How to Start an Event Planning Business: Top 17 Steps

By Marin Valchev On Jun 28, 2024

The event planning business is an art of coordination, planning, ideation, and operation, which allows you to interact with multiple interested people. In this blog post, you will discover some details regarding the event planning business.

Moreover, you will explore how to start an event planning business and deliver 17 steps to establish a managed company. Indeed, this post will assist you with why are event planning businesses valuable and why do people hire event planning services.

What is an Event Planning Business?

An event-planning business is a large or small firm that supports corporations or individuals in executing and planning events.

These can be personal events like birthday parties, weddings, and professional activities, including annual conferences and graduation ceremonies. An event planning business includes some of the specific responsibilities described below.

Finding a location.
Providing customers with a variety of locations and service options along with complete pricing or service details.
Developing and following the budget scale.
Following the local regulations at each location.
Managing event details, including food menu, guest registry, seating assignments, and transportation difficulties.
Managing all contracts with food suppliers, musicians, decorators, and photographers for the event.
Offering assistance with planning and resolving any problem before, during, and after the event.
Proving services to new customers.
Distributing invitations or tickets for events.

How to Start an Event Planning Business?

You can start a successful and profitable event planning business by following the tips that are given below. If you adhere strictly to these hints, you can easily start your event managing business and can drag it to the peak of success.

Gain Experience Related to Event Planning

In an event planning company, spend time while working, either on an unpaid or paid basis. It is vital to practice before starting your own business. You can get experience about the industry prices and trends or can enhance your skills, identify best practices, and gain knowledge about customer preferences.

It is also the best way to establish connections and develop a network of clients. Moreover, get a job as an event planner as soon as possible, if you want to establish a successful business.

By examining the distinct abilities and expertise possessed by these entrepreneurs, you may evaluate your own preparation. You can create a plan for expansion prior, if required, to starting your own business. An education in business, greetings, public relations, event management, marketing, tourism administration, or similar fields can assist you in gaining these abilities.

Develop a Comprehensive Business Plan

A solid business plan serves as a link between your idea and market analysis to the reality of launching your own event-organizing company. This should be a well-structured document that directs lead startup and can easily be adjusted to meet changing requirements after it is launched. Though there are differences in certain plans, the following elements are important.

Clearly defined objectives and short-term goals.
A timetable for review, at least quarterly, in the first year.
Summary of staff members and related job descriptions.
Accounting system summary, current money, monthly expenses, and projected earnings.
A comprehensive strategy for advertising and marketing.

Set Clear Business Goals

Working in the industry can also assist you in setting clear business goals for refining and developing your technical or interpersonal skills. In the process of starting your own event-planning business, establishing a clear goal is a creative or practical step.

This requires putting careful thought into the particular services you wish to provide as well as your ideal company structure. Moreover, the following elements are important to understand.

Your purpose and mission statement
Enlist the range of services that you can deliver
Your targeted market
Consider what sets your company apart from other businesses.
The experience that you desire to have your customers.

Establish a Marketing Budget

When establishing a marketing budget, many companies make basic mistakes that lead to the wastage of money and loss of opportunities. A marketing budget is a vital key to understanding what you are doing and how to gain success.

To establish a party planning business, your marketing budget maybe 30% or more of your business spending. For establishing a marketing budget, you will be required to think about the following;

A website for your company.
Company cards.
Flyers or any other printed information.
Online advertisement or digital marketing.
For networking expenditure to travel to events.

Ultimately, you will be required to spend money to earn wealth. During the first several months, you want to solidify your customer base as soon as possible. Customers will remain loyal and suggest you if you live up to your promise of producing memorable gatherings. Your marketing expenses will consequently start to decrease.

Define Your Scope of Work, Mission, and Goals for Your Event Business

When you are at the initial stage of establishing an event planning business, you may have to evolve it several times. To attract the right type of customers, you can even put this on your web page. One of the hardest things to do is say “no” to customers when you are still building your business.

