Building Your Event Planning Business

Owning any sort of business often takes time to grow, but building an event planning business is one venture that typically takes a considerable amount of time. The main reason for this, however, is because you are typically working with one or two customers or clients at a time and the way advertising works in the event planning business much of the time is through word-of-mouth. Event though word-of-mouth advertising is an excellent way for prospective clients to be told about your services and business, it is also a very slow way of spreading the word about your particular services. However, there are some other things that can be done in addition to the word-of-mouth advertising taking place, but that will of course require advertising and a lot of marketing on your part. If you don’t have a degree in business marketing or the like then here are some suggestions of how to advertise your event planning business from the ground up:

Use Business Cards

A great way to spread the word about your business is through business cards. The most obvious people that you will be giving your event planning business cards to are the clients you’ll be working with. On the other hand, there are many people who contact retail stores and other service businesses and ask them whether or not they can place their business cards on countertops or somewhere within their company’s building so that prospective clients and others will be able to pick one up when needed. Of course this often requires that you pay a fee in order to be able to do so, but using business cards in this way is a great idea to spread the word and make sure that your name is out there!

Use Professional Correspondence!

Aside from business cards for your event planning business, another great way to make sure that the public knows about your services is to use professional correspondence with everything that you send out. For example, do you have a professional letterhead that you use when billing customers? Using that professional letterhead with your company name, logo, and contact information is very important so that others will know how to contact you when you’re needed. Another method of professional correspondence for your event planning business is through email. Do you have a professional email address that you can be reached at? An example of a professional email address of your business may be something like, “name@businessname.com.” Of course, this will also require money or some sort of fee, but setting up an email alias for your business is very important!

There are many other things that one can do in order to build his or her event planning business services. Advertising in newspapers or placing information brochures on doorknobs throughout your neighborhood are two other excellent ways to advertise and grow your client base. All in all, all of these methods are sure-fire ways to spread the word about your services!

Taking Your Event Planning to the Online World

There are probably hundreds of thousands of event planning individuals throughout the world that want their own business when it comes to performing their services. These people are probably great at what they do, however, there are all sorts of reasons why their business may fail. The overwhelming majority of reasons why some event planning businesses fail, though, is because the people who own them fail to market or advertise their services correctly. Even though it may not seem like hard work, if the word doesn’t get out about your business then chances are that it will be doomed from the start.

If you have already gotten a good handle on advertising your event planning services in the real world, however, it may be time to take your business services to the next level and start advertising them in the online world of the World Wide Web! Indeed, there are plenty of businesses that are great about marketing themselves in the offline world, but if they put forth the same effort in the online world they may be doubly successful than what they already were! Here are some suggestions, though, to use for advertising your event planning services on the internet:

Find your City Website!

One thing that you have probably done is to contact your local Chamber of Commerce to make sure that your business was registered with them. The Chamber of Commerce is actually a great service to business owners, and oftentimes the Chamber of Commerce departments of local cities and towns are actually on the city website. Making sure that your business name is being advertised on the city website through your Chamber of Commerce is important as well because it will naturally attract those customers that rarely contact the Chamber of Commerce in the offline world! Your event planning business could grow all the more just by having a presence on your City website, which is definitely an issue you should check into!

Use Article Marketing Methods

Another opportunity for you to market your event planning services would be to create article marketing campaigns. Even though these efforts will probably reach beyond your City walls, the recognition and advertising of your services is no less important! Articles can be easily written by yourself or by an assistant that will allow you to include all of the necessary contact information about your business service so that potential clients will know how to contact you for their next event! Make no mistake, though, there are plenty of people who will be able to read the information you put out there, but the effort needs to be made first!

Taking your event planning services to the online world does not have to be at all difficult, however, it only takes a little bit of work and advertising time to be able to make prospective clients aware of what you do for a living! These prospective clients, in turn, will be able to contact you for the events that they need help with.

