think moving the needle, uh, when I think of that, I keep coming back to some of the same foundational pieces. So the first is getting serious about your account structure. And I don't necessarily mean having accounts separate from your personal one, though that is a non-negotiable. Like that's that's from day one, that's how it should be. Uh, but I'm talking about going a level deeper and having dedicated accounts for specific purposes, things like a payroll account, an operating expenses account, a tax savings account, it depends on your business structure, uh, an owner's draw account and a profit or just overall savings account for your business. And what that structure does mechanically is force intentional allocation of every bit of money that comes into your business. But the mental shift is also an important one. When everything sits in one account, Account and you read a balance, we'll just keep it round and easy for people to digest here by listening. So if that balance reads $100,000 in your bank account, it's easy to feel flush and make decisions based on that number. But when they can see that only $28,000 is in payroll, $26,000 is in operating, 15% is in tax reserves, and 20 is in honors draw, and 11 is in profit, you start to make completely different decisions. So that conference ticket that they're looking at or that new piece of equipment that certainly looks very different when you're spending from a $26,000 pool instead of a $100,000 pool.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

Right.

SPEAKER_05 22:37

The second I would say is consistency from day one. You you kind of mentioned it. It's not necessarily perfect bookkeeping, just consistent bookkeeping. So every dollar in, every dollar out gets tracked. And the planners who build that habit early have a completely different relationship with their business than the ones that try to reconstruct it every year, come, you know, around April.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Yeah. It's a scary time.

SPEAKER_05 23:01

Yeah. And so that brings me into that final and third point, which is tax preparedness. As a self-employed business owner, no one is withholding that taxes for you. I mentioned it earlier. A portion of every payment needs to be set aside immediately, not figuring out at the year end, not at the month end or quarter end. And that one really shifts it from eliminating the most stressful recurring experience in the industry. Um, it and it is, it's come tax time. Everyone starts to freak out and they are scattering. It's the beginning of the year when there's a lot going on. And if if we can just incrementally do this, consistently do this, then it's not gonna be such a stressful situation for them.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

I agree. When I look at our accounts, having everything separated allows me to make good decisions. And you know, one of the things I'm always thinking is every decision I want to make when in regards to my business is what's gonna be the ROI. I don't like spending money unless it's going to bring me back something in some way, whether whether that is breaking even or being able to have some sort of profit. I feel like that is gonna be one of the most important things that I do for myself and for my business. And so I want to make sure that planners and coordinators think about those things and not just spend recklessly. And because things do start to get a little overwhelming when they don't keep these things separate, they tend to avoid tracking, they tend to avoid even looking at their finances. So, what is one of the biggest mistakes that you know when you are counseling with these planners and coordinators and wedding pros in general? What is one of the biggest mistakes that you see time and time again?

Stop Avoiding The Numbers

SPEAKER_05 24:48

People that have been avoiding their numbers, and usually it's out of fear. So, what's like the first step? And I'll be honest, Lori, this answer might sound a little too simple, but it's exactly right. Just start. That's it. That's the first step. And and I'm gonna actually, you and I had a private phone conversation uh a few weeks back, and I told you about a book that I was reading called The Mountain is you. And I think that that book really solidifies the same kind of thinking that that I want to share here. So the concept in in that book that the author outlines is that sometimes we get stuck in this all or nothing loop. So when a planner imagines getting their finances in order, their brain immediately jumps to the finished product. So they imagine um, okay, I need perfect spreadsheets, I need full tax compliance, I need pristine ledgers. And that mountain feels so overwhelming that something inside of them absolutely panics. And to protect them from that anxiety, their brain chooses to simply avoid it and like out of sight, out of mind. It feels safer to not look than to feel like a failure. Now it doesn't mean you are, but you feel. So the first step isn't getting the perfect books this week. It's a micro shift. It's opening the account and looking at the numbers with zero judgment, not fixing anything, not building a spreadsheet, just looking. Because a lot of people avoid their numbers because they're attaching meaning to what they'll find. A low balance tells me that it's evidence that I'm failing and it that triggers shame. But the data is just data. It doesn't mean anything about who they are or whether their business can work. And here's the thing: you don't need to feel confident or ready to start tracking your finances. You have to do the physical action and let the emotions catch up later. You don't have to wait for a revenue milestone or a tax deadline to force your hand. Certainly don't wait until you're ready. Just open it. That's the whole first step.

