If you’re looking for a lucrative and fun profession, you should consider an event planning company. People may want personal events for milestone birthdays and graduations. You can work with corporations for conferences and other celebrations. Regardless of your location, you can find clients for your event planning services. Here are some tips for operating an event planning company.
Venue Sourcing
When customers call you for events, they’re going to need a place to host them. Whether it’s an outdoor or indoor event, operating an event planning business means finding places that can source these weddings, parties, and conferences. Your service may focus on a banquet hall, where you can host any event. Start looking for commercial property in your area that you can convert into a regular event space. You may buy an existing event space from another business. Consider working with a personal commercial real estate agent who can help you source locations faster.
However, your event planning services can also be more mobile. In other words, you may agree to go to a particular location or scout a different one for each event. For example, somebody may want a destination wedding. They may want you to help plan it in another part of the city or even another state. That may be something you can do if you’re willing to travel and hire some local contractors in that area. While that may not be how you start your business, it may be something you can gravitate into as you develop a solid reputation.
Event Focus
Part of operating an event planning company is deciding what events you’ll focus on. After all, you don’t want to provide this type of service without any idea what your target audience may want. You may decide to solely focus on hosting weddings, which is extremely lucrative. Just be prepared to be extremely busy in summer as that’s the most busy time for weddings. Or you may be a general event planning company that includes birthdays, graduations, weddings, retirement, conferences, etc. Whatever your business vertical is, it’s your duty to do appropriate research to see what other professional services you may need to subcontract. For example, if you host a wedding, you may need to contact a DJ and florist. You should also start reading bridal magazines and websites to get insight into current wedding trends.
If you’re doing general events, remember the seasons can affect what type of requests you’ll have. As mentioned, most nuptials take place in summer, particularly the month of June. Around May and June, you could also expect several requests for graduation events. Then there are different holidays such as Christmas and Halloween, which often involve large parties.
Clientele Preference
In addition to the type of events you prefer, you also should consider the type of clients. Operating an event planning business can be stressful if you’re dealing with clients that you may not want to cater to. Do you prefer corporate clients or residential clients? Do you think you can deal with the stress some brides may have as they plan a wedding? Do you have a soft spot for teenagers and look forward to providing services for the best graduation party ever? These are things you should ask yourself, as different types of events cater to different demographics. Maybe you love children and want to focus on kids’ parties. You may prefer to plan more adult adventures such as bachelorettes, stag parties, or music festivals where there may be lots of booze.
Safety Services
There are several safety concerns when operating an event business. When people attend your events, they should be safe from intruders who may try to crash. So consider hiring security services that can protect the event from them. Safety also involves disasters such as fire. That’s why any event you have must have enough exits for people to escape quickly if a fire breaks out. You should have functioning alarms and ensure your space meets all of the local fire safety codes. Knowing that your business meets fire safety codes can give you peace of mind that your clients will have protection and can enjoy a fun time.
Pest Control
The last thing any business wants is pests. It’ll be horrifying to have rodents or roaches running around your banquet hall in the middle of a milestone anniversary or birthday party. If this were to happen, your business wouldn’t get good reviews. That’s why operating an event planning company should involve regular Pest Control services. Keeping such creatures away from your business helps to protect your physical structure and food supply. After all, certain vermin, particularly rodents and termites, can be very destructive. According to the CDC, termites can destroy a building in about three years.
Rodents have sharp teeth that can gnaw through wiring and drywall. Therefore, they can do major damage to your structure, and you’ll have to spend money repairing it. They also can have several litters of babies in one year. Failure to keep up with preventing them may create an infestation before you realize it. If your event space has catering services, it could be a haven for attracting them as they’re often looking for a food source.
You should also consider wildlife prevention. After all, if you’re hosting outdoor events, cockroaches may be the last thing you need to worry about. If you’re in an outdoor space, be aware of any potential wildlife that may be nearby. You want to ensure you don’t encroach on their land.
General Maintenance
Your event space needs the same type of maintenance as any other structure would. That’s why, in addition to fire safety codes, you need to ensure the structure is always sound. Start by hiring local roofers who can protect your property by preventing leaks. According to Bob Vila, you should have routine inspections annually. However, if your property is an area prone to frequent storms, you may need to call commercial roofers to do more inspections. These proactive inspections can handle problems that are brewing before they worsen. If your event space has an unattended leak, it could eventually lead to a roof cave-in. If it does so during an event, it could be catastrophic as it may cause many people to get hurt. Even if no one got hurt, the business would still suffer. Your reputation would be at risk and you would have a major expense on your hands.