However, it might prevent you from having to deal with clients who are too time-consuming and don’t provide enough value in exchange.

Prepare Your Elevator Pitch

You must have struggled to establish your first event business with potential clients since your 30-second elevator pitch was poor when you initially started it. This is the key to introducing everyone to your business, so make sure efforts to establish it.

Don’t worry about the name of your event planning company. Ultimately, the name of the company is irrelevant as long as you create events that people will remember because a memorable event business name might stick in someone’s mind.

Conduct Thorough Market Research

Each successful event planning business starts with the collection of data. Without this, it is impossible to know customers, their demands, and challenges. Collecting data comes under the coverage of market research to better understand the target.

Event planners utilize this information to create more effective services, increase customer happiness, and create an event marketing strategy. This generates high-quality leads and raises conversion rates. Start by operating discussions, holding surveys, organizing interviews, or just keeping an eye on your target clientele. All these efforts, such as collecting data, making observations, and developing personas, answer the following questions.

Who are they really?
What are their objectives?
Which difficulties do they face?
What tools are necessary for them to succeed?

Your customers desire answers, so deliver them. Providing customers with tools, resources, and expertise that they understand will make their events go more efficiently, which is the secret to pleased clients who come back year after year.

Choose a Good Business Name

Some people get completely stuck with the business name, so it is very important to choose a good title. If you are not sure about what to use until you decide on something more permanent, utilize your name. Indeed, if you require some assistance while selecting your business name, follow the given guidelines.

Select an option based on your niche
Make a list of businesses and words that inspire you
Match and mix them
Determine your event planning business name
Name your event planning business

Calculate Your Monthly Operating Costs

The most significant ongoing expenses for a small event planning company are those related to employing merchant services and goods. Particularly, the handling of payments, you won’t be able to take any card or digital payments from clients without this service.

Selecting a service with an established per-transaction cost and a flat-rate pricing strategy is the best option. This will guarantee that you are aware of the actual processing fee that you are paying each month.

Transparency is lacking in some pricing schemes, such as the graded price structure. Moreover, determining the relationship between the monthly fees and the transactions you have completed can frequently be challenging. Furthermore, it’s hard to predict how much you’ll spend in the coming months using your bank statement.

Create a Professional Website

For the success of any 21^st Century business, an informative and easily accessible professional website is essential. In addition, attractiveness and visual content are particularly critical in the event planning industry. Prospective customers want to scan your site easily and quickly for service options, sample photos, and price information.

The emotions that a visitor gets from looking at the images on your website could affect whether or not they choose to use your services because events often carry a lot of emotional worth. You can use similar skills to develop attractive, meaningful, and memorable events for creating your website.

For prospective clients, an exceptional site can be memorable and inspiring. Your blog may assist you as potential clients can gain more information regarding you and provide service planning. There is a section for customer reviews on the site, which can motivate prospective clients to hire you.

Secure Your Social Media Accounts

Attacks on social media are common because they frequently take advantage of the same benefits that social media applications present for businesses. Companies should take several steps to secure social media accounts.

The password should be strong.
Constantly monitor your social media account.
Educate and train your team.
Stay alert for phishing attacks.
Utilize the tools of social media management.
Review the account access.
Keep updated software.
Regular backup of your sensitive data.
Make a plan for handling the crisis.

Build a Strong Portfolio

Create an event planning portfolio if you want to schedule events with larger budgets and attract more clients. Moreover, you can display your portfolio physically, digitally, or as a presentation on a website. To get started, gather pictures, videos, stories, and references from earlier planned events.

This will assist you in promoting your business, drawing in new customers, and emphasizing your advantages as an event planner. You can continue to develop your portfolio in the given ways as you book clients.

