Event planning is one of the most fulfilling business ideas to start from home. As a home-based event planner, you take part in people’s happiest moments: birthdays, weddings, or baby showers. If you are a good organizer, enjoy helping people and are resourceful, you are a good fit for the profile of an ideal event planner. However, this is just the basic profile – you need more than the right type of personality to succeed as a home-based event planner.
Initial Preparations
In order to be successful in your home-based event planning business, you need to develop connections with various other businesses and services providers. Your strength as an event planner is the ability to find creative solutions for various available budgets and to negotiate with suppliers for the best prices and various other extras demanded by your clients.
1. Start Networking at the Right Events
Before you start an event planning business, start attending various events focused on this specific topic. Bridal fairs, corporate event planning conventions and discovering the latest trends for private and business events decorations should be on your agenda. You need to learn how to introduce yourself, gain access to managers and other decision makers, and to establish one-on-one business relations with them.
Also, find any public events hosted by large event planning companies and learn as much as you can from the professionals: how to handle a last minute change or incident, how to negotiate, how to deal with difficult customers.
2. Start Scouting for Locations
Build a portfolio of locations for various events, from children’s parties to weddings. Whenever you have spare time, drive around and discover various restaurants, clubs, open gardens and find out the conditions for renting them for event hosting.
Once you open your home-based business, you should already be able to suggest various locations to your customers, even if they already have one in mind.
3. Get Caterers on Your Speed Dial
All events include a meal – more or less lavish according to your customers’ budgets and preferences. You should know various types of catering businesses which you can contact and hire for your clients’ events. Given the current diversified preferences in terms of foods, you should include on your list of caterers businesses which cook especially for children, vegetarian or vegan meals, kosher or halal food, etc.
4. Build, Launch and Promote Your Website
Event planning businesses need to attract their customers’ attention through their website. It has to have a professional, highly detailed design. Your company logo and motto need to be on point, so it is a good idea to hire professional freelance designers and copywriters to build your business image. At the same time, you need to open social media accounts for your event planning business, and start attracting potential customers – first from your own family and friends and then, as your business takes off, from the engagement and awareness you manage to create through your social media marketing strategy.
What You Need to Know as an Event Planner
The biggest lesson event planners learn during their first year on the job is that they need to be good listeners, have the ability to adapt to their customers’ personalities and be great problem solvers. That being said, these are the main thoughts you must keep in mind while working for each client:
⦁ It is your duty to make sure that their special event takes place without hitches, incidents and interruptions
⦁ You need to be there for the client every step of the way, sometimes during highly emotional moments – so keep a cool head and be ready to offer friendly advice at any moment
⦁ The success (or lack of success) of your customers’ events reflects directly on your reputation as a planner
⦁ It does not matter how clever or brilliant your ideas are – you will always listen to your clients and do things the way they want them.
With these thoughts in mind, and your personal communication and problem solving skills, you are ready to open your home-based event planning business.