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How to Start an Event Planning Business: The Ultimate Guide

It's no surprise that starting an event planning business involves many moving parts. It can feel overwhelming, from identifying your unique selling proposition and having all the key skills to executing flawless events to getting all the required compliances. But not anymore. 

In this guide, we'll discuss everything about  event planning  and provide a step-by-step guide on how to start your own event-planning business. This post covers everything from determining profitability to understanding the skills you need to run a successful business.   

But before you dive headfirst into how to start an event planning business, let's take a step back and understand the basics. 

What is Event Planning in Business?

If you plan to start your event planning business, you probably know the answer to this question. Event planning involves managing the details of large or small events, including meetings, conferences, or parties. This business is typically utilized for: 

• Large educational meetings, such as graduations or conferences.
• Major promotions, including marketing events, product launches, and fashion shows.
• Corporate events , like after-work cocktail hours, trade shows, galas, and more.
• Celebrations and social events like parades, weddings, birthdays, reunions, and more. 

What Do Event Planning Businesses Provide?

As an event planner, you are expected to work with clients to understand their requirements and goals and then provide end-to-end event planning and execution services to ensure the seamless and successful execution of in-person or virtual events . 

Some of the services you must include are:

• Event management and coordination
• Theming, décor, and styling
• Conferencing and exhibitions
• Signage and branding
• Entertainment and talent management
• Venue sourcing and management
• Catering and food & beverage management
• Audio-visual production and management
• Logistics and transportation management
• Budgeting and financial management
• Marketing and promotion
• Security and risk management
• Registration and guest management
• Post-event evaluation and reporting 

Why Do People Hire Event Planning Businesses?

There are two primary reasons why people hire event planning services: 

• To allow event attendees and guests of honor to thoroughly enjoy themselves without worrying about event logistics. 
• To ensure that the event runs without any glitches. 

Consider a typical corporate conference, for example. 

A business may hire your services to create a stellar multi-day conference while their employees and attendees can focus on networking or learning. This way, they don’t have to worry about details like catering, keynote speakers, registration, and managing the event schedule. 

Advantages and Disadvantages of Starting an Event Planning Business

As with everything, the event planning business also has advantages and disadvantages. Some of them are: 

• Enjoy the freedom to choose who you work with, where you work, and how you manage your schedule.
• Pull off a showstopping event, and chances are your clients will return repeatedly, thus building loyalty.
• Event planning business lets you unleash your creativity as you get to design events that are unique and unforgettable for your clients. 
• Establishing relationships with reliable vendors takes time, especially in a crowded market.
• Growing your business needs adding resources or raising prices, which can be tricky.
• Most of the time, although the planning takes place in advance, you must ensure your presence in the field during the event—meaning long working hours, even on evenings and weekends. 

How to Start an Event Planning Business

Here are some steps to help you start an event planning business: 

Evaluate your  event planning skills.

Event planning involves many tasks beyond the glamor of parties and events. To be successful, you must be able to handle various responsibilities. After all, successful event planners are masters of multitasking, with a talent for keeping calm under pressure. 

For example, you’ll need to create an event theme or design, find a venue, arrange entertainment, book vendors, send RSVPs and marketing information to attendees, and balance the budget. The list goes on. 

If you're unsure whether you possess all the necessary event planning skills , consider gaining some hands-on experience. Perhaps shadow an experienced planner, assist with events at a local organization, or even volunteer for a nonprofit event. 

Create your event planning business plan.

A well-structured business plan is the foundation of any successful venture, and event planning is no different. Consider it your roadmap to success. Here are the key sections to include: 

• Executive Summary:  Summarize your business concept, goals, and what sets you apart.
• Overview : Outline your company background, structure (e.g., sole proprietorship), and essential details.
• Industry Analysis : Demonstrate your understanding of the local event planning market, including potential clients and event trends .
• Competitive Analysis: Examine your competition, identifying their areas of strength and areas you can exploit.
• Marketing : Craft a strategy for attracting clients—how will you make them aware of your exceptional services?
• Management: Detail your unique experience and skills.
• Operations Plan : Describe your day-to-day process for planning and executing events.
• Financials : Project your income, expenses, and profit expectations over your initial years of operation. 

Find your event planning niche.

Finding your niche is how you stand out from the rest—it helps you specialize in a specific subset of the broader event planning industry. Also, it becomes easier for your target market to find you. Common niches and event types include: 

• Business event planning:  Award ceremonies, charity and nonprofit events, corporate bonding retreats, meetings and seminars, conferences, grand openings, fashion shows, experiential events, holiday parties, networking events , trade shows, and VIP events. 
• Private/social event planning:  Weddings,   anniversaries, holiday parties, baby showers, theme parties, wedding/bridal showers, bachelor/bachelorette parties, milestone birthday parties, and murder-mystery parties. 

Identify your unique selling proposition.

Identify your event planning business’ unique selling proposition (USP) to set yourself apart from your competitors. It is the reason why clients should choose your company over others. 

Here’s how you can define your USP: 

• Identify your target market:  The first step in uncovering your event planning USP is to identify your target market. Who are your ideal clients? What type of events do they typically host? What are their pain points and needs? Understanding your target market lets you tailor your services to your client's needs and preferences. 
• Analyze your competition:  The next step is to analyze your competition. Who are your competitors? What services do they offer? What is their pricing strategy? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Understand your competition to identify gaps in the market and ways to differentiate your business. 
• Determine your unique strengths:  What sets your business apart from your competitors? What unique strengths do you bring to the table? It could be your expertise in a particular type of event, your creative approach to event design, your extensive network of vendors, or your exceptional customer service. Identify your unique strengths and use them to craft a compelling USP.

Consider funding and costs.

The events business can be lucrative, but getting started requires smart financial planning. Calculate your initial startup costs carefully. Price your services strategically so you cover expenses while remaining competitive. If number crunching isn't your strong suit, invest in a bookkeeper or accountant early on.

While exact costs vary by location and services offered, here's a ballpark range to get you thinking:

• Rent: $0 to $2,300
• Equipment: $5,000 to $17,000
• Inventory: $0 to $500
• Licenses and Taxes: $250 to $350
• Communications: $100 to $250
• Payroll: $0 to $4,000
• Advertising/Promotion: $500 to $2,000
• Legal Fees & Accounting: $650 to $1,500
• Insurance (1st Quarter): $800 to $1,700
• Miscellaneous: $750 to $1,500
• Total: $8,050 to $31,100 

Remember, startup expenses don't have to be astronomical. Begin with the essentials, and scale up as your business grows.

Structure your pricing strategy.

Pricing your services is an art and a science. Factor in your location (cost of living varies), your experience level, and what your competitors charge. Most importantly, ensure your pricing allows you to cover costs and earn a worthwhile profit while remaining attractive to clients. 

Remember, transparency is key—explain your fee structure clearly so there are no surprises later on.

Here are some common pricing models for your consideration: 

• Hourly rate: Ideal for projects where the scope is difficult to predict upfront. Rates typically range from $25 - $100+ per hour, depending on your skills and the complexity of the event. 
• Flat fee:  A single charge covers your planning services. This works well for events with well-defined parameters. Sometimes, planners add a percentage of vendor fees to ensure sufficient compensation. 
• Percentage of the event:  Typically, this will be 15-20% of the total event cost. Such pricing structure is common for complex events, as your fee scales alongside the project.  
• Day-of coordination:  A specialized service, handling the on-site logistics on the day of the event itself. 
• Vendor commission:  In this model, your income comes from commissions from selected vendors, rather than directly from the client. This requires careful negotiation and transparency with all parties involved. 

Obtain necessary legal documents and permits.

Don't neglect the legal side of your business. Taking these steps protects both you and your clients from potential issues:

Register Your Business :   Choose a legal structure (LLC, Sole Proprietorship, etc.) that's right for you, and register officially with your state. Obtain a tax ID—essential for everything from opening a bank account to filing taxes. 

Obtain Necessary Permits : The red tape of event planning might not be glamorous, but it's crucial. Permits vary by location, so contact local authorities to learn exactly what you need. Common examples include: 

• Building permits (tents) for outdoor events that require tents.
• Business license to operate legally.
• Event permits vary by city, so contact the local government for relevant ordinances.
• Noise permit if your event is outside.
• Fire/fireworks permit, which you must check with your county.
• You can get a health permit from your county’s health department.
• You need a liquor license if you plan to serve alcoholic beverages. 
• Seller’s permit, which you may need as an event planner.
• Temporary use/structure permit for vacant land or temporary space for loading areas, vendors, and parking. 

Get your event planning business insured.

Obtain insurance coverage for your event planning business to protect yourself and your clients from unexpected incidents. Here are some important coverages to consider:

• Workers' compensation:  This is mandatory in all states. It protects your employees (and yourself, if you count as an employee) in case of work-related illness or injury.
• General liability insurance:  A must-have for any event planning business. This protects you from claims of property damage or bodily injury at an event you organized. 
• Property insurance:  Safeguard your equipment (tables, chairs, laptops, etc.) from theft, fire, and other unexpected events.
• Business interruption:  If unforeseen circumstances force you to temporarily shut down, this can provide financial support. Think of it as backup income if things go awry.
• Business Owner's Policy:  This bundles several important coverages into one convenient package, often at a good value. 

Market your event planning business.

Once your business is set up, it's time to attract those exciting new clients. Here are some strategies to get you started:

• Build a Website: Your website is your online storefront. Services like Weebly and Squarespace make it easy, even if you're not tech-savvy. Invest time in making it visually appealing and easy to navigate.
• Boost Your Online Presence: List your business on directories like Yelp, Eventective, and Google My Business. This helps potential clients discover you when they're searching for event planners in your area.
• Get Social: Create engaging profiles on relevant platforms (Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, etc.). Share social media-worthy photos, behind-the-scenes glimpses, and client testimonials.
• Traditional Marketing Still Works: Don't underestimate the power of beautifully designed brochures, flyers, and business cards. Distribute them strategically at local businesses or events.
• Get Referrals: Happy clients are your best advertisement. Encourage them to leave glowing reviews, and feature video testimonials on your website and social media.
• Strategic Partnerships: Caterers, photographers, venue owners—these businesses have the same clientele as you. Build relationships and create a referral network to mutually benefit. 

Related: Read some practical  event planning tips  for before, during, and after the event. 

What skills do you need to run an event planning business?

The basic skills needed to run an event planning business effectively are primarily soft skills, such as organizational skills, business management skills, and presentation skills. Here are some necessary skills to run an event planning business successfully: 

• Attention to detail
• Customer service
• Education (staying updated on event trends) or experience
• Interpersonal relationship skills
• Negotiation
• Organization
• Under-pressure performance 

Is an event planning business profitable?

Event planning has the potential to be a very profitable business venture. The fact that  89% of event and meeting leaders  consider in-person events crucial for revenue growth demonstrates the ongoing demand for well-planned events. 

However, the profitability of your event planning business will depend on several factors. The key to success lies in your ability to command premium rates for your services while keeping your expenses in check.            

What does an event planning business do?

An event planning business organizes and coordinates various aspects of events for individuals or organizations. This includes selecting venues, arranging catering and other vendors, creating event schedules and itineraries , managing budgets, and ensuring all necessary equipment and supplies are available. 

Do event planners travel a lot?

Event planners may travel depending on the nature of the events they plan. Some events may occur locally, while others may require travel to different cities or countries. Ultimately, the amount of travel required will depend on each event's specific needs and requirements. 

The Future of Event Planning is Yours to Create

The event planning industry offers vast opportunities for those with an eye for detail, a flair for organization, and a knack for staying on budget. Whether your heart lies in orchestrating sleek corporate events or bringing dream weddings to life, the skills you hone as an event planner are valuable in countless contexts. 

A carefully crafted business plan, paired with smart marketing and a dedication to providing exceptional experiences, can turn your passion into a truly successful venture. Find your niche, or cast a wide net—the choice is yours.

If you're ready to take the leap into the world of event planning, don't hesitate. Use this guide as your springboard. With hard work, a little business savvy, and a genuine love for creating memorable moments, there's no limit to what you can achieve.  

Up next, learn some  best practices in event management to create scalable and successful event strategies for your business.

John Hunter

John is the Senior Manager of Event Cloud Content Marketing at Cvent. He has 11 years of experience writing about the meetings and events industry. John also has extensive copywriting experience across diverse industries, including broadcast television, retail advertising, associations, higher education, and corporate PR.

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• Sample Business Plans

How to Write an Event Planning Business Plan + Free Template

Planned a few events in the past?

And, if you feel that event planning is your forte, and you have ideas that are both creative and functional, event planning might be an exciting endeavor for you!

Although most people start out by working under someone, everyone dreams of starting their own event planning business.

Also, you are about to go ahead and start yours; wait a moment!

You might have sufficient knowledge for planning events, but navigating the complexities of the event planning industry needs a well-thought-out roadmap. And that roadmap is a comprehensive event management business plan.

Yes, you read it correctly. A business plan can be of great help while starting your own event planning company. It not only sets the foundation for your venture but also enhances your opportunities for success.

So, we have created a Sample Event Planning Business Plan for you to get a good idea about how a perfect event business plan should look like!

Now, without any further ado; let’s explore all the details you will need to write in your stunning business plan.

Key Takeaways

• Clearly define your goals, mission statement, service offerings, and management team in your business plan.
• Perform thorough market and industry analysis to identify target customers, and adapt to the latest trends.
• Present a realistic financial plan, including startup costs, revenue projections, and a break-even analysis to attract investors.
• Effectively draft your pricing strategy and unique selling propositions to meet the specific needs of your target customers.
• Provide a clear outline of your business operations to efficiently deliver your planning services and seize new opportunities.
• Craft your marketing techniques, sales tactics, and promotional activities to reach a wider audience.
• Recognize your key competitors, and develop strategies that make your event planning business stand out in the competitive landscape.

How to Write an Event Planning Business Plan?

• Get a Business Plan Template
• Write an Executive Summary
• Provide a Company Overview
• Conduct an Industry and Market Analysis
• Describe your Product and Service Offerings
• Outline a Sales and Marketing Plan
• Introduce Your Team
• Outline Business Operations
• Prepare a Financial Plan

1. Get a Business Plan Template

Before you start writing a business plan for your event planning business, it is recommended to get a business plan template first.

It’s like having a valuable resource for your business planning. It not only simplifies the business plan writing process but also helps you include all the essential elements in your plan.

However, you can effectively organize your thoughts and accurately draft a strategically sound business document according to your specific requirements and preferences.

Not only that, it sets the stage for a comprehensive, professional business plan that empowers you to highlight your vision, attract potential investors, and navigate the competitive event planning landscape.

If you are a budding entrepreneur or looking for a polished template, choose Upmetrics’ business plan template now and ensure that you won’t skip any important facts in your plan.

Say goodbye to boring templates

Build your business plan faster and easier with AI

Plans starting from $7/month

2. Write an Executive Summary

An executive summary is the first and foremost section of your event planning business plan. It provides a brief introduction to the entire business plan.

Make sure that it is clear, concise, and engaging, as it will create your first impression and attract investors or readers to delve further into your plan.

Start this section by describing your idea behind an event planning and type of business; for example, are you a startup business, want to grow an existing one, or running a business chain?

Communicate your business objectives and emphasize how you will be different from other event-planning businesses. Here is an example of event planning objectives using Upmetrics:

Next, give an overview of each of the subsequent sections, including offered services, market opportunities, marketing strategies, and financial projections that will be explored in greater detail within the plan.

Not only that, you can end this summary with a compelling call to action, inviting potential investors or readers to the next meeting if they are interested in your event planning.

Generally, this section is written after the whole event business plan is ready. It is often the easiest way to do so as you have simply gone through and written all the key sections of your plan.

3. Provide a Company Overview

Now, provide detailed information about your event plan business. It contains ownership, legal structure, office location, business history, and other such business-related facts.

Begin with the intro of what type of events you are organizing. For instance, it will be corporate events (catering to businesses), social events/celebrations(wedding planning, birthday parties, etc), or niche events(specialized in just one type).

Discuss a little bit more about your business history, including when you started event planning and what milestones you have accomplished. Also, accentuate your mission statement.

Take reference from the below example describing the mission of the event planning company:

In an ever-changing, fast-paced world, success is determined by good choices for lasting effects. Eventel strives to be the best choice for clients by helping to ease their event planning burden.

Through consistent, predictable professionalism, Eventel will ensure a worry-free and hassle-free event at a reasonable price.

Event also has internal clients to serve. The event will strive to provide the same predictable and professional working environment to its employees and contracted vendors, justly compensating them for their services.

It is also a priority to make a comfortable living wage for its owners, founders, full-time staff, and their families.

Keeping in tune with the needs of the market, utilizing the latest technology and trends, all while ensuring the client receives the individual attention they deserve, is the vision and daily mission of Eventel; The Event Planning Specialists.

In addition to that, you can mention your startup summary and future business goals, as this section gives an in-depth overview of your business.

4. Conduct an Industry and Market Analysis

Starting an event management business requires a strategic events industry and market analysis. So, take some time to go further and locate more accurate data.

Try to include certain key elements in this section:

Market size and growth potential

You need to study specific data about various markets in which you are trying to get into and ensure profitability. So, describe your market size & growth potential and whether you will target a niche or a much broader market.

For instance, the USA industry revenue for event planners has grown at a CAGR of 4.1% over the past five years and reached $5.6 billion in 2023. So, it is crucial to define the target market segment.

Target market segment

Start this section by describing your target market. Define your ideal customer and explain what types of services they prefer. Creating a buyer persona will help you easily define your target market to your readers.

Do proper market research and try to create a buyer’s persona in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles.

Take reference from the below example written using our innovative AI writing assistant :

Competitive analysis

Identify and analyze your direct and indirect competitors. Recognize their strengths & weaknesses, and describe what differentiates your business from other planners.

Direct competitors can be other event planning businesses, while wedding planners, local venues, caterers, or conference centers can be indirect competitors.

Point out how you have a competitive edge in the market, such as superior event management options, user-friendly methods/tools to book your services, and adequate pricing plans with better services.

Not only that, describe emerging market trends in the industry and explain how you will cope with all the directions. You can also list regulations and licensing requirements that may affect your company.

5. Describe your Product and Service Offerings

Next, specify the scope of your products and service offerings. As an event management business, you can describe the size and type of events you cater to, including a variety of event planning services.

This section must be informative, precise, and client-focused. By providing a clear and compelling description of your offerings, you can help potential investors or readers understand the value of your business.

While drafting your  event planning services and products, you can take reference from the below example:

Eventel provides event planning in a wide range of applications. We guarantee satisfaction in the areas of appearance, performance, and taste. 

The following is a sampling of the types of events we plan every year:

• Corporate events or meetings, Training, and Retreats
• Conferences and Workshops
• Birthday parties, Anniversaries, Graduations, and Holidays
• Weddings, Receptions, and Showers
• Company picnics, banquets, and award ceremonies
• Caterer coordination and decor
• Trade shows and fashion shows

Effectively define your pricing plans for event planning services. Also, communicate your services to the customers by sharing a detailed description of the procedure you use while working with clients.

Mention if your event planning company offers any additional services. You may include services like lighting & sound, vendor negotiation, guest concierge services, etc.

6. Outline a Sales and Marketing Plan

Writing the sales and marketing strategy section means a list of tactics you will use to attract and retain your clients. Here are some key elements to include in your sales & marketing strategies:

Social media marketing

Use social media platforms to present your company’s essence. Regularly post exquisite snapshots or videos of your planned social events, decor, and behind-the-scenes moments.

User-friendly website

Assure that your event management company has a user-friendly website that provides basic information about your services, pricing, and contact

details. Also, share informative blog post content or event videos.

Pricing strategy

Describe your pricing strategy—how you plan to price your services and stay competitive in the local market. You can mention any discounts you plan on offering to attract new customers.

Collaborations

Build an extensive vendor network to expand your reach and draw their existing customers. This might do wonders for your business and enhance your brand image.

Offline advertising

Effectively reach your target audience using offline advertising methods like brochures, newspapers, social gatherings, or events. Also, try to offer a personalized approach or stress-free planning to retain existing clients.

7. Introduce Your Team

A powerful management team is paramount for demonstrating your business’s ability to thrive in the event planning industry.

Letting your readers or investors know about your business leadership or key managers will help them have a clear idea of who is running your event planning company.

So, start this section by introducing key team members and highlighting their event planning skills & previous experience.

Jot down their qualifications and specific responsibilities. You can also shed light on how your experienced event planners contribute to the success of your business.

Next, describe the compensation plan for the leadership team and event planners, including salaries, bonuses, and other benefits. This can help key stakeholders to ascertain how much percentage is allocated to salaries.

If you have a board of advisors for your event management business, then mention them along with their roles and experience.

8. Outline Business Operations

Now, it’s time to outline the processes and procedures involved in your day-to-day business operations. Detail how you will eventually plan to manage your business effectively.

Staffing & training

Highlight your staffing needs by mentioning the number of employees, planners, or coordinators. Also, include their qualifications, the training required, and the duties they will perform.

Operational process

Outline the processes and procedures you will use to run your event planning business. It may include initial client meetings, decor, party favors, caterer coordination, set up/clean up, etc.

Equipment and machinery

You can also include the list of equipment and machinery required for event planning, such as office supplies, camera & photography equipment, event planning software, etc.

Explain how these technologies will help you maintain quality standards and improve the efficiency of your business operations. Refer to the below example written using Upmetrics AI assistant:

9. Prepare a Financial Plan

For a successful event planning business, you need to prepare a well-structured and in-depth financial plan with a realistic financial projection. It comes last in the business plan but is the most important section for investors.

So, mention all the below key components in your financial plan:

• Profit and loss statement
• Sales forecast
• Cash flow statement
• Balance sheet
• Break-even analysis
• Financial needs
• Tax considerations

From the above, you can identify the funding needs and evaluate the funding resources for your event planning company, including bank loans, SBA-guaranteed loans, angel investors, and personal savings.

In this section, you need to make a few assumptions. It will greatly affect the financial forecasts of your business. Refer below table to make important assumptions:

Well, having a realistic financial plan in your hand not only helps you present your business’s fiscal health but also emphasizes its sustainability.

However, calculating all the financial statements from scratch can be an overwhelming task. But, not to worry; use Upmetrics’ financial forecasting tool to formulate all your financial projections.

All you need to do is provide the information you have, and let the tool estimate financial factors, and create visual reports for you. No manual data entry, recalling Excel formulas, or preparing graphs—nothing.

Here’s an example of a projected cash flow statement for an event planning business:

Download Free Event Planning Business Plan Template

Need help writing your event planning business plan from scratch? Well, here you go; download our free event planning business plan template now and start writing.

This modern, user-friendly event management business plan template is specifically designed for your event business.

With a step-by-step guide and example, it assists you in creating your own plan without missing any crucial details.

The Quickest Way to turn a Business Idea into a Business Plan

Fill-in-the-blanks and automatic financials make it easy.

Prepare Your Business Plan with Upmetrics AI

Finally! You know how to write an event planning business plan with the help of our free sample business plan template. So, you are one step closer to starting or growing your business confidently- pretty exciting, right?

But you know what else is exciting? Your business planning process can be even faster and easier than this. Yes, you heard it right; it’s possible with the power of the Upmetrics AI assistant tool .

So, take a sigh of relief and focus only on planning the most happening events in the town!

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Frequently asked questions, what are the key components of an event planning business plan.

Writing a professional event planning business plan involves the following key components:

• Executive summary
• Company overview
• Industry and market analysis
• Product and service offerings
• Sales and marketing plan
• Management team
• Business operations
• Financial plan

How often should I update my Event Planning Business Plan?

Your event planning business plan should be reviewed and updated at least once in a year or more often if there are significant changes in your business environment or services.

What are some tips for writing an Event Planning Business Plan?

Consider the following factors before writing an Event Planning Business Plan:

• Define your niche and business objectives
• Clearly mention unique selling points
• Be realistic in the financial statement
• Understand your target customer
• Stay agile in a dynamic industry

How much does it cost to start an event planning business?

A fair estimation for an event planning business can range from a few thousand to tens of thousands of dollars. It can vary widely depending on office space, equipment, and initial inventory.

About the Author

Vinay Kevadiya

Vinay Kevadiya is the founder and CEO of Upmetrics, the #1 business planning software. His ultimate goal with Upmetrics is to revolutionize how entrepreneurs create, manage, and execute their business plans. He enjoys sharing his insights on business planning and other relevant topics through his articles and blog posts. Read more

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Event Planning Business Plan Template

Written by Dave Lavinsky

Event Planning Business Plan

Over the past 20+ years, we have helped over 5,000 entrepreneurs and business owners create business plans to start and grow their event planning businesses. On this page, we will first give you some background information with regards to the importance of business planning. We will then go through an event planning business plan step-by-step so you can create your plan today.

Download our Ultimate Business Plan Template here >

What is an Event Planning Business Plan?

A business plan provides a snapshot of your own event planning business as it stands today, and lays out your growth plan for the next five years. It explains your business goals and your strategy for reaching them. It also includes research to support your plans.

Why You Need a Business Plan for Your Event Planning Company

If you’re looking to start an event planner business or grow your existing one you need a business plan. A business plan will help you raise funding, if needed, and plan out the growth of your event planning business to improve your chances of success. Your event planning business plan is a living document that should be updated annually as your company grows and changes.

