Hello Guys. Welcome to week two of the lectures. Today, we’d be talking on “How to Create a Successful Event Planning Brand”
Trust me, this topic has been overemphasized on the internet. So many websites have written it in different ways. But the truth remains, so many event planning brands have failed.
In today’s article, we’d be telling you how to start a brand new event planning company even if you’re an absolute beginner. This technique is replicable in almost any city in the world.
Try grabbing a beer cause this article would blow your minds off. Let’s go there.
Steps for Building a Successful Event Planning Company
- Get some experience
- Find Your Own Niche
- Build a team
- Register a Brand
- Build a network
- Create a reputation
- Source for clients
- Execute some jobs
- Get Feedback
- Keep on Innovating
I’d explain each of this steps in detail
1. Get Some Experience
According to The Entrepreneur, a whopping 80% of event planners all started from offering event services.
Most of them were successful caterers, stage designers, visual effects guys, etc. It’s almost impossible for a total stranger to walk into this field and excel.
You need to get some experience working in an events service or as an event service. Personally, I’d advise you go for catering, ushering or decorative services. This helps you get vast experience in the industry that would help you guide your own event.
Another alternative is to anchor events either as Master of Ceremonies or Anchor. It gives you a chance to get the exposure. Like I said earlier, if you can’t land a job or create an event service, volunteer for an already existing one. The main thing is getting the experience.
2. Find A Niche
This is very crucial. The world of today is so specialized that trying to be all inclusive always means failure.
A niche in event planning would mean finding the kind of events that you can naturally plan. These events are the kind you’d love to attend and also to be a part of the planning.
For instance, I’m intrigued with concerts. I love jazz music and I can volunteer to plan a jazz concert free. I’d even contribute my own money to see it work out. So when I started out, I was planning only music concerts.
You might not love jazz but you love weddings, or seminars, or religious programs or fund raisers. Why not build a brand to plan what you love? This way, you don’t run at risk of doing something that bores you.
Always resist the temptation to plan all kinds of events at the beginning. Take my word for it, it would fail. From your experience, choose a niche you understand better and love. This would enable you be the best in that niche.
3. Build A Team
As an event planner, you can’t work alone. As an event planning brand, you would be committing suicide if you can’t work with others.
Therefore, it’s important you find people of like minds. Ensure they have different skills so that each person brings something unique to the table. Here’s a quick tip
The best event planning brands have a decorator, a manager and a marketer.
The decorator handles the designs which is very essential in every event. The manager plans the events proper and handles issues that might arise. The marketer sources for clients and seals deals.
This team would help reduce the costs of starting up. If you can’t get these three major people in your team, don;’t worry. There are lots of other skills you can assemble, such as a caterer, sound, lights, crowd control and visuals. Get the right people who key into your vision and build with them.
4. Register A Brand
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You heard me right. You’d need to go to the authorities and register the business. This registration includes incorporation, getting a tax ID, licenses and even getting a corporate bank account.
Depending on your country, you’d need to incorporate properly. You’d need to go to the corporate affairs and get the licenses ready.
If you’re registering as a solo founder, you might consider just going for a business name. In Nigeria, we at 24Rentz can help you register a business name as a solo founder for N35,000. If you need to register as a Limited Liability Company (more than one owner), we can do that for N90,000.
Our packages include a free landing page website, corporate bank account, Tax Identification number and a business logo. This enables you start off your event planning brand on a high note.
If you’re outside Nigeria but you also want 24Rentz to help you incorporate, you can also contact us. We can help you register your business in the US, Canada, UK, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa.
CLICK HERE TO REGISTER YOUR BRAND
5. BUILD A NETWORK
You would need to build a network for your brand. This network would comprise of your firm’s supply and demand chain.
All you’d need a vast network of event rental vendors, service suppliers, creatives, marketers, branding experts and other professionals to power your event planning business. You can’t employ everyone, so the best bet is to hire when needed.
The sweet thing about running an event planning company is the low cost needed for the everyday running of the company. Your clients pay everyone on your network, so all you spend on is branding and day to day running of the firm.
Moreover, building a network is not rocket science. With 24Rentz, you can connect with a lot of event rental brands and service providers. We have caterers, rental firms, decorators, bouncers, ushers and virtually any service you can think of.
All you need to do is to sign up on the platform as a vendor and upload the services you offer. We would help you design the page to ensure it looks presentable to others on our network. Remember, this service is free.
6. Create A Reputation
As a company, you’d need to build a reputation. Building a reputation is more about creating an event portfolio than creating a name.
In your chosen niche, build a good relationship with others. Find out the major event organizers in that niche and make friends with them. Find other event planners in that niche. Locate the rental businesses in that niche and relate with them.
Don’t forget building an online reputation too. You’d need a professional landing page that has a gallery of all your previous works. You’d also need active social media handles on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
24Rentz is offering to help you get started on this with our branding package. We help you get a professional landing page that’s linked to your 24Rentz page, your first 1000 Instagram and facebook followers, a professional linkedln page and a google my business account. This would cost you $70 only.
CLICK HERE TO BUILD AN ONLINE REPUTATION
7. Source for Clients
Every business needs demand to survive. I need not tell you that before event creating an event brand, you need to check if there’s an actual demand for it.
Therefore, you cannot afford to not source for clients. You need to know who your target market is, where to get them and how to get them. If you don’t have the answers to the previous questions, then get ready to have a failed company.
Find who are the decision makers in your niche. If you plan weddings, then you’d need to find people who are ready to get married. From my experience, you’d see them in marriage courses. Why not you go to churches that organize marriage courses and pitch to them. Easy right?
A friend of mine who specializes in child dedication discovered a secret for sourcing clients. After tracing the highest concentration of her clients to maternity wards, she started frequenting hospital. She prays for ladies in maternity wards and shares gift items there. Finally, she gets their contacts and follows them up till they deliver of their babies. I can boldly tell you she has a success rate of 70%.
Find out where your clients are and go there. Don’t follow the lazy path of just putting up adverts on social media and hoping people call you. Follow the much narrow way of sourcing for clients in their natural habitat. Trust me, it works.
If you want us to do this for you, book a free consultation by clicking here
8. Execute Some Jobs
The truth remains that people take their events very seriously. No one would give you a big gig to test your capacities. Every well paying client would demand to see your portfolio and how related your past events are to his current plans.
Therefore, you would need to execute some jobs. The easiest way to do this is by volunteering. You can offer to plan a an event for a friend for free. Whatever niche you decide to use, make friends there and offer free services. However, if you have already been in the industry(maybe as a caterer or decorator), you might skip this part.
Execute some jobs successfully and tell your clients to recommend you for further jobs. Trust me, recommendations are more expensive than gold in the events industry.
9. Get Feedback
After executing your first event, go back to your clients and find out what they feel. This doesn’t just help you grow, it helps you maintain a good relationship with them.
As an event planner, your major job is to listen to your clients. You should not be in a hurry to end your relationship with a client. It’s pertinent that you remain in touch and even find out if they or their friends have future events they’d be organizing.
10. Keep on Innovating
You are a business. It is suicidal to stop innovating.
Keep on learning new ways to do things, new ways to source clients and new ways to surpass your clients expectations.
Don’t stop learning because you never know when it would be needed.
Finally, we have arrive at the end of the topic “How to Create A Successful Event Planning Company”. Feel free to share this post with your friends.