SPEAKER_03 26:50

You know, knowledge is power, right? And when we have that knowledge, we all of a sudden feel empowered that, oh, you know what, maybe this wasn't as scary as I thought it was gonna be. And being okay and giving yourself grace is going to be a part of that portion of it. Because it yes, of course, it's so easy to get overwhelmed and then just try to avoid it. But every time that you avoid that conversation or avoid looking at your numbers, you're dragging it out. You are dragging that anxiety out and the shame out. What we need to do instead is forgive ourselves, love ourselves, love our business, look directly at it, let it burn. You know, I always think to myself, like, yeah, there's gonna be so many uncomfortable things that happen. And if we don't look at it, whether that's in our personal life, emotionally, or whether it's a business and it's the numbers on that spreadsheet, if we don't look at it, we're never going to master it. And so I just want to empower our listeners today that you don't, like Matt says, you don't have to be perfect. Nobody's expecting anything like that. But we are expecting you as a business owner to take responsibility to look at it and then take the small steps one at a time, one foot in front of the other, to achieve the goals that it is that you're trying to achieve, the ones that you really, really want because you're worth it, because your business is worth it. And I think that that's a really important piece of this. And, you know, for someone who's kind of avoided looking at numbers out of fear, I feel like you're right. That first gentle step is just look, just just do it, just start. And I love that you say that because you say, you know, it's gonna sound a little too simple. And I think that a lot of us do because it's such a hard job. We expect everything that we're doing to be difficult, but it's not always. Just pulling up the spreadsheet, pull up QuickBooks, take a gander, and then make one decision. Maybe that one decision is to call you, Matt, and say, Help! Yeah. Uh, and and I want to also squash something else because a lot of people are afraid to call someone like you because they're gonna feel exposed. Can you speak to that real quick? Because I think that you are exactly the right person to speak to this because you're so gentle, but you're also direct. And I love that about you. But tell me, tell me what's your thoughts there.

SPEAKER_05 29:22

I think a lot of planners or coordinators in general feel we are, we're perfectionists, right? And so they cannot imagine showing someone a piece of their business that's very personal and that's not perfect. And I think that gives them also anxiety. And so it's something that they're dealing already battling with internally. So how could they open that up to someone else? But I can tell you, what I have seen is that when they actually take the step to speak with us, when we kind of, you know, tell them what the next steps could look like or will look like once we get we get going, I think a huge weight is lifted off of them. Now, it doesn't matter whether they go forward with us or not. I still think though, that just knowing that this is solvable, that this is not the end of everything, I think that just settles their mind a little bit and lets them know that no matter where I am, it could be maybe I haven't categorized things in a month, maybe I haven't done it in a year, maybe I haven't done it in two years or more. We've seen it all. But it it doesn't, that doesn't matter. It's all fixable. It's all, if we don't start now, it only grows. Not only that anxiety and that stress that you feel up under it, but the work grows too. And so the the sooner we can tackle it, the the the more you're gonna feel at ease and start to see results that will then help you, I guess, feel this relief and actually feel like you are running your business because you have the data that you can go and look at and you can make informed decisions versus you know, gut feelings that you are just, you know, just making because it looks like I have enough money to spend right now, not knowing that in two months' time things are gonna go a little bit slower in your your calendar, and now you're feeling more stressed because you spent too freely over here, and now you don't have those reserves ready for here. But but yes, I mean if if people came to us perfect, then we wouldn't be needed, right? So it's it's not something that people have to show up and say, hey, I've got all this organized. Can you look at it now? You can bring that organized, that chaos, you can bring that mess to us, and we will help you sort through it and and give you a good outline of what steps you need to take in order to feel confident and secure.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

Nothing scares Matt. You cannot scare Kevin with your members. He's got your back. Now, I want to kind of talk about surviving the slow season.