Source of Funding for Event Planning Businesses

With regards to funding, the main sources of secure funding for an event planning business are bank loans, personal funding, credit cards, and angel investors. With regards to bank loans, banks will want to review your business plan and gain confidence that you will be able to repay your loan and interest. To acquire this confidence, the loan officer will not only want to confirm that your financials are reasonable. But they will want to see a professional plan. Such a plan will give them the confidence that you can successfully and professionally operate a business.

Another common form of secure funding for an event planning business is angel investors. Angel investors are wealthy individuals who will write you a check. They will either take equity in return for their funding or, like a bank, they will give you a loan. Venture capitalists will not fund an event planning business.

Finish Your Business Plan Today!

How to write a business plan for event planning.

When you write a business plan, you should include the following 10 key aspects:

Executive Summary

Your executive summary provides an introduction to your business plan, but it is normally the last section you write because it provides a summary of each important component of your plan.

The goal of your Executive Summary is to quickly engage the reader. Explain to them the type of event planning business you are operating and the status; for example, are you a startup, do you have an event planning business that you would like to grow, or are you operating a chain of businesses.

Next, provide an overview of each of the subsequent sections of your plan. For example, give a brief overview of the event planning business industry. Discuss the type of business you are operating. Detail your direct competitors. Give an overview of your target audience. Provide a snapshot of your marketing strategy and plan. Identify the key members of your team. And offer an overview of your financial plan.  

Company Analysis

In your company analysis, you will detail the type of business you are operating.

For example, you might operate one of the following types:

• Corporate Events : this type of event planning business caters to businesses, charities, nonprofit organizations, and the like to plan fundraisers, receptions, conventions, trade shows, competitions, award ceremonies, product launches, and other types of meetings.
• Social Events : this type of event planning business targets middle- to upper-income individuals and families to plan events such as weddings, birthdays, reunions, and other types of celebrations.
• Niche Events : some event planners specialize in just one of the above event types.

In addition to explaining the type of event planning business you operate, the Company Analysis section of your business plan needs to provide background on the business.

Include answers to questions such as:

• When and why did you start the business?
• What milestones have you achieved to date? Milestones could include sales goals you’ve reached, new contracts, etc.
• Your legal structure. Are you incorporated as an S-Corp? An LLC? A sole proprietorship? Explain your business structure here.

Industry Analysis

In your industry analysis, you need to provide an overview of the event planning business.

While this may seem unnecessary, it serves multiple purposes.

First, researching the industry educates you. It helps you understand the target market in which you are operating. 

Secondly, market research can improve your strategy particularly if your research identifies market trends. For example, if there was a trend towards events that adhere to social distancing guidelines, it would be helpful to ensure your plan details what approach you would take (suggested venues, creative solutions for inclusion, etc.).

The third reason for market research is to prove to readers that you are an expert in your industry. By conducting the research and presenting it in your plan, you achieve just that.

The following questions should be answered in the industry analysis section:

• How big is the event planning industry (in dollars)?
• Is the market declining or increasing?
• Who are the key competitors in the market?
• Who are the key suppliers in the market?
• What trends are affecting the industry?
• What is the industry’s growth forecast over the next 5 – 10 years?
• What is the relevant market size? That is, how big is the potential market for your business. You can extrapolate such a figure by assessing the size of the market in the entire country and then applying that figure to your local population.

Customer Analysis

The customer analysis section must detail the clientele you serve and/or expect to serve.

The following are examples of customer segments: private and corporate clients, high-income households, medium-income households, engaged couples, etc.

As you can imagine, the customer segment(s) you choose will have a great impact on the type of event planning company you operate and the event services you offer. Clearly, businesses would want a different atmosphere, pricing, and product options, and would respond to different marketing promotions than engaged couples.

Try to break out your target customers in terms of their demographic and psychographic profiles. With regards to demographics, including a discussion of the age groups, genders, locations, and income levels of the customers you seek to serve. Because most event planning companies primarily serve customers living in the same city or town, such demographic information is easy to find on government websites.

Psychographic profiles explain the wants and needs of your target market. The more you can understand and define these needs, the better you will do to attract customers and retain your existing customers.

With Growthink’s Ultimate Business Plan Template you can finish your plan in just 8 hours or less!

Competitive Analysis

Your competitive analysis should identify the indirect and direct competitors your business faces and then focus on the latter.

Direct competitors are other planners and businesses that offer event planning services.

Indirect competitors are other options that customers have to purchase from you that aren’t direct competitors. This includes caterers, venues, and customers planning events on their own. You need to mention such competition to show you understand that not everyone who throws a party hires an event planner each time.

With regards to direct competition, you want to detail the other businesses with which you compete. Most likely, your direct competitors will be other businesses that offer event planning services very close to your site.

For each such competitor, provide an overview of their businesses and document their strengths and weaknesses. Unless you once worked at your competitors’ businesses, it will be impossible to know everything about them. But you should be able to find out key things about them such as:

• What types of customers do they serve?
• What planning services do they offer (wedding planning, baby showers, birthday parties, social events, etc.)?
• What is their pricing (premium, low, etc.)?
• What are they good at?
• What are their weaknesses?

With regards to the last two questions, think about your answers from the customers’ perspective. 

The final part of your competitive analysis section is to document your areas of competitive advantage. For example:

• Will you provide superior event management options (e.g., more cuisine types, better venue options, etc.)?
• Will you provide event options that your competitors don’t offer?
• Will you make it easier or faster for customers to book your services (e.g., utilizing event planning software, etc.)?
• Will you provide better customer service?
• Will you offer better pricing?

Think about ways you will outperform your competition and document them in this section of your plan.

Marketing Plan

Traditionally, a marketing plan includes the four P’s: Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. For an event management business plan, your marketing strategy should include the following:

In the product section, you should reiterate the type of business that you documented in your Company Analysis. Then, detail the specific products/services you will be offering. For example, in addition to designing the event, locating the venue, arranging vendors, coordinating personnel, and supervising the event, will you offer services such as catering, decor, and entertainment?

In this section, document the prices you will offer and how they compare to your competitors. Essentially in the product and price sub-sections, you are presenting the services you offer and their prices.

Place refers to the location of your event management business, conference centers, and/or venues in which you own and/or have a relationship. Document your location and mention how the location will impact your success.

The final part of your event planning business marketing plan is the promotions section. Here you will document how you will drive customers to your site. The following are some promotional methods you might consider:

• Social media marketing
• Advertising in local papers and magazines
• Reaching out to local bloggers and websites 
• Partnerships with local organizations (e.g., getting on the list of recommended vendors with local venues)
• Local radio advertising
• Banner ads at local venues

Operations Plan

While the earlier sections of your event planner business plan explained your goals, your operations plan describes how you will meet them. Your operations plan should have two distinct sections as follows.

Everyday short-term processes include all of the tasks involved in running your event planning business such as interviewing clients, making arrangements, keeping the store/studio clean, etc.

Long-term goals are the milestones you hope to achieve. These could include the dates when you expect to serve your 100th customer, or when you hope to reach $X in total sales. It could also be when you expect to hire your Xth employee or launch in a new market.

Management Team

To demonstrate your own event planning business’ ability to succeed as a business, a strong management team is essential. Highlight your key players’ backgrounds, emphasizing those skills and experiences that prove their ability to grow a company. 

Ideally, you and/or your team members have direct experience as event planners or in the industry. If so, highlight this experience and expertise. But also highlight any experience that you think will help your business succeed.

If your team is lacking, consider assembling an advisory board. An advisory board would include 2 to 8 individuals who would act as mentors to your business. They would help answer questions and provide strategic guidance. If needed, look for advisory board members with experience in event planning and/or successfully running small businesses.  

Financial Plan

Your financial plan should include your 5-year financial statement broken out both monthly or quarterly for the first year and then annually. Your financial statements include your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements.

Income Statement : an income statement is more commonly called a Profit and Loss statement or P&L. It shows your revenues and then subtracts your costs to show whether you turned a profit or not.

In developing your income statement, you need to devise assumptions. For example, will you plan one event per week or several events? And will sales grow by 2% or 10% per year? As you can imagine, your choice of assumptions will greatly impact the financial forecasts for your business. As much as possible, conduct research to try to root your assumptions in reality.

Balance Sheets : While balance sheets include much information, to simplify them to the key items you need to know about, balance sheets show your assets and liabilities. For instance, if you spend $100,000 on building out your business, that will not give you immediate profits. Rather it is an asset that will hopefully help you generate profits for years to come. Likewise, if a bank writes you a check for $100.000, you don’t need to pay it back immediately. Rather, that is a liability you will pay back over time.

Cash Flow Statement : Your cash flow statement will help determine how much money you need to start or grow your business and make sure you never run out of money. What most entrepreneurs and business owners don’t realize is that you can turn a profit but run out of money and go bankrupt. For example, let’s say a company approached you with a massive $100,000 event contract, that would cost you $50,000 to fulfill. Well, in most cases, you would have to pay that $50,000 now for supplies, equipment rentals, employee salaries, etc. But let’s say the company didn’t pay you for 180 days. During those 180 days, you could run out of money.

In developing your Income Statement and Balance Sheets be sure to include several of the key startup costs needed in starting or growing your business:

• Location build-out including design fees, construction, etc.
• The total cost of equipment and furnishings like decor, sound systems, etc.
• Cost of maintaining an adequate amount of supplies
• Payroll or salaries paid to staff
• Business insurance
• Taxes and permits
• Legal expenses

Attach your full financial projections in the appendix of your plan along with any supporting documents that make your plan more compelling. For example, you might include your store design blueprint or location lease.

  Event Planning Summary Putting together your own event planner business plan is a worthwhile endeavor. If you follow the event planning sample template above, by the time you are done, you will truly be an expert. You will really understand the business, your competition, and your customers. You will have developed a marketing plan and will really understand what it takes to launch and grow a successful event planning business.

  OR, Let Us Develop Your Plan For You Since 1999, Growthink has developed business plans for thousands of companies who have gone on to achieve tremendous success.

Click here to see how Growthink’s business plan consulting services can create your business plan for you.   Other Helpful Business Plan Articles & Templates

How to start an event planning business in 8 steps

In 2020, the COVID-19 crisis changed everything for event planners. Whether the industry thinks of 2020 as a deviation or devastation strongly depends on how planning professionals adapt to uncertainty. One thing's for sure, virtual and hybrid meetings are here to stay, with the virtual market at $94 billion in 2020 and an expected compound annual growth rate of 23.7% between now and 2028 .

With all the change in the air, enterprising event entrepreneurs build social connections no matter the distance. So read on to avoid being amongst the 50% of all small businesses that fail in the first 5 years—and, more importantly, to give your new event planning venture the right start.

1) Evaluate your event planning skillset

It's common for event planning newbies to believe the business is all about showmanship, champagne, and shindigs. While that's the final product of your meticulous preparation, things behind the scenes are much less spectacular. There are a hundred to-dos that the planning professional must check off for every event to guarantee an enjoyable time for the client and guests.

Amongst other tasks, you may have to:

• Create an event theme or design.
• Find a venue.
• Arrange entertainment.
• Book vendors.
• Send RSVPs and marketing info to attendees.
• Balance the budget.
• Coordinate with staff and subcontractors.
• Decorate the space.
• Oversee the caterers and bar staff.
• Supervise the event.

If you want to start an event planning company, it might be smart to test out a job or three before making the dive. To begin, think about signing up as a personal assistant or apprentice for an experienced party planner. That way, you can evaluate whether the work is a suitable match before venturing out on your own.

Or you can look below for traits you already possess or ones you're willing to pick up as you go.

• Attention to detail. Planning events requires diligence with finances, logistics, and time management.
• Customer service. Event planners must contact their clients often. Thus, excellent customer service may help build the planner's reputation and improve client satisfaction.
• Education or experience. Knowledge of best practices and prior event planning experience help. A party planner may have also attended college or earned a certification.
• Interpersonal relationship skills. During a single event, an event planner will need to engage various people, many of whom will not be the planner's staff. Therefore, it's critical to form solid interpersonal connections and work effectively with a wide range of personalities. An event planner is the ultimate "people person."
• Negotiation. Event planners negotiate with suppliers, entertainers, and contractors to reduce expenses while ensuring the client receives what they want.
• Organization. Every event has many moving components that planning professionals must manage, and good organization is essential throughout the process to guarantee that nothing is missed or neglected.
• Under-pressure performance. Even with the finest preparation, unforeseen problems will arise during an event. Event planners must create solutions to issues fast and always think on their festive feet.

Create your event planning business plan

"Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do."

Those words are from the man who has created more magical experiences than anyone else. Walt Disney's quote sounds like inviting people to your party, and his wisdom is perfect for those who make a living by bringing folks together. But before you can show the world how well you do what you do, consider the following questions when starting your business :

• Executive Summary: How would you describe the business and your potential success?
• Overview: What's the business's background, legal structure, and other key attributes?
• Industry Analysis: What does market research reveal about the event planning industry in your area, including size, opportunity, and current trends?
• Competitive Analysis: Who are your competitors, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
• Marketing: What is your marketing strategy to reach potential customers?
• Management: What unique skills do you bring to the business?
• Operations Plan: How will you manage the day-to-day tasks of the business?
• Financials: What are your estimated revenues, expenses, and profits for each of your first 5 years?

2) Find your event planning niche

Finding a niche is as simple as picking a subset of the broader event planning industry to concentrate on or specialize in. A niche allows you to shine in an overcrowded marketplace and helps your target market track you down. Saying yes to the wrong client is saying no to Mr. or Mrs. Right. So, find the niche that matches your expertise and focus.

Take a look below for common niches and types of events.

Corporate Events

• Award ceremonies
• Charity and non-profit events (such as fundraising events)
• Conferences
• Corporate bonding retreats
• Corporate meetings and seminars
• Fashion shows
• Golf events
• Grand Openings
• Experiential events (such as pop-ups and product or service launches)
• Holiday parties
• Networking events
• Trade shows

Private/Social Events

• Anniversaries
• Baby showers
• Bachelor/bachelorette parties
• Bridal/wedding showers
• Milestone birthday parties
• Murder-mystery parties
• Theme parties
• Surprise parties
• Wedding planning

3) Uncover your event planning unique selling proposition (USP)

Your unique selling proposition expresses what distinguishes you from every other event planner. According to top business thought leaders, in a world where clients are drowning in options and competition is fierce, 90% of a small pie is preferable to 10% of a large pie. So, for example, an enterprising event planner might create the USP, "Grand Opening Specialist for Luxury Retailers."

4) Pick your event planning business name

Are you ready for some fun? Business ideas move to the realm of reality as soon as a company has a name. Pick a name that blends your niche, USP, and expertise as an event planner. Perhaps it's as simple as Grand Openings Event Planning Company or as whimsical as Lux Influx Events. Try a business name generator , research competitors, or brainstorm with friends and family.

5) Figure out your financial plan

According to event planning tech company EventForte, profit margins in the industry can go as high as a healthy 40% . But don't rush off to the bank quite yet. To earn top dollar, you have to get those financial duckies in a row. So, if numbers are not your cup of event planning tea, you can always rely on a bookkeeper, software, or your favorite accountant. Then, when you're ready, you need to crunch your upfront costs and set up your pricing.

Calculate your startup costs

If you're starting as a side hustle, you'll need little more than a home office, computer, phone, website, some marketing materials, and event management software. It's common for people to get started for less than four or five thousand bucks. Furthermore, Entrepreneur.com estimates between $8,000 and $31,000, with the lower end for home-based business and the more expensive side for the type of business that launches with an office space and a few employees.

Structure your pricing strategy

How should you charge for your planning services? Your location, expertise, niche, and competition will help you set your fees. Below you'll find the five most prevalent ways of pricing event planning.

• Hourly rate. A typical hourly fee for a novice event planner may be as low as $25 per hour and over $100 per hour for top event planners. Usually, a corporate event generates approximately 30% higher rates than social events.
• Flat fee. A flat fee makes it straightforward for you and the client and is probably the most common arrangement. It is customary to charge a price for your services and a percentage of total vendor fees. A typical vendor commission runs from 10 to 15%. For instance, if a caterer's fee is $4,000 for an event, your cut for finding and arranging that specific vendor would be $400-$600.
• Percentage of the event. Some event planners choose to charge a portion of the entire event budget, such as 15 to 20%.
• Day-of coordination. At some point, a client will ask you for day-of coordination. This fee structure is most common for wedding planners, but it may also occur at other types of events.
• Vendor commission. A small percentage of planners opt to either drastically reduce their fees or charge nothing for their services, earning all their money via commissions from the vendors they choose.

6) Get your paperwork in order

It's just a few hurdles to jump, and you're racing toward the finish line.

a) Register your business name with the state

Before you find your first clients, you need to register your business entity with state and local authorities. Also, you'll need to pick a type of business structure such as sole proprietorship, limited liability company (LLC), or corporation.

b) Apply for your EIN

Your employer identification number (EIN) identifies your business for taxes. Surprisingly, getting one is both free and easy. Get your EIN here .

c) Open a business bank account

Once you have your EIN, you can open a business checking account, apply for a loan, and separate your personal and business finances.

d) Obtain permits and licenses

This step separates the planners from the pretenders, but it's well worth the hustle to protect your reputation and potential clients. Your state will likely require several permits and licenses for your business and events. Standard ones include:

• Building permit (tents). You need one for carnivals, political demonstrations, pop-up performing arts, races, and many other outdoor events that require tents.
• Business license. Almost all businesses require licensing with the state to operate.
• Event permit. The requirements vary by city, so contact the local government for relevant ordinances.
• Fire/fireworks permit. You must check with your county if it's legal to display fireworks for your event.
• Health permit. You can get this from your county's health department.
• Liquor license , if applicable. You'll have to get this if you're planning to serve alcoholic beverages, and you can check the Alcoholic Beverage Control board for your state's specifics.
• Noise permit. If your event's outside, you'll likely need one.
• Seller's permit. You may need this as an event planner.
• Temporary use/structure permit. There are two kinds of temporary use permits. One is for vacant land, and the other is for temporary space for parking, vendors, and loading areas.

e) Insure your event planning business

Some first-time event planners forget about insurance until it's too late. When you're dealing with the public, there's always the potential for the unexpected. Every event planner needs solid small business insurance —that's why it's essential to shop around to lock in the best deal. Check out this overview of important coverages you may need to insure your event planning business :

• Workers' compensation : This coverage protects your employees if they get sick or injured while working in your event planning business. Every state requires workers' comp, and the consequences of skipping this coverage could cause the state to close your business. (You can get a quick estimate on what you'd pay for workers' comp with our 60-second workers' compensation calculator. )
• General liability insurance : This policy protects your event planning business if you're sued for a property damage or injury claim. (Expensive lawsuits can quickly put an event planning service out of business.)
• Property insurance : This policy protects your event planning equipment, such as your laptop or other devices you use in your business or home office from perils like fire or theft.
• Business interruption : This coverage, also called business income insurance, provides financial support to your event planning business if you must close because of a covered reason.
• Business Owner's Policy: This policy bundles general liability, business property, and business interruption insurance for your event planning business in one convenient package.

7) Hire your first employees

Many event planners launch as solopreneurs, but they soon look for a personal assistant. Or perhaps you want to hire a junior planner, salesperson, or office manager. Of course, you'll need workers' compensation insurance to operate legally whenever you add that first team member. After finishing your paperwork and legal requirements, head over to the Small Business Administration for a helpful checklist.

8) Spread the word about your new event planning business

Event planners are marketers at heart. After all, who's better at promotion than party planners? Now, you can parlay some of that creativity to advertise your new business. When building your marketing strategy to attract new clients, you could:

• Build a website . Get the domain name for your business. A service with templates like Weebly or Squarespace can make this easy.
• List your local business on Google and Yelp. Sign up for your Google My Business and Yelp profile.
• Launch your social media profiles. Get your unique Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, and other handles relevant to your niche.
• Distribute brochures, flyers, and business cards. Call it old-fashioned, but it still works, and you might get your foot in the door with new clients.
• Create word-of-mouth. Small Business owners know there's nothing better than word-of-mouth advertising, and the best way to get it is to please clients with a service they can rave about. Ask happy clients and customers for video testimonials that you can post on your website and social media accounts.
• Partner with related businesses. Businesses such as caterers, florists, and photographers can be excellent referral sources.

Bonus: Check out these tips for running a successful event planning business

You're just about ready to start your own event planning business, so it's time to break out the bubbly. But before you pop the top, perhaps you're still thirsty for more best practices. Here are a few places with knowledge you can sip on:

• Event Manager Blog : A great online library of articles, webinars, and videos covering every facet of the event planning industry.
• Meeting Professional International (MPI): "Meeting Professionals International is the largest meeting and event industry association worldwide. The organization provides innovative and relevant education, networking opportunities, and business exchanges, and acts as a prominent voice for the promotion and growth of the industry."
• #EventIcons Podcast : The hosts interview event-industry luminaries and up-and-comers, and the topics span from the everyday to the unexpected. The show has a friendly atmosphere and is a wealth of information for both beginners and seasoned experts. If you want to watch, #EventIcons is also accessible in recorded video format.

This article's been a lot to absorb. Maybe you're pondering just how to stay sane as an event planning entrepreneur .

If you're still crazy enough to start a party planning business, you can get insurance with Huckleberry in about the same time it takes to make your favorite caterer's samples disappear. (Getting a quote is free, easy, and 100% online.)

Buy business insurance online in less than 5 minutes.

No paperwork. Instant coverage. No-commitment quote.

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Small Business Trends

How to start an event planning business, the event planning industry.

The event planning industry is diverse and growing. It’s always evolving, and the demand is always increasing as technology revolutionizes the whole process. Globalization has opened it up so planners can work on multicultural celebrations and international conferences.

Choosing Your Own Event Planning Niche

A closer look at the wedding planning niche, steps to launching your own event planning business, market analysis for a successful event planning business.

Crafting an Event Planning Business Plan

A good business plan serves as a roadmap. Event planners can use one to identify and streamline bottlenecks in their operations.

Licensing and Certifications for an Event Planning Company

Setting Up Your Event Planning Business Workspace

Technology like event planning software and project management tools are important. Keeping track of your finances is easier with software like QuickBooks.

Building a Portfolio for Your Event Planning Service

Leveraging social media accounts for your event planning business, pricing your event planning services, marketing your party planning business, building a network and partnerships in event planning.

Printed business cards and brochures can be distributed at community centers and local businesses . Press releases help you to gain exposure.

Embracing Technology in Event Planning

How Much Does It Cost to Start an Event Planning Business?

Navigating challenges in planning events, faqs: how to start an event planning business, are event planning businesses profitable.

Profits in the events industry depend on different factors, like a steady stream of diverse and loyal clients. Specializing in a certain niche, like weddings, will make you more money.

What Qualities are Needed to be an Event Planner?

What are the peak seasons for an event planner, how to start a party planning business with no money.

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Start an Event Planning Business In 7 Steps

By Homebase Team

You’ve got the passion and the vision. Maybe you’ve even helped plan a friend’s wedding or a company party. But taking the leap into starting your own event planning business? That’s a whole new ballgame, and it’s normal to feel lost or overwhelmed.

It’s about practical steps, hard work, and a sprinkle of creativity.

From identifying your target market to tackling legal requirements, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know, without the runaround. We’ll even give you a heads-up about tools like Homebase that could be useful down the line.

Get your team in sync with our easy-to-use, all-in-one employee app.

1. Research and market analysis

The first step is to have a clear picture of the market landscape. Your goal? Uncover opportunities and threats, so you can position your business effectively. 

Here’s how you can approach it, step by step:

• Identify your competitors: Who’s already out there? What services do they offer, and at what price points? 
• Understand your target audience : Who are you catering to? What are their needs and budgets? If your area hosts many small businesses, maybe affordable launch events are a niche.
• Analyze trends and demands : What’s trending in your area? Farm-to-table weddings or tech-savvy corporate gatherings? Tools like Google Trends are a goldmine.
• What makes your region unique, and how can you leverage it?
• What mistakes have others made that you can learn from?
• What support networks (vendors, venues, etc.) are available locally?

These steps are the foundation of your business. Research wisely so your choices are data-driven, not just gut feelings.

2. Decide on your niche, services, and branding

Once you’ve got a grip on the market, it’s time to carve out your own space. Choosing a niche is more than picking a category; it’s about finding where your passion and the market’s need intersect. 

Here’s how to approach it:

• Find your niche : Are you aiming for tech conferences, startup launch events, or perhaps industry-specific trade shows? Identify what excites you and what’s in demand in your area. For example, if you live in a tech hub, focusing on tech-related corporate events could be your sweet spot.’
• Define your services : What will you offer within your niche? Will you offer end-to-end solutions or specialize in certain aspects like venue selection or guest management? Perhaps your forte is virtual event planning, catering to remote teams.
• Logo and visuals : These should echo your style and the feel of the events you plan.
• Mission statement : What sets you apart in the business event landscape? Is it your innovative approach or unbeatable vendor connections?
• Value proposition : Clearly define what clients will gain by choosing your service. Is it the seamless integration of technology or the unique venues you offer?

Deciding on a niche is all about focusing your energy where you can truly shine. This is where your business starts to feel real, so take the time to get it right.

3. Build a business plan and establish pricing

Let’s say you’re launching your event planning business, focusing on corporate events like conferences and product launches. You’ve recruited a small team, and one of your first projects is a week-long business expo in a city with stringent labor regulations.

Suddenly, you find your team working longer hours, right on the edge of breaching overtime rules. Failure to comply with local labor laws could mean fines, not to mention the potential harm to your budding reputation. It’s a real headache that you didn’t need at such a critical time.