Choosing A Theme For Your Next Event

One important aspect of event planning is choosing a theme for your party or gathering. Unless you are planning a wedding or a baby shower, the theme might not be obvious. The theme can be anything you choose, but it’s important to remember your guests’ comfort and therefore plan with that in mind. It’s wise to have a theme that all guests can easily adapt to. Having to go out and purchase a new outfit or rent an elaborate costume is a burden for some people, and attending an event should be something that people look forward to.

One theme that lasts year after year is of course, the birthday party. Birthday parties are a wonderful cause for celebration and they can be enjoyed by people of virtually any age. If you are planning a youngster’s birthday you might choose to have an additional theme. Two ideas are a sleep-over or a backwards party, where the children all put on their clothes backwards and the cake is served before dinner. In circumstances like this, event planning is fun for both the parents and the child. It’s wonderfully rewarding for the child to be involved in every aspect of the planning of their birthday celebration; unless of course, you opt for a surprise party. Planning a surprise birthday party gets to be a bit trickier but with a little help and a great deal of patience, it can be an enormous success.

A popular theme for parties is having the guests wear costumes. This can be fun for everyone involved and children especially enjoy it during the Halloween season. It gives them an opportunity to put on something fun and act differently for a day. Event planning for a Halloween or costume party is much the same as any other event. You need to first contact the guests and tell them that they’ll need to find a costume to wear. Then it’s time to choose a menu and decorations. Although the theme is a bit different than your average cocktail party, the event planning aspect is very much the same. It is attention to detail that is most important.

Other popular themes that people enjoy for gatherings are:

Hawaiian or a beach theme. All the guests dress up in swimsuits and straw hats and drink tropical drinks. This is especially enjoyable during the colder, winter months.

A 1950s or 1960s flashback party. You can request that the guests dress from the era you’ve chosen and with the music that was popular back in the day playing, it will really be a blast from the past!

It’s important when you are working on the event planning of any party, to choose a theme that people will enjoy and can be fit into any and all budgets. Once the party starts, don’t forget to join in the fun with your guests. Whether it’s a birthday party or a New Year’s Eve party if you plan accordingly, you can make it an event that will long be remembered.

Corporate Events That Do Double Duty

Recently, a teacher whose class regularly scores top marks shared her secret for team building success with me. “It’s easy,” she told me. “Each week, we set a goal as a class. If we’ve reached the goal at the end of the week, I treat the class to pizza and a game and then we sit down and plan next week’s goal.”

There in a nutshell is a tried and true strategy for building and maintaining successful teamwork that any corporate event planner should take to heart. My teacher friend’s Friday afternoon ‘pizza party’ serves a triple function – it recognizes the work achieved, rewards the team for their work, and serves as a springboard for the next goal. To be successful, a corporate event should do three things – recognize, reward and motivate.

Granted, when you’re dealing with high-powered executives, programmers or salespeople, a Friday afternoon pizza party may not be quite the ticket. Higher goals merit higher rewards – but the principle remains the same. If you’re planning a corporate event weekend, then your plans should include all three arms of the success formula.

This isn’t as difficult to do as it may seem. Any corporate event that’s meant to recognize and reward contributions to the team can serve as a springboard for planning further successful activities and include team building activities to further cement the bonds of the work group. An event that’s planned as a team building weekend could easily include a recognition dinner to reward those members of the team who’ve made oustanding contributions.

The key to making sure that your corporate event accomplishes all of your goals is careful planning right from the start. Before you decide on the activities for your corporate event, take the time to work out your goals. Is it your aim to reward your employees? Recognize achievement? Motivate your teams? Hammer a group into a team? Once you know what it is that you want to accomplish, it’s time to call in the professionals.

A corporate event planner with expertise and experience in team building activities, corporate event planning, outdoor team building and corporate hospitality events can show you a wide range of fun corporate events and activities that will serve any corporate event strategy you have in mind. Even more importantly, they’ll bring their own experience to the planning table – and the execution of the event. Using a professional corporate event service means you needn’t worry that someone will forget to meet the keynote speaker’s plane, and your own key people aren’t tying up their time running around to find matching napkins for the company reward dinner.

