Well, I’ve been away from the blog for a few weeks now and hope that you all will accept my sincerest apologies. Sometimes life just happens!! Normally, the blog focuses on great information to merge the Wedding and Technology Worlds in an effort to help all of you better your businesses with technology. But today I felt the need to share my experiences over the past few weeks, hoping that it may help one of you.
Almost ten years ago, I lost my mother to Colon Cancer, and was told that I should start screening at the age of 25. I decided to start a family and really didn’t think about the screenings. After having two children, and approaching my 30th birthday, I decided to ask my Primary Care Physician for his referral to have the exam. He was aware of my family history, and didn’t think it was necessary. He mentioned I was healthy and wasn’t having any problems, so there was no need for the exam. I asked my physician numerous times, and was given the same answer. Then I decided to call my insurance company to see if a referral was even necessary to see a specialist. It was not. I then called a Gastroenterologist, and finally got around to scheduling my first colonscopy a few weeks ago at the age of 32.
Preparing for the colonoscopy and then going into the hospital for the exam was surreal. I wondered was this how my mother felt when she went in with three beautiful daughters at home to care for. I knew I would be fine, and I would receive a clean bill a health in the end. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. The news I received was that I had two Large Colon Polyps and had I not come in for the screening I would have had full blown Colon Cancer within a year. Unbelievable!!! A week later, my lab results confirmed that both polyps were pre-cancerous and I had a 100% risk of developing Colon Cancer.
I consider myself to be healthy and live a pretty heathly lifestyle. I had no symptoms and no signs that there were any issues with my body. I am perfectly fine now, and am so glad and blessed to have found this when I did. I needed to take a break from things and unfortunately from the blog as well. But I’m back in action, with a new perspective!!
As I mentioned earlier, this is not my personal blog, and I make it a point not to write about personal things. But I hope by sharing my story that it will encourage those reading it to listen to your body and your instincts, and get checked. I appreciate all of you who read my blog, and encourage me in my pursuit with the iMatrimony Brand.
I recently had a consulting client who was in need of assistance with her company’s internet identity. She runs an internet based e-commerce site, and the website is pretty much, “The Business”. After gathering more information about her company, and their website presence, I was amazed with the issues she was having with her web developer. The web developer had total control over her domain name account, hosting account, and all of her website files and code. She had no information to access any of these items. Anytime she needed to address her website, she relied solely on her web developer. And when asked, the web developer refused to give her access to her own company website. My client was afraid to do anything fearing the developer would crash her site, ruining her entire business. Unbelievable!!
There has been a lot of talk about whether or not you as a business owner, actually own your website files, or if your web developer does. It is in your best interest as a business owner to own all aspects of your website, so you have complete control and the right to do whatever you want. Here are a few things to remember:
Obtain a Written Assignment of Copyright for your website design, content, and code.
Using images that aren’t your own? Get a Release, or something in writing from the owner of the images that permits you to use them on your site. Always give credit for the images as well.
Use a CMS (Content Management System) to manage and maintain future changes to your site
Have your web developer sign a release, or “Work Made for Hire Agreement”
Remember, do your research and make sure you ask these important questions regarding who owns your website, use of the website, and all rights to the website.
Your website is the first impression of your company. It’s important to keep your site up to date and reflective of your brand. Many times, you just want to change a photo, or update a new event, and feel techsavvy enough to handle it yourself. This is where a Content Management Systems (CMS) comes into play. A CMS, can be used specifically for web content management, allowing you to change, edit, and manage your website content at your own discretion with very little technical knowledge.
Wordpress is a great CMS tool for managing web content. Just as you would manage your Wordpress powered blog, you have complete control over updating and keeping your website current.
In addition to WP, there are many other tools on the market for CMS. If your interested in implementing a CMS to your current site, it may be best to contact your web team to handle that task and recommend a tool that best fits the type of site you have. Not one who wants the hassle of updating your own website? Then you should definitely outsource those tasks to your web development team, and agree on a content maintenance package that fits your needs and stray away from paying for each individual request.
The wedding business is so hi-touch and hi-emotion. Brides want, what they want, when they want it, and can sometimes be a bit demanding. As a wedding professional, it is your job to meet the needs of your clients, as best and professionally as you can. So take into consideration your Client Interface. How are you communicating with your brides? What currently serves as the interface between you and your clients? What are your clients demanding from you most? What tasks are you repeating for each and every client?
Answers to these questions, are the areas where you need to improve your client interface the most. Find technology tools that allow you to service your client when you personally can’t. Minimize redundancy, and find innovative ways to provide your brides with the information and access they need. Make it easier for you and your clients!