With a platform like Homebase, you can easily access information on local labor laws, calculate correct overtime pay, and even consult live with a certified advisor to review your staffing plan. 

Plus, establishing pricing demands a clear understanding of costs, including potential legal costs. With access to Homebase’s digital library of guides, training, and templates tailored to your business, you’ll be well-equipped to build a solid, compliant foundation to build a sustainable and legally sound business.

4. Start networking and community-building

Your network isn’t just about gathering names and numbers. It’s about building a community that you can rely on, and that trusts you in return.

Here’s how you can build your network effectively:

• Suppliers and vendors : Establish relationships with dependable suppliers. If you’re organizing a tech conference, having a reliable tech supplier ensures that you’ll have the latest gadgets and gear on time. No last-minute scrambles, no disappointed clients.
• Venue partnerships : Negotiate partnerships with unique venues. Let’s say you find a modern, eco-friendly building that resonates with your client’s brand for a product launch. Forming a relationship with this venue could mean exclusive access to future events.
• Event-related alliances : Collaborate with other event-focused businesses. If you’re planning a business gala, team up with a renowned local chef to offer exclusive catering options, turning a standard meal into a gourmet experience.
• Community engagement: Don’t just network; engage with your community. Attend local business events, join professional groups, and actively participate. When you’re planning a charity fundraiser, having strong community ties can amplify your reach, making the event a true success.

5. Develop online presence and marketing strategy

Your online presence isn’t just a part of your marketing strategy; it’s often the first impression potential clients will have of your business event planning services. 

Here’s how you can ensure it’s a lasting one:

• Website : Your website is your digital storefront. Make it sleek and professional, highlighting your previous successes. Include a portfolio of past business conferences or trade shows, so potential clients can see your expertise in action.
• Social media : Utilize platforms like LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) to engage with other professionals. Share valuable insights about event planning, showcase behind-the-scenes preparations, and celebrate successes.
• Content marketing : Start a blog or a YouTube channel sharing behind the scenes in planning your grand opening and other tips starting your business events . By offering free, valuable content, you position yourself as an expert, attracting clients who value your insights and approach.
• SEO and advertising : Invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and targeted advertising to reach potential clients actively looking for event planning services. If a business is searching for a planner for their next big product launch, you want to be at the top of their search results.
• Client testimonials : Encourage satisfied clients to leave positive reviews on platforms like Google My Business. Imagine a potential client reading a rave review about the seamless execution of a recent business expo you organized. That’s a powerful motivator.

6. Determine how you’ll manage sales and customer relationship management (CRM)

Sales and CRM are the heart of your event planning business; they keep the clients coming and the relationships growing.

• Understand your clients : Know what businesses are looking for in an event. Are they aiming for an innovative product launch or an elegant corporate dinner? Understanding their needs ensures you can pitch the perfect event.
• Use CRM tools : Tracking interactions, setting reminders, and managing follow-ups become streamlined. With CRM tools, you’ll never miss a follow-up call after a successful sales meeting. 
• Create customized proposals : Tailor your proposals to each client. If a business wants to host an eco-friendly conference, present a proposal showcasing your expertise in sustainable event planning. It’s personal touches like these that seal the deal.
• Provide exceptional service : After the contract is signed, the real work begins. Regular updates, clear communication, and exceeding expectations turn a one-time client into a long-term partner. Think of a client so impressed with the launch event you planned that they automatically think of you for their next one.
• Ask for feedback : Post-event, request feedback and address any concerns promptly. If something didn’t go as planned during a seminar, knowing what went wrong and fixing it turns a potentially negative experience into a showcase of your professionalism.
• Maintain relationships : Don’t let the connection go cold after the event. Send thank-you notes, share relevant content, or simply check in from time to time. It’s these small gestures that keep you in their minds for future events.

7. Consider how you’ll run your small business into the future

Initially, it might be just you and some contractors, but as you secure more contracts for business conferences, product launches, or corporate retreats, you’ll likely need to expand your team. 

When this growth happens, you can use a tool like Homebase to handle time-sensitive events and simultaneously juggle timesheets , payroll, hiring and onboarding , and compliance. With Homebase, you can directly link team members’ timesheets with their time tracking data, so you can round accurately and legally. 

It also lets you set up communication alerts to avoid staff accidentally rolling into expensive overtime and send team members reminders to take their breaks and clock out of work on time.

Plus, Homebase’s scheduling and manager log can be integrated with your point-of-sale system, so you can easily track when your peak periods are and assign staff accordingly. Add notes and give a human perspective on the data collected, all aimed at streamlining operations and boosting staff engagement further.

Get your event planning business on track with Homebase

From market analysis to networking, each step has its own challenges. How do you find the right vendors? What strategies will make your online marketing effective? How do you handle customer relationships as the business scales? 

And what about the backend, operations, and team management? With an all-in-one HR and team management solution like Homebase, you can set and review internal policies, onboard new team members, and run payroll all in one place, even accessible on the cloud. 

By combining time tracking with scheduling, payroll, and communication tools, you’re not just managing your team, you’re efficiently handling everything from assigning shifts to making payments. Advanced clock-in verification tools help you monitor when staff members are working, be it on-site or off-site.

And with our free plan , you can access many of these high-impact features for up to 20 employees at a single location without any cost.

FAQs about starting an event planning business

Is event planning profitable.

Yes, event planning can be profitable. The key is identifying your niche, whether it’s weddings, corporate events, or social gatherings, and tailoring your services to meet those specific needs. Profitability may vary based on location, experience, and scale, but with proper planning and execution, an event planning business can be both a rewarding and financially successful endeavor.

How do you start as an event planner?

You can start as an event planner by: 

• Identifying your niche and target market
• Building a business plan outlining your services, pricing strategy, and marketing approach
• Acquiring necessary certifications or training to enhance your credibility
• Networking with vendors, venues, and other industry professionals
• Creating an online presence with a professional website and active social media accounts
• Offering initial services to friends or family to build your portfolio 
• Gradually, expanding your reach through word-of-mouth and online advertising
• Being detail-oriented, creative, and customer-focused 

Remember:  This is not legal advice. If you have questions about your particular situation, please consult a lawyer, CPA, or other appropriate professional advisor or agency.

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How to Start an Event Planning Business

Event planners help their clients organize and orchestrate events of all types and sizes. Everything from weddings and social gatherings to an industry-specific, professional soiree, an event planner’s job is to make sure everything runs smoothly, ensuring that any problems will be handled appropriately.

You may also be interested in additional low cost business ideas .

Ready to turn your business idea into a reality? We recommend forming an LLC as it is the most affordable way to protect your personal assets. You can do this yourself or with our trusted partner for a small fee. Northwest ($29 + State Fees) DIY: How to Start an LLC

Start an event planning business by following these 10 steps:

• Plan your Event Planning Business
• Form your Event Planning Business into a Legal Entity
• Register your Event Planning Business for Taxes
• Open a Business Bank Account & Credit Card
• Set up Accounting for your Event Planning Business
• Get the Necessary Permits & Licenses for your Event Planning Business
• Get Event Planning Business Insurance
• Define your Event Planning Business Brand
• Create your Event Planning Business Website
• Set up your Business Phone System

We have put together this simple guide to starting your event planning business. These steps will ensure that your new business is well planned out, registered properly and legally compliant.

Exploring your options? Check out other small business ideas .

STEP 1: Plan your business

A clear plan is essential for success as an entrepreneur. It will help you map out the specifics of your business and discover some unknowns. A few important topics to consider are:

What will you name your business?

• What are the startup and ongoing costs?
• Who is your target market?

How much can you charge customers?

Luckily we have done a lot of this research for you.

Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t already have a name in mind, visit our How to Name a Business guide or get help brainstorming a name with our Event Planning Business Name Generator

If you operate a sole proprietorship , you might want to operate under a business name other than your own name. Visit our DBA guide to learn more.

When registering a business name , we recommend researching your business name by checking:

• Your state's business records
• Federal and state trademark records
• Social media platforms
• Web domain availability .

It's very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.

Find a Domain Now

Powered by godaddy.com, what are the costs involved in opening an event planning business.

An event planning business can have a fairly low overhead for start-up. If you are based from home, you will avoid rent and utilities costs. Other costs will include:

• Business website and site hosting
• High speed internet and phone service
• Advertising and marketing
• Business licenses and taxes

What are the ongoing expenses for an event planning business?

Re-stocking supplies, employee payroll and replacing damaged or broken equipment constitute much of the ongoing expenses. Other expenses can include:

• Event publicity and invitations
• Equipment rental
• Signage and flyers

Who is the target market?

Your target market will consist of clients wanting either social or corporate event planning. Social event age groups range between 25-60+ whereas corporate events are focused more on employees and other business entities, regardless of age.

How does an event planning business make money?

Event planners make their money from the service fees, paid by the client, for the planning and operations of the event.

Because events are priced on a sliding scale of size and supplies/workers needed, pricing can range quite a bit. Many event planners charge a percentage, say 15-20%, relative to the overall cost of the event. Therefore, if an event is $100,000, the event planner would be collecting between $15,000-$20,000.

How much profit can an event planning business make?

Profit margins depend on the size and number of events you pick up per year. A social event planning business can make between $10 - $75 per hour, whereas a corporate level event planning business could charge between $15-$150 per hour. An average salary for an event planner employee is around $35,000 annually, with an owner averaging $75,000-80,000.

How can you make your business more profitable?

As the event planning business becomes well-established, you may consider adding additional services, such as catering, bartending, or even photography to your customer options. By supplying in-house hospitality services, you are able to offer clients a full-service experience and, in turn, create more business revenue.

Want a more guided approach? Access TRUiC's free Small Business Startup Guide - a step-by-step course for turning your business idea into reality. Get started today!

STEP 2: Form a legal entity

One crucial aspect that cannot be overlooked when starting your event planning business is the importance of establishing a solid business foundation. While sole proprietorships and partnerships are the most common entity types for small businesses, they're a far less stable and advantageous option than LLCs.

This is because unincorporated business structures (i.e., sole proprietorships and partnerships) expose you as an owner to personal liability for your business's debts and legal actions, while LLCs protect you by keeping your personal assets separate from your business's liabilities.

In practice, this means that if your event planning business were to face a lawsuit or incur any debts, your savings, home, and other personal assets could not be used to cover these costs. On top of this, forming your business as an LLC also helps it to appear more legitimate and trustworthy.

More than 84% of our readers opt to collaborate with a professional LLC formation service to kickstart their venture. We've negotiated a tailored discount for our readers, bringing the total down to just $29.

Form Your LLC Now

Note: If you're interested in more information before getting started, we recommend having a look at our state-specific How to Start an LLC guide (DIY) or our in-depth Best LLC Services review (for those opting for a professional service).

STEP 3: Register for taxes

You will need to register for a variety of state and federal taxes before you can open for business.

In order to register for taxes you will need to apply for an EIN. It's really easy and free!

You can acquire your EIN through the IRS website . If you would like to learn more about EINs, read our article, What is an EIN?

There are specific state taxes that might apply to your business. Learn more about state sales tax and franchise taxes in our state sales tax guides.

STEP 4: Open a business bank account & credit card

Using dedicated business banking and credit accounts is essential for personal asset protection.

When your personal and business accounts are mixed, your personal assets (your home, car, and other valuables) are at risk in the event your business is sued. In business law, this is referred to as piercing your corporate veil .

Open a business bank account

Besides being a requirement when applying for business loans, opening a business bank account:

• Separates your personal assets from your company's assets, which is necessary for personal asset protection.
• Makes accounting and tax filing easier.

Recommended: Read our Best Banks for Small Business review to find the best national bank or credit union.

Get a business credit card

Getting a business credit card helps you:

• Separate personal and business expenses by putting your business' expenses all in one place.
• Build your company's credit history , which can be useful to raise money later on.

Recommended: Apply for an easy approval business credit card from BILL and build your business credit quickly.

STEP 5: Set up business accounting

Recording your various expenses and sources of income is critical to understanding the financial performance of your business. Keeping accurate and detailed accounts also greatly simplifies your annual tax filing.

Make LLC accounting easy with our LLC Expenses Cheat Sheet.

STEP 6: Obtain necessary permits and licenses

Failure to acquire necessary permits and licenses can result in hefty fines, or even cause your business to be shut down.

State & Local Business Licensing Requirements

Certain state permits and licenses may be needed to operate an event planning business. Learn more about licensing requirements in your state by visiting SBA’s reference to state licenses and permits .

Most businesses are required to collect sales tax on the goods or services they provide. To learn more about how sales tax will affect your business, read our article, Sales Tax for Small Businesses .

Services Contract

Event planning businesses should require clients to sign a services agreement before starting a new project. This agreement should clarify client expectations and minimize risk of legal disputes by setting out payment terms and conditions, service level expectations, and intellectual property ownership. Here is an example of one such services agreement.

Recommended: Rocket Lawyer makes it easy to create a professional service agreement for your event planning business when you sign up for their premium membership. For $39.95 per month, members receive access to hundreds of legal agreements and on call attorneys to get complimentary legal advice.

STEP 7: Get business insurance

Just as with licenses and permits, your business needs insurance in order to operate safely and lawfully. Business Insurance protects your company’s financial wellbeing in the event of a covered loss.

There are several types of insurance policies created for different types of businesses with different risks. If you’re unsure of the types of risks that your business may face, begin with General Liability Insurance . This is the most common coverage that small businesses need, so it’s a great place to start for your business.

Another notable insurance policy that many businesses need is Workers’ Compensation Insurance . If your business will have employees, it’s a good chance that your state will require you to carry Workers' Compensation Coverage.

FInd out what types of insurance your Event Planning Business needs and how much it will cost you by reading our guide Business Insurance for Event Planning Business.

STEP 8: Define your brand

Your brand is what your company stands for, as well as how your business is perceived by the public. A strong brand will help your business stand out from competitors.

If you aren't feeling confident about designing your small business logo, then check out our Design Guides for Beginners , we'll give you helpful tips and advice for creating the best unique logo for your business.

Recommended : Get a logo using Truic's free logo Generator no email or sign up required, or use a Premium Logo Maker .

If you already have a logo, you can also add it to a QR code with our Free QR Code Generator . Choose from 13 QR code types to create a code for your business cards and publications, or to help spread awareness for your new website.

How to promote & market an event planning business

Marketing and promotion of your business will rely on highlighting your business strengths or areas of focus. You will also rely heavily on the success of past events and the positive words or recommendations of prior clients. Consistently use social media outlets to supply pictures and video of your events as well as connect and network with prospective clients and related professionals.

You will also need a website for your business. By linking to your site, you can give clients more information about your specialties. And, once they are on your website, they can contact you for additional questions and to book you for events.

How to keep customers coming back

Providing a professional level of service and an impeccable relationship for giving the customer what they want is key. People are buying a service from you, for a particularly important event. Your ability to satisfy their desires will determine how many return customers you’ll have.

STEP 9: Create your business website

After defining your brand and creating your logo the next step is to create a website for your business .

While creating a website is an essential step, some may fear that it’s out of their reach because they don’t have any website-building experience. While this may have been a reasonable fear back in 2015, web technology has seen huge advancements in the past few years that makes the lives of small business owners much simpler.

Here are the main reasons why you shouldn’t delay building your website:

• All legitimate businesses have websites - full stop. The size or industry of your business does not matter when it comes to getting your business online.
• Social media accounts like Facebook pages or LinkedIn business profiles are not a replacement for a business website that you own.
• Website builder tools like the GoDaddy Website Builder have made creating a basic website extremely simple. You don’t need to hire a web developer or designer to create a website that you can be proud of.

Recommended : Get started today using our recommended website builder or check out our review of the Best Website Builders .

Other popular website builders are: WordPress , WIX , Weebly , Squarespace , and Shopify .

STEP 10: Set up your business phone system

Getting a phone set up for your business is one of the best ways to help keep your personal life and business life separate and private. That’s not the only benefit; it also helps you make your business more automated, gives your business legitimacy, and makes it easier for potential customers to find and contact you.

There are many services available to entrepreneurs who want to set up a business phone system. We’ve reviewed the top companies and rated them based on price, features, and ease of use. Check out our review of the Best Business Phone Systems 2023 to find the best phone service for your small business.

Recommended Business Phone Service: Phone.com

Phone.com is our top choice for small business phone numbers because of all the features it offers for small businesses and it's fair pricing.

Is this Business Right For You?

Those with an eye for detail, applied creativity, and the ability to easily converse with the general public, will find a great match in event planning. You must also have patience, humility, and the ability to help materialize the customer’s vision for their event.

Want to know if you are cut out to be an entrepreneur?

Take our Entrepreneurship Quiz to find out!

Entrepreneurship Quiz

What happens during a typical day at an event planning business?

An event planning business makes its money from hosted events. This means interacting with current and potential customers is critical. Either one on one or through larger social media outlets, a successful event planner must constantly work to get their name and reputation known to the public. Additionally, the business will be:

• Reading and responding to customer e-mails
• Re-stocking event inventory
• Communicating with vendors or business partners, regarding upcoming jobs
• Marketing and PR work
• Employee training and continued education

What are some skills and experiences that will help you build a successful event planning business?

To begin, it is not necessary to obtain a degree or professional certificate of training for event planning. It may help you, but many successful event planners learned many of the skills needed from on the job training. A background in customer service or the hospitality industry can provide great experience.

You should also be familiar with or be able to:

• Communicate effectively, both in writing and verbally
• Possess strong organizational skills
• Be flexible and prepared to make adjustments to plans

What is the growth potential for an event planning business?

Event planning is steadily growing as an industry. With increased globalization in business, more and more companies are looking to host professional, well-organized events to grow their own businesses. And, as business grows internationally, event planning will continue to mirror this trend.

TRUiC's YouTube Channel

For fun informative videos about starting a business visit the TRUiC YouTube Channel or subscribe to view later.

Take the Next Step

Find a business mentor.

One of the greatest resources an entrepreneur can have is quality mentorship. As you start planning your business, connect with a free business resource near you to get the help you need.

Having a support network in place to turn to during tough times is a major factor of success for new business owners.

Learn from other business owners

Want to learn more about starting a business from entrepreneurs themselves? Visit Startup Savant’s startup founder series to gain entrepreneurial insights, lessons, and advice from founders themselves.

Resources to Help Women in Business

There are many resources out there specifically for women entrepreneurs. We’ve gathered necessary and useful information to help you succeed both professionally and personally:

If you’re a woman looking for some guidance in entrepreneurship, check out this great new series Women in Business created by the women of our partner Startup Savant.

What are some insider tips for jump starting an event planning business?

Understand your client base and seek to create a niche for your business. A niche may be weddings and receptions only. Or events near the coast. If you carve out your own special place amongst the competition, the specialization should pay off in return customers and customer referrals.

• Market towards the demographics you’re most likely to see in your area.
• Join a professional event planner association. Networking with other professionals can garner excellent insider tips.
• Make your business as well known as possible through social media. Free advertising, especially for start-ups, is an excellent resource.

How and when to build a team

From the onset of starting an event planning business, you’ll need to consider who should be part of your team. It will be necessary to carefully select individuals who understand the multiple roles they will play in creating successful events. As your client list and event size and frequency grows, you’ll want to bring in more staff. You may even consider having an overflow pool of workers, who are pulled in for larger events or as needed, but aren’t full-time employees.

Useful Links

Industry opportunities.

• Event Planners Association
• Event Service Professionals Association

Real World Examples

• The Event Planner
• Who’s Got the Time?
• Elle A Events

Further Reading

• Tips for starting this business from home
• Considerations when starting this business
• Tips for starting this business

Have a Question? Leave a Comment!

1. Build a solid business plan

I can’t tell you how many small event planning businesses fail because the founder didn’t put together a business plan in advance.

Start by researching successful plans and businesses that are similar to your scope of work. Then reach out to others in the events industry who may be able to guide you! 

Reach out to others in the events industry that may be able to guide you. Click To Tweet

Even if you’ve never seen a business plan, there are plenty of resources and templates online that can get you started. Additionally, when you look to grow your business, an up-to-date business plan is vital to secure any kind of investment.

Start with the right event tools for your business

Get Started Free

2. Set a marketing budget and use a PR company when possible.

When starting your party planning business, your marketing budget may be 30% or more of your business expenses. Does that seem like a lot? Think about all the things you’ll need:

• A website for your business
• Business cards
• Flyers and other printed info
• Digital marketing and online ads
• Expenses to travel to events for networking

Don’t leave anything out! You will need to spend money to make money, ultimately. The goal in the early months is to secure your base of customers as quickly as possible. If you deliver on the promise of creating memorable events, your clients will stick around and recommend you. As a result, your marketing costs will start to drop.

Here’s How to Start an Event Planning Business Click To Tweet

3. Clearly define your scope of work, mission and goals for your event business.

Your event planning business may evolve over time, but even when you’re just starting out, it’s important to clearly outline what you are and aren’t willing to do. You can even put this on your website to attract the right type of clients.

When you’re still building your business, saying “no” to clients  is one of the hardest things to do. But it might save you from dealing with the kinds of customers that take up too much time and don’t offer enough value in return.

4. Have your elevator speech ready.

After I set up my first events business, I had a hard time selling it to people because my 30-second pitch wasn’t refined. Make sure to spend time developing this ” it is the key to introducing everyone to your business.

Pro tip:  Don’t stress about the name of your event planning business. At the end of the day, the name of your business doesn’t matter ” as long as you produce truly memorable events. However, a catchy event business name idea might stick in someone’s brain better during an elevator pitch.

5. Do your market research

Before jumping, in I always tell people to understand their market and competitors. What is your unique value proposition? Are your fees similar to, better than or higher than others in your area? Understanding your competition and your clients will give you the leg up in this market. Don’t skip this step!

6. Spend some time learning tax laws and business filing in your area.

No matter what kind of business you want to start, there are lots of legal pieces to understand. I spent time researching which type of business would be best for me (LLC made the most sense for my consulting business).

It’s also critical to understand the tax implications before you dive in. For example, when I moved my business from Virginia to California, I had to go through the process of dissolving the business. I should have taken more time to research other possibilities!

There’s a lot to navigate, but some great resources exist for building small businesses. Here are a few I recommend:

• IRS.GOV “ Starting a Business
• SBA.GOV “ 10 Steps to Starting a Business

One of my favorite resources in Women In Events . New event planners can take advantage of our mentoring/coaching program after signing up.

Now You’re Ready to Start a Great Event Planning Business!

Have questions? We’ve got answers. Connect with @socialtables on Twitter.

Up next, here’s how to pick an event company name for your business . Or check out Social Tables free event planning tools to manage seating, meals, and so much more.

Try the event management software planners love

More tips for aspiring event planners.

• The 6 Must-Have Event Planning Skills You Need for Career Success
• The Top Event Planning Conferences This Year
• 10 Event Planning Tips Every Budding Coordinator Needs to Know

Still searching for answers about starting an event planning business?

Do your research, make a plan, set a budget, define your scope of work, and throw amazing events!

You should plan to set aside at least $15,000 to $25,000 to start a small event planning business.

Event planning can be quite a profitable career choice. The best event planners will make a name for themselves and be able to charge high prices for their vision, creativity, execution, and results.

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Event Planning Business Plan

Start your own event planning business plan

Corporate Retreat Professionals

Executive summary executive summary is a brief introduction to your business plan. it describes your business, the problem that it solves, your target market, and financial highlights.">, opportunity.

Companies need to make sure their employees have the best training and tools available.  They use the retreats to help colleagues get together and work well together which helps avoid turnover. Happy coworkers mean happy customers

The Corporate Retreat Professionals (CRP) is an event planning company specializing in corporate customers.  CRP will offer two types of services, retreat training services as well as product launch event planning.  The retreat training services will be either leadership development training or teaming skills training.  For both types of retreats, CRP can take care of the planning of the event, as well as actually hosting the training through the use of one of CRP’s strategic business partners.

The corporate market for event planning is steady and profitable.  For some large companies, economic downturns mean cuts in training. This is, however, only the case for short sighted companies.  The benchmark companies may trim down the workforce during a downturn, but they do not cut funds for training.  They recognize that investing in human resources is always a good investment.  CRP intends to profit nicely from this.  Additionally, even in economic downturns, companies still have product launches and will still need someone to organize these events.  In short, the need for corporate event planning/hosting services rarely diminishes, it is a steadily increasing demand that CRP will capitalize on.

Competition

In the past, the buying patterns for the larger corporations was in the past to have an in-house solution. This pattern is is disappearing in favor of outsourcing as there is the constant drive for gains in efficiency, something outsourcing can offer.

Corporate Retreat Professionals will provide companies with the highest level of event planning.  We exist to attract and maintain customers.  When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place.  Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.

Expectations

Financial highlights by year, financing needed.

We will be getting $50,000 from the owner and founder of the company. 

Problem & Solution

Problem worth solving, our solution.

Corporate Retreat Professionals will provide companies with the highest level of event planning.  We exist to attract and maintain customers.  When we adhere to this maxim, everything else will fall into place.  Our services will exceed the expectations of our customers.

Target Market

Market size & segments.

CRP will serve the corporate customer in the event planning market.  CRP will be specializing in two important niches.  The first is leadership development and teaming skills development.  With the recent trend in corporate downsizing, corporations are ditching their in-house solutions in favor of outsourcing.  Even though we are in the midst of an economic downturn, investments in human capital are generally not reduced.  Corporations still have the need for leadership development and teaming skills development.  These are investments that cost a bit up front but pay nice returns in the long run.  These are the services that CRP will specialize in.

