It may seem like everyone is running their own businesses these days. In fact, there are about 33.5 million entrepreneurs in the US alone – a 24% increase from 2015.
If you’re looking to start your own event organizing business, you might not know where to start. There’s plenty to do, but following these eight steps will get you started on the right foot.
Ready to roll? Here’s how to make the leap into starting your own event planning business.
1. Establish your event planning business
There’s no requirement for a certification or license to become an event planner in the US. However, it’s still a good idea to establish a legal structure for your event management company, and you’ll likely need other certifications and licenses related to running an event planning business.
Why register your business
If you run your business under your name, you don’t need to register it. But even though it isn’t required, it still has advantages.
When you register your business, you get some great benefits that will help you get started. You get a tax identification number, which will help you separate your business income when tax season comes around, and you also get to open business banking accounts.
Different business structures also give unique advantages, such as tax benefits and liability protection. But that depends on the type of business you establish.
Types of business
In the US, there is a wide variety of business structures you can choose from. For this article, we’ll focus on the three most popular types of business for small event planning business owners to establish.
Sole proprietorships
Sole proprietorships are the easiest businesses to establish because you don’t need to register them with the state. But pay attention–you may still need to get a local business license depending on your location.
Sole proprietorships are simple to establish, and you can pay taxes on your business on your personal tax returns. However, being a sole proprietor doesn’t offer the tax advantages or liability protections of other business structures.
Limited liability companies (LLCs)
LLCs are a very common corporate legal entity for everyone from small businesses to publicly traded companies. To establish your own limited liability company, you’ll need to register with the state where you do business, which usually costs a little under $300.
LLCs offer their owners more protection than sole proprietorships in case the business fails. If your LLC goes bankrupt, your personal assets can’t be liquidated to cover any debts the business may have. If you are your LLC’s only employee, the federal government will treat you as a sole proprietorship for tax purposes.
Partnerships
A partnership is a great way to start a business with another person. You’ll need to file legal documents outlining the business entity with the state that say whether there’s one primary owner or an equal partnership.
Partnerships give you legal protection if you’re working with another person. They make it easier for you to resolve any disputes that can come up, and let you divide the business’s profits into your personal income. This helps sort out each of your taxes without getting into overly complicated corporate structures.
Licenses and certifications
While the US doesn’t require you to get a license to become an event planner, there are some activities that you might do as an event organizer that have their own legal requirements. Here are some licenses and certifications that you might need:
Food handler card
If you’re preparing food that you’ll serve to others as a part of your event planning services, you’ll need a food handler card. This won’t be necessary if you hire the food services out to professional caterers, who are required to have their own cards.
Liquor license
Weddings, birthdays, corporate events, and many other events commonly serve alcohol. If you plan on serving alcohol at those events, you should get a liquor license for the state you’re serving in. This can be a complicated process depending on the state, so it’s a good idea to get it started as soon as possible.
Business license
As discussed above, some states, municipalities, and counties require you to have a business license to start a company there. You should check with local authorities to see what requirements they have, and whether your business registration has already covered them—often, registering your business qualifies as licensing it.
Public performance license
Do you plan on holding public events with music? If you are, you’ll need to license that music with a public performance license. The easiest way to do this is by purchasing a general public performance license from a performance rights organization (PRO). That license grants you the right to play music covered by the PRO at your events.
2. Find a niche
Look at what kinds of events people are running in your area. From there, you can find your target market. For example, if you’re in San Francisco, it could be a good idea to specialize in product launches, kickoff parties, and IPO announcements.
In New York City, production for private birthday parties, high-end events, and charitable events at large-scale venues might be a better fit. But if you’re in Miami, it could be better to build a party planning business that relies more on weddings, bachelor(ette) parties, and the many festivals in South Florida. It all depends on where you are.
Market research can sound intimidating, but it’s an important foundation for your company. To simplify this process you can use Eventbrite’s marketing resources that can help you make data-driven choices. If you want to start an event planning company that specializes in social events, check what social events are happening in your area, and ask current event planners what most of their business is.
