Business location:
Adelaide, South Australia

Business contact details:
Website: www.weddingguidesa.com.au
Facebook: www.facebook.com/WeddingGuideSA
Twitter: twitter.com/WeddingGuideSA
Email: hello@weddingguidesa.com.au
Phone: 0413 518 843

Question One: What made you decide to start a business and how did you start this journey of owning your own business?
Wedding Guide SA is my part-time job and it’s a collaboration with my partner. We decided to build the site after going through endless other websites when we were planning to get married to research ideas and get feedback from other brides/grooms. What we found was that most of the good websites were National based and not that concerned with South Australia. The news and articles were not always relevant to South Australia so we had to sift through content about venues etc. in Brisbane and Sydney to get to the information about Adelaide we were interested in.

We also found that most sites were always orientated towards the brides and left out the grooms with regard to the look and feel of the site or the content. We thought we’d make a site that wasn’t so frilly and just for the girls.

Question Two: Tell us about your business and what you offer.
The website has a few offerings. Broadly it’s to help South Australian couples plan their wedding and we do that by allowing them to browse through relevant Wedding Service Providers such as Florists, Photographers, Dress Makers and Venues that are SA based. There are also Image Galleries, Real Weddings and helpful articles coming soon.

We also have a Blog which they can follow the latest trends, styles and discussion points and comment on, or they can interact with each other in the Forum and discuss all things wedding to bounce off ideas or experiences they’ve had planning their wedding.

As well as all the above we wanted to create an online planning tool they would help take the stress out of planning the big day. We had tried a couple of other planning tools but found it frustrating that you had to use different tools for each task eg. One for Planning, Budgeting, Checklists etc. So we worked on building an easy to use planner (My Planner) that did all these tasks in the one interface. It helps takes the stress out of the planning process and you feel better prepared so there are hopefully no last minute “oh no, I forgot to confirm arrival time for the cars” situations.

Question Three: Have you faced any challenges and in what way do you think this has helped you and your business grow?
Initially the biggest challenge was to find enough time to do everything we wanted to do with the site – we have more ideas than we have time to work on them. Identifying what is most important and concentrating on getting them up and running, while collating a “wish list” of other ideas has kept us from getting bogged down and overwhelmed.

Question Four: What is your biggest goal you wish to achieve with your business in the next 5 years?
We’d really love to have increased our Members base by 15% each year so that in 5 years we have a larger group of people using the site and getting value out of all the resources that we aim to create for South Australian Brides. We’d also like to increase the wedding suppliers list by about 20% each year so there are greater choices for our users to browse through and find someone they can use for their special day.

Question Five: If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting a business what would you tell them?
I’m not really one to hand out advice that often but if I had to it would be make sure you do your research. Make sure that what you are proposing is viable. And if there is already someone else servicing the market you are targeting, make sure that what you are offering is better or caters to a niche in that market – or both!

And of course, lots of perseverance and the odd bit of good luck helps.

And here is just a few screen shots of the website so that you can see what Wedding Guide South Australia is all about

Thanks so much for bringing your gorgeous girl in Sara, I hope you enjoy your sneak peek and I will be in touch soon!

Krystle and Michael, thank you both so much for today, I really enjoyed spending the morning with you and getting to know your family! I will be in touch soon once your gallery is ready.

I’ll leave you with an image of Jodie’s and here is her interview for you to read. I will announce the winner of the product competition towards the bottom of this post.

Question One: What made you decide to start a business and how did you start this journey of owning your own business:

Good question philly ) Ive always had a passion for photography & art, as a teenager I was always posing my 2 yr old siblings against walls with a bike of some sort come to think of it, I was that obsessive with it all that everyone would roll their eyes at me hahahha..

I’d have to say though in all seriousness that it really started for me when I had my own children about 5 yrs ago.. I eventually bought my 1st SLR which was a Cannon 400d (love that camera) and just continually shot images of my Baby and Tott’s.

Family & friends saw the images I took of my boys & asked wether I would take images of their children -where it all snowballed from there )

I continually sourced out Photography blogs and forums to learn anything & everything I could to develop this passion I had into a profession. I also did 2 online workshops through Sheye Rosemeyer which really helped me grasp the functions of my camera & how to apply these in our surrounding environments..

I am a HANDS on person Not a book reader I would of never have passed uni ” haha” – So after about 2 yrs of doing all these things – Jodie Greck Photography evolved & here we are today!!

Question Two: Tell us about your business and what you offer.

I am a natural Light photographer I specialise in newborn photography, tott’s photography & wedding photography!
I offer unique photographic sessions with my clients & cater to each individuals needs.. I have never had 2 sessions that were in any way similar!
Jodie Greck Photography  offers  ” relaxed, stylish, & modern portraiture to those individuals looking for a unique experience )

The style of products we have on offer are “stylish boutique products ” which all my clients are proud to display in their homes.
I order these boutique products from the states as I haven’t found the quality & style that I love over here in Australia, this also allows me to offer the products at reasonable prices.

