Search Results for “due diligence”

Booking a supplier

3 easy ways to carrying out your own supplier due diligence

You think you have found your perfect supplier? Excellent! What next?

It is very tempting to go straight ahead to book your supplier and unfortunately many couples do so without carrying out “a supplier due diligence”. This sounds fancy and complicated but it is really quite simple.

What does due diligence mean?

In simple terms: know as much as you possibly can about the supplier who is about to take your money and supply goods or services at your wedding.

The Wedding Lawyer recommends you carry out the following steps prior to booking a supplier:

Always insist on a face-to-face meeting as early as possible.

Whilst this seems like an obvious one, we are surprised to learn how many couples have relied on a quick phone call and a few email exchanges before signing a contract and paying a deposit. In an age where websites can be made in minutes it is not difficult for a supplier to create an impressive looking website which could give off an ultra professional image. Don’t be fooled. Always insist on a face-to-face meeting with your supplier at least once prior to confirming a booking. A face-to-face meeting demonstrates a degree of proactivity and seriousness about your involvement and intentions for how you would like your wedding day to unfold.

A face-to-face meeting will assist in understanding exactly who it is that you are dealing with, how much experience they are likely to have had in the industry and above all creates a medium for clear and open communication. Having dealt with a numerous different suppliers in the wedding industry over the years, we have found that there is no substitute for having a face-to-face meeting to fully understand the scope of the services provided and negotiate on price. Quite often, the more serious you come across about doing business with a chosen supplier, the more serious a supplier will be when working on your events. By having a meeting as early as possible, you will be able to gage very quickly whether this is the supplier for you and if things to not work out, you will still have time to carry on your search.

Obtain at least three independent references on your supplier

Just like when you are applying for a job, you may be asked to submit contact details for a referee to your new employer, this is no different to when you look to hire a supplier. In essence you are hiring your supplier to deliver on one of the biggest days of your life. Therefore, do not miss out on the chance of obtaining three independent references from your supplier. Suppliers do get asked to provide details about previous clients so a consumer can obtain fair and independent references. Therefore, do not feel shy or embarrassed to ask your potential supplier for this information. It could be the case that your potential supplier will need to obtain permission from their previous clients before divulging personal information. We recommend you allow your supplier time to do this, as it will be well worth it once you are equipped with a potential referee. Some suppliers may point you to their testimonial page on their website or offer to contact their previous client on your behalf. We recommend you adopt a proactive approach and make contact with referees by yourself to ensure any references are as independent as possible.

Online trawl

In this current digital age, there is an abundance of information about wedding suppliers available on the Internet. It is worth investing one or two hours searching for as much news as possible about your potential supplier. Your potential supplier’s website followed by a Google search is often a sound starting point. During your research check whether your supplier has any handles on any social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn or Instagram. If they do, conduct a further search on each of these social media platforms to see whether there are any positive or negative comments about the services offered. Finally, it is worth conducting a search on online wedding directories such as www.hitched.co.uk or www.weddingdaily.co.uk.

For more information about conducting the due diligence contact: info@theweddinglawyer.co.uk

Consumer

The 10 step strategy for negotiating the best deal with your wedding supplier

Weddings are expensive. Compared to many other investments you may make in your lifetime, few are as short lived as your Wedding Day. Couples may end up spending between £20,000 to £100,000 on their wedding day, months of planning with all of it to be completed within 12 to 14 hours. Decreasing your wedding spend and obtaining maximum value for your wedding day is the aim and here is our 10 step negotiating strategy to put you in a position of strength.

Preparation, Preparation, Preparation – Preparation is the cornerstone to any negotiation process. Sit down with your partner and/or family and clarify what your objectives are for the negotiation. There key questions you should consider discussing are:

What is your price range – upper and lower limits?
What service(s) are you expecting from the supplier- before, during and after your wedding day?
What are your payment terms, which assist your budget and cash flow?
What factors are important to you?
What are you prepared to compromise on and what is non-negotiable?
Whether the service the supplier is supplying is critical for your wedding day?
Be clear on what your preferred outcome would be?

Research actual costs – You have an increased chance of negotiating costs with your supplier if you have clarity on the actual costs of the service your supplier is offering. Whilst this is not always easy to figure out, carrying out some basic market research could assist. When it comes to weddings, experience has taught us that suppliers have a tendency to mark up their prices with a premium. By figuring out the actual cost to your supplier for the services, you will gain an appreciation of the likely mark up price on the services. In turn you will gain an understanding of your margins for negotiation.