In the end, choosing to use a corporate event planning service is no different than any other business decision. You hand the work to those that have the best resources to accomplish the task. When it comes to fitting a corporate event to its purpose, a professional event planner can turn your company recognition dinner into a motivating, rewarding and inspiring team building event that will kick your next quarter into high gear.

The Essentials Of Event Planning – Easy Steps That Secure Success

If you’ve ever planned or hosted an event you know how overwhelming it can be. Attending to every small detail can leave you wishing the party was over before it even began. This is even more magnified if you are overseeing a large event such as a wedding or a dinner party for business associates. Something always seems to go wrong and it leaves the person in charge of event planning carrying the burden of the blame.

There are steps you can take to guarantee that the party will be a roaring success. One of those steps is to hire an event planner. If you really do feel as though all the small details are too much for you, you might consider hiring someone who specializes in event planning. There are many reputable companies who can offer you their services for a fee. All you do is explain the event to them, including your preferences when you wish to have the event, the theme of it and the menu and they handle the rest. The onus of the work is on them, and with their experience they can create exactly the type of gathering that you envision.

If finances are a concern and you can’t afford the luxury of a professional event planning service, there are things that you can do that will help your event run as smoothly as possible. Here are a few ideas:

Keep an ongoing list. Plan your event by writing down everything you need to do. As you complete those tasks, stroke them off the list and add new ones as needed.

Choose a theme that is appropriate for all guests. It might be difficult for some people to rent or purchase special outfits for a theme party, so try and make it something that is accesible and affordable for every guest.

Send out invitations or call with your invitation well in advance. Life is busy for many people and giving them sufficient notice will enable them to handle any arrangements they need to make, such as child care.

Choose a menu that isn’t too exotic. Although many people welcome new tastes, it’s often more appropriate to offer menu items that all guests are familiar with, this way they won’t be concerned about possible food allergies or digestive conflicts, if they know exactly what they are eating consists of.

Enjoy the event. Often the host becomes so overburdened with party details that he or she neglects their own enjoyment. Plan the event so you will have free time during it to mingle with your guests.

Event planning can be a tedious task, but with proper organization the work involved in planning the party or event can be well worth it. Getting together with family, friends or business associates in a social setting, is a great way to connect and communicate. With some attention to details before, the party can be a huge and often very fun success.

Gifts for the Event Planning Professional

When it comes to giving birthday gifts, Christmas gifts, or presents for another type of occasion there are many questions surrounding which types of gifts to give to whom. One individual that is really troubling, but has plenty of options, is the event planning professional. There are plenty of gift ideas for the event planning professional, but some of the gifts that could be given to him or her just seem like a no-brainer that they are rarely ever thought of. However, if you know of an event planner and there is a special occasion coming up where a present needs to be purchased for him or her then here are some great suggestions any event planner would love to receive:

A Brand New Organizer

There are all different types of organizers on the market today and chances are that a smart event planning professional will have some type of schedule book or contraption to keep track of all the different events that he or she needs to have planned. However, not knowing what type of organizer that the event planner has will make purchasing an organizer all the more difficult. On the other hand, one suggestion to use when looking for the perfect gift is to just buy the latest organizer or scheduler that has hit the markets. An example of this would be a Palm Pilot system or even a new Blackberry handheld organizer. Both of these systems will allow anyone to utilize a contact list that will allow virtually all of their contacts in one place as well as a little calendar so they’ll be able to keep track of all their events!

Portable USB Flash Drives

The perfect gift for anyone who needs extra space, especially when they’re traveling. A portable USB flash drive could be the perfect gift, though, because event planning professionals usually have some sort of information that they need to store digitally! If you do decide to buy that special person a portable flash drive, however, one suggestion for a gift would be to buy one that is large enough to accommodate a lot of information at one time. There are all sizes of flash drives, but finding one that is at least 10 Gigabytes would be best for someone who is serious about event planning and marketing their own business.

Address Book or Contact Book

Another gift that would be great for an event planning professional would be an address or contact book. Even though contact lists are usually stored digitally in today’s world, there are always situations that occur that could suddenly render your piece of technology useless! For this reason it’s always a great idea to have hard-copy backups of the information that you need most!