Improving your client interface will assist with the most time consuming tasks, allowing you to focus on what you do best in your business, and provides potential for more profits. It shows your company has innovation, and puts extreme efforts into making each bride, your #1 client.
My friends at GetMarried sent this video over to me, and the information is astounding. The benefits to using and participating in Social Media are enormous. I recently spoke on Social Media Marketing for Your Wedding Business, to a group of Wedding Professionals here in Atlanta, and it amazes me how so many people aren’t aware of the impact it can have. For those of you who are not quiet sure what Social Media is, or where it applies to your wedding business or brand. Check this out:
Since launching the iMatrimony Consultancy, I have enjoyed working with some of my favorite people in the wedding industry and helping them to incorporate technology tools within their business. Yet, I’ve noticed during our consulting sessions, that many of them are operating in the “Just Because” zone. As I begin to evaluate their current uses of technology, and how it applies to business operations, there is no direct connection.
“Why do you have a Blackberry?……Just because it’s the thing to do”
“Why are you blogging?……Just because it’s the thing to do”
“Why are you using Social Media?” ……..Just because it’s the thing to do”
“Why did you buy this software for your company? ……Just because it’s the thing to do”
It’s so important to evaluate the best ways and/or tools the run your business. Technology can be used to leverage your time, organization, clients, profits, and more. Any technology tool should be used in a manner to help your business, not to take more time and energy away from your business. Take a look at you day-to-day operations, and how technology plays a role. Each tool should have a purpose, if not, don’t use it “Just Because”……
I cannot even begin to tell you how many computers I’ve had “bite the dust” over the years. There is nothing more upsetting than loosing important software, documents, photos, and more. So what would you do if you lost everything you use to run your wedding business on your computer today? What would you tell your clients? How long would it take you to rebuild and recreate all of the contacts, documents, and information for your wedding business? Although there are options to attempt to recover your items, the odds of 100% recovery are low. Take the necessary steps to protect your business now.
DIY Backup
Backing up your wedding business doesn’t have to be complicated. Decide how often you need to backup important information for you wedding business be it weekly, monthly, or quarterly. There are a number of external hard drives available, which are great tools for backup storage. Self scan your documents, and save them to your external device, or simply burn them on CDs and store.
Backup and Storage Services
Don’t have the time to do-it-yourself? Use a secure company or online service to scan, and store your important business documents and files at a remote location. Mozy.com, Pixily.com, and iBackup.com are three great resources for backing up your wedding business.
Already have a system down for backing up your business? Do share. Let us know what works for you, and what tools have been most beneficial.
I recently had lunch with a great industry vendor at one of Atlanta’s best restaurants. When I arrived to valet, I was given a small remote control. I asked, “What is this?”. The valet attendant explained that I should press the button when I was ready for him to pull up my car. I instantly thought, how great that would be for guests at a wedding.
I’ve had many weddings where having a valet service would make the flow of parking so much easier for the wedding guests. Yet, I find that immediately after the cake cutting, or upon announcing the last dance, a large number of guests leave, and still have to wait for their car.
Providing a valet remote control service at your next wedding is a great idea. It gives the guests a chance to request their car without the wait. In Atlanta?? Give Eagle Valet and Parking a call.
With video being so popular these days, YouTube, video blogs, etc. Why not use video to improve your business. Video Testimonials are a great way to get instant feedback from your clients to add to your portfolio. At the end of every event, we pull out our Video Cam, just before the bride and groom are whisked away into marital bliss. We get a great clip of how happy they were on their wedding day, how much they appreciate our services, and how they couldn’t have done it without us. All while they’re still in their beautiful wedding gown and tux. It’s much better than a written testimonial, and you can add the videos to your website or blog. When a new potential clients asks for references, send over a quick video clip of a bride and groom singing your praises. Believe me, it works!!
Ever get frustrated when you’re searching for a website from your mobile phone and can’t read it to get the information you need. What does your website or blog look like for your mobile device? Making your wedding website mobile-friendly allows your website to be visible on the mobile web.
Here are just a couple ways to go mobile:
Mofuse.com is one of the fastest growing mobile publishing companies on the web. Using the Mofuse platform you can enter your website url, or your blogs RSS feed, and mobilize your content in seconds.
Google Conversion Utility it doesn’t get any easier than this. Insert your url here as well, and check the “No Images” box if you don’t want images, and click “Go”. That’s it!!! Now your readers can visit your site on the go.
The only downside is that Flash is not currently supported for mobile web. So if you have a Flash site, that portion will not be mobile-friendly.
Have a Wordpress blog you’d like to optimize for mobile viewing? We added the WP Mobile Edition plugin to make the iMatrimony blog mobile friendly, but there are others like WP PDA and iPhone plugin as well.