Additionally, CRP will offer event planning for product launches.  Product launches are an integral stage in the release of a new product, communicating to the public about the new "thing" the company has just released.  Our customers will be companies seeking to raise awareness about their new product release.  CRP will provide a complete service of planning and hosting these product release events.

4.1 Market Segmentation

CRP is providing services to corporate customers only.  We will not be going after the "social market" which is an alternative market within the event planning niche. 

The corporate customer is a company that contracts with CRP to plan and typically host an event for the company.  Corporations will be turning to CRP to plan the events because:

• It is cost effective for a third party to plan the event.  This is the case because the third party only does event planning so they can plan and host the event more efficiently.
• The company does not have additional people that can be taken away from their daily tasks to invest time in this infrequent event.

Our event planning services for corporate retreats will typically be utilized by larger corporations.  A larger company can be generally defined as one with more than 40 employees.  Smaller companies sometimes will utilize this service of ours, however, it is the larger corporations that typically have the budget for this activity.

For our product launch event planning, we will be servicing companies of all different sizes.  Typically the companies that use this service will be product based companies, but we will also offer this service to service-based companies who desire to announce a new service that they are offering.

CRP is targeting large companies for our corporate retreat event planning.  The large corporations typically have the budget and the foresight to recognize the value in corporate retreats.  In addition, it is the larger corporations that typically use the corporate retreat as a training session for their employees.  The training is typically in leadership development or teaming skills.  While they do have these retreats at different intervals through the year,  it is more cost effective for them to hire a service such as CRP to plan the events when needed instead of paying the carrying costs of having a full-time, trained employee ready to do the planning when it is needed.

CRP’s product release planning services will be targeted at all different size companies.  Companies of all sizes have product release and it is unusual for them to have product release many times a year requiring someone to be a full-time planner on staff.  Therefore, it makes sense for them to hire an outside service to plan the event using their expertise in event planning to drive down the costs of production and hosting.

Current Alternatives

Currently there are three other companies that offer event planning specifically to corporations. They however, tend to do events that are more general in scope such as parties to reward customers or employees, or events to change the company image. There is no company that specializes in event planning of corporate training and product release events. There are companies that offer corporate training, but these companies provide the actual training and do not do any of the actual event planning/ logistics of the entire event.

There are companies that provide product-release services, but they do not specialize in it. Because event planning is a tight market, CRP will benefit from their specialization in this area.

Our Advantages

CRP’s second competitive edge is based on the use of strategic relationships. CRP clearly realizes that they cannot be good at everything. CRP believes it is better to concentrate on a few things, excel in those areas, and form strategic partnerships with companies that excel in the service areas that CRP doesn’t. Applying this philosophy, CRP has decided in addition to planning corporate retreat training sessions, they want to offer the service of hosting/leading these events as well. The service of hosting/leading however, is quite different than planning and CRP believes that it would be more cost effective to form a strategic relationship with an expert in this field instead of trying to become proficient themselves. CRP then is able to offer a top-notch service offering of hosting/leading the training seminars but does not have to invest heavily in developing the program.

The use of strategic relationships is unusual in the event planning space. Most event planners are generalists and try to do a little of everything. CRP is following the model of benchmark companies in other industries that have recognized the value of specialization and the use of strategic relationships.

Keys to Success

Our keys to Success are: 

• Create a service-based company whose #1 value is exceeding customer’s expectations.
• Utilize of CRP’s services in 10 of the 100 top performing companies as listed by the Seattle Business Journal.
• Increase our number of served clients by 20% per year through superior service.
• Develop a sustainable, profitable start-up business.

Marketing & Sales

Marketing plan.

CRP will, for the most part, be using the sale strategy of personal selling. With his five years of consulting for larger corporations, Jeff has formed relationships throughout the business community. Jeff will initially leverage these relationships to form some initial clients. Once things get rolling and CRP has developed some satisfied clients, Jeff will be developing relationships with his network of friends developed through the Chambers of Commerce and trade shows.

Jeff’s spiel to prospective customers will be based on the high level of service offered and cost advantages by going with CRP. The cost savings can be quantified and shown to the customer while the higher level of service can be guaranteed as well as communicated through testimonials from satisfied clients.

Additionally, the website will be used not only to communicate information to prospective customers but also a method of communication where CRP can provide more specialized information such as cost estimates as well as answering questions through the site.

CRP will offer event planning for the corporate market.  CRP will concentrate on two types of event planning:

• Corporate retreats – These events are typically used for two different reasons.  They are either a leadership training or teaming skills training where employees of the corporations are sent away to develop these skills.  In addition to the planning of the events, CRP will be able to host the event as well.  While CRP’s core competencies are not in hosting, CRP will align itself with a well-respected host of leadership development/teaming skills programs and have them assist CRP in the hosting aspect.  Using a strategic partner, in this case, allows CRP to stick with a narrow focus but still offer the service to our customers.
• Product launches – These are events where the corporation is releasing a product and they have an event that is open to people outside of the corporation.  The purpose of the product launch event is to create visibility for the new release. 

Milestones & Metrics

Milestones table.

Key Metrics

Our Key Metrics are: 

• # of monthly customers, we would like to slowly increase our monthly customers 
• #of return customers 
• # of reviews and recommendations 
• food and drink inventory turnover
• each even cost of goods 
• cost of training our staff 
• # of events and of rooms occupied to break even 

Ownership & Structure

CRP is a Washington corporation whose sole stock holder is Jeff Organizer. Jeff will be incorporating to protect himself from personal liability.

Management Team

Jeff Organizer, Founder and President, has a degree in Business from the University of Washington. After college, Jeff spent five years working for Andersen Consulting. During these years, Jeff became familiar with a large number of companies and the important players in the Seattle business community. While working for Andersen, Jeff attended an MBA night program and received his MBA in 1996.

After completing his degree, Jeff decided to join Boeing in their PR department. It was at Boeing where Jeff learned the bulk of his organizing and event planning skills. These skills, in conjunction with his MBA education, gave Jeff the confidence to handle a wide range of business propositions. After three years at Boeing, Jeff decided to start his own business. Corporate Retreat Professionals was finally born

Personnel Table

Financial Plan investor-ready personnel plan .">

Key assumptions.

Our key assumptions are: 

• Personnel are the difference between customers choosing one company over the other, training is key 
• happy bonded coworkers mean longer hours and better products 
• there are a set number of events we need to breakeven. more will make us a profit. 

Revenue by Month

Expenses by month, net profit (or loss) by year, use of funds.

Start-up Expenses

Legal 1,000

Stationery etc. $300

Brochures $300

Consultants $300

Insurance $200

Rent $1,000

Office equipment $300

TOTAL START-UP EXPENSES$3,400

In addition we will be having $5,000 of long term assets.  The remainder of the $50,000 will be used as cash to help fund the operations. 

Sources of Funds

We will be getting $50,000 from the owner. 

Projected Profit & Loss

Projected Balance Sheet

Projected Cash Flow Statement

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How to Start an Event Management Company: Business Plan Template

Every new business start-up needs a business plan. Without one, it’s easy to lose focus and you may find it difficult to attract investors, so it’s important to sit down to write one. The good news is that writing a business plan doesn’t have to be a difficult task. Chances are you’ve already got most of the information you need, and all that’s left to do is put pen to paper. 

In this article, we will explain what a business plan is and why you need one if you’re looking to start an event management company. We will also cover what you should include in a business plan for events management and provide you with a free, downloadable template that you can adapt and use for starting your business.

What is a Business Plan?

When first looking into how to start an event management company, it’s very likely that you were advised to write a business plan.

A business plan is simply a short document that sets out your event management company’s objectives. It helps you and your potential investors to clearly see what the business’ aims are (both financial and non-financial) and details how you’re going to ensure you achieve these goals.

What is Event Management?

Event management involves planning and organising a wide range of events, from a brand’s new product launch, to a client’s birthday party. Rather than planning an event themselves, an individual, corporation, organisation or brand will hire an event management business to take on this responsibility for them. That business will then manage every aspect of the event, from planning to execution and evaluation. 

Some of the key responsibilities involved in managing an event are: 

• Learning about the client and what they want from their event. 
• Identifying the target audience. 
• Coming up with an event concept or theme. 
• Organising guest lists, menus, seating and transport. 
• Organising a venue based on the client’s needs. 
• Hiring staff, including hospitality and entertainment.
• Arranging guests, such as guest speakers.
• Creating event schedules. 

Event managers must be excellent communicators, with lots of creativity, as well as having organisation and problem solving skills to ensure events run smoothly and exceed the client’s expectations.

Looking to Learn More?

Our Starting a Business course explains how to successfully start your own business. It teaches you how to write a professional business plan and familiarises you with the legalities and regulations associated with starting a business. text.

Why Do You Need a Business Plan?

Any new business needs funding, staff and publicity to get off the ground and stand out from the competition. Writing up a business plan is a fundamental step toward achieving this. 

A business plan will clearly set out to potential investors why your business is going to be successful and, ultimately, why they should invest in you. The more they invest, the more staff you can hire to help build your business.

Additionally, event management companies need lots of resources to make events run smoothly, such as technology and transport, and these should all be factored into the business plan.

You may also decide at this point to specify what kind of events you want your business to plan, the types of client you will be working with and exactly what services your business will offer. By being specific, you are communicating to investors that you have a clear view of what you think your business will achieve. This can also help you determine branding and marketing strategies to appeal to your target market. 

It’s important to outline your marketing strategy in your business plan. Event management is a highly competitive industry, meaning you need to optimise marketing and publicity as quickly as possible in order to create publicity and distinguish yourself from your competitors. 

Most importantly, having a business plan will keep you on track. When you’re starting out with a new business, it can be easy to become overwhelmed with all the possible directions you could take your business in. Your business plan will help focus your direction and ensure that you stay on track with your business goals, helping you avoid wasting valuable time and money.

What to Include in a Business Plan for Event Management

A business plan doesn’t need to be a long or complicated document. For a small event planning company, a side or two of A4 paper will suffice. Your aim is simply to write down all the key information about your business in a clear, logical order. 

The topics to include in your event management company business plan are: 

• The name, address and contact details for your business.
• Information on the management of the business.
• Your company’s Mission Statement : a sentence summarising the overall aim of your company. 
• Your start-up costs : do you need to buy any equipment or hire transport? Do you need to pay anyone a wage? Have you got insurance? 
• Your business objectives: what will you sell and who is your target customer? 
• The everyday costs of the business : how much will you spend on a weekly or monthly basis? Include all overheads and outgoing costs, such as wages and petrol. 
• Funding and financial projections : where do you plan to get the money from to start the business? What are your projected profits/losses for the next month, year, two years, etc.? How will you maintain the cash flow? 
• Where you will operate from : include where you will be based, plus information on any overhead costs associated with the business premises. 
• What will be the business’ operating hours? Will you work on the business full-time? What will your working hours be? 
• Does your business have any local competition? What is your unique selling point (USP) that makes you stand out from the crowd? 
• Your pricing strategy : what are you going to charge for your service? Will you charge per event or per head?
• How will you be paid for your service? Do you plan to issue invoices, ask for a deposit or ask people to pay in full upfront?

Download an Event Management Business Plan PDF Template

To get started, simply download our free, one page business plan template using the button below. This template is just a guide, so feel free to add your own headings on a second page to ensure that all information relevant to your business is recorded in one place. 

Starting up any new business will come with challenges but by having a clear and concise business plan in place from the start, you are putting yourself in the best position to achieve future success for your events management business.

Further Resources:

• Starting a Business With No Money: Making Things Work Without A* Finances
• What’s the Difference Between Trade Marks, Copyrights, Patents and Trade Secrets? 
• 10 Elements to Consider When Organising a Corporate Event
• 42 Tips for Producing a Memorable Small Business Event
• Project Management Quiz
• Business Essentials Courses

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How to Start an Event Planning Business from Home

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When I set up my Event Management company over 14 years ago I started working from home. It seemed like a natural choice and it meant that instead of worrying about paying expensive office rent in the early stages I could focus on building my business. It worked for me and I worked from home for over a year before outgrowing my home office and renting an office.

Many other Event Planners, Wedding Planning and Freelance Event Managers report the same and find it a workable solution for them – either for the short or the long term. Others just don’t seem able to imagine the realities of working from a home base and I have been quizzed and insulted in equal measures by people trying to understand the intricacies of working from home!

This post is designed to be the ultimate event planning startup kit, for anyone wanting to start their own event management company . These are the chapters you will explore:

8 Compelling Reasons You Should Start an Event Planning Business from Home

A quick guide to setting up your event planning company: follow these easy steps, start now: get your free event planning business plan template, 9 secrets to nail your business name without delay, the no $%^& guide to startup costs for an event planning business, how to create a cash rich event business in 2020, carve out your niche: proven strategy to increase your business earnings, 6 steps to boost your event business’ sales on a tight budget, 100 effective ways to attract more clients and grow your event planning business (when time and money are in short supply).

• Important Final Advice for All New Event Business Owners

What makes you relevant in 2020? We reviewed 350 event planning job postings to find the skills needed to succeed. Download the free report.

Perhaps you are currently employed but want to test the water by starting to develop your own client base and run your own events for people? You may be part of the rise of 5 to 9 entrepreneurs – those that work evenings and weekend to get their own business off the ground.

Or you may have decided that you want to be your own boss and are simply itching to go it alone?

Are you worried that you will struggle or that it will be too big a leap?

Here are eight things to consider if you are looking to start your own Event Planning Business from home.

An Event Planner can work from almost anywhere if you have a laptop, internet and mobile phone. Most important are your personality and event management skills. Starting out by working from home keeps costs lower as renting office space can be a huge outgoing for a fledgling business and you may not wish to be tied into a long-term rental contract from the outset.

Starting from home gives a new business the best possible start during those important early months.

Au Revoir Work Commute!

Commuting to work every day can be time-consuming and stressful in terms of both time and travel expenses, and is a part of the day that fills many with dread. By working from home you are not only potentially saving on your monthly travel outlay but you are probably removing the big city temptations which are so easy to fritter away money on (coffee, cake, and other high street temptations). Most important though you become more time rich.

If your daily rush hour commute was an hour each way this gives you the chance to extend the productivity of your working day by a whole two hours (if you want to) in the blink of an eye!

Set up a specific workspace which can be your dedicated work area. Ideally have a room that you can close the door on at the end of the day, rather than being reminded about the mounds of paperwork on your desk and hearing the phone ring after hours!

You can design the space based on your work preferences. Perhaps you want to use a room with a view or perhaps staring at a brick wall would be better for your concentration. Think about what furniture you will need to work – desk, chair, phone, answer machine, shelves/filing cabinet, etc.

Just because you are working from home doesn’t mean you should be any less disciplined. As well as working set office hours some people still choose to dress as if they were still going to an office job every day. In a creative industry such as the event industry, I don’t necessarily agree with this – it makes sense for me to dress more casually on non-client facing days at the office – but do whatever works for you.

When working from home the most frequent questions I used to get asked is “how do you concentrate on working from home with the lure of daytime television?” and “do you work in your pajamas?”

I think people that asked these questions completely missed the whole point that you are WORKING from home. If you are working for yourself it means that if you don’t work, you don’t get paid! It is up to you but no one else is going to pay your salary for you. Furthermore, in my experience running your own business keeps you busy, busy, busy. Organizing events is a time-consuming operation and organizing events and running your own business doesn’t give any time for slacking!

I actually found the opposite in terms of discipline – it is actually hard to switch off and working from home can fudge your work-life balance as the lines are blurred between the two. Whether you struggle to focus or struggle to switch off though discipline has to be key!

One of the things we struggled with as our business grew was storage space. We invested in bigger and better printers, event equipment, marketing materials, banners and so forth, but this investment also takes up space. Furthermore, our regular clients increasingly wanted us to hold some of their materials and branded items between events which put a further strain on storage space.

When event boxes of literature started taking over the lounge every time we had delegate folders to collate ahead of an event we realized it was time to move to a more purpose-built office solution. Perhaps this is less of a problem today when less information is printed and more is presented digitally for events, but nevertheless, it can add up.

Client Meetings

I find that many of our clients prefer us to travel to their offices to meet but if you ever need a space to meet and your home office isn’t large enough/suitable enough there are plenty of coffee shops, hotels and meeting places which offer a convenient place to meet face to face – so this need never be a concern.

Flexibility

One of the biggest perks of working from home is the productivity element. As event deadlines get close hours are often long for an event planner and it is great to feel safe in your own home and able to carry on working for as long as you need to. Likewise, if you have international conference calls across time zones it is convenient to be able to do this from the luxury of your home office.

 Home Working Perks

Don’t forget to update and take out the relevant insurance policies as you should with any business working from a home or office base.

There are however many other perks to working at home too – for example paying no or reduced business rates, tax relief and off-setting a percentage of your household running expenditure through the business. These elements will, of course, vary from country to country so do look into the realities of this before you take the plunge.

There are a million and one things to think about if you are considering starting your own event planning business. Whether it is a distant dream or almost a reality, here are 22 steps you need to take to set up a successful event management company.

Starting up an event planning business is not a decision to take lightly. It is a major decision which impacts not only on your life but also on your family and others around you. At the same time, if you are passionate and determined that this is the right direction to take you shouldn’t take no for an answer – go for it!

Although 80% of businesses survive the first year, almost half no longer exist after five years and only one-third make it past their tenth anniversary (source: Bureau of Labor Statistics ). Interestingly, major economic downturns don’t seem to impact the survival rates for new businesses and these stats have remained remarkably consistent over the last two decades.

As one of the one-third of businesses that have survived past the ten-year mark (my event management company was established in 2004), we wanted to create the ultimate useful reference guide to help others take those important first steps to being their own boss.

Starting a new business is definitely not the easy option or a ‘get rich quick’ scheme. It is a high risk, but potentially high reward strategy over the long term.

Here are the details and the process you will need to follow before officially launching your event planning company. There are lots of things to think seriously about and we have flagged essential action to take for each step. Read, digest and bookmark this article for a blueprint of how to prepare to launch your business and ensure the best chance of survival.

Gain Varied Event Planning Experience

The more event planning experience you have the better the service you are going to be able to offer your clients. This isn’t just limited to event planning skills either, any business skills and experience will make you a more rounded business owner. Jump at any opportunity to get paid or unpaid work experience. Use this to learn the things that work and the things you would do differently.

If necessary teach yourself how to use tools that will benefit you as a small business. Today, many of these programs are available online and there is a wealth of video tutorials and written content to help you learn how to use them.

Be confident in what you have to offer:

• Before taking the plunge, make sure you have gained lots of event and administration experience and are confident with planning events independently.
• Identify any gaps in your skillset and work hard to strengthen these areas through paid work or volunteering.
• If you need to keep costs down, teach yourself core skills that you will need, such as email marketing platforms, survey tools, accounting programs, design systems and website building.

Undertake Market and Competitor Research

The first thing you need to establish is if there is a definite requirement for the services that you want to offer. Instead of just believing it is a good idea you need to do some actual research to confirm this.

This information can be difficult to find and you will need to refer to lots of different sources to try to get a reliable picture. Look into public data, reports and analysis on the web, talk to people and try to undertake a focus group and individual phone calls with those that you are looking to develop relationships with, to determine evidence of a need.

Scope out the market through researching:

• Log the number of competitors there are in your area.
• Note the similarities and differences in the services they offer, compared to your business idea.
• Analyze and monitor the number of tenders and opportunities issued for event planning services over a certain time period.
• Speak to companies who issue these types of opportunities to determine what their frustrations are with the current offering and what is lacking?
• Calculate how many businesses operate within your target geographical area and business sector.
• If you can track it down, find national and local figures in terms of expenditure on events. Your local university is often the best opportunity to find out such data if it is not available online.

Identify Your Strengths (and Weaknesses)

Consider whether you are looking to offer a broad, full-service event management company or focus specifically on producing a specific type of event or a specific target market. Although it is tempting to try to offer everything to everyone in order to secure the maximum amount of business it may be that this is actually reducing the amount of business you secure by appearing like a “jack of all trades, master of none”.

If you can, focus on your strengths so you can tailor your marketing and all efforts to attract the right type of business from the start. For example, you may decide to specialize in conferences or exhibitions or party planning. Each of these areas is likely to require a different brand and language to attract the right clientele. The key is not to position yourself in too small a niche it is limiting but not trying to do so much that it detracts you from your real passion and focus and puts you outside of your comfort zone.

Work out your passion and superpowers:

• List the core areas where you know you have an edge. This should include the types of events you are most confident and passionate about planning or expert knowledge of an industry or subject.
• Analyze whether your specialty is broad enough to make a living from or whether you need to go wider.
• Also, be honest and consider what your weaknesses are. If you have gaps in your skill set and are not confident managing large-scale events in specific areas, be honest with yourself. It is important to consider what you won’t do. Running a music festival requires very different knowledge, contacts and skills than organizing a trade show. If there is a specific genre or size of event that would push you outside of your comfort zone or take you too far away from your true passion you are best to set your limits now.

Understand the Realities of Starting a Business

Think about how you are going to survive as it may take some time before money starts coming into the business and you still need to be able to pay your bills during this period. Many people start their business “on the side” during their free time, evening and weekends, whilst working for somebody else. This will obviously depend on the role you have currently to ensure that you are not in breach of contract – make sure you act ethically and fairly to your current employer.

Discuss your aims with your partner and family to try to prepare everyone for the change of lifestyle and circumstances. Working for yourself isn’t the same as working for an employer. The buck stops with you. You are likely to work the longest hours of your life, working 80 plus hours a week is not unheard of for business owners. Also, no work = no pay. Your salary is directly linked to the amount of profit you can generate.

Take decisive steps to work out a plan:

• Calculate how much you really need to survive each month and pay your bills.
• Save as much as possible to sustain you for the short term after you launch your business.
• Look into alternative income options, such as a part-time job, support from your partner/family or a loan.

What Type of Business is Right for You?

There are many different types of organizations and you need to learn about the different entities to determine which is the right one for you. You might want to be a freelance event planner or to set up a company. The legalities will vary depending on the country you will be operating in too. We recommend that you take advice from experts if you are unsure.

Work out which business entity is right for you:

• Know your personal liability in terms of different business options in case the business fails
• Find out the setup costs, process, ongoing administrative commitments and growth potential of different business entities
• Compare and contrast the tax implications of being a freelancer, compared to running a company

Decide on the Business Name

Think carefully and research your business name as this isn’t something you would want to change after launching. Look for any conflicts, which prevents you from using names already in use. Also, think about abbreviations to avoid any unfortunate shortenings.

Decide on a killer business name:

• Brainstorm ideas
• Share the best ideas with people you respect, including family and potential clients to see their reaction
• Check whether the website and social media profiles are available for your shortlisted names

Within this post, there is a section dedicated to choosing event planning business names and offering further guidance on this.

Create a Business Plan

Creating a business plan is highly recommended to crystallize your aims and intentions for your company. It is a document describing your business objectives, financial forecasts and strategies for sales and marketing.

Opinions on business plans differ in terms of how detailed this should be. Whether you create a lengthy document of 60 pages, a couple of A4 sheets or write it on the back of a beer mat, it will be a good use of your time and enable you to speak more confidently about your plans and identify problems. Certain banks and investors would also need to see this document. It includes financial and marketing planning information, as well as the vision and mission statements for the company.

Information you should include in your business plan:

• Your Vision for the Company
• Mission Statement
• SWOT Analysis
• Financial Plan
• Marketing Plan

Keep reading this post as we have a free business plan template for you to download and complete.

Think Seriously About Investment and Funding

Is any funding available to you? Certain geographical locations may offer incentives or grants for new businesses, to help them start out, or your college or university may be able to offer support. The traditional route for business investment was always through banks or through an angel or investor, although there are many more opportunities and non-conventional routes available today, such as crowdfunding. You may even be eligible for competitions looking for the best startup idea to secure investment and TV programs such as Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den which give you the chance to pitch your business idea, or at least get some great marketing coverage to tell the world about your product.

Steps to take:

• If you can you start your business without financial help this is always recommended as loan repayments are one less thing to worry about. Create a cash flow forecast to identify when the shortfalls may occur and if there are alternative ways of handling it, rather than a loan (overdraft, different payment terms with clients, negotiating credit terms, etc).
• If you do need investment, make a list of all of the options open to you, interest rates, repayment terms, set up time and the pros and cons of each. Include less conventional options, such as crowd funding and pitching your idea on TV
• Calculate exactly how much you need, what you need it for and when.

Incorporate/Register Your Business

Find out the process for formally registering your company and what information and format are required. This varies from country to country. In the UK, for instance, the government is keen to encourage people to go into business and so they make the process easy to reduce the barriers to starting up. You can complete a simple online form to create a company in less than 20 minutes.

Be prepared to formally start your business:

• Complete, sign and return the necessary forms
• Partners, Directors and the Company Secretary will also need to sign and complete the forms, if relevant to the type of business entity you are creating

Design Your Logo and Develop Your Company Brand Identity

When your company name is decided and registered you can start creating your company logo and branding. You might have to live with this for a long time, so make sure you are happy with your corporate identity. Tools and design packages are available if you have the skills to create this yourself, otherwise, a graphic designer should be able to create your company identity for you for a reasonable price. They can also design your stationery and business cards, which can be printed for a small outlay.

Develop your corporate identity:

• Brand guidelines should be created, detailing the correct use of your logo, font, colors, placement and so forth
• Consider how your logo will reproduce in different situations, such as reversed and on social media, badges, business cards, websites.
• You will need your logo in different formats such as .eps, .jpeg and .png.

