21 Top Posts From 2013 That Will Help You Kickstart The New Year

As the end of the years draws closer, you’re probably looking back at what you accomplished this year and planning out what you want to accomplish next year. Here are 21 top posts from 2013 that will help you kickstart the new year and get you off to a running start!

1. What You Can Learn From 8 Top Wedding Bloggers

Why you’ll love it: One of the best ways to learn is to observe what is working for those who are already successful. The idea of course is not to copy, but to see what you can apply to your own business. I researched 8 of the top wedding bloggers and there is something you can learn from each of them.

2. How to Schedule an Entire Week’s Worth of Social Media Posts in Just 30 Minutes

Why you’ll love it: Marketing doesn’t have to be overwhelming and time consuming and by using the right tools and systems you can make your life a hell of a lot easier. This post shows you exactly how I schedule a week of social media posts in 30 minutes.

3. 6 Big Hairy Website Mistakes That Most Wedding Professionals Make

Why you’ll love it: Your website is often the first thing a potential client sees when they are researching you. First impressions are huge and if you are making any of these 6 website mistakes, you could be missing out on a lot of money in lost bookings. The best news is that if you are making any of these mistakes, you can easily and quickly fix them!

4. Your Pricing Questions Answered

Why you’ll love it: If you’ve ever struggled with pricing, (and who hasn’t?) then this post is for you. Pricing expert Joyce Washington spends over an hour answering questions about pricing for wedding professionals in this interview.

5. The Biggest Mistake That Most Photographers Make

Why you’ll love it: I am willing to bet that you can’t guess what mistake I’m referring to in the title of this post. It’s something that is often overlooked but can make a massive difference in your business.

6. What Is Your Why?

Why you’ll love it: Have you ever read a book that you’ve learned SO much from that it impacts how to do things? Start With Why is one of those books for me. In this post I talk about what Simon Sinek means by “finding your why”, why it’s so important in your business and how to find yours. After all, eople don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

7. 6 Business Lessons I Learned From Waiting Tables

Why you’ll love it: Anyone who has worked as a server or bartender for any period of time knows how much sales psychology goes into the job. I’m still impressed at how much I learned about sales by waiting tables and I bet you have some lessons from past jobs and experience that you’ll uncover after reading this.

8. 20 Amazing People Who Will Help You Grow & Rock Your Wedding Business That You Need To Know About

Why you’ll love it: I love helping you with your wedding business but I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an expert on everything. I have several people that I turn to when I need help with my business, and I want you to have that too. These 20 people do such an amazing job at helping people grow their businesses and I wanted to share their wealth of knowledge with you!

9. Pinterest For Photographers

Why you’ll love it: Pinterest is huge for the wedding industry and in this podcast interview I talk about what photographers should be keeping in mind in regard to Pinterest.

10. You’re Not Too Busy, You’re Just Not Organizing Your Tasks Properly

Why you’ll love it: “I’m busy” is quite possibly the most overused phrase among small business owners and it’s not because they’re actually busy doing things that matter. Not creating, learning and implementing systems to make your life and work easier and more efficient is lazy and it’s making your life much harder than it needs to be. Let’s fix that!

11. 12 Awesome WordPress Plugins To Maximize Your Site

Why you’ll love it: If you run your website on WordPress you can use plugins to customize and supercharge your site. In this post I’ll give you the run down of my 12 favorite free plugins that can really maximize your website.

12. How to Get Blog Posts in Front of Potential Clients

Why you’ll love it: Clicking “publish” on your shiny new blog post is just the start, now you have to get it in front of the right people. I have some fantastic tips that share just how you can do this. These tactics aren’t particularly difficult, but should definitely be a part of your post-publishing routine every time you publish a new post.

13. 6 Lessons We Can Learn From Infomercials

Why you’ll love it: We all know that infomercials are salesy and cheesy but they work and that is fascinating. Some of the products are more useful than others, but infomercial creators know how to make the most of certain marketing principles to sell even the stupidest product. Here are 6 lessons we can learn from informercials that you can use in your business.

14. 3 Systems That Save Me 3-5 Hours Per Week

Why you’ll love it: As business owners we all have a lot going on but you can choose to do tasks sporadically or organize those tasks and maximize your time. We all have the same 24 hours and anytime you see a famous entrepreneur and wonder “How does she do it?”, the answer is probably systems. I’m going to take you through 3 systems I have in my business that save me 3-5 hours each week.

15. Wedding Photography Success Recipe: Get Focused and Stop Trying to Appeal to Everyone

Why you’ll love it: Too many wedding photographers target any and every potential client which is damaging your business. You need to think less about what your client wants and start shooting for yourself to really attract the right clients for you. And if social media marketing is a real drain on your marketing time, I share a bunch of strategies to get it done in under one hour per week in this interview.

16. 7 Tools That Will Save You 5+ Hours Each Week

Why you’ll love it: I hear people tell me all the time how hard it is to keep up with their email or social media or about a million other things, but it’s not if you use the right tools and approach it strategically. There are lots of tools that will help you make the most of your time but these 7 tools easily save me 5 hours per week at the very least. That’s a bare minimum of 20 hours per month or 240 hours per year. Imagine what you could do with that kind of time!

17. Real Vendor Talks: Heidi Thompson & Jeff Hellenbrand

Why you’ll love it: Jeff and I sit down for a chat about marketing, how to avoid being gross when selling and the importance of generosity in business.

18. How To Set Up Systems In Your Wedding Business

Why you’ll love it: I’ve created an infographic for you that walks you through the steps to creating a system for your wedding business. Are you ready to punch overwhelm in the face? Let’s do this!

19. 10 Free Tools To Help You Organize and Simplify Your Business

Why you’ll love it: There is a tool for everything nowadays and you can use them to make you life a lot easier. Here are 10 free tools that will help you make the most of your time.

20. 3 Systems Ever Wedding Planner Needs

Why you’ll love it: You have piles and piles of inspiration spread out across your studio, your phone keeps buzzing with new distractions, new potential clients and new things keep popping up on your forever growing and out of control to-do list. With a few simple steps, you could have it all under control and continue to focus on inspiring your clients and building your wedding business. Find out exactly how in this post.

21. What To Say On Social Media When You Don’t Know What To Say

Why you’ll love it: We totally overthink what to say when it comes to social media but what do you do when you just plain don’t know what to post? I’ve got 6 tips that will keep the ideas flowing so you can get unstuck quickly!

I hope you’ve enjoyed some of these posts and learned a thing or two that you can put to work in your business! I look forward to creating lots more posts for you in 2014! If you want to get a jump start on the year right now, click here to get my report on how I schedule an entire week of social media posts in 30 minutes.