Strategy Day · 6 August 2026 Enter the password to continue
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The Altar Electric
Strategy Day · 6 August 2026 Enter the password to continue
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The Altar Electric · Strategy Day 2026
01 · Planning day
The agenda & shared workspace
Use the day to understand the evidence, capture different perspectives and make the decisions together. Every section has space to capture your own notes — hit Download at the top when you're done.
Welcome to Strategy Day
Today is about looking clearly at where the business stands — not to explain or defend — but to understand what the data is telling us and make grounded decisions together. All the numbers in this document are straight from the books.
Thursday
6
August 2026
02 · Revenue and profit
The financial result contracted sharply
Revenue, gross profit, gross margin and net profit all fell in FY26. Here's what the numbers actually say — four years of context so we can see the full picture.
-31.5%
Revenue
$1.132m → $775k
-39.3%
Gross profit
$561k → $341k
44.0%
Gross margin
Was 49.6% in FY25
-87.4%
Net profit
$216k → $27k
Revenue vs. Gross Profit — 4 Year Trend
Gross Margin % by Year
What stands out
Operating expenses fell only 9.2% while revenue fell 31.5%. The cost base didn't shrink fast enough to protect the bottom line — magnifying the profit decline. This is the core tension to address.
Four year P&L summary ($)
Line item
FY23
FY24
FY25
FY26
Revenue
$846k
$1,009k
$1,132k
$775k
Gross profit
$426k
$491k
$561k
$341k
Gross margin
50.4%
48.7%
49.6%
44.0%
Operating expenses
$241k
$297k
$346k
$314k
Net profit
$185k
$196k
$216k
$27k
Management context
The team's view is that wedding demand has been affected by external financial pressure on couples. The financial data demonstrates the contraction — it does not independently prove its cause. The data section on leads and bookings gives more context on where demand actually moved.
Year on year change
Where did FY26 fall vs FY25?
Revenue-31.5%
Gross profit-39.3%
Operating expenses-9.2%
Net profit-87.4%
03 · Bookings and package mix
Fewer bookings, but average value held steady
Volume fell 24.5% but the average value per booking barely moved. The bigger story is in the mix shift — which packages couples are choosing has changed meaningfully.
Metric
FY24
FY25
FY26
FY26 vs FY25
Bookings (count)
120
143
108
-24.5%
Booking value
$860k
$850k
$644k
-24.2%
Average value per booking
$7,170
$5,941
$5,967
+0.4%
Booking hours
242.5h
246h
178h
-27.6%
Bookings by package — FY24 · FY25 · FY26
Package mix
Where the 108 FY26 bookings landed
Package
Price
FY24
FY25
FY26
FY26 mix
A Little More Action
$6,850
49
51
28
25.9%
Can I Get a Witness
$2,000
21
30
36
33.3%
The Shotgun
$3,200
31
47
31
28.7%
Viva Las Abbotsford
$24,500
17
13
12
11.1%
A lil reboot
$3,000
—
1
1
0.9%
Mix shift alert
"Can I Get a Witness" grew from 21% to 33.3% of bookings. It's our lowest-value package. "A Little More Action" fell from 35.7% to 25.9%.
What held
Average booking value was virtually flat (+0.4%). VLA held at 12 bookings — our highest-revenue package is stable.
04 · Leads and conversion
Leads held better than conversions
Leads fell 13.9% — but accepted jobs fell 29.1%. We're seeing more enquiries go unconverted. That gap is worth understanding.
-13.9%
Leads
309 → 266
-29.1%
Accepted jobs
127 → 90
33.8%
Acceptance rate
Was 41.1% in FY25
256
FY24 leads
For comparison
FY25
Leads309
309
Accepted jobs127
127
41.1% acceptance rate
FY26
Leads266
266
Accepted jobs90
90
33.8% acceptance rate
Leads vs Accepted Jobs — 3 Year Trend
The key question
The fall in accepted jobs (29.1%) was more than twice the fall in leads (13.9%). We're not short of interest — something is happening between enquiry and booking. Is it price? Speed? Our offering? This is the question to dig into.
Definition note
"Acceptance rate" here is the Studio Ninja reported rate — the definition of "accepted" may differ from "booked." This doesn't change the directional picture but is worth confirming before drawing hard conclusions.
05 · Marketing and social
Marketing spend fell in line with the business
Absolute spend fell 33.1% — but as a share of revenue it was nearly identical to FY25. The business didn't cut marketing disproportionately.