Set Up Your Website and Social Media Accounts

Check your website domain is available and purchase it when your company name is agreed. It is also worth reserving the handles on social media channels too, even if you don’t yet want to start completing your profile details actively posting from the accounts. Aim for the same handles across all networks for consistency.

Sort out your online presence:

• Populate your web page and social media channels as soon as you can. Even if it is just a holding page and ’coming soon’ message it lets people know plans are afoot
• Get friends and family to follow you initially to boost your follower numbers on social
• Start sharing useful content to start building more organic followers

Protect Your Business Intellectual Property

Protect your brand via trademarks, patents, copyrights, whichever route is relevant to your product or service. Take specialist advice on these matters to ensure that you are protected against theft and plagiarism. Don’t think that it wouldn’t happen to you.

Don’t get caught out:

• Take legal advice to protect your IP
• Don’t be afraid of asking people to sign a non-disclosure to protect your IP whenever sharing information and ideas
• Trust no one

Set Up a Company Bank Account

When your company is registered you will be able to apply for your company bank account. This will need to be done face to face at your bank to verify your identity documents and to sign the relevant paperwork. Choose a bank account that matches your needs, for instance, do you need to deposit cash or take payments by card. If so they will be able to advise the best solutions available to you.

Choose a bank to support your vision:

• Shortlist banks by thinking about your needs now and in the future. For instance, if you have ambitious growth plans you may want to choose a bank that approves a lot of business loans
• If you need to visit your bank in person to pay in cash and checks, look at location and opening times
• Check out the online banking process and if an app is available
• Ask if you are allocated to a local bank manager or if all contact needs be via a call center

Confirm Your Pricing Strategy and Fee Structure

Thought needs to be given to your pricing and fees so you know how to answer questions about your costs. Although you need to know the specific details of an event project to quote accurately you still need to know your hourly and daily rates and to share them confidently. Consider whether you will quote on a fee basis or a time-charge basis. Other pricing methods you might consider are taking a fee as a percentage of the total event budget and taking a commission on any items booked related to the event. You may also want to offer set packages or have an introductory offer to entice people.

Get your price right:

• Research your competitors to find out how they charge and an idea of pricing. It can be very difficult to gain this information but if you can get an understanding of how your closest rivals price their services it will be very revealing indeed
• When you get an inquiry, make sure you ask lots of questions and get all the details you need to understand the project before quoting. Every event is different
• Create a list of questions to prompt you to ask anyone interested in your services. Take down all the details to enable you to calculate and create a proposal to share with them

Market Your Business Like Crazy to Secure Clients

Try to work on securing some clients and projects before officially launching the business. Having one client already signed up was a great confidence boost when I launched my company and definitely a deciding factor to take the plunge.

Tell as many people as you can about your intentions, including friends and family. Although they may not directly need your services they may know someone else who does.

Perfect Your Elevator Speech

If you answer the question of what you do with “I’m an event planner,” you’re hitting a line drive to first when you could be going for home. Instead answer with something like, “I help medium-sized businesses make indelible impressions on clients and increase revenue through user’s conferences.” Now, I’m listening.

People Buy People

It is easy, in business, to overlook the fact that we deal with real human beings. Real people can get lost between numbers, projections, ROI and profit margins, when really they are the most important thing keeping all of us afloat.

The importance of retaining a human connection externally with customers and clients and internally with staff and stakeholders, cannot be overstated. Successful connection is all about conversation, mutual understanding, and appreciation. If you don’t connect with the potential customer you are less likely to win the bid. We need to get personal, get real, and start an authentic dialogue to gain genuine trust.

That’s precisely what makes events so important. Events create the emotional energy behind the sale, the human experience element. And no-one at all, including those in procurement, really choose a logical sales choice. They make emotional ones – buying ideas. People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it, and the only way to truly engage people with that why, is to offer them a direct, human experience of your brand in real life.

Arguably, the value of connection has decreased. Online, no real thought or effort has to go into communicating anymore, and it’s the same with the way brands operate online. With an increase in the ease of communication, there’s a decrease in what it actually means – making the individual feel important. Keep this in mind whenever you are creating a proposal, networking or pitching for new business and work hard to develop genuine relationships with your client.

Win favour and get clients before you launch:

• Start networking, online and offline, and talking to people about your plans ahead of time to see their reaction
• Create business cards even before it is “official” and connect with useful contacts via LinkedIn
• Keep a list of potential prospects and be sure to let them know when you have officially launched
• Perfect and practice your elevator pitch
• Keep in touch and follow up with warm leads often; share an interesting article, send them a Christmas card. Don’t let them forget that you are ready and waiting

Take Out Relevant Insurances

Make sure that you are covered by the relevant insurances as soon as you start out in business. In the UK, for example, this may include public liability, employers’ liability, and business insurances such as professional indemnity, business and contents insurance. You may also need specific event insurance for different event projects. An insurance broker will be able to advise the specifics you need to consider within the country you operate in.

Protect yourself:

• Take professional advice on the type of cover that you need
• Get several quotes
• Know the estimated costs and process for additional event-specific insurances you/your client may need

Decide on Your Office Location

Think about where you will work from. Do you really need the overheads of an office? Can you start out working from home? As we have already mentioned, there are a lot of benefits from starting out using a home office. Often meetings can take place at the client’s office or in a local coffee shop or hotel anyway so having a plush office is not essential. If you feel that it is really important to have an office consider hot-desking, a shared workspace or incubator unit where you will get to meet other business owners too.

Give it some thought:

• If you can keep costs down and work from home then this is a wise decision, at least at first
• If you think you will feel isolated or struggle to focus when working from a home office, look at flexible options for hot-desking and shared spaces which keep costs and contracts to a minimum
• Compile a list of potential places to meet so you can always suggest a suitable location to a client

Purchase Business Equipment and Tools You Need

Starting an event management company has low barriers to entry as generally, it is a service based role, which relies primarily on your skills as an individual. As long as you have access to a phone, computer and WiFi you should be ready to begin! Notice will be required to install a phone line and WiFi to your chosen location though, so plan ahead for this before your launch date if you need any changes to your home set up.

Make a list:

• List the essentials you need to start out. Cross off things you would like to have and focus on what you actually need
• Identify milestones and rewards, such as, when we are paid by our tenth client we will open a bottle of champagne. Little incentives help you to be more aware of your achievements

Later in the post, we talk in more detail about what to do if you are looking to start a business with no money. For an industry like event planning, having little money is not necessarily a roadblock to starting your own business.

Identify People That Can Help You

For the foreseeable future you will probably be working alone, or perhaps working with freelancers on a project by project basis. You won’t have a large team around you, which you may have had in previous employment. Keep lean while you can – paying other people’s salaries is a big responsibility, especially when you are first starting out.

Sites like Upwork are great as they allow you to find temporary staff that have the skills you need and agree a set fee on a project by project basis. You can outsource legal contracts, copywriting, web design, video editing and any task you can think of. You can even hire a virtual assistant to help with administration or handle phone calls.

Locally, try to develop a network of suppliers that you know and trust so you know where to turn to for quotes whenever opportunities arise. Let them know that you are going solo and they may also be able to recommend you for projects they hear about.

Think about ways you could work with others for mutual satisfaction and benefit. For instance, a nutritionist might partner with a gym to give her clients a discount, and the gym might have a reciprocal agreement for referrals with the nutritionist. Together they’re getting more clients by offering their clients more value.

Grow your support network:

• Get to know local vendors so you know who to call on when you need quotes turning around quickly
• Make a list of freelancers that you can contact and that you may need to work with on larger projects and when you get too busy
• Get a feel for the type of skills and services you can access online through freelancer sites and the rates charged
• Identify ways you can work with others to offer your clients more value

Officially Launch Your Business

When all these elements are in place the time has come to officially launch your business. People need to know that you are now open for business. Plan well ahead for this day and try to have clients on board even before your official launch.

The hardest step is getting your first client. With every client that you work with you are building a portfolio of achievements which can help you to gain further business.

Launch with a bang:

• Re-contact everyone and anyone that you have spoken to during this process and let people know you are now officially open for business.
• Get on Facebook, target your geographic area, start an ad campaign with $20.
• Plan the best launch party you will ever plan and invite along potential clients. Show them what they are going to get if they work with you.

Stay on Top of Paperwork and Accounting

Any business creates a number of administrative duties, such as tax, accounting and legal reporting and requirements. There are a lot of things that need your attention when running a small business, which takes you away from doing what you actually love and are good at – event planning. Take care to stay on top of all paperwork and declarations relevant to your business and the country you operate in. Submit paperwork and accounts in a timely manner before deadlines otherwise you could be subject to fines.

Always cover yourself by having written contracts with all suppliers and vendors and freelancers so that there can be no misunderstandings or liabilities.

Get systems in place:

• Note key deadlines
• Create sample contracts
• Find a simple accounting package to record all financial transactions – and a good accountant
• Create invoice templates

Develop Your Business Opportunities

Be sure to dedicate plenty of time to developing and growing your business, otherwise, you will find that you complete your first projects and then have no more work on the horizon. Managing cash flow and the peaks and troughs can be difficult as you get to grips with being your own boss.

Think about the next steps for your event planning business:

• Set up alerts or systematically check websites for relevant opportunities and tenders and get out there to network and meet people
• Develop template marketing content and wording for proposals so you are ready to respond quickly as you find out about opportunities
• Refine your pricing structure, fees and charges as you go along
• It can be very lonely starting out in business so make sure that you have the opportunity to talk to other business owners, compare notes, solve problems and share inspiration
• Get a business mentor to help guide you through this tricky beginning period

When I was considering starting my own event management company I enrolled in a night class which helped me to create my own business plan. The tutors shared a business plan sample layout, as well as general advice and support about taking that important first step into being your own boss. I know how much this helped to focus my efforts on starting up the company and my aims for the future and so I wanted to share with you my own event planning business plan sample.

What Makes a Good Business Plan?

There is no right or wrong answers for your business plan, it is unique. You can adapt the layout specific to your requirements. There may be additional information that you want to add in or questions that are not relevant to your business model. Regardless of the specifics you include and how many pages the completed document is, your business plan is what turns your idea into reality.

The most important questions that your business plan needs to address is:

What will make my event management company stand out?

How will my event planning business succeed when so many others fail?

The strongest business plans:

If you don’t have a problem you are solving, you are a minnow in a very large sea. As an event planner you could be rallying against “ho-hum events” or ensure “more revenue, less hassle” for annual conferences. People hire planners because they don’t want to deal with the details. They want the headache to be someone else’s. Demonstrate through your business plan how you will demonstrate this and take those things on so they can get back to business.

What is your value? What do you do differently from other event planners? Know your unique value to a specific type of client and explain it at every chance you get.

Communicate what you want to achieve so that any potential investors can see at a glance what your business idea is, without using any complicated jargon. Your plan doesn’t have to be long but it should establish the vision for your idea, your objectives, how you will deliver the plan and how it will make money.

Know Their Market and Do Market Research

If you understand your market and the competition, you have a better chance of understanding the business need out there and how your business can position itself. Be clear about your target market Who will you be selling to? Why are you different to your competitors?

Are Realistic with Figures

It is difficult to be accurate and the numbers in the finance section can be scary but it is important to try to be realistic. If your business isn’t going to make money it is best to know now so you can refine your ideas into a viable business proposition. Likewise you need to identify how you will make a profit and the anticipated timescales for this. A strong financial business plan will be essential if you need to secure loans and investment, as well as a tool to keep you focused.

Revisit the Business Plan and Goals Regularly

Your business plan should be a working document, particularly in the important first stages of starting out in business. The process of thinking about and creating your plan is what will give you a competitive edge. Check back and revisit your plan regularly. Let the plan grow with you and your business to keep you on the right path.

Download the event management business plan PDF below and create your own bespoke action plan for your startup.

Do you want to add this PDF business plan template to your own website? If so email [email protected] .

How to Set Up an Event Management Company from Home [Video]

Picking a name for your new business venture is highly important, as you want to get it right and select an epic company name that encapsulates your vision for the business. Deciding on event planning business names may be one of the final decisions you make, as working through your business plan will help you to define the vision of your new entity and therefore impact on the name.

Choose the right company name and ensure that your message and ethos are successfully catchy and well marketed and memorable for the right reasons.

Demand Attention

It’s ok to be different. Look at what your competitors are called and make sure that you don’t come up with a variation that could be confusing. Being outlandish or weird can actually benefit you when choosing a company name because they are more memorable, attendees will start talking about it and they will want to know the story behind it!

On the other hand, don’t push the boundaries too far if you want people to get your name right. I have lost count of the number of times we get referred to as Northern Events, as Events Northern is not the natural way of saying it.

Make It Snappy

Not only is a short and snappy name easier to remember and recall but it can make branding, marketing and signage a lot easier to accommodate as well. Shorter names that stick in people’s head are some of the best options that you can choose. Shorter names pack more of a punch.

Be Laser Focused

Are there gaps in your current event niche that aren’t being catered for that you can get across with your company name? Do some market research just for naming, as this can help you with marketing and focusing your demographic further down the line.

Embody Your Ethos

Know and understand what you want to get across to potential clients before you start and try to embody that in the name. Also, remember that it is your message and style that makes your business unique, and that will help to put a creative spin on your business name.

Although it is hard, try to think long-term in terms of your name as you never know where your company will take you. This is something I have learned from experience as, at the start, Events Northern was always focused on events in the North of the UK, so the business name was ideal for our core focus. Over the years though, our business opportunities have become more varied and we do more national and international work, which isn’t just focused on the geographical North. Although this hasn’t held us back, it is also difficult to quantify the number of clients that have not picked up the phone and contacted us because of our name.

Seek the Truth

It can be very easy to be blinkered when you are deciding on something you are so passionate and invested in so asking for other’s opinions can be an asset, especially if you can’t narrow down your options to confirm the definitive name. Crowdsourcing allows you to get a view from real people; whether it is your family and friends or a focus group you can pick up on things you wouldn’t have even thought of and get a different viewpoint. Gathering impartial data and suggestions can also give you inspiration to evolve your ideas further. It is also a way to check for abbreviations or potential initial errors in the name that you can fix now rather than not noticing until further down the line.

The name is important, but telling yourself that over and over again will usually only lead to one thing, writer’s block and then you aren’t getting anywhere. For many people, it is not easy to come up with something creative and original within 5 minutes so these things take time, and most often you will have an “ah ha” moment when you least expect it. If you are struggling to get any ideas out, get a piece of paper and a pen (old school style) and free write for 5 minutes, write whatever comes into your head, literally everything; chicken, ghost, house, rain, whatever pops into your head and it can help to free up your creativity to get through writer’s block.

Expand Your Vocab

Creating a play on words is effective but you need the knowledge to do this, so pick up a dictionary or thesaurus and help to expand your vocabulary. You can use it to find synonyms of other words or expand your adjectives.

Triple Check Availability

This is the techy bit, check that the URLs and legal rights are available, nothing worse than coming up with the best name ever to find it is actually an obscure blog or failing company that you can’t use the domain name for. In some countries, there will also be restrictions on using certain names together which could lead to infringing copyright or naming patents.

If you are dead set on a name but have found someone else has the domain that you want, you can always contact them and ask them to sell it to you because while big brands and names won’t, there could be older websites or retired bloggers that would be happy to sell up and make a little money on the website they had 10 years ago, plus it can’t hurt to ask.

When you are set on a name also check the social media platforms to aim for consistency across the board.

Think Performance

Google can be a useful marketing tool to spread the word about your business but it is much harder to use if you have a lot of competition. Choose names that aren’t as popular, that don’t have common words in them or that make them specific to certain locations such as; Bonnaroo or The Kentucky Derby as these are more unique and you’ll find yourself higher on the search engine pages from the get-go.

A common question that we get asked is “how much money do you need to start an event management company?” The good news is that the answer in most cases is not much!

Starting an event management company generally has low set up costs compared to many other types of business. The essential equipment/elements you will need are:

• A computer or laptop
• WiFi access
• Desk (or table) and chair

Things that will help but are not essential include:

• Website (recommended)
• Access to a printer
• Answerphone/answer service
• A vehicle (it is difficult to use public transport when you have event equipment to transport and need to be on site at 5.30 am)
• Business cards

You may already even own/have access to these items. If not, all of these things should be easily within reach.

How to Start an Event Management Company with Little or No Money (Yes it is possible!)

When you are starting out in business (and even when you are established!) you should do everything you can to minimize expenditure. When you work for yourself it is true that every penny counts.

Absolute Essentials (Things you Can’t Skimp on) When Starting an Event Planning Business

If you have no money you can still start an event planning business, so long as you can start making money fast. Let’s talk through how you can start your business if you really have zero money, in terms of the essentials and the nice-to-haves we just identified.

• A computer or laptop – more than ever before people own laptops and computers. Although it would be nice to have the latest PC or Mac, as long as you can access the internet, emails and basic programs, that is all you need. If you don’t have your own machine you will need to beg, borrow or steal one somehow. Consider a second-hand device or refurbished model if need be.
• Phone – whether it is a cell phone, landline or VOIP phone system you need some way of calling out and ensuring that people can get hold of you. You probably already have some method of communication but consider increasing your inclusive call, text and data allowance if you find you are using it a lot more than before.
• WiFi access – if you don’t have WiFi at home there are plenty of coffee shops and public spaces that offer it for free. And they can provide you with a table) and chair too if you need one.
• Insurance – this is important and not something you can skimp on, but make sure that you get multiple quotes so you can choose the most cost-effective options. Be honest with your broker. Don’t exaggerate your business activities and turnover as it only means that you will pay more for your policy. Provide the facts and know that if and when your circumstances change you can alter your insurance cover. Request monthly payment plans, rather than annual policies.

How To Access Things You Need for Starting an Event Planning Business (Even When You Have No Money)

• Website –  most domain names can be purchased for a few dollars unless they are in high demand, but through your research, you can avoid those. There are lots of free and low-cost website builders out there too, allowing you to create a simple website or holding page, without any web building skills. Alternatively set up a company page on LinkedIn or Facebook and refer people to there instead.
• Printer – if you have fully embraced the digital age this one will not worry you but being able to print things you need can be useful to prepare for important meetings and live events alike. Of course, local libraries and print shops can print things for you, for next to nothing, without having to buy a printer.
• A vehicle – being able to drive and having access to a reliable vehicle are things every self-sufficient event planner will need. If you don’t own your own vehicle consider hiring a car or a van specifically for event periods/
• Business cards – business cards cost next to nothing nowadays and you can even design and proof them yourself online and have them delivered to you. Alternatively, create a digital business card or connect with people via LinkedIn instead.

5 Genius Ways To Quickly Inject Money Into Your New Business

If you are starting out and desperately need to bring some money in, there can be four ways to access funds quickly:

• Have clients ready and waiting – this is the preferable and most organic and least scary way of starting out as a solopreneur. If you can have clients and projects ready and waiting for you as soon as you launch your event planning business it makes the transition from paid employment to business owner much less traumatic. This is the best way to avoid sleepless nights.
• Register on virtual work sites – register your event planning, business admin and other skills onto freelance sites, such as Upwork. This allows you to bid and accept work around your other commitments.
• Register with an agency and let contacts know you are available – registering for event work through an agency and letting event agency colleagues know you are on the market for event work can be a useful way to be in an event environment, following instructions from someone else and getting paid for it. Just because you are the boss, don’t think that working the registration desks at someone else’s event is below you.
• Take paid work in a different field – consider taking on a part-time job where the hours and convenience can work around your new business. It might be in an unrelated field but at least having some income coming in can be one less thing to worry about.
• Loan – it might be that you need to investigate a short-term loan, either from the bank or borrowed from friends and family.

Owning your own event freelancing or small business can feel like feast or famine when it comes to work, which means that managing cash flow can be a big challenge. Some days you’re turning it away because you don’t have the bandwidth and other times you’re worrying about having no projects lined up and how you are going to pay the bills.

Operating your own event planning business is wonderfully fulfilling but it also means you’re on the hook to market yourself while busy performing event services. You need to keep the flow of clients coming in. For so many freelancers and sole proprietors, it can feel like boom or bust. If that’s the case, one of the most important things you can do for your business is evening out that cash flow.

Balancing out your cash flow is one of the best things you can do for your long-term success as an event freelancer or small business professional. It’s a challenge but can be done if you look for the right kind of client and nurture that person and relationship. Here are a few ideas on how you can even out your cash flow problems and work peaks and troughs.

Startup Problems: Too Much Work and Too Many Clients

We get it. The last thing you want to do as an event professional who has feast or famine times is to turn away work. It feels almost painful when you know a few weeks or months from now, you’ll really need the income. But you also likely know that you can’t run yourself ragged forever. It affects your health and means you could be pulled in so many different directions that all of your clients feel the lack of attention. This will make it next to impossible to get good referrals from them so you certainly don’t want to do this. Instead…

Create an Event Co-op

Until you build a roster of recurring clients who keep you busy year-round, you will have hills and valleys, dearth and surfeit. In order to level that out, one of the things you can do is work with other event planners in a referral group. Just as a physician will provide a patient with a referral to another physician, you can do this with a group of event managers. Select a group of professionals you believe in and can trust. Remember, you’re telling clients and potential clients that these event profs are as good as you are. Make sure you’re not giving a bad referral.

You also want to ensure that this sort of relationship works for you too. If you’re referring clients to them, you’re hoping they will do the same for you when the opportunity presents itself. Make this clear.

You can also use the group to help increase your staff. If you’re afraid of losing the client altogether, take the client on and then work with your group to cover some of the other functions you don’t have time for. Pay them accordingly.

Let Them Go (for a fee)

This is a similar idea to the one above. If you don’t have time to take on the client, refer them to someone else but request a finder’s fee. While this is not customary in event planning, it’s not uncommon in other industries and a hungry event planner may be willing to give you a small fee for the referral.

If you find yourself doing this often and there’s a market for this type of service in your network, you may discover that you have a new business.

Set Up a Referral Plan

If you have several happy clients, now is the time to create a formal referral program. Ask happy clients to refer you to others in their network or tell your clients that you are accepting new clients for events in a stipulated time frame (like Spring of 2018). This helps you book up your calendar in advance, rewards your clients for the referrals, and creates scarcity when they see how far in advance you are booked. This drives people to book you early or ask for other suggestions, which can help you work your referral group as mentioned above.

Startup Problems: Balancing Out Cash Flow When You Have Too Little Coming In

Even the best event profs can have problems with a steady flow of clients. Whether it’s due to a cyclical economy or being new in town, you’ll likely face a lack of clients at some point. When you do, here are a few things that can help make up for it.

Hire a Virtual Assistant

With feast or famine, you can’t exactly hire someone. What would happen during the famine? But you also can’t grow your business without hiring someone. What should you do?

In this case of plenty, consider hiring a virtual assistant to allow you to bring in more work. You can hire them on a contingency system where they work on projects when you have the work. When you don’t they go back to serving other clients. There’s no long-term contract and you needn’t worry about paying them when you don’t have projects.

A virtual assistant is a safe way to take on additional work that will help you grow without taking the risk of another full-time, permanent employee. You can task them with researching potential new clients too, to hopefully help even out your flow of work..

If you want to get your name out there in an area where you don’t have much of a reputation, consider volunteering on an event or in an activity that would give you exposure to your ideal client. Work hard and make an impression and your new network of people met through volunteering may just hire you. Don’t push your business on them. Simply look for ways in which to be helpful.

Get Clients with Recurring Events to Book Early

While it may not help you get paid any earlier, this tip can help you get your calendar booked early so you can worry less. And if you require a downpayment to hold the spot, you can get a little revenue coming in before the event. If you have clients with recurring events, give them an incentive to book you early. You’ll have peace of mind and you can pass along a small discount or financial incentive for them to get on your books for next year’s event this year.

Ask Your Network

If your event business is new or struggling, the easiest and least expensive way to grow it is through referral marketing. You never know who you know. Don’t assume your friends and family have no use for your services. Ask them if they need any help. Sometimes, someone has taken on more than they can handle and they need someone to finish the project. Other times, they have someone in their network who needs help with an event.

Most people would be willing to hire an event planner that a good friend referred them to, so get happy clients and attendees to talk about you. Our friends know us and know what we like. They wouldn’t steer us in the wrong direction. But it may surprise you to know that people will even make hiring and buying decisions based on reviews by people they don’t know. According to a study from Ogilvy, Google and TNS, 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influence in their purchasing decision.

According to the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, one offline word-of-mouth impression drives sales at least 5x more than a paid mention does. Paid advertising may not be in your budget anyway if you’re just starting out but it’s reassuring to know it’s not the most effective way to reach your audience anyway.

Give those referring you all the information they need to make sharing it with their network easy. Make sure to thank them when they do and offer them a referral fee or thank you card or gift for their assistance if work materializes as a result. You can even offer a friends and family discount or free consultation.

Join a Group

Join a group and get to know other people. In-person networking groups like your local chamber of commerce and others as well as virtual groups on LinkedIn and Facebook allow you to make connections with your ideal clients and other professionals who can help expand your network.

When you join a group, don’t hit them immediately with how desperate you are for a new client. Instead, look for opportunities to be of assistance and connect them to the people they want to meet or need help with. If you become a resource for others, they are likely to become a resource for you as well because they will begin to know, like, and trust you.

Become a Subject Matter Expert

As mentioned above, becoming a resource for people is a good way to get hired. That’s why becoming a subject matter expert is paramount to getting clients year-round. If you can become the noted expert in an area, book speaking engagements, publish about topics of interest to your ideal audience, write a book (or an ebook), post on sites offering your assistance or answering questions, following others on social media and joining in on chats and other discussions, you can quickly become known for your insights. When you do, people will approach you to work for them. This means less time spent needing to market your services.

