If you are thinking about setting up a party planning business and getting all the perks of being an entrepreneur, you need a good plan. While there is no specific training you can undergo to become a great party planner, the experience will go a long way in helping you, with most people looking at your portfolio before they give you a gig. You can, however, follow the following steps to make it in the world of party planning.
Get More Experience
The very first thing that you should do to set your party planning business up for success is to gain experience and brush up your skills. Make sure that your communication and verbal skills are good, you are great at time management, you have good negotiation skills, and last but not least, you are creative. Having these skills as an entrepreneur will set you apart from the rest in the market and give your business a chance of growing fast.
Find Your Strengths
While planning to cater to all types of events may open you up to more opportunities over time, it is important to note that different events have different requirements. Planning a party calls for a lot, from organizing hundreds of details and dealing with decorations to sending out invitations and setting up decorations, activities, and food stands.
Fundraising galas, weddings, and corporate events, for instance, will call for different set-ups and equipment. Trying to cover all these events while you are still starting out may burn you out and render you unable to provide the best services that you could. Instead of doing this, focus on a few markets with which you already have experience, and grow from those. If your abilities allow, you can venture into different parties as you get the manpower and know-how.
Write Down Your Business Plan
While you may have a good idea of how you indent to do about things already, it is important to put it down in writing. This will allow you to see any loopholes and iron out any kinks long before you are set to start. This is a good point to also decide which business entity you will work with, whether a sole proprietorship, C- or S-Corporation, partnership, trust, or non-profit organization.
Doing this at the beginning is important to help you map out your strategy. With statistics showing that a whopping 70% of business partnerships formed fail, you should be careful about whom you partner with at the formative stages because they may have a big effect on how things go.
Get Insurance
Obtaining business insurance to protect your liability is mandatory. As much as you will always do your best to ensure the success of any event you plan, things beyond your control sometimes go wrong. It is important to stay protected if you get a lawsuit at some point by managing risk at all times. It does not matter if your business will be home-based or you will have an office, you have to look into insurance and make sure that you have a good, relevant cover.
With 15 million lawsuits filed each year in the United States, you are better being safe than sorry. In an industry such as event planning, you will be dealing with a variety of suppliers and other service people and because it is difficult to keep tabs on everyone, good insurance will give you peace of mind.
When you are done with the technical details and have developed your networks, defined your services, and established an event planning fee structure, you need to secure funding and then focus on marketing your business. Any successful entrepreneur out there will tell you that while they are living their best life, it took a lot of effort in the beginning, so be prepared to put in the work.
