It is sometimes hard for me to wrap your head around working on anything a year in advance. We are only into the fifth month of the year, yet, as the 2012 inquiries are FINALLY starting to trickle in for me, I know I need to look ahead and set my 2012 calendar.
The way I did this last year has really worked well for me. I’ll share with you here what I did, but keep in mind that every business is different and you may need to expand these methods for your business structure.
Step 1) Take a look at the 2012 Holiday Calendar. Decide what Holidays you are willing to work and which Holidays are important for you to take time off. I do not work Holidays at all. I did in the past and found that I was a grumpy, resentful mess when I did because my family was having fun and I wanted to be with them instead. Not to mention Holiday traffic in Atlanta is HORRIBLE and many venues are poorly staffed around Holidays. I simply found that for me, the money was not worth the extra trouble. Hey – if I’m anything, I’m honest. This also ensures that I am not working when my son is out of school for various Holidays, so childcare does not become an issue for us. Additionally, December is pure chaos in our house. Between my husband’s corporate Holiday party, our social events, my son’s school schedule and trying to shop, wrap, cook, decorate, etc. I am a bonafide crazy lady. I once did a wedding a week before Christmas. Talk about a Scrooge. Neither the wedding or my family got the best of me that year. I know who I am, ok?
Step 2) Take a look at your honey’s company holiday schedule. If you enjoy traveling, you may want to maximize your significant others time off by taking 3 day weekends here and there. We always schedule our vacations around my husband’s work schedule so he has days built up for a long vacation in the summer while our son is out of school. Speaking of school…
Step 3) If you are a parent, take a look at the school schedule for the next school year. Our school system just finalized and released the official schedule for the 2011 – 2012 school year back in March. We quickly began to discuss what to do & where to go during my son’s time off because we take our time to plan out fun trips and look for travel deals well in advance.
Step 4) Plug it all in. Incorporate all three of the above calendars into your “master” calendar. Whatever weekends remain are dates you could be available for weddings. I like having two to three available dates in any given month. If I book one of those dates, I also mark off the weekend prior and the weekend after. I block off the weekend prior so that I have additional time to prepare if needed, and to spend time with my family – the calm before the storm, so to speak. I block off the weekend after a wedding just for downtime for myself and to catch up on other weddings that may have been put aside while working on the recent wedding. I burned out a few years ago and this is my way of maintaining sanity. It has worked really well for me and ensures very prompt service and undivided attention to my clients.
Step 5) Take the seasons into account. If you live in a particularly warm or cold climate, historically, you may not have booked many weddings in a certain month of the year. For instance, I have never booked a wedding in July. People do get married in Atlanta in July, I’ve just never booked one. The first year, that was devastating to me – I thought, “This is peak wedding season and I’m not working!!” It turned out to be a blessing. July is miserably hot in Atlanta, so it’s kind of nice to kick back and spend extra time at the pool with my son. I still work, of course, but I’m working on Fall weddings in the comfort of my air-conditioned office. The down time helps me recharge, get my kid ready for the new school year and enjoy a couple of weeks at the beach. Also, consider if your area receives an influx of traffic around the Holidays. If you live in a beach town, does your town fill up around the fourth of July? If you live in a major metropolitan area, do Holiday attractions create an influx of tourists into your city? If so, do those factors affect your desire to work or not work around seasons or Holidays?
Step 6) Religiously maintain the calendar. Things happen, schedules change. Unexpected snow days this year resulted in my son’s winter break being cancelled with only a month’s notice. Make sure you update your calendar frequently and mark off any days where your schedule may conflict with working. I could recite dates and times for everyone of my weddings off the top of my head, but I have to refer to the calendar when it comes to school schedules. I need the calendar to be totally current. I recommend updating it once a week at the least to ensure you don’t have scheduling conflicts. Even better, use your Smartphone calendar so you have updates 24-7.
So, what exactly is the purpose of putting this much prep work into my annual calendar? For me, it ensures that I am in control of my schedule and my schedule is not in control of me. I also like being able to tell a bride as soon as she contacts me if I am available for her date or not. She can move on to another planner, or we can proceed quickly with getting her under contract. There’s also no internal debate on my part about whether or not I want to work on any given date. I got an inquiry for a Memorial Day wedding once and really struggled with whether or not I wanted to take it. Memorial day is usually a three day weekend for us to get out to a Braves game, sleep in, take a drive, cookout with friends, etc. Nothing special, but not something I wanted to give up either. Having the pre-set calendar eliminates the debate with myself.
I hope you find this helpful and use these guidelines to help set your 2012 calendar.
Do you have any tips or tricks for setting your annual calendar? I’d love to have you share them in the comments below!
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