Know one more benefit to becoming a subject matter expert? You can increase your pricing, which is another good way to improve cash flow.

Sell Something

Going off of the subject matter expert advice, look for ways you can expand your offerings and sell something. As an event professional, you are exchanging your time for money. You can make a very good career doing so but you can also exhaust yourself chasing the money and working the hours because you want more of it (to make up for times when clients are few and far between).

An ideal way to balance out cash flow is to produce something that can earn you money without you being involved. For instance, a book, product, or even a course can bring in revenue without an additional investment of your time. You invest initially in its creation because you do so on spec. Most likely you will not be paid to create it. But once it’s created, the revenue possibilities aren’t limited by the hours in the day. People can buy it (and pay you) even while you’re sleeping.

Offer a Smaller Service

You likely serve a particular audience and you’ve decided what they will pay. By setting your prices you have chosen to work with a client of a specified means or revenue. That leaves others out and that’s okay when it comes to booking events.

But a way to get more clients is by going into another market. This could mean taking on another niche or dropping your price. If you’re not interested in doing either of these things, try offering smaller consulting services. This would entail shorter stints, less work on your part, and a wider audience base. For instance, you can offer “day-of” event manager work on events. Some corporate people plan the events and then realize they don’t have time to manage them or need additional support. Or some people just want a plan they can follow. Their limited budgets may prevent them from hiring a full-time planner. You can fill that need.

Improve Your Existing Cash Flow

To improve cash flow, either get more clients, raise prices on your services, or change how you collect the money. For instance, adding a payment plan for large events that would bring in a smaller amount each month preceding the event would help, as would requiring a down payment to hold the date and another partial payment when they see your first plan or some other accepted milestone. Your final payment may be diminished but spreading out the payments would bring some stability to the cash flow.

Put on Your Own Events

Instead of waiting for clients to come to you, think about opportunities you can make a start on right away. You probably have event ideas which could be financially viable, so why not do them yourself? Of course, there is risk involved and investment needs to be secured but it can also potentially give you the biggest returns. You can start small and build the event year-on-year. Consider options such as crowdfunding to test the viability of the idea and reduce your financial risk. Look for in-kind sponsorship, partners, funding opportunities and ticketing to balance the budget.

Winning Out-of-Town Business

If business is really slow, think about if you need to widen your catchment area to look for clients a little further afield. Of course, the convenience factor drops and the travel time and expense increases when you are working out-of-town but if the demand for services is high elsewhere new contracts can be negotiated to cover these factors. Setting travel budgets and fees can feel a little overwhelming in the beginning, but they can still profitable course of action.

Know your worth. It’s non-negotiable. The only exception to that is if you have a potential client who will open up doors for you. In that sense being flexible in your pricing may just be the cost of doing business.

Getting Contracts Approved Faster

Winning a new contract should be a cause for celebration but it can soon turn to frustration when your client’s board or legal team are causing unnecessary hold-ups to the progress of the project (and the first invoice being issued).

Of course, people get busy. Email inboxes become overwhelmingly full. Forgetting to sign your contract isn’t a personal slight but it simply may have fallen off of their to-do list. Politely remind them every few days. Make sure the reminder that you set for the day before the deadline has a much more urgent tone.

If you’re worried about sounding pushy with these reminders, word each differently. But start with something along the lines of, “Just checking in to see if you had any questions about the contract. I’m eager to get started.” or “ Wanted to see if you needed anything further from me in order to get the finalized signatures. Please let me know.” Then as the deadline approaches, add more urgency and personalize the subject line.

Businesses need to know who they serve and what problem they solve. Building your event business is critical to paying the bills but if you’re selecting the wrong clients, numbers won’t matter. Attract the right clients and you’ll create a business you love. Attract the wrong ones and you might not be in business much longer.

A successful event business is about more than just numbers. Yes, numbers make the difference between a red balance sheet and one that’s in the black but there’s more to building an event business than just getting people who will pay you money. If getting bookings for events was all that mattered, everyone would be in business for themselves.

However, having the right type of client is as important as having projects that pay the bills because without good clients, you’re more likely to return to working for someone else. The wrong kind of client can be one heck of a headache so you want to make sure you attract the kind that you enjoy working with.

Don’t Try to be Everything to Everyone

You cannot please everyone, and trying to offer event planning services to everyone, no matter what their brief is, means that you are missing out on specializing on your strengths and developing your specific area of expertise.

Newbie event professionals who want to eat often take anything that comes their way, whether it’s the kind of work they want or not. They also try to be all things to all people because they worry that if they segment their marketing or target a particular niche, they’ll miss out on work. The opposite is true. You can’t market to everyone without weakening your message. Most people think choosing a niche is limiting. It’s not. It’s called specializing and specialists are worth a lot more than generalists. Ask a neurosurgeon. Selecting a niche to focus on can be the wisest move you make.

As personalization increases, niching will become an expectation much in the same way physicians select a specialty. Yes, some people will still be in general practice but those in high demand will specialize.

In a niche, you will be expected to:

• Know your niche and keep up with its needs
• Understand the specific needs and requirements of your clients
• Participate in the social media platforms of the niche
• Expand your niche as interests expand
• Market to your niche
• Cultivate a referral culture in your event planning business

Refine Your Marketing Messaging

Determine who you want to work with and speak only to them. Once you know what you want and who you work well with, cast narrow not wide. Focus in on your ideal and turn away those who don’t fit it. Everyone will be happier in the long run.

When you personalize your marketing to a specified group of people, they will feel you are speaking just to them and will appreciate the personalized attention. You’ll then get to work with the type of client you want in the area you want. By doing so you begin to make a name for yourself among your ideal client type and they’ll share your information with their like-minded friends and peers, attracting even more of your ideal client.

Saying Yes to the Wrong Client, Means Saying No to the Right One

You only have so many hours in your day. Every project and client you choose, takes your time. If you say yes to one that isn’t your ideal, you’re taking the spot away from someone who is, and that someone could be the next email you receive. Pass on clients who aren’t your ideal. When you get your marketing refined to target your ideal client, you won’t need to worry about the others. You’ll receive a better referral and review if they’re in your ideal category because your services will shine.

But still, many businesses hesitate to narrow down prospects because they worry that means less potential clients. It does from a numbers perspective but it doesn’t matter. Let’s take a look at keywords to understand this concept. You can take a keyword and by using analytics tools see just how often someone searched for that term. In pay per click, some terms are more expensive than others to place for because they are popular searches. But that doesn’t speak to their value. In order to decide whether that’s something you want to pay for or not, you want to look at conversion rate. If there are only 1,200 searches of that term per year, but a large percentage convert, then you would be wise to buy for that term.

The same is true for niches. There may not be as many people looking for them but if those who are looking, are serious clients, that’s all you care about. You don’t want thousands of inquiries who want RFPs only to vanish in the night. You want people to self-select before they ask you to give of your most precious commodity – time.

Fire the Mr. and Ms. Wrong Client

If you’ve already taken on clients who were not your ideal, finish up those events and walk away. It’s easy to agree to do another job for your less-than-ideal clients instead of worrying about where your next client will come. If you feel that pressure, resist and understand that taking on the wrong clients means that you’re going to end up with more of the wrong clients as they refer you to their peers. Think of the referral business like high school cliques. Jocks are generally friends with jocks and nerds with nerds. If you want to do business with nerds, don’t ask the jocks for referrals.

Be Brave and Get Known for Your Event Planning Niche:

• Say no and walk away to clients you know are not a good fit. It may sound like suicide but you need to focus on getting to the right people
• Trust your gut instinct more often
• At the end of each project determine whether you should work for the client again. If it isn’t right, be brave and walk away

New Research Reveals the Most Effective Strategies Event Planners Use To Get More Clients

In January 2018 we conducted one of the largest pieces of event planning research ever completed. With 2,400 contacts and over 1,000 respondents. If you would like a copy of this research to publish it on your website, you can request it here:  State of the Event Industry Research 2018 .

45% of the event planners we surveyed told us that they have more clients than 12 months ago. 43% have the same amount and 12% have fewer clients. The outlook for the industry is looking positive overall.

We asked event planners their most effective strategies to find new clients and the top strategy was networking face to face (66%), followed by social media (45%).

In order to be successful in your event planning business, you need to learn to prioritize leads to understand who to spend your time with and who to let go. Since you can’t get a refund on precious time, you’re hurting your business if you waste time on the wrong people.

One of the most critical things you can do for the success of your event planning business, outside of pricing, is understanding the leads process. If you don’t, there’s a good chance you’ll either waste your time on someone who will never become a client or you’ll ignore someone who could be very good for your business.

If you’re unfamiliar with lead screening and prioritizing, it’s time you learn all about it. Here are the basics you need to know.

The Basics of Lead Prioritization

Prioritizing leads will not only help you spend time with the most worthwhile prospects, it will also increase your revenue because more of your time will be spent with those who are able to make a difference to your checking account.

Know Your Ideal Client

There is no way to prioritize a lead effectively if you don’t know who you want to work with. As we have already covered, you should identify your ideal client, otherwise, it makes it next to impossible to be effective in your lead generation. Select a niche to serve, or at least identify your ideal demographic. Do you want to work only high-end events or do you love family-oriented get-togethers? Or maybe there’s an industry you know well. Whatever it is, sketch out who your ideal client is and what they struggle with.

Know Where You Excel

Another way of narrowing down who it is you want to work with is knowing what you’re good at. If you are a whiz at last-minute soirees or you host amazing destination events, decide whether that’s something you want to specialize in.

Now that you know who you want to serve, you can go into prioritizing how to work the leads.

Attend to Inbound Leads First

While this is common sense, some event planners still forget this basic advice. Always work inbound leads first. These are people who have reached out to you. Most event planners understand the priority behind a contact form but fail to see that there are other inbound lead types. These could be people who stopped by at your booth at a show, asked you a question via social media or downloaded material from your website.

No matter how they approached you, the follow-up is critical. Check in with them periodically to see if you can be of service. Use drip marketing or a newsletter to stay in touch and remain top of mind so that when they need an event planner, they think of you.

Prioritize the Clicks

If you send out any sort of cold messaging via email or a newsletter, follow up with those who have clicked on any of these materials. If the person is someone who started as an inbound lead where they contacted you and were then added to a list, they take priority. Otherwise, anyone who clicks on your email or newsletter content deserves a polite, how can I help you? or would you like additional information/content? contact.

No one clicks out of kindness. If they click, they have some interest in you, your services, or your content. Ideally, you would have technology in place that could keep track of their activity history and you could analyze it for patterns. For instance, do they seem to click on a particular topic like corporate events? Then consider touching base and offering them your corporate events guide.

This will position you as an industry expert, understanding of their needs, helpful, and a resource to turn to for assistance. All of these things will bring them back when it is time for them to make a decision about their event.

Stalk Website Visitors

Assuming they have downloaded content from you in the past or are on your email list, you can track every time they visit your site (if you’ve invested in the technology to do so). Pay particular interest in what they’re downloading and the pages they’re visiting.

When you contact them to see if you can be of service, offer them a piece of content that is in line with their interests. Just make sure it’s not something they’ve already downloaded.

Pick Up the Phone

If you have absolutely no potential clients reaching out to you, it’s time to do some research and find events that may be a good fit for your services. You can contact businesses directly (for corporate events), inquire with other vendors on potential partnerships, or market yourself on social media, to name a few.

However you decide to do your own cold calling (or approaching), make sure you have your ideal client information at your fingertips. You do not want to approach someone just for the sake of getting more contacts in. Make sure they are good contacts and would make good clients and a good fit. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and theirs.

But what if you don’t have any of the technology set up? What if you just want to know how to prioritize leads that are all coming in the same way such as through a contact form? Keep reading.

Prioritizing Same Type Leads

Let’s assume all of your contacts are coming in the same way and you’re wondering how to prioritize and screen them so you’re not wasting your time with leads that won’t convert. The first way to help you prioritize is to create a contact form that tells you what you need to know before contacting them. These things include:

• The nature of the contact such as question, availability, pricing, etc.
• If it’s a question, allow them to type it in a notes section. If it’s availability, prompt them to add a desired date and size of the event. If it’s a pricing inquiry, ask them for all the details that go into your pricing analysis. That way you don’t have to contact them to get the basic information to answer their question. You already have it and can skip right to providing a response.
• Their name and contact information such as company name, phone number, email address, etc.
• Their budget. If you only work on events with a budget in a specified range, make this a must-answer question. It’s better to know ahead of time, even if it means some people drop off, than it is to spend your time with a person who isn’t your ideal client.
• Type of event.

Remember that ideal client list you made and the demographics you laid out? Use that to prioritize incoming leads or contact forms. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is this person in my ideal demographic?
• Is the type of event they’re interested in something I like to do?
• Does their budget match my ideal event?
• Will I gain exposure or networking benefits from being involved with this event? In some instances, you may decide to override your ideal client, budget, or event specifications because of the people you’ll meet or the exposure you’ll receive. This may be true of a philanthropic benefit, for instance.
• Is there the potential for repeat business? Maybe they’re not your ideal budget but the repeat business involved in a recurring event may bring them closer to your ideal in the long run.

Content, Conversion, and the Sales Funnel

It’s important to talk about conversion, the sales funnel, and lead nurturing. Selecting an event planner is not the same thing as going into a store and buying a loaf of bread. When you want bread, you walk into the store and buy it. There’s very little comparison shopping done. A quick scan of the shelves and that’s it.

On the other hand, there could be a very long sales cycle in selecting the perfect person to plan an event. The client could also be mid-cycle, meaning they don’t need a planner now but anticipate the need for one in the future.

This process of selection is often depicted as a funnel. A funnel starts with a wide mouth. If you’re marketing your services, you’re likely casting a wide net. (Although, hopefully not an immense one. You should be personalizing your campaigns based on your ideal client.)

Entice with Content

At this stage, people don’t know you or your business very well so you provide them with introductory materials based on their needs.

After digesting these materials, some people will decide you are not a good fit for their event. This decision is usually based on preliminary qualifications like budget and industry specialization. This elimination is okay because you don’t want to work with just anyone.

Is This The Start of Something Special?

Next, people now know a little bit about you and have decided you can handle their event but do they want you to? This part of the process is all about personalization and making connections. They have options when it comes to event planners. At this stage, they’re ensuring you are someone they want to work with.

Again, some people will decide you are not a good fit for them now that they’ve gotten to know you better. Maybe your personality and theirs don’t jive. Maybe they’ve found someone who knows a little more about their industry. Whatever the reason, don’t worry about it. This works both ways as you may decide you have no interest in working with them either.

It’s a Match!

The last part of the sales funnel is the narrowest. The potential client knows you can do their event, they like you well enough to give you the opportunity, and now they’re just narrowing it down to a decision. Remember, that decision could mean your competition or it could just as easily mean forgoing an event planner altogether and doing it on their own.

At this stage addressing their needs is more important than ever. If you can provide a much deeper connection and understanding of their goals, they are more likely to select you.

So what moves people down the funnel? It’s not gravity. It’s a thing called nurturing.

You Can Do It

This is why prioritizing potential clients and leads is so important. The sales process requires a natural sloughing off of potential clients. Because of this, you don’t want to spend any extra time with prospects that won’t become clients. You want to recognize the potential of becoming a client as early as possible and spend your time with those people. If you spend your time with tire kickers who never convert to sales, you’re losing money.

Identify your ideal client so you can recognize them when they fill out a contact form or call you. Know the right questions to ask to identify them as such and don’t be afraid to say goodbye to those who aren’t an ideal fit. For those who are a good fit but aren’t ready to make a decision, nurture them until they are. Be a resource and you become a valuable ally.

Be a Client Magnet:

• Use the tools detailed earlier to recognize your ideal client early in the sales cycle.
• Provide them with helpful information to assist them in making a decision.
• Stay in contact with them, acting as a resource.
• Pay attention to how they are interacting with you.
• Reach out to them on social media and share content that you believe they will find helpful. Share their content as well.
• Have many resources on your website that are suited to all stages of the sales funnel so they can self-identify and continue their desire to find an event planner with your help.
• Use a drip campaign or a newsletter to stay in contact with them as they make a decision.
• Solve a problem for them.

One of the most common questions we get asked at EventMB is how to get more clients. Whether you are a self-employed event planner or an ambitious CEO, clients are the lifeblood of the business. It seems to be a lot harder nowadays too since people are tuning out advertising. But it’s not hopeless. The good news is that many of the ways you can reach new clients are free (or inexpensive) to you, outside of the time it costs to perform them. Whether you are introvert or extrovert, there are plenty of ways to land new clients. Knowing your ideal client will help you recognize them when you see them. It will also help you understand which tips on this list will help you the most. Here is the biggest list of tips to attract more event planning clients and grow your event planning business.

The event industry is a service industry and event planning is a service which means:

no clients = no business.

You need clients to survive and we all want to gain profitable event clients. Here is a bumper list of ways you can improve your client magnet potential while business is slow.

Create Happy Clients and then Ask for Referrals The primary thing you need to do, is to create happy clients and attendees. Without them, there won’t be any referrals even if you beg and plead – at least not the kind you want to be published. Find ways to delight and excite your attendees and clients as the basis for creating a referral plan. Once you have people who think you’re amazing, you can begin creating opportunities for them to share their love of your work.

Gain More Reviews of Your Services You want to make it as easy as possible for people to review your services so when you ask them to review your work, either refer them directly to the website that you’d like them to post the review on (such as LinkedIn or Facebook) or tell them you plan on posting it to your website and then get it up there as soon as they give it to you. This will make them feel proud to see their review on a site and will also give them something to refer people to in order to learn more about what you do and how you do it.

Get Reviews and Testimonials from the Right People Event planners can benefit from reviews from clients and attendees. But you can also receive persuasive reviews from vendors and people in the industry you’ve worked with. Anyone who has worked with you and benefited from your level of professionalism is a good ask. If you volunteered your services for an event, you can use them too.

There’s no easier way to get that review than to ask for it. Help them understand that you depend on word-of-mouth as a small business and it means a lot to you. There are very few people who will say no to an impassioned, yet humble, request. Just make sure you don’t ask when you’re delivering the bill. No one is in the mood for that.

Ask for Introductions and Pass it Forward This is one of the most awkward things for most event planners. It feels forced, but if you are confident in your services you should feel like you are giving each one of your clients an opportunity to help one of their acquaintances out by referring them to you.

Unless you ask you won’t receive. Always ensure that you “pass it forward” yourself too. If you bring business to your clients they will be eager to return the goodwill.

Be Yourself Be yourself, unless that self is standoffish and shy. In that case, be the opposite. But seriously, let the clients get to know you and open up to them. Don’t be just an event planner. Be THEIR event planner by connecting with them and caring about their lives as well. Someone who does more than just the service you hire them for is someone you want to refer to others.

People want to be helpful and refer others, but they won’t do it for just a mediocre experience. They want to shine in front of their friends and peers. If they have a great experience with you, they’ll gladly share, knowing they’re doing a service for their friends as well by introducing you.

Referral Incentives If you are struggling with natural referrals from busy previous clients then it may be beneficial to add a little more incentive. Offer your existing clients money off or discounts if they refer a friend and they are more likely to recommend you if they are getting something in return. For long-term clients or contracts, you could also offer discounted rates to their new referral as part of a loyalty scheme. The options for this are quite broad because you could base the incentives on the amount of work that they bring in and you may find that you need to do little else once this gets the ball rolling.

Know Your Demographic It is important to fully understand who you are trying to attract, what their preferences are and the best way to contact them. You will be looking to market your services in completely different ways if your demographic is 18-24 year olds compared to 50-60 year olds. Think about technology and social media, as well as more traditional marketing channels such as newspapers, leaflets and business networking.

Online Q&A Create a YouTube video or Facebook Live session where you answer frequent questions about your services so that people can put a face to the brand and make a more informed choice about picking you. You could simply sit and discuss topics that you have been asked (low/no budget) or you could invest in creating something which really shows off your brand and image if you have a little budget to play with.

Make a Package Bundling together various services can help to create a bigger sense of value to your client. Think about offering a simple package to entice more customers. Think carefully about what is and isn’t included though to ensure there is no misunderstanding. What opportunities are there to upsell the package?

Creative Sponsorship Sponsorship can help you increase your brand awareness and improve interaction with potential clients if done correctly. Sometimes you need to speculate to accumulate. Make sure you choose opportunities that are relevant to your audience and get creative so that you stand out from the crowd by showing why clients should pick you! As an event planner you might want to offer in-kind sponsorship – where you offer your services pro bono to run an event or a specific element such as the VIP lounge (instead of giving a financial payment). In return, you are listed and promoted as the sponsor and gain the perks that that brings.

Video Adverts Fewer people are watching live TV now and many are recording and skipping past the adverts. Not that TV adverts were probably ever within your budget anyway! Instead, make a video advert and share it via your social media accounts to your followers and potential clients. You could also use the video as a welcome or explanation of services when you get an inquiry. This is an effective way of showing off some of your projects and is much more engaging than an introductory email. Give it a go to see the difference in your client conversion rate.

Become a Guest Speaker As an eventprof you have a lot of expertise and experience that others want to hear. Some of the best ways of showing what you do is to discuss it and show them exactly how competent you are. Attend events as a guest speaker and you can discuss the problems that your services fix and deal with! The key here is to offer value within the talk itself, give good advice on the day and encourage potential clients to come to talk to you afterwards. Your professional knowledge is that carrot enticing people to come and strike up a conversation with you.

Host a Giveaway Everybody loves free stuff, and hosting quality and interesting giveaways is a quick way to get people involved and aware of your brand. It goes without saying that the more valuable and desirable the prize the more awareness and potential leads you will get but it is important that when using giveaways to attract clients, that you make the prize relevant to the services you’re offering. For example, you could offer taster sessions, event workshops or some of your services for free so clients know what they are getting and you know those that are entering are the “right” people.

Make Use of Trade Shows If you have the budget to participate, a trade show can be great for networking success, brand positioning and sales. Exhibitions bring buyers and sellers from your industry, or local area, together which means you have a good chance to meet long-term potential clients. Try to be innovative, stand out from the crowd and draw attendees to your exhibition stand to better your chances. Most importantly though make sure that you follow up on any promising leads promptly after the event, otherwise, your investment will be worthless.

Create Your Own Leads Sometimes clients are not always forthcoming and you need to proactively go out there and find them yourself. One of the ways to do this is to use platforms that have a lot of business information about people, for example, LinkedIn. You can see the company’s that you want to appeal to and their HR, PR or management department representatives and contact them directly for a more personal and innovative approach. This also helps to connect you to similar people that may help your business too, for example, new suppliers.

Hashtags There is a plethora of information on social media and it can be hard to get noticed without having to pay for adverts or to get your message out. Using popular and relevant hashtags on social media can be an easy way to get in front of potential new clients. Twitter chats can be a great opportunity and some chats are based on geographical location while others are based on different expert topic areas and interests. Keep your content and hashtags relevant and you might find that a retweet or share turns into a bigger opportunity. Resist the urge to do the hard sell on social media though. Focus on being genuine and striking up real conversations and relationships.

Business Cards Whether you still favor traditional paper business cards or have gone digital make sure you always have your details to hand for easy sharing. With more and more people storing their cards on their phone they are less likely to take and keep a business card, so have both options available if you can. Include social media details as well as traditional methods of contact.

Creative Partnerships Do you have a non-competing business that would work well with your own? Approach them to create great package rates that help you both. You can offer to refer to one another with paid incentives for referrals or even special rates of advertising in their shop or website. Clients want to know that they can get everything fairly easily and joining forces with other businesses helps to add value that can benefit everyone.

Talk About Your Business Every day let people know about your business and services. You would be surprised how little other people pay attention to your life, do your friends and family know and understand what you do? Would they recommend you? Getting clients can sometimes start at home by building your network outwards. There is a lot of event and client potential there, so make sure that you are the first person who pops into their mind in the circles they move in.

Business Deals Promotional offers and deals can get new clients in the door to show off your products or services and get them hooked. Some of the more successful deals prompt new clients into action straight away such as “limited time only” or deal limits such as “free consultation to the first 5 people to call/email”. This gives them more incentive to act and creates more of a buzz for new potential clients.

Long-term Pricing A lot of your business may be one-off or short-term event projects but include a long-term incentive into your pricing structure to encourage your clients to think ahead and keep them coming back. This could be an improvement on rates for next time as a loyalty bonus, or offering a long term service such as managing and updating their event social media channels for their event for 12 months when the next project is confirmed. It is easier to keep a client than recruit new ones each time so this could be a winning strategy.

Online Help Increase awareness for event consultancy and management services by helping others online to answer questions. Using sites such as Quora or Clarity can allow you to create a profile to showcase to potential leads that you know what you are talking about. You can offer your services to provide consultations or resolve questions for users which increases brand awareness and proves you know what you are talking about. You can also improve your profile with portfolio elements and add reviews from previous users you have helped to improve your status and make you more reputable. If you fill out your complete profile with all of your services and previous history it will make users more likely to come to you.

Get Personal On a daily basis, people have their inboxes and phones flooded with ads, cold calls, spam and junk and they can spot it a mile away. If you are working on a client lead then do your research, treat every client like a VIP and you are less likely to be added to the SPAM folder. Know your audience and it will foster a long-term relationship rather than seeing you as “just another brand”.

Press Releases Get some press.

