On Opportunity

Monday, October 6, 2008

On Opportunity

"Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work."
- Thomas Edison

2 comments:

Kelli Olvera said...: I need help, Liene! I am in the middle of making a decision to raise my prices. But, I don't know what to raise them to. I thought maybe you would have some advice.

I am fairly new in the biz, so I can't charge based on loads of experience. But, I am young and I am full of ideas. I am pretty innovative in my area and I do a lot of things that other planners are not. I like to keep up with the trends. I'm a trendy planner. When most people hire me it is because of my youth and creative ideas.

I really am good at this, but I really need to charge more money to make it profitable. I need to get a truck to haul things around and I need to pay my help for setup and teardown.

Right now for weddings and other big events I charge 17% of the budget. I like the percentage because it allows me to do smaller events and honestly, I love parties waaaaaaaaaay more than weddings. I feel if I went with a flat $5000 fee, I wouldn't be able to do a lot of the cool parties I like. I was considering a percentage for some budgets and a flat rate for higher budgets. Maybe that's too difficult.

Please help me out!
Kelli Olvera
kelli@socialbutterflyevents.net; October 07, 2008
Pretty Bride said...: such a great quote... i've never heard that one before...

ps... love your site!; October 07, 2008

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Welcome to Think Splendid! My name is Liene and I'm an author, speaker and expert on the intersection of business and consumer behavior for the wedding and lifestyle industries. Specializing in consumer psychology, with a current focus on the millennial generation, I study, analyze and forecast what makes people tick and why they make the decisions they do. A professional highlight was learning that some of my research is now being taught as part of the MBA curriculum at two major U.S. universities. I believe social media is a return to old-fashioned conversations rather than a race to keep up with the next big thing and I'm a big fan of the question "why?" -- it doesn't get asked enough.

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For millennials, the generation that accounts for more than 83% of today's weddings and the first to grow up with the Internet, technology has done more than give unprecedented access to information; it has physically changed their brains on a microcellular level. What worked in bridal marketing just ten years ago is no longer effective because the way today's engaged couples think is actually different than couples of generations past. In Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace, wedding expert Liene Stevens unveils the mindset of today's brides and grooms and provides a blueprint for marketing your business in a rapidly changing world.

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