Funding Slow Season With Reserves

SPEAKER_03 32:00

And I have to ask about this one because it's it's honestly it's the reality of our industry. It's that sort of famine kind of vibe, right? So we have these stretches and of really amazing, oh, we're working, we're working, we're booking. And then we have these really quiet months. How do you typically say to a wedding pro and explain to them how to smooth that out and build in that cushion and actually be able to breathe during the slow season instead of panicking through the whole thing?

SPEAKER_05 32:33

Yeah. So first I'd say that any business owner who struggles through that, they're not necessarily caught off guard. They just didn't build their busy season with the slow season in mind. And that's really the reframe is peak season isn't about surviving the workload, it's about funding the rest of the year. And so when that becomes the mind step that you stop freely spending in the busy months and you start allocating for those quiet months that are already in your view. So the tool that makes it possible is a cash flow forecast. And that actually connects back to something that we mentioned earlier. Whether planners or coordinators know what it costs to keep their business open each month, that number becomes the foundation for everything here. A yearly budget gives you that number. It tells you exactly what it costs to keep your doors open. So even if you have zero weddings that are booked in a given month, you already know precisely how much you need in reserves to get through that month without panic. You're not guessing, you're not, you're not white-knuckling it. You're you've already planned for it. And the practical piece from there is straightforward. A percentage of every payment that comes in during busy season gets moved immediately to a dedicated slow season reserve. It doesn't have to be a new account. It could just be your profit or savings account that you already have set up. But you know mentally that that money is going for my slow season. Before anything else touches that money, it becomes automatic and it removes that temptation to spend from that larger balance without accounting for what's coming. And that's the habit. That that cash flow forecast is what tells you whether the habit is working and whether or not you're on track or if you need to adjust.

SPEAKER_03 34:11

Yeah. And I know that so many listeners today are thinking to themselves, is there a certain number of cushion that I should be aiming for or a percentage that I should be aiming for? How do you answer those questions?

SPEAKER_05 34:25

Yeah, well, honestly, it's specific to each business, as we mentioned before, because every business has a different number that will keep the doors open.

SPEAKER_02 34:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 34:33

And that's why the budget matters so much. You do have to know your own floor before you can build above it. So, with that said, the general rule of thumb, though, is three to six months of operating expenses as a reserve target. Now, people might be thinking, whoa, that's a lot. Three to six months? Wow. Um, that's a lot of money. But here's the important thing I want the people to hear is that no one needs to get there overnight. The goal isn't to see a massive number immediately, it's to start making those intentional, consistent moves toward that number. So again, we're looking at a micro shift, not a mountain. And if you start from zero, the win this month isn't having that six months or even that three months of money in reserves. The win is moving something, anything into the account on purpose.

SPEAKER_02 35:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:22

And you build from there. That is starting that habit of setting yourself up for success. And it, it, I think it again helps you build that confidence to know, you know what? I've decided that I'm going to move, I don't care what it is, $10 over to this account. And you know what? That $10 is going to help me in the future because I'm not spending it now. I'm making sure that I'm setting myself up for success when things feel a little bit tight. And that is going to give you the confidence to do it again. And whenever you do it multiple times, you're just going to get in that habit to do it. And then before you know it, you've saved one month already. And you're like, all right, I feel great. Let's keep going. And you got two and three. And before you know it, you have your six months that you thought you would never get there. But now you from small incremental shifts and changes, you were able to get there. And it didn't stress out your whole books because it wasn't like you were moving a ton of money over. It was just intentional moves that got you in the right direction.

SPEAKER_03 36:20

And honestly, it's it's really amazing how those small things, even like you said, $10 as your example, right? It's crazy how that $10 feels bigger all of a sudden. When you do it, it's like it doesn't feel like $10 anymore. It doesn't feel like that basically a coffee and a half at a really nice coffee shop. It's more like, oh, I just started a really great habit. So would you say that this really is about just developing great habits and sticking to them?

