Starting a Production & Event Planning Company

Some event planners include videography with their services.

Starting a production and event planning company involves choosing your services, creating a marketing plan, operational plan, financial plan and launching your promotions.

Things You'll Need

• Research materials: books, magazines, trade publications or the Internet.
• Telecommunications equipment: phone and email
• three or more binders
• Notebook
• Printer
• Dedicated office space
• One or more banking accounts
• One or more expense or credit accounts
• Filing system

Instructions

Prepare and Launch

1. Consider getting experience or getting certified. Some planners start by working for other planners or working on a particular aspect of event production. Other event planners use freelance opportunities to coordinate events for people they know to gain experience. Many higher education institutions like universities, community colleges and trade schools offer event planning degrees and certificates. Event planner certifications include certified special events professional, certified meeting planner (see Reference 1.).

2. Choose the kind of events you want to produce. Events include celebrations, educational, promotions, commemorations and many others.. Event planners for celebrations may service fairs, parades, weddings, reunions, birthdays or anniversaries. Event planners for educational events may service conferences, meetings or graduations. Event planners for promotions may service product launches, political rallies or fashion shows. Event planners for commemorations may service memorials or civic events (see Reference 1).

3. Research your market and develop a marketing plan. The two broad event markets are corporate and social. The corporate market includes companies, charities and non-profits that may include trade shows, conventions, company picnics, parties, staff meetings, board meetings and stakeholder meetings. Your social events may include weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, bar and bat mitzvahs, Sweet 16 parties, children's parties and reunions. Research may involve conducting surveys, interviews or focus groups to determine the demand for your services, getting information about vendors and suppliers, assembling checklists and questions for new clients, talking to event planners, studying similar events and identifying effective ways to promote your services to buyers (see Reference. 3). Your market includes the people that need your services and other professionals that you work with to produce events. Find out as much as you can about these people and their businesses.

4. Organize your operations plan. Organizing operations involves systematizing the process of dealing with a client from start to finish. Keep the information from your research well organized in binders that are easy to access and review. Lease or set up a home office that is completely dedicated to event planning. Create a layout of the steps and guidelines you will follow for each project for time management. Steps may include research, design decisions, proposal assembly, vendor and supplier coordination, re-check, double-check and evaluation. Organize the basic material needed to process each client with worksheets, outlines, well-organized resource material, accounting procedures, filing systems, computer and communications systems.

5. Create a finance plan. Potential start-up costs include office rental, equipment, inventory, licenses and taxes, communications, payroll, advertising and promotions, legal and accounting fees, insurance and others (ref. 1). Find out how much you need to start your business, sustain it, how you are going to get the money and generate revenue for your business under various scenarios. If you borrow money from a bank, determine the repayment schedule, whether you can get enough business and charge enough to sustain good credit. Once you can get the required investment, isolate sales and time frame goals, and begin acquiring and preparing operational assets with a sense urgency. Do not unnecessarily waste time spending money. Spend it, then quickly move on to making money.

6. Launch your promotional efforts with the information from your marketing plan and usher clients through your services using your operations plan. Promotional efforts include networking with events professionals and associations like caterers and hotels, formalizing a referral system, handing out cards, distributing brochures to mailing lists, placing small ads in magazines and publishing content on your website. Evaluate the return on individual promotional efforts, build on the ones that work best and eliminate or adjust the ones that lose money.

Tips & Warnings

• Research event planning software such as Complete Event Manager, Meeting Planner Plus and PRO X.

• Join associations such as the Convention Industry Council, International Special Events Society, Meeting Professionals International, National Association of Catering Executives or the Professional Convention Management Association.

• Subscribe to publications such as Corporate Meetings and Incentives, The Meeting Professional, Special Events Magazine, Meetings and Conventions, Successful Meetings, Tradeshow Week or Travel Weekly.

• Do not be discouraged if you have no source of financing. Assemble your marketing, finance and operational plans and pitch your plans to potential partners and investors such as other banks, private equity funds, friends and family. If your plans are solid, people will invest in your enterprise.

References

• "Entrepreneur": How to Start An Event Planning Service

Resources

• "The Business of Event Planning"; Judy Allen; 2002