Clear Communication is Critical – Adopting a clear line of communication is extremely important when engaging a wedding supplier to avoid any confusion or miscommunication when negotiating.
1. As a couple or as a family, nominate a spokesperson who should be the only person communicating with the supplier.
2. Be polite, courteous and look for ways to build a rapport with your potential supplier. It is far more effective to negotiate a discount if you have demonstrated your ability to be personable as well as professional with your supplier.
3. Any communication, however, long or short it maybe should be documented in writing and sent to the supplier. For example, even a five minute telephone conversation should be followed up by an email to the supplier along the lines of

“Dear Supplier x,

Thank you for your time on the phone a few minutes ago, just to confirm we discussed/spoke about:

I look forward to speaking with you in the near future. In the meantime, should you have any queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards

Your name

The “Rule of Three” – As a minimum, aim to approach three suppliers who provide the same services as your target supplier and obtain a like for like quote. The wedding industry is competitive and suppliers maybe tempted to offer a price reduction if they know you have researched the market.

Consider transferring as much business to one supplier- The theory behind this strategy is “the more you order, the lower the price”. For example, it maybe the case that your photographer can also offer videography services, your DJ can also offer additional entertainment services, your caterer can also offer bar services. If you can keep your suppliers to a minimum by providing more business to a select few, you not only make life easier for your from a management perspective but you open the possibility of being able to negotiate on price.

Have your deposit ready – cash flow can be as important to a supplier as it is to a consumer. Further, whilst it maybe your dream wedding day, suppliers are running a business and are looking to get paid. Therefore, a way in which you could leverage with a supplier is to be willing to make a larger deposit than they are requesting. The theory behind the strategy is “the higher you go, the more your negotiating power is on the overall rate”. We remind consumers to carry out their due diligence before putting down a deposit.

Don’t accept the first offer – Yes, you maybe talking to your first choice supplier but avoid accepting the first offer that is provided to you. Consider making a counter offer or ask them to get back to you with a better price. Patience and persistence can pay dividends in a competitive wedding industry.

Reign in your enthusiasm – It is often said that the better deal goes to the person who wants it the least, or at least appears to want it the least. Aim to have a backup supplier who can provide the same service which will allow you to walk away should negotiations lend themselves to deadlock. Don’t be afraid to walk away. There will always be more than one supplier who can offer the services you require.
Think creatively – Your target supplier may refuse to budge of price despite your best attempts to negotiate. Consequently, you may need to think creatively about what else you could get from your supplier to add value to your wedding. For example, a caterer maybe less willing to give you a discount but maybe willing to throw in an additional dish to the menu. Don’t be afraid to express your creativity in a bid to get better value.

Find ways to provide value to the supplier – Consider ways in which you could help your supplier advertise their goods or services to your weddings guests as a way to negotiate on price. For example, you could offer the supplier an option to display their business cards on the dining tables at the reception or if you have a wedding website, you could offer to have a link to your supplier’s website from your website.

For assistance in contract negotiation contact: info@theweddinglawyer.co.uk

Consumer

15 questions to ask a referee before booking your wedding supplier

In our blog “3 easy ways to carrying out your own supplier due diligence” we emphasised the importance of obtaining at least three independent supplier references as one of the three ways to carry out your own supplier due diligence.

Who is a referee?

A referee will be someone who is a previous client to your potential supplier. Therefore, the referee would have used the services of the supplier so as to be in a position to evaluate the services they received.

What is the purpose of obtaining a reference?

To ensure your wedding supplier can deliver to the standard that you expect for your wedding day. To obtain as much information as possible about the supplier so you can make an informed choice as to whether you should sign a contract and pay a deposit.

How to obtain a reference?

Ideally obtain the phone number of a referee who used your potential supplier but failing this an email address will suffice. The aim is for your to make direct contact with the referee without interference from anyone else.

15 questions to ask a referee?

