We recently connected with Erin Joyner and have shared our conversation below.

Erin, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

For the most part, I thoroughly enjoy being a business owner. I have raised four children and still have one at home, and they have always been my priority as well as my marriage and being able to serve at our church. I enjoy what I do and most of our clients are wonderful and appreciate all that we do for them. I was able to build my business slowly and used to do everything myself. My husband has provided well for our family, so any money I made from the business was our fun money. Now that I have contractors and have certain bills that have to be paid, plus the costs of increasing business, there is definitely more pressure to get and maintain steady work. In the wedding business, that is a challenge because you don’t have repeat clients, so you are constantly needing to sell. Also, you don’t know exactly how many weddings you will book from year to year nor do you know which packages they will want. It makes it very difficult to plan for the future. That is why I created my Event Planning business; to create more stable income and work. There are times when I think about having a “regular job”, but then I go back to my “why”, which is my family. Even though most of my kids are grown and out of the house, I love having the flexibility of creating my own schedule. I can help take care of my elderly Dad, take time off to chaperone field trips, have lunch with my grown kids who still live in town, volunteer during the week at my church and spend time with my husband when he works from home. I also get to create flexible jobs for other moms who need extra income, but desire to be present and available for their young children. I enjoy working with my contractors to delegate tasks according to everyone’s strengths and abilities. For the most part, we work on tasks that are our strengths and areas where we excel. So there’s more satisfaction in our work. I have worked at a “real teaching job” and I just can’t envision myself ever going back to that. I enjoy my freedom and flexibility too much, even though at times, there is stress when I’m not sure how we’re going to pay all of our bills.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

When I got married, I planned my entire wedding and thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn’t stressful for me at all. However, I did hire a day of coordinator, so I also thoroughly enjoyed my wedding and didn’t worry about any of the details. A few months later, I attended my friend’s wedding and it was not well coordinated and was very stressful to her and to us. My husband and I stepped in during the reception and made it happen as well as helped the family clean up afterwards. They were so thankful and complimentary. That sparked a passion in my heart to coordinate my friends’ weddings so that they could enjoy their wedding as much as I did. So that’s what I did for several years as I was staying home with and having babies. One day, I was thinking about my next wedding and had a thought. “People hire people to do this. I wonder if anyone would hire me?” I created my business name, got a Tax ID, put a listing in the phone book and joined the local bridal association. That was about 17 years ago, and the business has slowly grown and changed. I went from just offering “day of” coordination services to creating an “All Inclusive Package” and hiring contractors for administrative work, building my website, running my social media, running my advertisement and marketing, “day of” coordinators and teams for a decorate and disassmble package. I am most proud of my “All Inclusive Package” because it was something I dreamed about for years before deciding to implement it. It is very unique to us because we tailor the package to fit our clients’ vision and needs instead of a “one size fits all” mindset.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

I think most people will work hard for you when you are positive, encouraging, let them know expectations ahead of time and if you pay them well. When correction is needed, it should be done in a positive and encouraging way. I send along compliments and good reviews from clients and thank my team for making me look good. Regular team meetings to discuss how things are going, getting feedback from them on ways to improve and keeping an open line of communication going is vital. Research shows that to increase employee retention, people need to feel as though they are an important part of your company and they are know your goals and vision and are on board with what your company stands for.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

During 2020, I took a marketing class that a photographer friend of mine was teaching. I didn’t learn much about marketing, but through the class I realized that I was undercharging my clients for the level of services I was providing. I spent time looking at my competition and their pricing structure and was stunned that they had less experience than me, but were charging quite a bit more. So I decided to increase my prices thinking that if I charge more, I might get less business, but could still make more money and do less work. I had been working so hard every year and yet, when it came time to do taxes, I was always disappointed at how little I made compared to how much I worked. Thankfully, my future clients agreed that my services were worth more and this past year, we planned, coordinated and decorated for more weddings than we have in the history of our company. I am currently in the process of pivoting in a few other areas to work on gaining more consistent income. Almost a year ago, I decided to hire a consultant to help me work on building a new business that focuses primarily on non wedding events. I was thinking along the lines of corporate Christmas parties, but my consultant has caused me to stretch my brain and imagination to create a corporate all inclusive package that walks along with a business and their onboarding process, employee anniversaries, employee appreciation, retirements, etc to help build employee moral and decrease employee turnover. We are working with our first company to create that vision and implement our services for them and I couldn’t be more excited about it.
Now, we get to use our skills, talents and creativity to help a company and still serve our wedding clients. We’re also planning and coordinating a couple of fundraisers for some non profit organizations in our area.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wonderfullywed.com and www.wonderfuleventstexas.com
• Instagram: @wonderfullywed and @wonderfuleventstexas
• Facebook: Wonderfully Wed
• Linkedin: Wonderfully Wed

Image Credits
1) BLVD photography 2) Beth Davis 3) All Heart Photography 4) Andy Roberts 5) Kendall Elliot 6) San Angel Photography 7) Ally Karisch 8) Sullivan Taylor