To inspire customers, present your best work collections. You can host your site on social media or display it on a physical board in your office.
Describe how you filled the space into a memorable experience to build your portfolio account.
Gather client feedback in writing or short videos.
Include the snippets or links of the results if the press covers your event.
Work with a previous customer to create a memorable case study that demonstrates the influence of your company.

Must highlight your professional headshot, personal biography, event planning certifications, and designations. This will assist you in developing credibility and to communicate with stakeholders.

Open a Business Bank Account

You can open a business bank account once your company is registered. Search for one that fulfills your requirements and matches the situation. Furthermore, a few banks are best for cash deposits, while others specialize in online payments.

Look for a bank that has an excellent track record of approving a large number of business loans if you intend to grow your business. Indeed, there is a list of popular banks to choose from.

Relay
Chase Business Complete Banking
Novo
Mercury
LandingClub Bank

Consult With an Insurance Company

A few new event organizers ignore insurance until it’s too late. There’s always a chance for the unexpected when working with the public. A good small business insurance policy is needed by any event planner, so compare rates to get the greatest value. Furthermore, view this summary of crucial insurance policies that you could require to protect your event planning company.

Workers’ compensation protects the employees if they get injured or sick while working in your event planning company.
A general liability insurance policy saves your event planning company if you are asked for an injury claim and property damage.
Property insurance policy protect your company equipment, such as laptops and devices that you use in your business or home office, from dangers such as theft or fire.
A business interruption policy is also known as business income insurance. It delivers financial support to your event planning business if a covered reason forces you to close.
Business Owner’s policy sets business property, general liability, and business interruption insurance for your event planning business in a suitable package.

Develop Relationships With Your Vendors

In an event planning business, working with your Vendors can be a great way to support and add a unique touch to a business community. However, developing this relationship can be challenging if you are new to event planning. There, you are provided with some general tips for establishing relationships with your vendors and inviting them to work together.

Identify and research vendors.
Introduce yourself
Develop a relationship
Be clear regarding expectations
Exposure provides chances
Follow up with vendors and represent appreciation

Follow All Legal Guidelines

You must research and adhere to any relevant legal or financial guidelines before you start your new business. Initial steps include:

Select a business structure
Register your business name
Applying for a federal tax identification number

You can research whether your state needs a state tax identification number or any related licenses or permits. Opening a business bank account and obtaining company insurance are two additional steps. Since requirements change by business type and state, it is a good idea to consult a legal expert.

Secure Funding for Your Business

If you are new to establishing your event planning business, expenses may be higher than income for the initial few months, particularly when you are establishing your client base.

Further, You should have a significant amount of savings to assist with business expense coverage. If you have no savings, take out a small business loan or find an investor to support the company until your income increases.

Why Are Event Planning Businesses Valuable?

Event planning businesses are valuable for consumers and similar owners of these organizations. For consumers, these businesses serve to organize and plan events based on the specifications of the clients while minimizing the stress associated with the planning process.

Regular events are a common way for individuals and organizations to attract new and loyal clients. Moreover, a company that plans events can focus on one particular kind of event, such as weddings, concerts, or business meetings, or it can handle a variety of events. Starting an event with a unique payment structure and maintenance of cost typically involves minimal financial risk.

Why Do People Hire Event Planning Services?

People hire event planning services primarily for two reasons: guests and hosts don’t focus on the event’s inner workings, and the ceremony runs smoothly from start to end. Some events are so complex, especially those with hundreds or more guests.

Furthermore, it is impossible to organize and plan them properly without the specialist’s assistance. Indeed, experienced and knowledgeable event organizers know how to organize the guests, how much food to serve, and other details that can make an event memorable.

Conclusion

Event planning business provides you with a great opportunity to work and handle all sorts of people. A definite direction for an event planning business can assist you in deciding on retaining the right track to grow your business.

In this blog post, you can discover a few notable guidelines that assist you in establishing a well-managed event planning business. Moreover, this article helps you regarding why are event planning businesses valuable and why do people hire event planning services.