Question Three: Have you faced any challenges and in what way do you think this has helped you and your business grow?

I would have to say confidence was a big issue at the beginning phase of my business… But once I put my business out their & begun producing consistent products & services to my clients,
my business took off in leaps & bounds as customers would reconfirm this to all their friends & family & business associates.

Word of mouth advertising is much more powerful than any print advertisement as it has been an experience for someone to share..

Question Four: What is your biggest goal you wish to achieve with your business in the next 5 years?

The biggest goal would be to have the business take off even further to have this passion of mine turn into a full time venture as my sole income provider.

Working from home part – time in the studio that my husband & I have built from scratch has been my dream come true- I can’t really ask for any more in regards to the direction  that Jodie Greck Photography has headed .. However we plan to make that dream even BIGGER!!!

Question Five: If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting a business what would you tell them?

I would tell them to think carefully about BRANDING their business I would advise not to get a pre-made logo or branding that they see that they  will only be happy with for now , ask will your business outgrow that brand? However if you do decided to go with the pre-made branding be sure that you will be happy with that brand for the duration of your business.

This way you are not changing your look, you are keeping consistency within your business & customers value consistency in a business which they will invest in…

I totally believe in having a graphic designer that understands your wishes for your business & works hard with you in having a brand that describes your business visually across the board – I have a graphic designer that has worked with me to get my my consistent branding & I just LOVE it!!!

I am very pleased to announce today’s winner of the complimentary product photography! This will entitle them to a session with Sweet Chilli Photography for their products/business and to 10 digital negatives on CD which can be used for marketing for your business. I haven’t included the comments that aren’t for business when I counted.

Anyway I am so excited to announce that Labs ‘n Life have won the competition for this package! I look forward to meeting this business and to see what we can come up with in the future!

Thanks so much to everyone that has entered the competition, you all have wonderful business and I wish I could photograph all of them!

Instead I am offering a special introduction package for business. You can have a session with Sweet Chilli Philly Photography for $100 and can purchase digital negatives for your marketing for $45 per file (This is strictly for businesss only) Feel free to email me at ssmoke@adam.com.au for further information. This special is valid September 31sr.

Also to celebrate I have a bit of a competition where I will be offering 1 small business the chance to win a small package for product photography.

Anyway here is Fiona to tell you about  Lullaby Dreams…

Business name: Lullaby Dreams

Business location: Adelaide

Website: www.lullabydreams.com.au

Business contact details: 0432 855 455 – and (08) 8395 4989

Question One: What made you decide to start a business and how did you start this journey of owning your own business

I started my own business as it has always been my dream. And working part time and stay at home with my son there was no time but now to start.

Question Two: Tell us about your business and what you offer.

At lullaby dreams we create gifts that are designed for precious little babies and their families. The nappy cake designs are unique and a beautiful center piece for the baby shower table or hospital bedside. The baby shower games use new ideas like scratch off pannels and personalised for the mum to treasure.

Question Three: Have you faced any challenges and in what way do you think this has helped you and your business grow?

At the start are alot of challenges that need to be faced and that is getting your products out there and then seeing which ones are sellers. I have my own website but also sell on ebay and facebook to reach different customers.

Question Four: What is your biggest goal you wish to achieve with your business in the next 5 years?

My biggest goal in 5 years is to grow the business to the extend that I can stay at home full time with my son.

Question Five: If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting a business what would you tell them?

The best piece of advice to a starting business is to make sure you do your product research and make sure there is a market for your products.

Thanks so much Fiona for taking the time to tell us a bit about your business, I’ve been to your website and you have some really lovely stuff there and I wish you all the best with your venture! I will be in touch with the next business in the next couple of days so that they are ready for next Friday.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

And now onto the competion which you can see below!

Nancy I hope you enjoy your sneak peek!

Marilyn, Alison and Sheley I hope you enjoy your sneak peek and I will be in touch soon!

I’m very excited to share that it’s Sweet Chilli Philly Photography’s 2nd birthday of being in business and I couldn’t have done it without my wonderful clients and my Facebook page likers for their awesome support that they have given me over the last 2 years!

To celebrate I’m offering a special for the next 2 days only! Ending on Sunday the 4th at midnight. I will be offering my session fee (normally $100) at half price in combination of a bonus 8×12 as well. You MUST book before by the deadline – you have 3 months to use your session but session fee must be paid a week from booking.

Email me at ssmoke@adam.com.au for more information or you can use the contact form on my blog.

Even though it’s not a huge feature on me as there are plenty of other different types of businesses that also got in also I thought it was fab to at least made a spot…and check out little Max who was featured in this blog post – Sweet baby- Don’t forget to buy a copy and check out all the fabulous businesses in there – most you can find on Facebook too!

Anyway here is a few test shots of Tristan and Ethan who happily obliged me with the bribery of a strawberry milk drink afterward lol!