Choose and adapt an industry starter

A starter is an editable example, not a permanent business category. It gives you coordinated pipelines, fields, views, forms, scheduling, messages, agreements, service options, client-journey blocks, and draft automation recipes. It never limits which Cygnetree tools you can use.

Start with the closest workflow

• Flexible client services fits consultants and relationship-based services with an inquiry, discovery, proposal, delivery, and follow-up rhythm.
• Creative studio adds discovery, production, client review, revision, approval, and delivery.
• Field services emphasizes request intake, estimate, scheduling, on-site work, completion, and follow-up.
• Events & hospitality emphasizes date checks, proposal, planning, service delivery, and wrap-up without assuming the event is a wedding.
• Wedding planner studio adds the planning and coordination lifecycle used by planners, coordinators, and consultants.
• Wedding vendor studio is a general wedding-services starting point for a trade without its own starter. Photo/video, catering/bar, floral/decor/rentals, entertainment, venue, and hair/makeup each author their own workflow, questionnaires, messages, agreement, service options, and automation recipes for that trade — not the same template under a different name. Each has its own guide describing exactly what it installs and what it does not do.

If no starter is close enough, begin without one. You can still build every supported workflow.

Preview before installing

Open Creative library, choose a starter, and review its exact workflow and record counts. Cygnetree names every item it intends to create before it changes the workspace. Installation requires owner or administrator access.

The preview is also the safest way to compare two starters. Look for the lifecycle that best matches how work moves today, then treat its fields and messages as examples rather than rules.

Install and make it yours

Installed objects are normal records owned by your workspace. Rename stages, rewrite messages, change forms, adjust scheduling, and edit draft automations before activating them. Cygnetree keeps source and version information so it can distinguish an untouched default from your work.

Guided setup may suggest client, project, and pipeline vocabulary. Apply those labels separately under Settings → Workspace terminology. That setting changes navigation and quick actions, plus the name for the date the work is for, which your clients also see on their own portal page. It does not rewrite starter records or imported data.

Guided setup also starts the workspace on the theme that suits the industry you chose, so client-facing pages look like your trade from the first day. It does this only while the workspace is still on the Cygnetree theme. Once you pick a different theme or adjust a color yourself, your choice stands and changing industry never overwrites it — Settings → Brand & client experience offers the recommended theme instead. A theme never changes your business name, logo, email sender name, or reply-to address.

Compare or combine starters

You can install more than one starter. Each variant uses distinct source keys, so comparing or combining them does not let one starter silently claim another starter's records.

Install a second starter when you genuinely run two service models or want to inspect its building blocks in your own workspace. Avoid activating overlapping automation recipes until you have reviewed their triggers and recipients.

Change examples without changing your industry

Business type and starter selection are recommendations only. A photographer can use a neutral client-services pipeline; an event venue can borrow a field-service intake form; a consultant can use a creative review stage. No selection grants or removes capabilities.

Example data has its own controls. Hide examples while learning, remove them when ready, or reset and restore them without deleting real workspace records.

Reset or remove a starter safely

Use Reset to restore untouched starter defaults. Use Uninstall when you no longer want a starter. Cygnetree removes only untouched, unused defaults. A customized or referenced record detaches from the starter and remains in your workspace.

Preview the mutation list before confirming. Neither action deletes people, projects, imported source data, or another starter's records.

Follow the neutral learning path

1. Preview Flexible client services, Creative studio, Field services, and Events & hospitality.
2. Choose the closest lifecycle and install it.
3. Rename its stages and edit one intake form.
4. Review each draft automation's trigger, conditions, recipient, and expected cost before activation.
5. Create one sample project, move it through the workflow, and check the client-facing journey.
6. Hide or remove example data, then create the first real project.

Follow the wedding ecosystem learning path

1. Start with Wedding planner studio for planning/coordination. For a vendor, go straight to your own trade's starter — photo/video, catering/bar, floral/decor/rentals, entertainment, venue, or hair/makeup — and use Wedding vendor studio only if none of them fits.
2. Read that starter's guide first. It lists the workflow, the questions, the agreement, the recipes, and the things the starter deliberately does not do.
3. Compare its lifecycle, questionnaires, scheduling, messages, and service options before installing.
4. Adapt the examples to the business's actual terminology and services.
5. Test one inquiry through planning, agreement, payment, scheduling, delivery, and wrap-up.
6. Keep only the starter records that improve the workflow. The same platform remains usable for non-wedding work without a schema fork.