With the increase of technology, eventprofs often overlook sending out press releases but this is a missed opportunity to secure local or national media coverage. If you have something newsworthy create a press release and send it out to the right channels.

It’s important to know, the press won’t think you landing a big client is newsworthy, but if you can, share the story in a frame that interests them (like event planner gives back to cancer patients through hosting events they missed due to illness), they might just cover it.

Press Opportunities Follow the #journorequest and #PRrequest hashtags on Twitter for opportunities to share your expertise with journalists writing specific features.

Help a Reporter Out Register on specialist sites such as HARO (Help a Reporter Out) to enable you to provide insight and put yourself forward as a reliable source to secure yourself media coverage. Getting a quote in a major newspaper goes a long way to establishing yourself as an expert in your industry. It is important to remember not to underestimate the power of traditional press and the kudos and reach they bring when looking for new clients.

Brand Ambassadors Another opportunity for event planners to consider is blogs and websites that are read and respected by your target audience. Perhaps you could submit a guest post offering some top tips or be featured with an interview. High traffic blogs may offer sponsored posts, reviews, banner ads and other opportunities.

Associations Join an association and get to know other event planners.

Join a chamber of commerce or networking organization In-person networking groups allow you to make connections with your ideal clients and other professionals who can help expand your network. You never know who you might meet.

Create relationships with business organizations Volunteer for your local chamber. They throw a lot of events. They could just end up hiring you or if not, giving you a great referral.

Volunteer for a non-profit Volunteering allows you to give back, gain more experience and potentially find opportunities for paid work in the future.

Partner with other event vendors Can you offer a package with an AV company, event stylist or other vendor that compliments your event planning services? By working together you can add value and involve partners that can market the package to their own networks.

Follow-up with past clients Check in regularly with past clients. You never know what ideas it could spark or how often it leads someone to say “I was thinking about contacting you about an idea I have…”

Ask if they are in need of your services, could refer you to a friend, or write/record a testimonial for you on your services.

Work with Venues Contact local venues and get on their preferred partners list.

Plan an Event to Show off your Skills If you want to attract more corporate clients set up a free business networking event to show off what you can do and bring together people who may want to talk to you.

Be a Mentor Just because someone is on the lower rung of the career ladder does not mean they are lacking in connections. Just don’t make your business the only reason you’re mentoring.

Partner with large event planning firms Large players in the industry will often pass on projects that are too small or don’t fit their ideal client spec. Ask them if they might refer them to you instead.

Make Proactive Approaches Contact companies with user conferences and ask them if they’ve thought of outsourcing the work. Be ready to break down the costs of doing so.

Industry events Go to trade shows or conferences that your ideal customer would attend then network like crazy.

Co-working Opportunities Contact your local co-working space. A lot of budding entrepreneurs have a need for event planners on a freelance basis. The co-working space itself may need one.

Free Consultations Offer a free consultation or a 15-minute planning walk-through of suggestions. Sometimes people just need to be pointed in the right direction and realizing the enormity of planning an event and their lack of experience might just get you the job.

Meet Small Business Owners Network with other event planners. Independent business can be filled with ups and downs when it comes to clients. Sometimes you have so many you need to turn them away, other times you wish you had some. Partnering with other event planners allows for recommendations in the case of overflow situations and vacations. Be prepared to do the same for them – pass on extra business when you get to that point.

Create a Course Create a course on UDEMY to showcase your planning skills.

Affiliate Marketing and Incentives Offer a referral bonus for past clients who refer you to new ones. Create an affiliate program with other vendors, software providers, or venues. Give free new client consultations to existing clients to give out to friends and colleagues.

Become an Official Event Partner If you have a large corporate client, inquire about how other departments in that company handle their events. Ask to be introduced to people who might benefit from your services. Look for ways to save the company money by becoming their “official” event planner.

One-stop-shop Connect with technology providers in the event planning space. This may seem like a far stretch but as companies are trying to differentiate themselves from others, they may want to become a one-stop shop for their customers. If a customer approaches them about software and also finds they need event planning, that company may be in a position to give them your name.

Get Known Contact companies with internal event planners and see if they are ever in need of short-term, consultant solutions. For instance, their event planner may be out on maternity leave and you could fill in. They may not think they need that sort of assistance but then a surgery or other temporary work issue comes up and guess who they’re calling?

Go Live Go live on Facebook. This video creation option expands your reach and you’re able to connect with people who may not usually see your content.

Speak at Business Events Speak at the chamber or other organizations whose audience could be comprised of people who would be interested in hiring an event planner. You most likely won’t be able to pitch your own services but the exposure presents you as an expert. They will likely mention your business in the intro or at the end. Ideally, your contact info would be provided so that people can follow up with questions.

Create a Follow Up List Don’t give up on leads. If someone contacts you for more information but doesn’t respond when you give it to them, reach out periodically with help and resources. They may still need you but have been too busy to respond.

Identify Ideal Clients Search connections of your past clients on LinkedIn that would fit your ideal client profile. Either ask your client for an introduction or reach out directly and mention you’ve worked with X in the past.

Build your LinkedIn Profile Rework your LinkedIn profile to detail the types of events you specialize in. If you turn up in searches more often, you’ll get more leads.

Thought Leadership Post industry thought leadership pieces that attract attention. Be controversial.

The Business Story Rewrite your website to include your story.

Email Signature Invite people to book their event with you on your email signature.

LinkedIn Groups Participate in LinkedIn groups for your industry niche. Do not sell your services, just ask questions, comment and be helpful to get noticed.

Get Social Create social media profiles on sites that cater to your ideal client. Post actively on these sites with helpful information and not sales messaging.

Paid Social Media Ads Run a social media paid ad campaign.

Retargeting Use Google retargeting to bring visitors back to your website.

Website Redesign Redesign your website with a fresher look.

Blogging Create a blog and post to it on a regular basis.

LinkedIn Pulse Post to LinkedIn Pulse.

Ebook Write an ebook, downloadable checklist, and/or a playbook for a successful event. Make it available on your website as a free download.

FAQs Create a FAQs page on your website using valuable keywords.

Tracking Get technology that helps you understand who has visited your website and where they went. Then create a content strategy based on what you see them doing.

Checklist Create an interactive checklist to help people plan different types of events and host it on your website.

Online Community Start an online community that fits your niche. For instance, companies that host events may need resources to help them do it. Be helpful and when they decide there’s no value in doing it in-house anymore, they’ll think of you.

Guest Blog Guest blog on a site that will be read by your ideal demographic.

Local Search Results Improve your SEO organically or through paid options. Just make sure that you are concentrating on local search if that’s who you work with.

Email Marketing Create a cold email campaign of people who employ event planners in your niche.

Social Search Search on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to see who is asking about hiring an event planner.

Google Alerts Create a Google alert or use Mention to find people talking about keywords that matter to you.

Pinterest Create Pinterest boards as portfolios for your work or to capture your event visions. When people contact you, they have an easy way to see your past events.

Reviews Check out your reviews on review sites. If you have an office, you may have reviews. Make sure you know what’s out there. Respond to everyone who leaves you a review, even if the review is less than stellar.

Facebook Reviews Ask former clients to leave you a star rating on your business Facebook page.

Use Your Personal Network Share your business content with your friends and family on Facebook. Often people don’t realize what we do. When they know, they may bless you with referrals.

Different Service Levels Create multiple levels of service for potential clients. In economic downturns, people may not host as many parties or events. You need to safeguard yourself against these economic ups and downs by creating something even those with small budgets could use. This could be a product like an ebook on how to plan an event on a budget or offering a consultation-only service where you tell them how to do it in a consultative role but are not involved in the actual planning. These low-end budget clients may eventually convert to full-cost paying clients when the economy picks back up. But if they don’t you have found a source of revenue that requires very little effort on your part.

Drip Marketing Launch a drip marketing campaign to nurture leads until they are ready to make a decision.

Handwritten Note Take up the art of the handwritten note. Use them for thank you’s, introductions, referrals, and more. Your communication is bound to stand out.

Industry Article Write an article for an industry magazine, one that will be in the hands of your ideal customer.

SlideShare Create a SlideShare deck. SlideShare has a wide audience. Sharing your content there is another way to position yourself as a thought leader and expert in event planning.

Case Studies Create a case study of work you’ve done with past clients. Don’t just share how you made them feel but what you did for them from a number’s perspective. Use stats and revenue whenever possible but ensure your client is okay with airing those stats.

Gain Respect from Peers Share others content. When someone shares your content, you get notified of it. The next thing you do is visit that person’s page or profile. It’s a good way to get them to pay attention to you, if only for a minute.

Comment Along those same lines, comment on their content. This will help you build a relationship with them.

Round-up Posts Create a round-up post and include the content from someone you want to build a better relationship with. They’ll appreciate the share.

Opinion Piece Give your opinion on a blog post someone else wrote. Don’t be contrary but giving your view (or supporting theirs by adding to it) can help create a relationship between you and the author. When selecting the blog post, it’s best to choose a post written by someone who you would love to have as a client.

Creative Business Cards Have a business card that stands out. Whether you design it to stand out or it serves another purpose like a USB card or a business card that contains flowers seeds, find a way to stand out from the competition. This is a good idea because potential clients want to know an event planner is creative. A creative card will get their attention and make them believe that you can create a memorable event for them.

Work on Your Ideal Client Personas Work on your ideal client personas and then rework your marketing message to better appeal to your ideal client.

Network Online and Off Join a networking group, in person or virtual, preferably both. Be helpful, don’t sell.

Increase Your Digital Marketing You must have a professional website, social media presence (don’t forget the visual sites like Pinterest and Instagram), and a blog. These are no longer optional. They act as a front desk/receptionist even when you’re not “in” the office.

Provide Resources Create downloadable resources for clients and potential clients. If you’re worried people will use the resource instead of your services, you’re not providing enough value. Make these resources free for the cost of an email.

Build Your List Using the step above as well as subscribers to your blog and visitors to your site, give people the opportunity to stay connected with you through a newsletter. This will keep you top of mind and build your reputation in the industry.

Do Guest Posts or Podcast Interviews There are plenty of fledgling blogs and podcasts. People are always looking for content and guests. You won’t get paid but it will help get your name out there. Just make sure that you agree to do these things only for blogs and podcasts that appeal to your ideal client.

Participate on Social Media “Participate” does not mean drip (only) your content. Participation means active conversation. Yes, content is good but interactions are what will bring new clients to your virtual doorstep. Try participating in Twitter chats and reading other people’s blogs and commenting meaningfully on them. Remember that ideal client? Find them on social media and get to know them.

Always Follow Up Most people fall flat in this area so it’s easy to stand out. Follow up on referrals, comments, events, compliments, suggestions, contact forms, and any form of communication.

Client Feedback Surveys

Use post-event surveys not only as a way to improve but also as a way of engaging clients and creating a source for testimonials.

Educational Content

Create content that helps your client whilst presenting yourself as an expert in the field. Become your clients’ go-to for anything related to events.

Competitor Analysis

Use competitor whitespace analysis to work out what makes you different from your clients and focus on selling the things you can do that they can’t.

Highlight Innovation

Look for opportunities to highlight where you’ve used innovation to the benefit of clients. This shows that your finger is on the pulse and you have the necessary experience to put new ideas to work.

Send a Thoughtful Gift If you really want to make an impression with someone you want to work with send them a small gift. It doesn’t have to be anything flash, but ideally something thoughtful that they will appreciate. Of course, it doesn’t guarantee they will award you a contract but it guarantees that you are memorable to them.

Important Final Advice for All New Business Owners

One of the best things about being a business owner is that you don’t have to answer to anyone. Unfortunately, one of the worst things about owning your own event company is, also, that you don’t have to answer to anyone. Why? Because there is no one to stop you from getting in your own way.

When you work for a boss, and she sees you spending too much time on floor plans, which she can have her assistant do, and not enough time on meeting new clients, which is your top priority, she can haul you into her office and set you straight. “I don’t care how much you like doing floor plans,” she says, “the company needs you out in front of clients.”

But when you’re the boss, there’s no one to call you out and deliver the tough love message. And so, without any oversight, you spend even more time on floor plans than you would with a boss looking over your shoulder. When you wonder at the end of the year why your business didn’t make more money, despite all the successful events and happy clients, there’s a decent chance this is the reason.

Companies that have been successful at breaking into higher and higher levels of growth tend to be very good at policing how they allocate their time, particularly the time of the senior people. Too often, however, business owners gravitate to their comfort zone, which is usually not where your company needs you to be.

That’s the Entrepreneur’s Dilemma: the freedom from having a boss which is so enticing can also be the roadblock to your company’s growth.

How Do You Get Around This?

The first step is understanding where your company needs you the most. A good rule of thumb is listing the various tasks that need to be done, and assigning an hourly rate for what you’d have to pay someone on the outside to do that work. You as the owner should be spending the bulk of your time at the highest level tasks, whether it’s sales or design or managing your team. The lower items should be delegated to someone who can do them at a much lower rate.

Be Accountable

The next step is acknowledging that many people find it quite hard to police themselves, so you need an outside force. A mentor or consultant can help with this, but an often overlooked resource is your own staff. Whether it’s your partner (if you have one) or your assistant (or virtual assistant), enlist them in your efforts. Tell them, “I need to be focusing on the following areas to best grow the company. If you see me spending time on another area, and you’ve got it under control, let me know, as a polite reminder.”

Sounds goofy?

Maybe, but I’ve done it and it works.

In the beginning, people were hesitant to say anything, but I would catch them fidgeting and ask them what was going on. They’d respond, “Um, you remember when you told us to tell you when you were involved in one of those things that are not on your top priority list, and we should tell you when we have it under control? Well, um, we’ve kind of got this under control.”

There are only so many hours in the day, and before you think about borrowing or raising money to expand, make sure that your time is allocated to the highest possible uses that benefit the company. As strategies for growth go, this is the low-hanging fruit.

IN CONCLUSION

Starting an event planning business can be daunting and overwhelming as there are a lot of things to think about and decisions to make. If after reading this post you are just as passionate and determined as before then we encourage you to follow your dream and don’t look back.

We hope that you are feeling inspired now you have 100 new ways to get more clients but the trick is, of course, keeping them and making sure they stay loyal. Ultimately, focus on doing a good job, offering a great service and experience to your clients and they will come back again and again and recommend you to others too.

Now onto you:

• Do you have a tip to make this page better? Or an idea to add to the idea engine for how to attract more business? Send an email to [email protected] .
• Do you have more tips and advice to add about starting an event planning business ? Comment below.
• Do you have a colleague who may benefit from reading this page? Share it with them.

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How to Start an Event Management Company If you have the knack for putting together an event, connecting with people and arranging talks and pitches, then you might want to consider starting an event management business

By Shreya Ganguly Jan 17, 2020

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.

We all have participated in events at some point, be it large scale or small scale, personal or professional. While the participation is fun and enjoyable, organizing one requires a lot of effort. Venue hunting, inviting the guests, arranging for logistics, food, etc takes a lot of time. This need has opened up huge business opportunity in the event management space in India.

According to EY-EEMA (Event and Entertainment Management Association) report, the Indian events and activation industry is expected to cross INR 10,000 crore mark by 2020-21. The report revealed that the industry was at INR 5,631 crore in 2016-17 and has been growing at a 16% CAGR.

Businesses share an important bond with the events management space as holding big scale conferences, workshop, pitches take a huge amount of work. If you have the knack for putting together an event, connecting with people and arranging talks and pitches, then you might want to consider starting an event management business.

How To Get Started

Sandeep Lodha, CEO, Weddingz.in explained that it is very important to understand that events are extremely important for the organizing brand. Events bring in connections and partnerships on the table, it is also a big source of marketing for the brand. So if you are looking to start up their business in this space, you need to genuinely identify a problem existing in the space and retrofit a methodology to solve the problem.

According to Mazhar Nadiadwala, Managing Director, Dome Entertainment, these are some important things to keep in mind before you start up:

• You need to create a robust business plan with a strong vision
• You should understand your niche and define your core competencies,
• Make sure to have a marketing and PR Plan
• Create different proposals or pitches for your prospective clients and vendors – Elevator pitches, pitches for occasional meets, pitches in conferences meet etc.
• Start networking and meet groups and institutions who can give you some business
• Focus on hiring good managers who believe in your vision.
• Keep in mind, you need to start small, go big

Investments

If you are worried about investments, then rest assured because you can begin your events management business with low monetary investment. To get started all you need is a good laptop, which can cost up to INR 35,000. Major investment will be a strong team comprising of 5-6 skilled workers, which will be your recurring monthly cost of INR 1-1.5 lakh. According to Ruchi Garg, CEO and co-founder of Venuelook, you will also need a working capital investment of around INR 1–3 lakh per month to take care of running costs. However, the costs may differ depending upon the kind of event services you are offering.

Once you start getting clients, you may go out for raising funds for scaling up your services.

We recommend that you reinvest at least 10 per cent of all receipts back towards capital goods required for events as it is a good way to consolidate the business in the first 10 years of operations.

According to experts, for any event management company, the basic revenue is generated from the agency fees which generally range between 10-20 per cent depending upon your negotiation with the client. Apart from this, the revenue generation depends upon the type of event and the kind of services offered.

If you are only helping in co-ordination, you can charge good agency fees. But if you are the one completely responsible for the production and overall execution of the event, you might also hike up the price of the equipment and materials needed for the event, which will generate more revenue for the company. The range may change depending on the field of event one specializes or depends on the clients willingness to spend.

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How to Plan an Event: Event Planning Steps, Tips & Checklist

Need to know how to plan an event? If you’re planning a big event like a conference, we can help you successfully create, structure and lay out your event plan. This blog will cover everything you need to consider when planning an event, including event planning steps, tips and an easy-to-use event checklist.

What Is Event Planning?

Event planning is the process of putting on and managing a variety of events, from something as small as a meeting to as big as a convention and everything in between. When event planning you’ll be taking into account every aspect of that event, whether it’s a birthday party or a networking event.

That means you’ll be estimating budgets, creating timelines to schedule the event, reserving the site and any panels or speakers involved, getting necessary permits, food, transportation and more. If the event has a theme, you’ll develop that, too. Plus, you’ll be in charge of securing the needed resources to make the event a success.

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Event Plan Template

Use this free Event Plan Template for Excel to manage your projects better.

What Is an Event Plan?

An event plan defines how an event will be executed. It addresses all the components of an event such as the start and end dates, budget , venue, marketing, attendees and more. The scope and complexity of the event plan vary depending on the size of the event, but the fundamental challenges remain the same.

Organizing all those disparate parts, especially for larger events, requires powerful project management software. ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that lets you plan, manage and track your event to ensure it’s a success.

Our powerful Gantt charts help you list all your tasks and the associated resources and costs, assign them to your team and set milestones to track your progress. The whole plan is visible on a project timeline and can be saved by setting a baseline. Now you can track the planned progress against your actual progress to make sure you’re on schedule. Get started with ProjectManager today for free.

Event Plan Example

Most of us have some experience planning an event, be it at home, work or in our community. For this article, let’s focus on large events.

A conference is a common type of large event, so for our event management purposes, let’s talk about a TEDx conference that we were involved in to illustrate how to plan an event. This example is a good scenario to explain the structure and challenges of planning a big event, along with the benefits of planning an event with project management software .

Let’s break down the other components of setting up an event. They’re summarized below:

• Event timeline: First, establish a timeline for your event. This timeline should include pre-event planning, event execution and post-event activities.
• Budget: Estimate your event costs and create a budget. Your available budget will influence many event management decisions such as your venue, the marketing and advertising methods, etc.
• Venue: The event has to take place somewhere, and that involves logistics management , food and beverages as well as the décor.
• Marketing: Once you’ve selected a venue, you need to start drawing people to it through a marketing program that can include a website, social campaign, email and print work.
• Advertising: Hand in glove with marketing is advertising. That can include radio, TV, newspaper and magazine advertisements.
• Volunteers: A big event needs a big crew of people to get it off the ground and run smoothly. That means volunteers, which means writing contracts, defining their roles, setting up meetings and determining schedules.
• Speakers: You must have a keynote speaker or a group of speakers to attract an audience. This involves contracts, curators to select the talent, a program, bios and rehearsals.
• Sponsors: All of this costs money, and a big event’s budget is supplied by its sponsors. This again involves contracts, marketing and logistics.
• Production: The production involves creating contracts as you work on creating an audio-visual recording of the proceedings, as well as a sound and video broadcast during the event.
• Stage: The event takes place at a specific venue and on that venue is a stage on which the event proper will be presented. That usually incorporates a projector, screen, microphones, internet connection, batteries, cables and more.
• Attendees: Don’t forget about the people attending the event! You’ll need communications to inform them of event information, payment processes to collect fees, emails to stay in touch, directions, badges and access points.

Related:  10 Free Event Planning Templates for Excel & Word

Free Event Plan Template

This free event plan template for Excel is a great tool to start assembling the information you need to create an event plan. It can be customized to add your event details.

The Event Planning Process: Event Planning Steps

We covered a lot on event planning, so let’s break down those tips into concrete steps. These event planning steps will guide you toward success. Let’s continue with our conference example.

• Step 1. Determine your event goals and objectives
• Step 2. Assemble your team
• Step 3. Establish an event budget
• Step 4. Choose a date & venue
• Step 5. Select the speakers
• Step 6. Event marketing & advertising
• Step 7. Execute your event

When you break down the scope of your event plan into manageable steps, the process seems a lot less daunting. However, there are a few more things to keep in mind when making your event plan.

Event Planning Roles

As you might expect, there are many different roles that work together to bring an event to life. It’s easy to get confused. Are you an event manager or an event planner? Is there any difference between the two? Let’s take a look at some of the more common event-planning roles and define them.

Event Manager

The event manager is often mistaken for the event planner, but they are two distinct roles. Most simply, the event manager is responsible for event management activities, which involve coordinating and implementing the event. They take care of setting up the event, including its design, and make sure the vision of the event planner is realized.

Event Planner

An event planner organizes, coordinates and executes the event. They’re in charge of coming up with the idea, overseeing the setup and breakdown of the event. They’ll select the venue, create the budget and ensure everything is taken care of. What sets them apart is they design the strategy for the event to the smallest detail.

Event Producer

The event producer fleshes out the strategic plan of the event planner. They are the one who takes the idea and turns it into a living event. They will take charge of the technical aspects of the event, such as audio/visual, stage design, etc. They work with the event planner to schedule the event , but the event producer uses their skills and expertise in producing events to deliver the event that’ll impress both attendees and the client.

Event Planning Tips

Unfortunately, there are always going to be variables out of your control that’ll affect the event planning process, such as the weather, delivery delays, technical difficulties and other potential mix-ups. As stated earlier, you can’t change the date of your event, so you’ll want to be as prepared as possible for any risks or issues that may pop up on the day of your event.

Do a Post-Event Review

A post-event review or a post-mortem as they’re often called, is very valuable. By looking back at the past event and seeing what worked and what didn’t work, you can better plan your next event. There are always lessons to be learned and applying them to the next project will avoid previous mistakes and increase your chances of a better outcome.

Use Event Planning Templates

Having an event planning template is a great way to make sure you’re not missing any important pieces of the larger event. It’ll help you organize your tasks and resources, costs and more. Use our free event plan template to get started on the right foot.

Use Event Planning Tools

A template is fine, but limited. You have to manually update everything and it’s not very collaborative. Event planning tools, such as Gantt charts , kanban boards, task lists and calendars, help you plan and implement the event plan. They also allow you to track the work to make sure it’s following the plan, which leads to a more successful event.

Prepare a Plan B

As important as your plan is, there can be issues with it. There might be acts of god, such as weather, which negatively impact the event. Whatever the cause, you’ll need a backup. That’s why developing a plan B is so critical to the success of the event. You might never have to use it, but in case you do, you’re prepared.

Use an Event Planning Checklist

Another tip is to have a checklist made up. That way you can collect all the things you have to do and why you’re doing it in one place. Using a checklist for event planning can be done in conjunction with project planning tools . The more safeguards, the better. Also, there are few things more satisfying than crossing something off your list.

Event Planning Checklist

There’s a lot to manage when planning an event, so it’s important to have a list of everything you need to include in your event management plan. The following is a general event planning checklist to help you get started. The more questions you ask, the better your event checklist. Feel free to add your own unique responsibilities and tasks.

Goals and Objectives

• What’s your event’s reason for existing?
• What are the goals this event is expected to achieve?
• What are the revenue objectives?
• What is your target audience?
• How many people will attend?
• Is there a cost associated with ticketing and what is it?
• Where is the event being held?
• Create an event schedule.

Event Budget

• Figure out what the costs will be
• If you held similar events, use and adjust an old budget for a baseline
• What ticketing and registration software will be used?
• Finalize sponsor contributions
• Set ticket price

Date & Venue

• When will the event take place?
• Have a backup date in case issues arise
• Is there the best location for the event?
• Is the venue appropriate for your expected number of attendees?
• Decide on needed infrastructure: wifi, capacity, bathrooms, near shopping & restaurants, etc.
• Hire a caterer
• Secure what equipment you’ll need
• What are your security needs?
• Do you need permits, licenses or insurance?
• Create event signage and communication plans for attendees
• Research potential speakers
• Create a list of relevant speakers
• Create a pitch for speakers
• Pitch speakers
• Finalize speaker selection, get bios and headshots and arrange travel and accommodations
• Develop a list of sponsors and what you can offer them.
• See if there are sponsors who have partnered with similar events.
• Reach out to potential sponsors.
• Design signoff.
• Update the site or build a unique one.
• Make sure the site can handle expected traffic.
• Have a mobile-friendly site.