Here are a few of the niches you could specialize in as an event planner:
- Corporate events
- Weddings and anniversaries
- Educational conferences
- Product launches
- Trade shows
- Music festivals
- Outdoor/sporting events
- Bar & Bat Mitzvahs
- Gala fundraisers
- Social gatherings
Any one of these could be a great fit for you. Consider the volume of business for each niche, your ability to run these types of events, your connection to people in related industries, and your desire to plan these events. All of these factors can help you decide if a particular niche is right for your event planning business.
Once you find the right niche, focus on it. Becoming an expert in that area will set you apart from the competition and make it easier to gain new clients. Spending time learning every aspect of your chosen specialization will be invaluable when it comes to finding new events and planning them successfully.
You will also have a better understanding of the expectations, challenges, and opportunities that come with that particular type of event. By focusing on one niche, you can become an expert in your field, build a strong reputation for yourself, and create loyal relationships with clients.
3. Create your event planning business plan
Creating a business plan helps you get organized and attract partners, investors, and clients. It’s also a document that will serve as an important touchstone for you as you grow your business.
Future partners, investors, and clients will want to know that your business has a strategic vision for a path to growth and profitability. A good business plan will show them both that you have business management skills and that the company is on solid footing.
The plan will also be useful for you moving forward. It will be your guidebook on how to overcome the challenges that meet every business. Your business plan can help you manage your finances, marketing strategy, and the next steps to take as you grow.
If you’re thinking about how to start an event planning business, here are the core parts of a solid business plan:
- Cover page
- Table of contents
- Executive summary
- Background and history
- Development plan
- Marketing plan
- Budget and financial plan
- Client list
Two of the most important parts to get right in your own plan are the budget and potential client list. These sections will go far in helping you establish your company’s viability.
Budget
There are many small-business expenditures you might not be aware of, from taxes to insurance to licenses. Make sure you check out all the available budgeting resources so you know what you’ll need to pay to run private events, including who you’ll need as a part of your team.
Knowing how much money you’ll need coming in will help you determine how much to charge for your services. It’ll also help you figure out how much you can afford to pay in startup costs.
Client list
The events industry is enormous, and there is definitely a place for your event planning business. The global events industry was valued at $887 billion in 2020 and has only grown since then. But what clients can you actually count on? Make a list of potential clients, including local businesses, people you’ve worked with previously as an event manager, and dream accounts. Then, make a plan to approach them. Have contacts that already committed to working with you if you were to break out on your own? Make sure you list them here as well.
Once you have a business plan, you can take tactical steps to launch your event planning business.
4. Start marketing your business
Marketing is one of the most important parts of starting your own event planning business. If you’re already an event manager, you’re very familiar with how important it is to market your events, and marketing your own business is just as key.
Make sure to build social media accounts early on, so you’re ready to start distributing your marketing materials as soon as possible. You’ll also want to build your own website, make a company logo and a business name, and start telling your friends and family to help promote your business.
Friends and family can also help out as a sounding board for your marketing ideas. Use them as a focus group to test your ideas out with, especially if any belong to your target audience.
Your niche will likely determine how you market yourself. Be aware that people look for a specialist as their wedding planner, corporate event planner, or party planner. It’s not enough to just have a professional-looking website—you’ll need to model it to the needs of your business and the local market before you can start pitching event ideas.
5. Streamline your tasks
Any event organizer is familiar with juggling multiple tasks. But when you start your own event planning business, those tasks will multiply quickly.
Use technology to automate the tasks you can. Today, there are many apps for startups that can automate a surprisingly vast number of tasks. For instance:
- HelloSign can help you send and receive legal signatures on contracts and liability waivers.
- Email marketing programs like MailChimp allow you to schedule the sending of invitations, announcements, and promotions to your entire mailing list or target segments of it.
- Apps like Zapier let you get creative with linking up your various technologies and automating repetitive custom tasks.
- Finally, online ticketing platforms like Eventbrite help you create event pages quickly and make it easy for people to buy tickets to your events online. Integrations with discovery and distribution partners like Facebook and Spotify make it possible for people to find your events and buy tickets from other places on the web.
But even with the best tools on hand, there is some work you’ll want to do yourself. You’re a small business owner now, and that means taking on all of the accounting, sales, marketing, and operations for your company.
To handle each of these types of tasks, try devoting certain sections of your day to the different “departments” of your business. That way, you can be sure that each task gets your full attention and that you don’t leave anything by the wayside.