There are plenty of other gifts that would come in handy for an event planning professional, such as a beeper, a new cell phone, or even writing utensils! However, the things listed above are certain to be a big hit with anyone who receives them!

The First Step In Event Planning – Choosing The Invitations

Whenever you throw a party the first thing you consider is who you are going to invite. The guest list is important because the number of people attending has a direct impact on the venue and also on the menu. Whether you’ve hired someone to do your event planning for you, or you’ve taken on the task yourself, it’s important to make a list of the invitees and then decide on the best method of asking them to attend.

If the event is a wedding, formal invitations are sent out months before the big day. Generally the bride and the groom visit a stationary store. If you do have the benefit of having a professional helping with the event planning, they may attend as well. Once there, you’ll peruse various books with samples of wedding invitations. There are so many choices that the decision can seem almost overwhelming.

Once a style is chosen, an order is placed for the appropriate number of invitations based on your guest list. If you’re tackling the job of addressing all the envelopes yourself, it’s a good idea to ask for the assistance of someone you know with excellent handwriting. If someone is handling the event planning, they may secure the services of a calligrapher who will complete the envelopes for you. This is the preferred method by many engaged couples because it adds a simple elegance to the invitation.

If your event is just as important but on a smaller scale, as in a birthday party, you can approach invitations several ways. There are many event planning websites on the internet that offer templates for birthday invitations. A parent can download one of these and fill in the pertinent information, even personalizing the invitations for the children. Children enjoy this because they automatically feel special when they see their name on the card announcing the party. If you’ve hired a professional to handle the event planning for the party, they might suggest an alternative for invitations or they may just request the guest list and handle the invitation design and mailing themselves.

The same approach is often taken for events such as wedding showers or baby showers. The invitations are designed to reflect the occasion. Anyone who has ever received a baby shower invitation appreciates the added benefit of a gift registry being mentioned in the invitation. Event planning services generally can aid the expectant parents in setting up their gift registry. It’s a wise idea because new parents normally need so many small things, and allowing the guests to choose from a list makes the gift buying part of the event much easier.

Regardless of your event, if invitations are appropriate, it’s important to get them out early and ask the invitees to respond regarding whether or not they can attend. This is essential for proper event planning because once you have a good idea of the size of the crowd; you can successfully plan on the other details that will make your party the best it can be.

Charity Golf Tournament

Many charitable organizations depend on fund raisings to finance their cause. There are lots of charitable fund raising activities a charitable organization regularly implements. One of the most popular charity fund raising activity these days is a charity golf tournament. Organizing a charity golf tournament is one great way of raising revenues for charitable organizations. These kinds of charity fund raising events have been bringing up not just thousand, but millions of dollar for charitable organizations all over the world these pas few years. A charity golf tournament event has a tendency to become successful if planned and implemented carefully. Whether the organizing committee are composed of volunteers and is organized by financial developers or the said charity golf tournament event is organized by a professional event planner, the participants will discover that playing for a charitable organization or charitable cause can be amusing, exciting, unforgettable and at the same time raising revenues to assist supplement contributions to the charitable organization.
The event planning for these charity fund raising events must be complete long before the event occurs. A charity golf tournament involves a reasonable amount of effort. However, its compensations will be memorable and quite rewarding in terms of revenue. When planning for a charity golf tournament the first thing to do is to organize a committee to supervise various aspects of the charity fund raising event. Plan carefully when and where the charity golf tournament event will take place.
Like all fund raising events, holding a charity golf tournament requires hard work. The volunteers and the financial developers must have a set of innovative marketing campaigns that will attract the public. There are lots of professional event planning organizations that will gladly offer their services for these kinds fund raising events. However, some of these agencies do not offer their services without charge. On the other hand, these professional event planning agencies can supply the much needed manpower and their planning techniques guarantee that the charity golf tournament will become successful. Most of these event planning agencies can be found on the internet. To know more about these charity event planning agencies just use your favorite search engine and click on the results to view their respective websites.
Mostly participants of these charity fund raising events must pay fees in order to participate in the two, or three day event. Occasionally, charity golf tournaments are a one day event only. However, participants get to play together with celebrities and also, to add sugar to the pie, there are prizes to be won. In addition to the traditional prizes, some charity golf tournaments have a variety of fun awards and side prizes (like for example “the sandiest shoe” prize and “the best golfer that tracks the ball in the woods” award).