$85k
FY26 ad + marketing spend
$127k in FY25 | $79k in FY24
11.0%
Share of revenue
11.2% in FY25 — nearly unchanged
-33.1%
Year-on-year change
Absolute spend reduction
Advertising + Marketing Spend by Year ($k)
$79kFY24
$127kFY25 ↑
$85kFY26
FY26 social media presence
35k
Meta landing page views
Reported across FY26
$22.5k
Meta + Pinterest spend
Subset of total marketing spend
?
Views → bookings
Not joinable from current reports
Reporting gap
Platform traffic (35k landing page views) cannot currently be connected to accepted jobs, packages or booked value. We know the spend; we can't yet prove the return. There's also an anomaly: October Meta figures appear duplicated from September.
06 · Cash position
Cash weakened — but the business remains solvent
Total bank fell 57.4%. The business is still healthy on the balance sheet — net assets of $117k — but the operating cash position is tighter than it was.
$73k
Total bank
$172k in FY25 (-57.4%)
$30.6k
Operating account
$37k in FY25
$43.2k
Accounts receivable
$37.9k in FY25 — growing
$117k
Net assets
$179.7k in FY25
-57.4%
Total bank year on year
The bank total includes operating, tax-provisioning and vendor-provisioning accounts. The tax provisioning account fell the most — from $107k to $35k.
$45k
FY26 owner dividends
Total dividends paid to the three owners in FY26. A portion was drawn from retained earnings built up in prior years — this is normal business practice and reflected in the balance sheet.
What the balance sheet is actually showing
The equity section records all dividends paid since the company began, not just this year. The $72.5k figure per owner is a cumulative running total, not an FY26 payment. FY26 dividends were $45k in total across all three owners. The business retains $361k in retained earnings — the accumulation of all profits since founding.
Items worth confirming before drawing final conclusions
Profit and tax timing
The P&L reports $27.4k net profit with a separate $54.1k income tax expense. This suggests the reported result is pre-tax. Worth confirming the tax treatment with the accountant.
Booking value vs P&L revenue
FY26 P&L trading income ($775k) is $130.6k above the booking report total ($644k). This likely reflects timing — couples who booked in FY25 but whose weddings (and therefore revenue recognition) fell in FY26. Worth mapping out to understand the true forward revenue position.
Accounts receivable growing
AR rose from $37.9k to $43.2k. This is money owed to the business — good to understand if there are any overdue invoices that should be chased.
07 · Reflections and strategy
Bring your thinking into the room
Capture ideas without forcing a conclusion before the team has discussed the evidence. The question to keep coming back to: How do we make TAE the obvious choice for couples who still want a wedding?
Forces shaping the business
External or internal?
10 Years of TAE
What would only The Altar Electric do?
FY27 priorities
What matters most in 2026/27?
Parking areas
Good ideas that aren't for today
Wrap-up
Leaving the room
08 · Strategy decisions
Actions from today
Four priorities agreed in the strategy session — 6 August 2026. Working through each one with Cal. Decisions captured as we go.
Four priorities
Where we're up to
✓ Completed
1 — ALMA positioning
Make A Little More Action stand out and drive stronger bookings
✓ Completed
2 — Lead comms system
Curated and targeted email contact with leads
✓ Completed
3 — Monthly content creator
UGC strategy — one creator per month
⇣ Parked
4 — Deposit alternatives
Explore lower booking confirmation prices for couples
Priority 1 — Detail
ALMA positioning overhaul
Target: couples aged 25–35 who want all the feels without the wedding industry price tag or stress. 75% of ALMA couples kick on elsewhere — it’s the electric centrepiece of their night, not the whole event.
Core positioning shift: Stop framing ALMA as a “micro wedding.” Start framing it as the full wedding experience for people who refuse to play the industry’s game. Lead message: “You don’t have to choose between a real wedding and your financial future.”
1
Reframe the core positioning copy
Replace “micro wedding vibes, macro experience” with language that speaks directly to the Gen Z anti-wedding-industrial-complex mindset. Lead with emotion and permission, not format size.
2
Add a cost comparison section to the ALMA page
Headline: “The average Melbourne wedding costs $36,000–$45,000. ALMA is $6,850.” Below: line-by-line breakdown of what a traditional wedding costs, then: “ALMA includes venue, celebrant, ceremony, drinks, food, DJ, styling, emcee and polaroid. All in. $6,850.” ⚠ Verify current average Melbourne wedding cost from Easy Weddings annual report before publishing.
3
Add a “This is for you if…” section
Speak directly to the ALMA couple’s identity. Anti-performance, anti-debt, pro-vibe. E.g. “You want all the feels without the spreadsheets. You’re kicking on after. You’re not compromising — you’re just smarter about it.”
