Thursday, January 7, 2016

Cleveland’s Own My Life DJ Service Wins a WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Award® 2016

North Olmsted, OH  January 7, 2016 – WeddingWire, a leading global online wedding marketplace, named My Life DJ Service as a winner of the prestigious WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards® 2016 for Wedding DJ in northeast Ohio! 

The WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards® 2016 recognizes the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism. The esteemed awards are given to the top local wedding vendors in more than 20 service categories based on their professional achievements from the previous year. 

While many industry award winners are selected by the host organization, the WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards® winners are determined solely based on reviews from real newlyweds. Award-winning vendors are distinguished for the quality, quantity, consistency and timeliness of the reviews they have received from their past clients. 

“We are thrilled to celebrate such a high-caliber, committed group of professionals for the Couples’ Choice Awards’® eighth year,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “We are proud to continue to serve as the industry leader, with over 2.5 million consumer and peer reviews, and feature award-winning merchants...” 

As a Couples’ Choice Awards® winner, My Life DJ Service is highlighted within the WeddingWire Network, which is comprised of more than 400,000 wedding professionals globally. 

We are proud to be one of the top wedding DJ services in northeast Ohio in the WeddingWire Network. We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. We value all of our clients and truly appreciate the positive feedback that helped us earn the WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards® 2016. 

To learn more about the Couples’ Choice Awards®, please visit www.weddingwire.com/couples-choice-awards. 

About WeddingWire, Inc.
WeddingWire, Inc. is the leading global online marketplace connecting consumers with event and creative professionals. Operating within a $200 billion industry, WeddingWire, Inc. hosts 10 million monthly unique users across its mobile and web platforms. Consumers are able to read over 2.5 million vendor reviews and search, compare and book from a database of over 400,000 businesses. Globally, it provides these businesses the technology they need to serve their clients through advertising, marketing and business management tools such as websites, payment processing, invoicing and contracts. Founded in 2007, the WeddingWire portfolio of sites serves couples and businesses across 14 countries in North America, Latin America and Europe, making it the worldwide leader in weddings with brands including Bodas.net, Casamentos.com.br, Matrimonio.com and more. The company employs more than 650 and maintains global headquarters in Washington, DC and international headquarters in Barcelona, Spain.

Click here if you want to learn more about our DJ service or receive a price quote for your upcoming event!

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Event Pros, What To Accomplish During The Off Season

We are sometimes asked, what do event professionals do during the off season?  The answer is that we continue to stay busy but in different ways.

This post is really meant for our colleagues in the event and wedding industries but it may also be of interest to the broader population including brides and grooms, event planners and others in the field, so here we go!..

In northeast Ohio, where we operate, the busy season for us starts in late April and continues strong right to the end of the year.  Our slower season is January, February and March, although we still typically have a number of events to fulfill.

First let's acknowledge that for serious event pros, our busy season takes a lot out of us. We're constantly on the go, traveling from one event to the other, conducting planning meetings with clients, setting up, performing and taking down equipment, etc.  It's a long busy marathon that doesn't seem to end but when it does, we're truly exhausted. And I can say this because I've been in the industry for over 25 years now, the older one gets the more it seems to take its toll.

A funny thing happens, however, when we finally do enter our slow time of the year. After a couple of weeks of recovery in the way of sleep, rest, and maybe a short vacation, we begin to get antsy for the business again, don't we?  We begin to get excited about the coming year and we try to prepare in the best way possible.

Here are some important tasks for event professionals to accomplish during the off season:

Respond to inquiries and book events - Many bookings for the year happen during the down time, so we're actually really quite busy responding to inquiries, answering questions, meeting with prospective clients and generating contracts. The goal here, of course, is to fill up our calendar for the upcoming year!

Review your pricing strategy - If you are going to change your prices, now is the time to do it.  Are you adding new packages and prices?  How will this affect your marketing strategy?

Review your marketing strategy - If you are going to change your marketing strategy, make these changes while you can before things get busy again.  Does your website need an update?  Are you going to do more or less paid online marketing?  What kind of traditional marketing will you do, if any?  Review your print material, are these documents still accurate?

Prepare for the upcoming tax season - Consult your tax preparer, issue tax related documents to employees and contracted workers.  Gather and organize receipts, copies of contracts, etc.  Make changes in your book keeping routines if you need to in order to have a smoother year ahead.

Repair or upgrade equipment - The field is tough on equipment.  During the year you have probably noticed a need to repair or purchase new equipment.  Perhaps you finished the last few weeks by using your back-up stuff because something was dropped or broken but you really don't want to start the new season with back-up equipment.  Be sure everything works perfectly going out of the gate!

Communicate with your insurance broker - Annually, make or update a written list of equipment inventory (as detailed as possible) and send it off to your insurance broker.  Savvy event pros will also include photos for good measure.  You want to be sure they know what kind of stuff you own and how much it all costs.

Communicate with your lawyer - Send your lawyer a brief email describing any new services or assets that you've added recently or intend to add to your business.  For example make sure he or she knows how many people you employ, describe your services, especially anything new you are adding.  It would also be a good idea to have your lawyer do a review of the language in your contract.

Communicate with staff members - It's important to communicate with employees and others who help you operate your business in order to share with them your strategy for the upcoming year.  What will be expected of them?  How will their respective roles change?  Are you adding products or services?  Will training be necessary to learn about new equipment, software, etc.  Be sure everyone is on the same page about what you want the business to accomplish when things speed up again.

Back up files - You should be doing frequent, periodic back-ups of electronic files during the year but at least annually, be sure to have a back-up system in place.

Prepare for bridal fairs - If you participate in bridal fairs and other such gatherings you know how much work is involved in setting up a booth or table, preparing marketing materials, etc.  Be ready with these items so that you can concentrate on being with guests and prospective clients and not running around at the last minute!

Get serious about your health - Many people begin their new year's resolutions during the off season and this is a good time to get serious about your health.  As an entrepreneur, your health is an asset of the business.  When asked about their biggest fears, self employed people will often say staying healthy is always a big concern.  They know that if they should get sick or injured, their business could suffer affecting their ability to make a living.  So now is a good time to establish diet, exercise and sleep habits to promote better health for the whole year 'round.

Well, I hope these suggestions are helpful.  Please let me know of other tasks to accomplish during the slow season that I may have forgotten to list.  I will add them in future updates to the article.  Best wishes for a successful year!

Click here if you want to learn more about our DJ service or receive a price quote for your upcoming event!