You also want to ensure everything looks nice inside. After all, no one wants to hold an event in an ugly space. Have interior contractors work on things such as flooring and windows. Window treatment companies can add blinds, curtains, or shutters depending on the style and thing that suits the event hall style.
You don’t want your guests to be freezing in winter or sweltering in the summertime. That’s why you need local AC services that can keep everybody at a comfortable temperature. Your local AC service providers can also inspect your existing systems. They have to check the filters, duct network, and coolant levels to ensure your HVAC system won’t shut down anytime. AC networks can harbor dust, mold, and other contaminants that affect people’s respiratory systems. Protect your guests by making sure they’re not breathing in poor-quality air.
Sanitation
Of course, sanitation is a must for any business, especially one that hosts events. Operating an event planning business means keeping things clean, sanitary, and safe for everyone there. Thanks to local dumpster rentals, your event will never be in violation of polluting the local area. If your event planning includes outdoor activity, you’ll likely rely on dumpster rental. You can rent as many as you need for any party, conference, or other activity. As you continue to host events, you’ll need a reliable dumpster rental subcontractor you can rely on. Luckily, junk hauling and dumpster rentals are a big business, so you have many contractors you can consider. There are different types of dumpsters you could get, some can be as small as one ton and others as large as 20 tons.
Customer Acquisition
Operating an event company is hard without getting customers. That’s why effective sales strategies are a must and you must target them to your demographic. Thanks to technology, you have several ways to acquire new and maintain existing customers. Don’t worry you can still use traditional methods, such as an effective business sign. You can research other event companies and see what tactics they may have used.
As you’re trying to gain more customers, remember you have a lot of competition to consider. Give your potential clientele an incentive to use your event business. Consider incentives like first-time customer discounts and seasonal discounts. You can do the same for veterans and seniors. Offer package deals for weddings and birthdays. Those event bundles may include a cake, catering, entertainment choice, decorations, and more. The more incentives you offer, the more likely you are to drive more business, especially if you always deliver a quality product.
Marketing Techniques
When getting customers you need to find the right marketing techniques, and luckily you have several to consider. If your business has a standalone event space, have a clear sign out front. That way, if people are passing nearby and your event space looks nice from the outside, it may encourage people to inquire about your business. Matter of fact, according to Statistica, as many as 60% of new customers enter a business because of a good sign outside.
Signs come in different materials and shapes. When you hire a custom sign maker, they’ll include important information such as your business name, logo, and possibly your slogan. The great thing about this type of advertisement is the only time you’ll pay for it is when you’re buying the sign. Unlike other forms of advertising, you don’t have to keep paying to use it over and over again. When you get a quality sign, such as one made from metal, it’ll likely last decades upon decades. You can have signs that incorporate me on lights which make it even easier to see at night or from a distance. If you want your event space to stand out from other businesses in your area, an effective and beautiful sign is the way to do so.
Insurance Protection
You must have your insurance in place when operating an event company. Business insurance companies are there to protect you in terms of liability, theft, employment insurance, and future repairs. Find a company that can give your employees good health insurance as well as access to workers’ compensation if they’re injured while working. If your employees are full-time workers, health insurance is required by law. However, you can also offer them insurance even if they work part-time. If one of your workers gets hurt at an event or doing work to prepare for the event they should be covered under workers compensation law.
Liability insurance protects your company in case a customer gets sick or is hurt during the event. They could always trip or fall or eat food that triggers a bad allergy. Any business can get robbed and suffer damage from storms or other natural disasters. You may need additional weather coverage in certain areas, such as flood insurance. With insurance, you’ll receive compensation from the insurance company to cover the cost of things you must replace or repair.
As you can see, there’s a lot of work that goes into operating an event planning business. From client acquisitions to hiring a plumbing service, you need to make sure your space is ready to handle parties. It’s worthwhile to do so, as you have a business with access to plenty of customers as long as you have a good reputation. Work for corporate clients or regular civilians. You can help with events for organizations or the municipal city office, such as festivals. Enjoy the freedom to focus on one type of event, or clientele, or be available for all types of event-related work. Hopefully, this article has helped you take the steps to make this business successful for you.