The Meat And Potatoes Of Event Planning – Choosing Your Menu

One of the most talked about aspects of any event is the menu. People love to eat and if they are invited to a party, one of the things they will usually be most excited about is the food.

It can be a daunting task, planning an entire menu for a group of twenty, thirty or three hundred people. But with some careful thought and proper event planning, you can prepare a menu that will not only satisfy your guest’s appetites but it will impress them as well.

If the group that you are hosting is large, hiring an event planner might be in your best interest. The reason for this is that local event planners generally have an outstanding relationship with caterers. They know who is good, who serves what and which catering company will satisfy all of your dining needs. A benefit to hiring a catering company is that they handle all aspects of beverages and food. All you need to do is sit down with the person planning your event and decide on a menu that will fit into both the appetites of your guests and your budget. Armed with this information, the event planner will contact several caterers get a quote on your party and then come back to you with a few finalists. You’ll be able to not only meet with the caterers, but generally you can also get a taste test of what they have to offer. This is a great approach because then you, as the host, are fully prepared for what will be served to your guests the day of the event.

If your soiree is a smaller affair, than you might decide to handle the event planning details of it yourself. This includes taking on the planning of the menu. In this case you’ll consider whether a cocktail party, a sit down dinner or a buffet might be in order. Each of these alternatives offers distinct benefits. If you decide on a cocktail party, you’ll need to choose several hors d’oeuvres that your guests will enjoy. It’s usually prudent to plan on a few of each for every person attending. If you plan in that fashion, you won’t be embarrassed by running short of food.

A dinner party or buffets are also good choices for a party. Depending on the number of guests invited you can plan either without too much difficulty. One important note is that whenever you are event planning and the function will include food it’s wise to consider whether any of your guests have special needs when it comes to food. This can include things like diabetes or food allergies. If you are having someone attend who is highly allergic to a food, try not to serve that food at all.

When it comes to event planning, menu planning is a big factor. If you consider the size of your guest list and the time of the event, you can choose foods and presentation that fit the tone of your party to a tee.

Entertain Or Not

Calling up a few of your friends the day before for an improvised barbeque party requires no planning whatsoever. Such an impromptu event may work really well once, but good parties require good planning. Every party, regardless of size, place or theme, requires some planning.

Normally, the larger the event, the more planning required. For example, weddings are usually planned about two years ahead, but it is not unusual to find people planning their wedding for an even longer period of time. A smaller formal event may require just as much planning as a neighborhood 4th of July block party.

If you are going to plan a party, you need to try to anticipate potential difficulties, unplanned events, mishaps, and small catastrophes. Make sure you minimize potential obstacles, such as a rainy day for a backyard barbeque. If rain is a possibility, think of how it will affect the party. Think of the things you can do to better prepare for such an event.

Some parties involve large groups of people. Large formal events, such as weddings, normally work better when you hire a professional event planner. Although event planners will charge you, but the experience they bring to your event is going to help you create a better event. The event planner can help you with hiring the caterer, securing a great venue, etc. The event planers are experts in making your party a success, so take advantage if them.

Every party is going to cost some amount of money, so make sure you set your budget as early as you can. Your budget will have a lot to do with how many guests you can invite, the kind of food and drinks you serve, the venue, and more. If you can host your party at your house, you are going to spend less than if you had to rent a venue at a hotel or a restaurant. Don’t start shopping or inviting people before you have set your budget. If you only have a budget to entertain 20 people, you can’t even think about inviting 40.

Small and large, parties require planning. Parties cost money, but they don’t have to break the bank. With a little effort you are on your way to a great party.