4
Lean into the 75% kick-on stat as a selling feature
E.g. “75% of ALMA couples party on elsewhere after — we’re your electric centrepiece, not your entire night.”
5
Move preferred partner discounts to a pre-booking hook
Add a teaser on the ALMA page: “Book ALMA and unlock exclusive discounts with our preferred photographers, florists, hair & makeup artists and more.”
6
Fix the CTA
Replace “Tell me more” with “Check our dates” as primary CTA. Test “Let’s chat” as secondary. Consider first-person framing: “Show me the dates”.
7
Add a “What $6,850 actually gets you” breakdown
The industry comparison: what the same elements cost couples who source them individually. The reality check that contextualises the price.
Priority 2 — Detail
Curated & targeted lead comms system
Build an automated + approval-first system where Cal drafts tailored, contextual emails and WhatsApp messages for leads — pulling from a content library of real weddings and each lead’s own preferences and history. Full automation is the end goal as trust builds.
CRM decision: Notion (already in use, API + MCP support, Cal reads/writes directly). Studio Ninja stays for bookings & legals — Notion is the lead nurturing layer on top. Note: This is essentially what Wedlo is being built to do. TAE is the validation case.
Phase 1 — Foundation
1
Consolidate the content library into Notion
Pull from Dropbox, Studio Ninja records, and Google Reviews. Each entry: package, date, 2–3 photos, review excerpt, “why they booked” note. This becomes Cal’s context layer for drafting.
2
Define the lead data model in Notion
Required fields per lead: package interest, preferred date, guest count, vibe/notes, last contact date, comms sent history. This is the brief Cal works from when drafting.
3
Set up Notion as the lead nurturing CRM
Build the database structure. Studio Ninja stays for bookings — Notion is the nurturing layer. Cal reads from and writes to it directly.
Phase 2 — Comms Engine
4
Define the sequence framework
Day 0 — Warm welcome (automated) Day 1–2 — Package-specific content email with photos + reviews (approval-first) Day 5, no reply — Gentle nudge (automated) Day 10, still quiet — Personalised re-engagement (approval-first) Day 30+ — Re-engagement referencing their specific interest (approval-first)
5
Connect Cal as the drafting engine
Cal pulls context from Notion CRM + content library, drafts email + WhatsApp in TAE’s voice, queues for review. Anthony or Sarah approve → sends from TAE email/WhatsApp.
6
Add WhatsApp as a comms channel
Cal drafts WhatsApp messages alongside emails — shorter, more conversational. Same approval flow initially. Requires opt-in (see Action 7).
7
Add WhatsApp opt-in to the enquiry form
Add a consent field so couples explicitly opt in to WhatsApp contact. Required before any WhatsApp outreach begins.
Phase 3 — Governance
8
Define automated vs approval-first boundaries
Start approval-first for anything personalised. Move high-confidence sequences to automated as quality validates. Full handover to Cal is the end goal.
Priority 3 — Detail
Monthly content creator for UGC
TikTok-native creator in once a month to shoot authentic BTS and real wedding footage. Content feeds the Notion library and drives awareness via TikTok (primary) and Instagram Reels (cross-post). Organic capture — no shot list, full access, let them roam. Team to find and vet creator independently.
1
Create a couple consent process
Add consent to be filmed for social into the booking confirmation flow. Required before any footage can be used.
2
Define the creator day brief
Prioritise VLA and ALMA days — most content-rich. One brand vibe brief, then let them go.
3
Find and vet a TikTok-native creator
Authentic BTS/event creator — not a wedding photographer who also does video. Check their own TikTok before hiring.
4
Set posting cadence and approval flow
Review-first to start. Aim for 4–6 posts per month from one shoot day.
5
Cross-post to Instagram Reels
Same content, second platform, zero extra work. Non-negotiable.
6
Feed best content into the Notion content library
After each shoot, best clips and stills catalogued into Notion (package, date, vibe tags) for lead email sequences.
Parking lot
Good ideas — not for today
Alternative deposit / booking confirmation prices
Explore alternatives to the 25% deposit for couples who find it too high. Needs more thought and data before a decision can be made.
Mon–Thu venue revenue
Find ways to generate income from the venue Monday to Thursday (currently underutilised). Could include private events, styled shoots, content hire, pop-ups. Needs a dedicated session.
New topic — In session
10-Year Anniversary Celebration
Working through the 10-year anniversary plan with Cal. Central story: “For ten years, we’ve been changing what weddings can look like.” Working decisions and actions to be captured below.
Planning in progress — actions will appear here as decisions are made.
☀️
Cal
Ask me anything about the data
Hey! I'm Cal — Anthony's AI. I've got all the TAE data in front of me. What would you like to understand better?