Event planners can specialize in many different types of events. Whether you choose to be a planner of weddings, festivals, corporate events, or children’s birthday parties when starting an event planning business depends on a combination of your personal interests and where there is a hole in your local market that you can fill. Whichever route you take, you will have to take many things into consideration.
When the word “corporate” is involved, most people don’t think of the word “fun” as being a good match. However, when planning a corporate event, that is a pairing that you should look to make. With a thorough plan, it should not be too difficult to achieve the perfect corporate event that attendees will greatly enjoy. Remember these things when planning your corporate event, and everything should go great.
Know Your Client
Some event planners take a one size fits all approach. Having the same basic game plan for all of your events can be a very tempting option and comes with many advantages. When you have a larger event planning business, you can have team leaders who you send out for each event to make sure everything runs according to plan. There is no worry about the approach they will take as they have the protocols to follow.
While this approach can provide stability and ensure that you don’t deliver a low-quality event to any client, it can also hamper the growth of your business. Your clients will likely be satisfied with the service you provided but are unlikely to be blown away. Word of mouth recommendations probably won’t come in at a high rate. By specifically tailoring your events to each client, you are far more likely to blow them out of the water with what you provide.
You want to make sure to get plenty of information about the business you will be planning the event for, as well as the employees and the reason for the event. The plan for a law firm with an average employee age of 45 trying to network with potential clients, is likely going to be a very different party from the plan for a tech start-up with an average employee age of 25 celebrating one million users.
Listen to Your Client but Prepare Your Own Ideas As Well
Some clients will know exactly what they want, while others won’t have a clue. It’s important to always prepare plenty of your own ideas as well. You are an event planner, after all, not just an event organizer. Even a client who thinks they know exactly what they want could change their plans somewhat when they hear the ideas that you have in mind.
A great proposal is your first step to landing a client. Some clients may come to you ready to hire your services based on reputation alone, but others will need to be sold, especially when you are just starting out. In order to build your business effectively, you must first show that you have good ideas and a thorough understanding of the industry. Then, you have to show that you can turn your ideas into reality.
Different Types of Insurance
When planning any type of event, it is important to understand the insurance coverage that is needed to protect both you and your client from liability. While your client likely has business insurance, it is unlikely that their policy will cover any damages done outside of work hours, especially if the event is not taking place on company property.
Similarly, a venue will likely carry insurance coverage for their space. However, they will probably require that you purchase separate insurance if you want to use the facilities so that their premiums won’t go up in the case of an accident. Part of your contract with the venue will likely waive them of any liability.
Any insurance coverage that you do purchase will likely not be covered in the event that an accident is caused by any vendors you hired for the event. All vendors should purchase vendor insurance so that they are protected in case of an accident caused by their operation. You should also have paperwork written up for your vendors to sign that waives you and your client of any liability for any accidents they cause.
You absolutely must purchase event liability insurance as a protection in case of an accident at your event. As many event planners learned in 2020, you might also want to strongly consider event cancellation or postponement insurance.
You must protect yourself and your client in the event that something goes wrong at your event. One of the easiest ways to destroy your business is to have a guest or client sue you. This can be particularly harmful if your client starts spreading the word all over town that you cost them a fortune by neglecting to purchase insurance.
Know Your Limits
It is especially important while your business is still young to have an understanding of your limitations. When you have a potential client who wants you to plan an event that is beyond the limits of your company with its current staff size, don’t accept without thinking things through. This might be the perfect opportunity to take your business to the next level. However, if you fail to pull it off, it could also be a huge setback.
You need to be able to evaluate where your company is at and whether this challenge is a hurdle you can jump or a brick wall that you don’t have the tools to climb yet.