General questions:

When did you last use the supplier?
What was the nature of the event?
How many guests did you have at your event?
How easy was it to work with the supplier during the lead up to your event?
What were the supplier’s strengths and weaknesses in assisting you with the preparation for your event?
Did the supplier meet deadlines and attend/set up at your event at the time stipulated?
How well did the supplier interact with the other suppliers when setting up for the event?
How well did the supplier interact with guests who attended the event?
Did the supplier meet your expectations?
If yes, how? If no, where did the supplier fall short?
How was the supplier’s interaction with you after the event? Was there any communication or correspondence? Were there any delays in delivery of products (e.g. if your supplier is a photographer or videographer)?
Were there any unexpected payments that the supplier requested to be made?
Do you feel you received value for money in using the supplier?
Would you recommend we use the supplier for our event?
Is there anything else we should know about the supplier that you would like to add?

Supplier contracts

5 steps to follow before booking a supplier for your wedding?

Ladies and Gents, with the wedding season nearly upon us, this can only mean one thing! Happy couples are well into the process of what we like to call “WedMin” or Wedding Admin. Among the many important WedMin tasks include sourcing and securing wedding suppliers in preparation for one of the biggest days of their life. These are exciting times but caution should be adopted before one decides to depart with their hard earned cash.

What is a wedding supplier?

A wedding supplier is anyone providing goods and services for the wedding festivities including the pre wedding day events, the wedding day and the wedding reception. Wedding suppliers may include photographers, videographers, caterers, wedding venue representatives, beauticians, DJs, bands, dress designers, chauffeurs – just to name a few!

Your team of wedding suppliers are essentially the people responsible for ensuring your wedding festivities go according to plan. The number of wedding suppliers entering the industry is growing at a significant rate. Whilst, some suppliers are more established and reputable than others, it is important consumers are diligent before proceeding with making a booking.

The Wedding Lawyer recommends you follow the following steps before booking a supplier:

Step 1

Complete a full supplier due diligence check

Do not underestimate the importance of completing a full supplier due diligence check. Recommendations to use a particular wedding supplier from friends and family are all very well but there is no substitute to carrying out your own checks for your own piece of mind. It is important that you are equipped with as much information as possible about any supplier who will be providing goods and services at your wedding events. After all, it will be these people who may be interacting with your nears and dears and will ultimately be responsible for ensuring that your wedding day goes according to plan.

Click here to understand how you can carry out your own due diligence checks.

Step 2

Obtain a copy of the supply contract

Ensure you have a thorough understanding of what each clause means in the contract. The number of consumers who choose to sign contracts without fully understanding exactly what they have signed is surprising. Consumers are encouraged not to rush into signing anything until they have fully appreciated what it is that they are signing. A tactic that is sometimes adopted by wedding suppliers is to apply a degree of pressure on consumers to sign a contract within tight time scales with the threat that the consumer may lose their booking. Click here to carry out your own contract review.

The Wedding Lawyer has noticed that consumers overwhelmed with panic and excitement end up contracts that at best they do not fully understand and at worst they completely disagree with.

Step 3

Ensure the scope of the services are clearly set out

Within the body of the contract or a document called the ‘Schedule’ or ‘Particulars’ which is a document usually found at the back of the contract, you should expect to see exactly what services your supplier should be supplying you with. It is important to pay attention to both what is stipulated as well as what isn’t stipulated in the contract. If a contract does not clearly list exactly what is going to be supplied, it is our strong recommendation that you go back to the supplier to ensure this is included. We advise you spend some time carefully going through the services you are being supplied. As well as thinking about what services are being provided, also consider what services are not being provided. This will minimise the chances of any disputes about the provision of the services and prevent any unexpected surprises on your big day.

Step 4

Get to grips with the payment schedule

Ensure you have grasped a thorough understanding of when payment instalments are due. Ensure these are inserted into your diaries as soon as possible. An electronic diary (on your phone or computer) is often useful in this regard. Quite often, setting a reminder a week before the payment deadline is due will assist you in ensuring all steps are taking to have the funds ready for transfer by the day of the deadline. If you can negotiate a final payment to occur after your wedding day, that would be ideal. However, in the event of a supplier not allowing this, try to ensure you can pay as much as possible as close to the big day. Click here to see how to save on your wedding expenditure.

Step 5

If the price is too good to be true, it probably is!

Weddings are expensive and it is easy to be lured to book a supplier purely based on their price tag. Whilst, this is an important factor to consider when booking a supplier for your big day, it is a common tendency to focus more on the price tag rather than on the ability of a supplier to deliver the services for the big day. An impressive price tag doesn’t always equate to an impressive service. Consumers are advised to make an informed decision before booking a supplier with price being but one of the factor to consider along with the steps listed above.

For more information contact: info@theweddinglawyer.co.uk