No matter if you are just beginning or have experience, event planning can still help expand your career opportunities. Here are a few strategies to get you going and become successful in this industry.
Event planning requires many steps, from selecting a venue to sending invitations. Here's our handy checklist to help you organize your next gathering efficiently!
1. Find a niche
Starting a side hustle in events can be an immensely profitable and fulfilling way to expand your income streams, but to do it successfully requires first identifying your niche.
Niche event planning is an effective way to set yourself apart from competitors, but choosing one that resonates with both your interests and personality is paramount to its success. By identifying your strengths and weaknesses, it may help you select a niche suitable to your individual circumstances.
Niche events offer attendees a tailored experience while drawing an engaged audience. By hosting niche events, you can develop your expertise in your industry while expanding your business.
2. Build a team
Establishing a team is key to planning an event successfully. Make sure everyone involved understands their roles and the impact their contributions will have on its success, keeping everyone on task and covering all necessary costs.
Setting goals and outlining expectations are the first steps to creating an event budget. Knowing your spending limits will shape many other decisions that come later.
Start by identifying high-level must-haves for your event, like venue and catering services, then estimate costs associated with them to create a baseline budget estimate. From there you can add expenses related to travel or giveaways.
3. Set a budget
Budgeting is an integral component of planning any event, from conferences and product launches to team meetings and team training events. A budget enables you to set an overall goal for the event while breaking it down into its individual costs associated with its execution.
Create a spreadsheet outlining all anticipated expenses for your event, including venue rental, catering costs and marketing efforts. Also remember to estimate revenue streams such as ticket sales or sponsorship deals to see what amount can be earned through these avenues.
Once you've created a budget, contact vendors for pricing quotes. Although this can be time consuming, it is vital that you gain an accurate picture of the costs involved so as not to overspend.
4. Create a marketing plan
Event marketing can be an effective strategy to increase revenue for any organization. By integrating event management tools with sales and marketing technology, organizations can track ROI, automate processes, easily build reports, and save planning time with event marketing strategies.
Establish a detailed project timeline in order to outline key tasks and milestones leading up to your event, which will help prevent unexpected expenses while keeping your team on schedule.
Find vendors and suppliers who can deliver quality services at the price you desire, then research their reputation and experience before reaching out via email, phone call or online to discuss your needs and schedule a meeting. Be sure to ask about discounts they might offer to significantly bring down costs associated with hosting an event.
5. Promote your event
Once your event has concluded, take some time to review its success and assess if your goals were achieved; additionally, identify what could have gone differently and plan how you'll change in future attempts.
Commence by outlining the goals and preliminary project scope for your event. This will serve as a roadmap to guide planning efforts and gain support from leadership.
Rally employees and business partners to promote your event by posting about it on social media, with teaser behind-the-scenes images or content posted to keep viewers interested. Offer special ticket upgrades or swag to anyone tweeting or posting about it; create email signature banners as incentives to do so. Furthermore, promote it using paid advertisements on Facebook that only show it to those interested in your topic.
