Where Do I Start

[Knight]

As I said in a pervious thread I am looking for suppliers from my 'One Stop Wedding Business' (that isn't the name!) I want to offer Brides and Grooms everything they require for there wedding from Invitations to venue decoration. Having recently (Dec 08) got married myslef I spent a long time sourcing suppliers and getting the best prices so I know how time consuming and hard work it is. So I want to help.

My idea is to ask these suppliers that did my wedding to if I was to advertise that my 'One Stop Wedding Business' does there service would they then complete the work. So basically on my website I would say that we offer venue decoaration but then I would contract the work out.

Do you think this would be something they may be open to and what sort of cut would I take etc etc.

I hope that all makes sense. Any advice on this would be much appreciated as I have absolutly know idea!!

Thanks
K

[FluxServices]

Hello,

Congradulations on your marraige, I am engaged so I am only one step behind you.

The first thing you need to do is get in contact with two people which would be the Director & Manager of the company. Then state down that you want to venture into that side of the business world.

Tell them what your plans are and try and tell them that its profitable for them to.

Tell them that you want to then offer the services & products that they offer to your clients, ask them for a full price list and then stick up their prices up to what you may think that is suitable to you.

Then tell them that you also what to contract your customers work out to them but it will be cheaper for you to eaither get some employees on a commision contract, instead of pating a hourly rate for their staff.

Thats probally all I can help with, Which I hope it helped you a little if not much.

(Keep me in mind if you would like some designs or website doing also ;))

[Knight]

Thank you for your advice.

A couple of further questions...

* Should I ask for a "best price" price list from them, so there is more scope for me to make a profit or should I wait to ask for a discount until I can give them some buiness.

* So far all I have got together is a idea and a couple of suppliers, will I be in better standing discussing things with suppliers (decoartors / florists / car hire) once I have a website together?

Thanks
K

[downsouth]

OK, I see this working this way

You 'offer' the one stop wedding shop with all sorts of contacts for the various wedding services.

You have an agreement with company A for the invitations, company B for the venue, company C for the catering etc etc

You know what you suppliers prices are, you add a percentage to these and charge this price to the customer.

Obviously I would be looking at having say 2-3 companies on board for each wedding service offered, you dont want to agree with the customer to provide X and the suppling company not being able to fulfill

From a customers perpective you may offer them a range of options for all services from a budget service to a top end service. Depending on the price range and quality that the supplying companies offer they may fall into these categories.

As time goes on and you have had the chance to assess the service these companies are offering, you may decide to drop one or two suppliers and simply go with one for the invitations etc

One thing to bear in mind is that certainly most venues tend to promote these services also, which works very much along the samelines as you are trying to offer.

On some of the services you may offer such as photography, these tend to be very much based on personal recommendations. Its prob one of the most important decisions for a wedding

Perhaps it might be worth in these early stages is thinking about how you intend to promote your business, what would make a couple approach you rather than doing it themselves or using a venue to sort things out

On you price question I think you would find most suppliers would quote their standard pricings, this may over time and volume offered may put you in a better position to ask for more preferential rates.

HTH

[C.J.Couriers Professional]

Well, not a bad idea at all :)
If I were you I would think about it in little bit wider perspective. Your web site could not be only a place were people could find all services needed for their wedding, but as well a place where they could read about some new trends, new services etc. And as well you could do something more like price comparison price for wedding services, just like all the car insurance comparison web sites.

Ask suppliers for the standard price, but if you will have a client looking for full wedding package, you can always make few calls and ask if any of suppliers will be willing to give you some special offer etc.? Just say, that company X can do it for Y and could they offer any better price. I think that after few first contracts they will offer you some discounts anyway, as you will be bringing them new clients.

Good luck with your business :)

[Knight]

you could do something more like price comparison price for wedding services, just like all the car insurance comparison web sites.



Thanks for this advice, I like the idea of this. I am hoping to produce a website selling wedding accessories / services and maybe have a forum and I love the idea of a price comparion and maybe somewhere for local businesses to be rated.

I am not exactly sure how this would work though, if somebody choose a supplier through my price comparison then could I earn comission on this? Also how does the affliate thing work?

Do you think this is a viable business?

Thanks
K

[C.J.Couriers Professional]

There are different ways that you can make money on this idea. You can charge companies just for being listed on your web site, you can also take commission from every service booked through your web site, what probably would work better.
You could also make money just from ads posted on your web site from weddings related companies that could advertise their services / special offers etc.

You have to just figure out how do you want to organise this business.

[Marzipan]

I want to offer Brides and Grooms everything they require for there wedding from Invitations to venue decoration.

Hello Knight, I'm not entirely sure on what basis you want to set this up - as an online directory or as a wedding arranger which I would have though was a more local enterprise?