SPEAKER_05 36:49

I think that's I think really that's the baseline for it. Yes. I mean, sure, there's some technical pieces, um, you know, like how do I get to a cash flow number? And, you know, you can certainly research that or reach out to us for that. But absolutely, whenever we're thinking about fundamental and basic business health, it's it is always tied back to healthy habits that a business owner is implementing. And it's not ignoring the numbers, it's looking at them. It is making those shifts in the busy season to pay for the slow seasons versus saying, hey, I have all this amount of cash, so I can I can move with it right now. It's it's being intentional, disciplined, and and consistent in the things that you're doing that really makes the shifts.

SPEAKER_03 37:33

And you know what I think is what planners and coordinators and wedding pros in general need to ask themselves is how do I want to feel inside of my business? Do I want to feel stressed out all the time and kind of nervous and riddled with anxiety all the time? Or do I want to walk each day with the confidence knowing that I am making some really good decisions, even if I'm not putting more than $20 away to this or paying myself a little bit less than I thought I was going to, but I'm gonna build on that. Now I'm gonna create a plan on how to develop that a little bit bigger and a little bit more. I think we just have to ask ourselves, how do we want to walk through this? And I personally like to do things intentionally and of course giving myself grace, but I want to have some confidence. I want to know that I can put my head down on the pillow at night, knowing, you know what, there's a lot in life that I have to kind of wade through, but at least I know that the business is financially sound or I'm making good decisions. It's one less thing for me to have to worry about. I don't like prolonging anxiety and worry and things of that nature. I like to just deal with things head-on, but that's probably more of a personality thing. And so what I want to try to do today is empower all of you who are listening to please, please, please don't be afraid of the numbers. They are just figures on a piece of paper. They are not gonna bite you, they will not attack you in the middle of the night. What they're going to do, if you look at them, is they will allow you to have more control in your business. So, Matt, this has been so good. And I feel like every planner and coordinator who's listening just got a little bit of permission to really just take their business a little bit more seriously. But before I let you go, there's one thing that I want to ask you. I want to think about takeaways here. What's the one thing that you want someone to just walk away and actually hold on to? What would that be?

Key Takeaway And Where To Find Help

SPEAKER_05 39:36

Yeah. I think I want every planner or coordinator listening to hold on to this, that your numbers are not a verdict of who you are. A messy spreadsheet doesn't make you a bad business owner. A low balance doesn't mean that you chose the wrong path. Financial avoidance in this industry is incredibly common. And it almost always comes from shame or fear. And whenever you're looking at your books, you I think automatically assume that you will confirm your worst fears about yourself or your business if you look at your numbers. So people just don't look. And the longer you don't look, the bigger that that mountain gets. But here's the truth: the data is just that. It's data, it's information. And information is the only thing that actually gives you power to change. You can't fix what you won't face. So, whatever state your finances are in right now, whether you haven't looked in six months or you've never really looked at all, the move is the same. Open it. Just look. No judgment, no pressure to fix everything at once. Just start. Because the planners who build financially healthy businesses aren't the ones who had it all figured out from day one. They're the ones who decided to stop avoiding and start looking one small step at a time. So that would be my takeaway for today.

SPEAKER_03 40:53

I love that. So where can people find you and learn more about what you can do for them at the Event Ledger?

SPEAKER_05 41:01

Yeah, you can find us on socials at the Event Ledger or visit us at our website, theeventledger.com. And so we are there. You can contact us through our contact page or through socials. We'd love to be able to have a conversation.

SPEAKER_03 41:14

I love it. Thank you so much for this. You've made the money stuff feel really human, and that's not easy to do. And to everyone listening today, lit a little bit of a fire under you to get your business healthy. That's exactly what we're here for. The CWP Society has a place for you no matter where you are in your journey. We've got our free pro membership that's open to every category in the wedding industry. We have our associate certification and membership for those working under already established wedding planners, and our executive and master certified membership for planners who own or are dreaming to own their own company and want to really raise their credentials with lifetime certified member benefits. If you want to go for the master, that's that means that you just want the highest credential available in the industry. And all of these things include weekly workshops and quarterly business coaching and so many extras. So come find your people. We're going to see you next time. Same cozy corner, same great conversation with a cup of coffee.