Why You Need To Embrace DIY & Make It Work For You
Most wedding professionals hate DIY because they believe it’s bad for business, but what if I told you that hating & bashing DIY is actually what’s bad for your business?
If you know me at all, you know I like to back up what I say so let’s look at some stats from Splendid Insights.
“For millennials, the group born between 1979-2000 and the majority of brides and grooms today, DIY is more about creative expression than it is about financial constraints.” That means that DIY does not mean budget. It can in some instances but it’s dangerous to assume that all couples who enjoy DIY are cheap.
“Over 60% of women will spend more money on making a special event feel more personal.” That flies in the face of the conventional understanding of why people DIY.
“Interest in DIY weddings has spiked 126% since 2007, the same year millennials became the majority group tying the knot.” This isn’t a budget thing, it’s a generational thing and millennials enjoy DIY even if they’re spending an exorbitant amount of money on their wedding.
“Constantly knocking DIY and trying to take away something that is genuinely fun for a person only makes a wedding pro look whiney and out of touch.” Have you ever stopped to think how this makes you look to your potential clients?
You can read more about DIY weddings and the millennial generation at http://www.thinksplendid.com/2011/10/diy-weddings-and-millennial-generation.html
So, now that we’ve established that DIY isn’t about not being able to afford to work with you, I want to switch gears a bit and take a look at how you can make money by embracing DIY.
There are always going to be people who want to do things themselves and if you’re refusing to cater to them, you’re missing out on a lot of money. Right now in Wedding Business Profits, we’re digging into the different ways you can sell to DIY couples among other groups and make more money while working fewer hours.
Businesses exchange value for money and there are a lot of different ways to provide that value, many of which don’t involve you working more hours. You could provide value to a couple that loves DIY by creating an online course like Wedding Cake Academy.
Jaclyn Campbell of Ivory & Rose Cake Company started Wedding Cake Academy to sell to those DIY customers who weren’t going to hire her at the prices she charges and to sell to the couples that she just doesn’t have the time work with. The Academy is brilliant because it is about not exchanging time for money – people can come sign up for a course at any time and work through it on their own and they’re going to get a lot of value out of it.
The Real Cut Flower Garden offers DIY workshops in a really smart way. They work with couples who want to arrange their own flowers but they often end up creating some of the pieces for them as well so they’re getting paid for both the DIY part and for being hired to create floral arrangements.
I’m willing to bet you’ve never stopped to think about how you can use your expertise to create something that you can sell to DIY couples. There are wedding pros doing it and they’re making a lot of money from it while their peers just complain about DIY.
My business is called Evolve Your Wedding Business because your business is always evolving and if it’s not, it’s dying. Part of evolving is adapting to new things in the environment. If you’ve ever taken a biology class you know that those who fail to adapt, go extinct.
It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.
Having a personal philosophy that holds that DIY is bad is fine but you will miss out on customers, money and the ability to work fewer hours while still making great money. It’s up to you to decide if that opinion is worth giving that up but you should know that creating products that serve the DIY market can be your ticket to more freedom (and profit) in your business. Are you willing to go extinct for philosophical reasons or would you prefer to adapt & thrive?
