Insider to Insider: Sara Bauleke, Owner of Bella Notte

Photo courtesy of Rob Holley

I “met” Sara Bauleke, Owner of Bella Notte, on Twitter.  There are several things that stood out about to me about this phenomenal wedding planner.  First of all, she ALWAYS has great recommendations: great tips on books, interesting articles to read on the web, and helpful advice for wedding professionals.  She is extremely friendly – always passing along the good word on colleagues in the wedding industry.  Even though I’m thousands of miles away, I can already tell that Sara is a GIVER and that is what this industry is all about!  Giving and sharing.  Thank you, Sara for your generosity with all of us!

Sara Bauleke
Owner, Bella Notte
Washington, DC
Established 2004
www.bellanottedc.com

Why did you start your business?

I fell into owning and running my business accidentally. I had recently finished grad school, and discovered in my last semester that I didn’t actually enjoy the job I’d been anticipating going into post graduation. At the time, I had quite a few friends and acquaintances getting married and I ended up assisting them to fill the time until I got a job. My mother’s a minister and I grew up around weddings, so assisting others with their weddings post graduation was a natural choice. Once I started, I realized how much I enjoyed working on weddings and decided that I should pursue it as a career. My father owned his own business while I was growing up, so starting my own company was an obvious choice for me. There was a great appeal in being my own boss and having the flexibility that comes with it.

What book do you recommend to new business owners?  Why?

I read The Girls Guide to Starting Your Own Business by Caitlin Friedman & Kimberly Yaorio after I’d been in business for over a year, and I really wished I’d found it sooner. It’s a great book that touches on so many aspects of starting and owning your own business in a very down-to-earth and helpful way. While I think much of the advice in the book is applicable for both women and men, I found that the book addressed issues of being a woman business owner that I couldn’t find answers to anywhere else. I also highly recommend their follow up, The Girls Guide to Being a Boss.

Do you have any cool goal-setting tips to share with us?

I think it’s helpful to have smaller, short-term goals as well as grander, long-term goals. There’s a great feeling of accomplishment when you achieve your short-term goals, which provides motivation to move onto your next (often bigger!) goal. I think it’s necessary to dream big and set grandiose goals as well. Attempts to achieve these goals often prove that you’re capable of more than you might think you are, and when you achieve one of your long-term goals, it’s an amazing feeling!

That said, setting goals isn’t the hard part for me. Making sure to achieve them can be challenging and accountability is really key for me. I’ve found sharing my goals and plans with colleagues to be really helpful. Knowing that the next time I meet a colleague they’re likely to ask me how one of my current projects is progressing motivates me to take action on that project and make progress towards my goals.

What do you find to be the biggest challenge as a business owner?

Letting go in order to grow my business is absolutely my biggest challenge. The nice thing about starting your company is that you can often manage every aspect of it. Letting go of some of those aspects can be difficult, both logistically and emotionally. Owning a company is such a personal experience (especially after building it up from scratch) that it’s hard to entrust it to others, but you have to realize that you can’t grow without letting go.

If you were starting your business all over again, what would you have done differently?

As I mentioned, I really fell into owning a wedding planning business. I think the one thing I would have done differently was actually plan to start a business. Creating a business plan and understanding more about not only the wedding market, but community of wedding vendors in my area, would have been very helpful.

Overall, I’m actually quite happy with the way my company developed. One of the things that I did that I think was incredibly helpful in getting started was reach out to other wedding planners in my area. They were gracious enough to speak with me on the phone or have coffee with me and discuss the wedding industry. Their willingness to share their knowledge and offer me support was incredibly encouraging as I was establishing my company.

Thanks Sara!

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