If you have your own home office, you can also hang a Kanban board to keep track of your ongoing projects. The visual nature of the boards makes them easy to manage and provides an overview of the entire project at once. By visually representing tasks and progress, Kanban boards help teams manage workflow, anticipate potential issues or bottlenecks, and ensure nothing is overlooked or forgotten.
6. Track your progress
If you’re using technology to automate tasks, sell tickets, and organize your business, that technology will collect data for you. And data is crucial to tracking your progress as a new business owner.
With every tool you use, carve out time to check your metrics so you can gauge how your planning is panning out. And go back to your business plan periodically to make sure you’re staying on track with your vision and hitting your goals.
The specific metrics you choose to track might depend on your business model.
For example, if you want to rely on inbound website visitors, metrics like website traffic might matter more to you. On the other hand, if you’re making cold calls to potential clients, you might track those metrics in your customer relationship management (CRM) software.
Corporate clients often want consistent, real-time updates from you, especially with their large-scale events. It helps to have an established system so you can assure them that the event is on track. That’s why they ask event organizers to use tracking software like the Eventbrite Event Check-In App.
These are the types of metrics you can track, even if you’re just starting out:
- Client engagement
- Cost per event
- Number of events organized
- Website traffic and conversions
- Event attendance rates
- Ticket sales and profits earned.
Make sure to use data to make informed decisions as you grow and expand your business—it will save you time, energy, and money. These metrics will also come in handy when you pitch your business to more clients. You can cite these to prove you’ve run a similar successful event to the one you’re pitching and prove your value.
7. Time management
No matter how many tasks you automate and how organized you are, you’ll always have plenty on your to-do list. Managing time well is crucial for an event organizer dreaming about how to start an event planning business.
Meetings, for instance, are simultaneously one of the best ways to connect with people and a total drag on our time. While you’ll need to connect with clients regularly, you can make your meetings more efficient.
Create a solid agenda and stick to it, with just enough chit-chat to build a relationship with clients and vendors. As you build out your staff, resist the temptation to add unnecessary meetings to everyone’s calendar.
8. Manage the stress of starting an event planning business
Most importantly, throughout all of this, stay calm. Being an entrepreneur can be stressful. The more you can keep a cool head about you, the higher your chances of success.
Your own confidence and calm will also affect how your team, clients, and sponsors feel about you. Your team wants to be led with a steady hand, and your certainty about your projects will reflect on their ability to perform their own duties.
Similarly, your clients and sponsors want to feel like they’re in good hands. By working on your own calm, you’ll earn their trust and cooperation. The more you respond to questions and issues with appropriate, calm answers, the more they’ll trust you.
There are a few steps you can take to manage your stress levels:
Set realistic goals
Set realistic business goals to avoid frustration and burnout. This will help you remain focused, motivated, and moving forward, even if it is slow. You’ll be doing a lot of hard work, and you want to be able to measure your success after a big day.
Take time for self-care
As a business owner, it can be easy to neglect self-care. However, it is crucial to prioritize your well-being by eating well, getting enough sleep, and exercising. Make sure you have plenty of good things going on outside of work, and don’t let work be the first thing you think of when you take a break.
Connect with others
Connect with other event planners, business mentors, or support groups. Surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals can help you gain valuable insights and inspiration, as well as relieve stress. See if there are local events for your industry, and check in with your colleagues about how they maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Keep learning
Stay informed by attending conferences, webinars, and training sessions. Learning new skills and approaches can help you stay motivated, grow your business, and reduce stress. You can also take event planning classes to help you feel more confident in your skills, on top of your life experience.
Invest in your business
On top of education, you should also invest in your business. Make sure you have the office equipment you need, and feel free to hire staff to help run the business if you have the financial backing to afford it. Learning to trust others to help out is the most fundamental step in growing your business. If you’re working without the right tools, it can add significant stress to your day.
Start your event planning business off right
If you follow these steps, you’ll be ready to get a good start on your event planning business. Starting a business is a lot of work, but this way you’ll have a structure you can use to succeed.
The most successful event organizers use the best tools to make their jobs easier. So when you’re ready to start selling tickets online and collecting payments from attendees, remember that Eventbrite has your back!