Event Marketing & Advertising

• What’s your messaging?
• Coordinate with digital tools and social platforms
• Add the event to online calendars
• Market the event with blog posts and other promotions like videos and online ads
• Send reminders to all parties a month or two before the event date

Finalizing the Last Steps

• Speakers and scripts
• Decorations

Pro tip: That’s a lot to coordinate and plan, which is why there’s a need for project management software that has the right features for event management. It provides a common portal, where you can track costs and tasks with automated alerts. It also offers both a communication and a collaborative platform that reduces the need for unnecessary emails. Software collects all your files in one place and makes team reporting simpler by adding efficiencies and reducing stress.

ProjectManager Offers Robust Event Planning Tools

ProjectManager is online software that’s suited for event planning. We have event project management tools to keep all the parts of your events, from managing vendors to promotions, organized. Our planning software helps you keep track of all the elements that make up your event plan.

Keep Stakeholders Updated With Event Calendars

Our multiple project views mean that event planners and managers can use project calendars , Gantt charts and there are task lists and kanban boards for teams. While reports can keep stakeholders informed, they might want to have access to the project. Share the calendar view with your stakeholders, which allows them to see start and end dates for all the tasks as well as milestones. This manages their expectations.

Zoom Into Event Activities With Kanban Boards

Use ProjectManager’s kanban board to manage the daily activities that need to be executed to plan, schedule and track your event plan. Move tasks from column to column as you collaborate on work with your team, and it’s easy to spot bottlenecks and get everything over the line in time for the event.

Track Event Labor Costs With Timesheets & Real-Time Dashboards

Plus, timesheets make invoicing easy for all your events. They can be submitted and approved with a keystroke. Our software also offers a variety of views, from a list to a calendar and even a kanban board that helps you visualize the workflow to keep on task.

More About Planning an Event

Event planning can be complex. There’s a lot of balls to keep in the air. If the above is too much to digest immediately, you could start with our event plan template and watch one of our planning experts. Jennifer Bridges, PMP, has years of experience and uses it to teach you the fundamentals of event planning in this short video.

Related Content

• Free Event Proposal Template
• Event Management: A Quick Guide
• How to Plan a Virtual Event: Virtual Event Planning Checklist
• Event Project Management Software

ProjectManager is award-winning project management software that helps you plan and monitor your event details. From powerful planning tools to real-time reports and dashboards that capture all of your event details, you can use our software to stay on schedule and stick to your planned budget. Try our software today with a free 30-day trial.

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The Ultimate Event Strategy Guide for Conference Planners

An event strategy plan is the crucial first step in organizing an event. It is an all-encompassing process that enables event planners to manifest their written plans into an actual event. The global event industry was worth $890 billion as of 2020 , highlighting the crucial role of effective event planning. From creating event goals to measuring its success, your event strategy is the trusted mentor guiding that journey. 

However, event strategy planning is a complex endeavor with multiple interconnected steps. That is why getting it right is imperative for a successful outcome. We hope this comprehensive guide provides you with the tools and knowledge to create a compelling event strategy plan for your event. So, let’s dive into this blog and discuss every aspect of an event strategy plan in detail.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• What Is An Event Strategy?

Why Does Event Strategy Matter?

• How To Plan An Event 4.1 Develop an Event Purpose Statement 4.2 Create Event Goals 4.3 Align with the Company’s Goals 4.4 Adhere to CLEAR and SMART Framework 4.5 Define your target audience 4.6 Plan your event budget
• Strategies For Event Budget Planning 5.1 Set your Financial Budget 5.2 Be Resource Mindful 5.3 Create an Event Ticket Price
• How Do You Market An Event? 6.1 Engage in Pre-Event Activities 6.2 Build a Robust Event Website 6.3 Undertake Social Media Marketing Endeavours 6.4 Craft an Effective Event Reminder Email 6.5 Leverage Press Releases for Targeted Event Promotion 6.6 Maximize Event Impact with Relevant Sponsorships 6.7 Streamline Efforts with Event Marketing Tools
• Steps On Managing An Event 7.1 Step 1: Utilize Event Management Tools 7.2 Step 2: Select the Venue and Plan Logistics 7.3 Step 3: Look into Risk Management and Contingency Plans 7.4 Step 4: Send a Welcome Mail 7.5 Step 5: Do Event App Adoption 7.6 Step 6: Craft Attendee Experience
• How To Measure Event Performance 8.1 Send Thank You Mails 8.2 Optimize Event Success with App Analytics 8.3 Send Out Event Surveys

Key Takeaway

What is an event strategy .

An event strategy is more than just a plan. It’s a data-driven, goal-oriented, measurable roadmap for in-person, virtual, or hybrid events. The key to its effectiveness lies in setting a clear and achievable goal and using data to guide your efforts.

An effective event strategy plan takes cognizance of your organizational ability to convert the abstract plan you imagine into a real event strategy. Carefully analyzing the event’s purpose, business goals, and inherent capacities is the cornerstone of a successful event, giving you the confidence to execute your plan precisely.

A recent Forrester report showcased how B2B businesses spend over $250,000 of their budgets on events , emphasizing the importance of having a concrete and detailed event strategy. This strategy should not exist in isolation but should be aligned with the organization’s goals. This alignment ensures that the event contributes to the overall business objectives, guides resource allocation, and facilitates outcomes measurement. 

The event strategy framework provides a clear path to see the big picture. It asks and answers the big questions of why, What, When, and how it relates to your event. It is a guiding constitution that gives everyone purpose and direction in performing their tasks, keeping them focused and clear-minded. 

A typical B2B event is a complex entity with numerous variables, stages, and moving parts. An event strategy is crucial because it can structure, manage, and prioritize these elements, ensuring they act harmoniously. The significant tasks of planning, launching, marketing, managing, and budgeting an event demand a stable structure, making event strategy a crucial component. 

Let’s start by understanding the first step of event organizing, which is the planning stage. Event organizing is a comprehensive process that involves a series of steps from conceptualization to execution. The planning stage, which we will delve into, is where the event strategy plays a crucial role. 

How To Plan An Event?

The planning stage of the event is the head of the event strategy. Quite literally, because you create an idea of your event with your head and refine that idea into a concrete, achievable, and measurable event goal. By doing so, you can direct all your event organizing efforts to attaining that objective. Now, let’s look at the event planning process in detail. 

Develop an Event Purpose Statement

The significance of an event’s purpose cannot be overstated. The conscious understanding of the question, “Why are you holding this event?” The answer to this question is the motive that you strive to achieve. An event without a clear objective and purpose will drain money, resources, and time. As the event planner, it’s your responsibility to develop a clear purpose and goal for your event, preventing the wastage of resources and ensuring a focused approach. 

When formulating your event’s purpose, creating a goal that resonates with attendees and reflects the company’s objectives is crucial. This alignment ensures that everyone involved is working towards a common goal, fostering engagement and commitment. Moreover, the purpose should be clear and attainable, providing a roadmap for the event’s success. 

Next, you need to convert what you imagined into concrete forms of communication for your stakeholders by creating an event purpose statement. Since your event’s purpose is visible to your audience, highlight the event’s intention, reasoning, target audience, and importance. Your event marketing and promotion will revolve around your purpose, so make it clear and reasonable. 

Strategize accordingly to define a purpose statement for each sub-event, individual meeting, or conference that identifies with a specific group of people. For instance, if there’s a product launch event to introduce a new product, you must state your purpose for every room or auditorium your attendees will enter to inform them of the intention of that room and the value they will get out of it. It will help boost brand equity for the event while providing a better attendee experience. 

Create Event Goals

An event goal provides a definitive and measurable point that directs your resources to achieve that goal. It must answer the following questions: “What is the objective of this event?”, “What do you want to achieve with this event?”, and “What type of event is needed?”. It must also address what this event has in store for your attendees. Having a clear event goal will make your planning process much more manageable.

If the event aims to exhibit your products or services to stakeholders and expand your market reach, then that goal will inform you to plan a trade show. Your goal of attracting potential buyers and investment will guide you in designing your trade event.

After creating your event goal, you need to make it achievable by anchoring your goals to a concrete base and building a solid goal with the following strategies.

Align with the Company’s Goals 

One way to make your event objective achievable is to make it commensurate with the company’s objectives. This is an effective way to solidify your event objectives and make them attainable. For example, if the company’s goal is to generate revenue, then do a trade show, or if the goal is to educate clients, organize a live training session.

Adhere to CLEAR and SMART Framework

The final stage of the refinement process is adhering to your event’s goals according to SMART(Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) and CLEAR (Collaborative, Limited, Emotional, Appreciable, Refinable) standards. These standards are frameworks that make your goals achievable. 

The SMART framework helps create clear and measurable goals, ensuring every aspect is well-defined, relevant, and achievable within a scheduled time frame. Similarly, the CLEAR framework enables your goals to be flexible, adaptive, and communicative. It makes your goals resonate with the people by developing an emotional connection, which fosters collaboration among multiple teams. 

This means that your event goals must have the necessary mechanics to measure whether you have achieved your goal. By making your goal clear and achievable, you can decide on the type of event to organize. Jump into this blog on ‘15 Types of B2B Events that Every Event Planner Must Know About’ to know more. In this blog, you’ll learn the different types of events planned per the requirements/objectives behind them.

Define Your Target Audience 

Now that you’ve asked the ‘Why’ and ‘What,’ it’s time to ask ‘For whom’ are you organizing this event? This means you must understand what type of attendees will find your event relevant and their specific needs and expectations. This understanding will guide the changes you need to make based on your selected audience type, making them feel valued and considered. 

If you want to generate revenue, organize a sales event for salespersons. To select a receptive audience for your event, you need to understand your event goal and the type of event—these two will help you define your target audience. Remember, your audience is not just a group but an integral part of achieving your event’s goal. 

Plan Your Event Budgets

The next most impactful stage in the planning process is budgeting. Limited budgets can eliminate some good ideas. However, strategic budget planning can help navigate those challenges and make the budget work for you rather than the other way around. In the next section, we will deal with the intricacies of event budget planning. 

Strategies For Event Budget Planning

An event budget outlines events’ financial and non-financial components by listing them and analyzing each component for its necessity and relevant impact on the event. A budget understands the value of each aspect and strives for an optimum allocation of resources without any unnecessary wastage. 

Let’s explore some practical ways to plan your event budget. 

Set Your Financial Budget

To create a reasonable budget for your event, consider its purpose and goal since they have the most impact. Moreover, the nature or type of event is crucial in determining the required budget. 

Set your budget by collaborating with your leadership to understand your organization’s ability to finance your choice of event. Outline every aspect of your event by categorizing each element, anticipating the need, providing a description, estimating the cost, and finalizing the actual price. Use collaborative sessions among all the stakeholders to achieve the best of both worlds. The key is to ‘compromise’ and be ‘open-minded’ to new or alternate suggestions, which helps you reduce unnecessary costs. 

A few elements need to be considered for a cautious budget. 

• Costs related to food and beverage
• Venue rental
• Travel expenses
• Decor costs
• Marketing expenses
• Staff salaries
• Utility costs
• Office supplies expenses
• Opportunity costs of choosing one strategy over another
• Direct and indirect revenue from ticket sales, hotel commissions, sponsorships, etc. 
• Brand equity generated from the goodwill of your attendees 

Be Resource Mindful

Other than the financial aspects, you must consider your available resources. These include skilled workers, technology, time, connections with external agencies, company support, etc. Planning an event by considering these resources will prove effective.

Create an Event Ticket Price

Take account of your expenses incurred for the event and your revenue goal. Both will inform you of your decision to set fixed or multiple-priced ticket prices. Unless it’s a free event like fundraising, explore options of having a subsidized ticket or VIP tickets for specific people. 

With this, we have wrapped the planning stage of the event strategy. Now, it’s time to move on to executing your planning into reality, beginning with marketing your event.

How Do You Market An Event?

You have a great event purpose, a solid goal, and a concrete budget to execute the planning. Still, you must communicate that purpose and objective to attract attendees and panelists. A successful event marketing strategy can help you achieve your event’s goals.

An event marketing strategy involves everything related to marketing your event, including defining your target audience, deciding suitable marketing strategies, maintaining relevancy with your audience and event’s goals, enhancing brand equity, promoting your event’s objectives, and measuring success. 

Similarly, setting up your marketing goal is equally important. This depends on the goal and nature of the event. It can be event promotion to drive attendance, retweets, shares, likes, click-through rates (CTR), and other forms of content creation. Organizing your event marketing strategy around a determined goal will help balance marketing costs. 

The following are some essential strategies to guide your event management efforts. However, for a detailed understanding, check out our blog for more  event marketing strategies .

1. Engage in Pre-Event Activities

The first step is pre-event engagement to create a buzz around your event to make it attractive. Use hoardings, banners, social media posts, and announcements to let people know something special will happen. Do teaser campaigns to create hype around the event, as we see for a movie release. Similarly, pre-event surveys help you ground your marketing strategies with customer expectations and ensure your efforts resonate with consumer wants. 

Visit our blog on pre-event activities to gain more insightful ideas. 

2. Build a Robust Event Website

Develop an intuitive, informative, and visually appealing website for your event. Make sure to highlight your event purpose and goal. Include the relevant details highlighting what prospective customers might expect, like date, time, location, speaker’s list, reason to attend, etc. Your website should have a bold call to action (CTA) to captivate and register new attendees and a save-the-date section reminding attendees to participate. 

To learn more about conference websites and how they must look, check out our article, 20 Important Conference Websites To Watch Out For in 2024

3. Undertake Social Media Marketing Endeavors

Leverage social media channels to spearhead your event marketing campaign. Proliferating your event purpose and objective via social media posts, reels, tweets, and influencer marketing will impact your event. 

Do paid campaigns and sponsorships further to expand your reach and visibility to your target audience. Create an event hashtag for a focused keyword of your event to track your audience’s activities and control the social media content. 

Get more social media content ideas for your B2B events by reading our article, “ 27 B2B Social Media Content Ideas To Drive Success All Year Long ”.

4. Craft an Effective Event Reminder Email

You should have a prospective attendee list from the email signups on the event website. Use tools like Mailchimp, Sender, SendinBlue, etc., to set up systematic event reminder emails for prospective attendees at strategic intervals. Design the email to be informative and attractive and include a hook to captivate your audience. Finally, avoid spamming and providing unnecessary sponsorship-related ads. 

5. Leverage Press Releases for Targeted Event Promotion

Anchor your marketing campaign around a relevant keyword for conference attendees. Doing press releases and news announcements is a professional way to spread your event message since you’re targeting B2B professionals. Most business people will tend to get Google News alerts around your chosen keyword and see the news article for your event, so make sure to include all the necessary information. 

6. Maximize Event Impact with Relevant Sponsorships

Getting relevant sponsorships is an integral part of event marketing strategy. For instance, you can organize a health-related event for business professionals and ensure that the company you’re organizing the event for sponsors a smartwatch for attendees. Ensure that the smartwatch features multiple health trackers and can send alerts related to your event. By doing so, you can guarantee a satisfying attendee experience that will have a lasting impact on your event. 

Ensure that your sponsorships are relevant to your event and that attendees can benefit from such products. To learn more about event sponsorships, read our article “ Everything You Need to Know About How to Get Event Sponsorship.”

7. Streamline Efforts with Event Marketing Tools

Use an event marketing tool to organize all your event marketing efforts. This is important to streamline your different marketing strategies and help in effortless planning and execution. You can choose to use all-in-one event marketing software or multiple software, but your choice must take into account the following: 

• Event registration system
• Marketing-related analytics
• Video production
• Mobile event management

Now that the planning and marketing stages have been covered in great detail, let’s move on to the final step: managing your event in real-time and understanding the event management process. 

Steps On Managing An Event 

Your planning, marketing, and budgeting efforts have all been dedicated to the event you must manage. All you have to do is create an event checklist and ensure that every aspect of your event adheres to those requirements. In this stage, you must focus on delivering what you promised in your event goal and marketing campaigns. Managing the event is an all-encompassing effort to provide attendees with the ultimate event experience and value. 

Here are a few event management steps that you can follow to ensure that your attendees have the ultimate event experience. 

Step 1: Utilize Event Management Tools

Use effective event management software to organize your event. Your tool must have a real-time tracking system that allows you to check every sub-event and conference and ensure smooth functioning. It must facilitate communication and interaction among attendees and panelists, networking opportunities based on shared interests, and room for resolving issues and grievances. For instance, adopt the best event networking apps that enable maximum attendee interaction. 

Ensure a dedicated space for a smooth registration process to minimize hassles. Set up an on-site registration booth for newcomers’ convenience. Issue badges to attendees for clear identification and documentation. Make the process of getting into your event as convenient as possible.

Overall, an event management tool should assist you in organizing different aspects of your event for smooth functioning. 

Step 2: Select the Venue and Plan Logistics

You have to choose the venue based on your event objective and the type of event. It can be a virtual event, on-site event, or hybrid event. However, venue and logistics are most important for in-person and hybrid events. Consider the following while selecting a venue:

• Your event objective
• Nature of your event
• The location of your target audience 
• Venue pricing
• Climate patterns 
• Relevancy to your attendees
• Opportunity to customize your event venue 

Moreover, logistical considerations regarding food, supplies, stays, machinery, and equipment must also be considered. Deciding what event is most suitable for you is paramount. Follow this article to learn more: ‘Virtual vs. Physical Meeting: Which One’s Better & Why?’ 

Step 3: Look into Risk Management and Contingency Plans

‘Prevention is better than cure’ has never been more true. Having a contingency plan and strategies for managing potential risks at your event would be best. List the worst possible scenarios that might arise during your event and find ways to mitigate them. Make your event management plan resilient and fail-proof. Of course, there will always be unseen problems you might not solve; nevertheless, ensure an alternate course of action to minimize potential risks.

Step 4: Send a Welcome Mail

For a memorable attendee experience, provide a welcome kit. It can be online or physical, but ensure you include a greeting mail, access to your event app, a WiFi password, a reference, and a menu of different events. Include sponsored goodies in this kit to help attendees navigate through your event. 

Step 5: Do Event App Adoption

Encourage attendees to download event conference apps in your email reminders and welcome kit. Emphasize the app’s importance by highlighting its features related to the event, like attendee interactions, live-tracking of ongoing events, an AI chatbot, updates from your networks, and previewing the event’s purpose and goals.

The front-end part of your event management efforts must be in the app because this will be your attendees’ constant companion in the event. It should guide your attendees and help them navigate through the event. 

Step 6: Craft Attendee Experience

Your event management process should focus on optimizing the attendee experience. To enhance your agency’s brand, ensure that your event organizing is almost flawless and caters to every reasonable requirement of your attendees. Exclusive promo codes and goodies provide additional benefits that supplement this. 

An interactive event focusing on live Q&A sessions , brainstorming sessions, engagement activities, gamification, and video sessions will also enhance the attendees’ experience by making them active event participants. 

Also, please read our article on attendee engagement strategies to learn more. 

In the next section, we will discuss how to measure the effectiveness of your event planning and execution. 

How To Measure Event Performance

Your event is over, and now it’s time to measure its success. This evaluation process is not just about assessing past performance but also about learning and improving for future events. All your planning, budgeting, marketing, and management efforts will be evaluated against your choice of measuring criteria. 

Firstly, you need to know how to measure your event; this is possible with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which you’ll develop based on your event goals. For example, if your event goal is to increase sales, you can track the number of sales pledged by your attendees and define your event’s success. 

Simply put, KPIs are anything that points to the core performing aspects of your event, the fulfillment of which will determine its success or failure. 

Similarly, your return on investment (ROI) indicates your event’s success, hinting at any positive value you received after your event. Whether monetary or non-monetary, this value will be measured against your KPIs, underscoring the importance of your efforts in achieving a positive outcome. 

There are a few activities that can help you measure your non-monetary event ROIs, and they go as follows:

1. Send Thank You Mails

You can earn goodwill by sending a gratitude email for your attendee’s participation in your event. Since it is true, let your attendees know they’re essential and instrumental in your event. Try customizing an email with your marketing software to be more appealing. This will leave a good impression on your attendees and boost your brand value.  

2. Optimize Event Success with App Analytics

Using your stated KPIs, gauge your event metric through your event app analytics. This will save you time and provide better insights into critical metric areas you previously ignored, including attendee behavior and activity. Proper analysis and storage of these metrics will help you organize your future events. 

3. Send Out Event Surveys

Send out event surveys for perfect and honest insights into attendees’ experiences. Ensure the reliability of the feedback and provide questions that you want answered. Leave a space asking for the merits and demerits of the event. This will help you gain valuable feedback for your future event planning strategy. Please read our article, 27 Event Survey Questions For Maximum Responses , to learn more about post-event survey questionnaires. 

Now you know the different stages of event planning. Note that every stage has an equal bearing on your event, and giving equal attention to each step will ensure its success. From rigid structures to unforeseen changes, event planning strategies must balance data-driven decisions and room for flexibility. 

That is why it is important to have adequate information on how different events work and what attendees think of them. For all event-related information, visit Eventible .

It is a platform where professionals can find, review, and evaluate business events. It has over 10,000 event reviews offering insights on event quality, networking opportunities, and overall event experience. Eventible can enhance your event strategy by gaining honest feedback, detailed ratings, and testimonials from attendees. 

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Alison Bensch

Senior director of global events, cloudinary, proudest of.

In both cases, we had to figure out how to take what are historically in-person events and translate them into engaging virtual experiences with a team of just two in-house event marketers, counting myself.

ImageCon is our flagship customer summit. In 2021, more than 1,700 people across 107 countries registered for the two-day event, which included 20 virtual sessions designed to help retailers unleash the full potential of their visual media.

Our hosted event series included about 8 virtual events across North America and EMEA markets. To drive up attendance and engagement, we hosted unique virtual cooking and mixology classes, wine tastings, tequila pairings, and more, with celebrity chefs and bartenders such as Marcus Samuelsson, Julio Cabrero, and Amanda Freitag.

Rockstar Mode

ImageCon was a success, in part, because we secured high-quality speakers and focused on providing true value to attendees by creating sessions to optimize their usage of the Cloudinary platform to improve their business. We featured customers in the content by doing customer spotlights. We also improved the production level of the summit by partnering with an agency.

I am proud we were able to pull off a high-quality event of this scale while managing 30 other events for the year.

Prior to the pandemic, our hosted event series consisted of in-person dinners and intimate happy hours. We wanted to recreate these virtually, without making them feel like webinars. We succeeded, in part, because we invested in high-quality talent to attract participants and create fun, memorable moments we probably could not have pulled off in-person.

We also took pains to make the events as easy as possible to attend, for example, by mailing guests meal kits or drink kits with everything they needed to participate. Of course, everything was branded, right down to the salt and pepper. We know our attendees’ time is precious, so we encouraged them to involve their family and were sure to include enough food and/or drink to share.

After the experience, we broke out into small groups, allowing people to network with peers and Cloudinary team members, who led discussions on relevant industry topics. Thus, attendees topped off a great culinary or cocktail experience with valuable learnings that could help their business. In fact, I see us continuing with some of these virtual events even after we have resumed in-person ones.

Our on-demand event content is now a powerful sales enablement tool for our sales team, who share session recordings with prospective customers, as well as existing ones who are considering adding on a new capability. We will continue to measure the performance of this content.

For the hosted events, we evaluate success by measuring pipeline acceleration. So, we consider where event guests are in their consideration process before attending the event. We use the event, and event follow-up, to help move the prospect or customer to the finish line. We usually see prospects who engaged in marketing campaigns were more likely to close, and close faster, than those who did not attend an event.

While this is harder to measure, we know our event series keeps the Cloudinary brand top of mind and deepens our relationship with customers. We document the positive feedback we receive from attendees and sales reps for internal use and marketing purposes.

Survivor Mode

Another challenge was creating an event strategy against a backdrop of so much uncertainty. I have seen industry colleagues invest resources in planning in-person events, only to have to rejigger in the final hour. I made the decision from the onset of the year to plan for virtual events, given our small team and resources. This allowed us to create more effective and engaging virtual events from the start and maximize our budget.

Nothing beats in-person events, and I am excited to be moving forward with these in 2022. But I plan to continue with digital and hybrid events, as well, for a number of reasons. When done right, they can be more memorable than in-person ones, and certainly more convenient. They also allow me to engage people across a wider geographic region (all of Europe for example or across the US), which leads to cost-savings and unique and widened interactions for our attendees.

Annie Yuzzi VP

Global corporate events and experiences, sumo logic, bethany roskin murphy, director of global events, drift, charlene kate ditch, founder, charlene kate events, gabrielle d., global events director, automation anywhere, gerilynn marburger, director, global events, hewlett packard enterprise, hollie ashby, senior manager, cxo and third party events, palo alto networks, lindsey cohen, director- event marketing, snyk, ceo & chief event strategist, liz king events, nicola kastner, vice president, global head of event strategy, sap, rachel russell, field marketing manager, even, samantha calle, associate director, xandr, margaret shaeffer, head of field marketing & events, linearb, traci depuy, head of global events, salesforce, dale rickert, global conference head of greentech festival, matthew lin, head of marketing, beetc, emilie watrob, head of event marketing, zs, katherine leong, director, corporate events, gainsight, sr. director, marketing technology (brand and events), salesforce, karim youssef, creative director, dpw, elizabeth thomas, head of global events, elastic, gerry schneider, vp events at wearedevelopers, director, global events at hewlett packard enterprise, mike kalyan, event and seminar marketing manager, shrm.

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