Keys to Success

Your success will depend on the commitment to quality by every person who is part of your team. Other factors that can push your event planning business to success include:

• Able to fulfill client’s vision and demand. As a service oriented business, your business will survive only if you are able to consistently meet your client’s demands and expectations. To be able to deliver a sterling performance, you must first have the right skills expected of an event and meeting planner. You business will die if you lack sufficient knowledge and understanding of your business. You must also have the commitment and dedication to see a project through from start to finish.
• Control your costs. Controlling the spiraling costs of arranging events is critical to the success of your business, more so in the light of tight budgets and corporate clients scaling down on entertainment. Lower costs could be healthier for your bottom line, as customers often want to see value for their money. Watch out for poorly purchased and tracked meetings that can cost you plenty of money.

• Competitive pricing for the quality of services offered. Your price should reflect the value of your services. Be careful though in setting your price too high or too low. A low price may undermine the quality of service you present as you may not be able to afford the best vendors and suppliers. You may also not have enough time for the project as you will tend to get more projects to compensate for the low income. If you overcharge, however, your clients may feel that they are being treated unfairly.

• Significant profit made on each event planned. A business needs to be financially sound to survive. Hence, it is important that every project you take on must yield healthy profits for you (unless of course the project is a volunteer work designed to create buzz for your business).

• Extensive database of contacts, vendors and suppliers. You need to have – right at your fingertips -- a list of dependable and trusted suppliers that you can rely on for all your event’s needs including food, flowers, limousine services, and others. You should have good contacts with the hotel and travel industry to help you get great rates for the lodging and travel needs of your event participants.

• Able to work as a team. The event planning business is rarely a one-person operation. Hence, you may need to work well and lead your team members or employees in the efficient conduct of every task needed. You may have also have projects requiring you to work with other freelance event specialists.

• System for tracking events. The success of an event planner lies in the ability to be on top of all the arrangements. Hence, you need to have a system that works for you to keep you abreast of all aspects of the event. Such a system can be as simple as a large calendar, filofax, post-it notes, or as sophisticated as a project management tracking software. You must also use the right communications tools to coordinate with various team members and help ensure that you remain on top of every aspect of the event.

Resources:

Books

• How to Start a Home-Based Event Planning Business
• The Essential Event Planning Kit
• The Business of Event Planning: Behind-the-Scenes Secrets of Successful Special Events
• Entrepreneur Magazine's Start Your Own Event Planning Business : Your Step by Step Guide to Success (Start Your Own Event Planning)
• Event Planning : The Ultimate Guide to Successful Meetings, Corporate Events, Fundraising Galas, Conferences, Conventions, Incentives and Other Special Events
• Complete Idiot's Guide to Meeting and Event Planning
• Opportunities in Event Planning Careers
• Event Planning Ethics and Etiquette: A Principled Approach to the Business of Special Event Management

Associations

• Convention Industry Council
• International Special Events Society
• Meeting Professionals International
• National Association of Catering Executives
• Professional Convention Management Association

Magazines and Publications

• Corporate Meetings and Incentives
• The Meeting Professional
• Special Events Magazine
• Meetings and Conventions
• Successful Meetings
• Tradeshow Week
• Travel Weekly

Event Planning Software

• Event Planner Plus from Certain Software.
• MeetingPOWER, Optimum Settings and STS Resorts Express from PC/Nametag.

For information on other businesses, please visit our Business Ideas for Small & Home Based Businesses section

March 28, 2005

All materials contained in this site are the copyrighted property of PowerHomeBiz.com,LLC. "Powerhomebiz" and all titles, characters, names and graphics are trademarks of PowerHomeBiz.com, LLC. To reproduce, republish, upload, post, transmit, modify, distribute or publicly perform or display material from this site, you must first obtain written permission from PowerHomeBiz.com, LLC. You may view and download material from this site for your personal, non-commercial use only.  Contact us for reprint or purchase of this article