I spent a long time sourcing suppliers and getting the best prices

Which is what I suspect a lot of people do - if you'd sourced everything through a one-stop-shop then you wouldn't have obtained the best prices because you'd have paid the suppliers price plus the one-stop-shop's markup.

My idea is to ask these suppliers that did my wedding to if I was to advertise that my 'One Stop Wedding Business' does there service would they then complete the work. So basically on my website I would say that we offer venue decoaration but then I would contract the work out.

Ok, so the customer would pay you and you then pay the supplier, pocketing a bit of profit. What if something goes wrong with the decor/photos/car hire/whatever? In the customer's eyes you're the supplier so they'll be wanting to know what you're going to do about it. Do you want to be sued? What contracts would you have in place with your suppliers? What if the supplier just does a poor job? It's your reputation on the line. (You might soon regret thinking a forum was such a good idea.....) It's normal practice to pay a deposit for these services with the balance to follow, how will you handle that?

A lot of wedding service offerings can be quite bespoke although there are of course some suppliers who offer packages. Presumably it's your intention to only sell-on the package deals as you can't work out pricing otherwise. How will you handle queries about these services given that you're technically only a reseller and not an expert? Taking balloon decor as an example (because that's the one I'm familiar with), a local decorator will know the venues, will know whether they're allowed to affix anything to the walls/ceilings, will know if confetti cannons are allowed, will know what works best for each venue and on differing budgets, can show portfolios, give free initial consultations - in short give best advice. All you'll be able to do is offer set packages for a price that will be in excess of what the customer could get by going direct to the decorator.

Should I ask for a "best price" price list from them, so there is more scope for me to make a profit or should I wait to ask for a discount until I can give them some buiness.

Not sure whether this relates to goods or services. Of course you should ask for their best prices but don't be surprised if you find they've given you their normal price. Most will need to see evidence of volume/regular orders before you'll get better pricing and some may just have good pricing to start with so no room for manouevre.

This is all coming over as a bit negative and it's not meant to be, just trying to highlight a few things to help you think it all through. If you're meaning to be an online (nationwide) one-stop-shop for tangible goods then these people are good ones to look at in terms of what they offer and how they "sell" it (you've probably come across these already):

www.confetti.co.uk (http://www.confetti.co.uk)
www.weddingrealm.co.uk (http://www.weddingrealm.co.uk)

As for the wedding services aspect, surely the "contract the work out" basis only works if you concentrate it on your local area? To go nationwide with this would be a logistical nightmare - what if someone buys a photographer through you but they're 300 miles away - you either have to have someone already on board in every area of the UK or else you'll be hitting the directories real fast. Either way, you're not necessarily offering the best photographer in that area, and/or the best price so does that not defeat your objective? You could cover nationwide by setting up a directory where the suppliers pay you to advertise with them rather than you resell their services for a profit - however this route is well trodden already with many failing to make it because they can't get enough businesses on board and/or drive enough traffic to the site to keep the advertisers happy.

The single biggest bit of advice I can give you is to go to Spring Fair at the NEC beginning of next month, and the National Wedding Show in March also at the NEC (is at Olympia sometime in Feb as well). You'll meet hundreds of relevant suppliers.

Regards
Aly

[FluxServices]

Question: Should I ask for a "best price" price list from them, so there is more scope for me to make a profit or should I wait to ask for a discount until I can give them some buiness.

Answer: If you are going to offer everything this company offers then you need a complete price list from them, from napkins to table designs etc... thats just a example, From this you can then see what a respsibale price is even if you stick £1-£2 on top of their price which is still a profit to you.

You can then sort out a service charge for your services which then can count as a profit if you dont take a wage but if you do take a wage make it a good charge due to a fact that you need profit to get you through this recession also ;)

Question: So far all I have got together is a idea and a couple of suppliers, will I be in better standing discussing things with suppliers (decoartors / florists / car hire) once I have a website together?

Not really you dont need to have a website together but you could stick a small presentation together so you can show them what you are willing to do and how much business you can get them (you dont have to make time frames such as I can make you 1000 in 6 months).

Also when you start talking to suppliers some might offer you discounts on products that you buy from them.

Once you are sorted with the suppliers and also the other companies, Then start on your website and then start looking round for designers if you need help.

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Its a fantastic idea getting involved in the Wedding trade There is so much repeat business These marriges dont last long and then they are onto the next one ..So you should make a bit of a killing :D

[Stephen Berry]

In essence this is the same idea as the Virgin Group business 'Virgin Brides' - so I would suggest doing some homework and research - why did Virgin Brides fail?

Part of it was a 'high risk' project management role - you are co-ordinating a wide range of different aspects and any one falling down would ruin the day. This is second hand information - so I cannot verify it - but I am told that the Virgin Group had more complaints about Virgin Brides than the rest of the Group put together.

So .... get to understand the market, get to understand why a company with the Branson backing didn't make it and get to understand why you think you can succeed where they failed.
Good luck - and keep us posted.