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.

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?

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.

One of the most common questions we get asked at EventMB are how to get and grow you and grow your event planning business (when time and money are in short supply). 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.

Top Secrets to Create a Business Name

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.

Think Big

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.

Free Write

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.

Guide to Startup Costs for an Event Planning Business

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
• Phone
• WiFi access
• Desk (or table) and chair
• Insurance

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.

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.

Essentials Items to KickStart 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.

Ways To Access Necessary Things for Starting an Event Planning Business (Even with little/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.

Effective Ways To Finance 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.

How To Create a Cash Rich Event Business

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.

Many Event Planners start out working from home. This can be a great model for setting up an event planning business as it keeps overheads down in those critical early stages of trading and can maximise productivity. If you are considering whether it could work for you and how to make a success of it, here are some things to think about.

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!

Reasons You Should Start an Event Planning Business from Home

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.

Low Costs

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.

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!

Workspace

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.

Discipline

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!

Storage

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.

Procedures 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. 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, 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.

Read also: Event Management Business Plan

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.

Read also: Effective ways to attract more clients

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