Event Planning 101: A Beginner's Guide
Event planning can be a very lucrative career. It’s something more and more people are getting into. However, while it can be a great way to achieve financial success, it’s also difficult. Most of the people who become event planners give up in the first year. Properly preparing is the best way to avoid making mistakes. There are many different ways to prepare for a career as an event planner. This article will help you with your preparations. It will do this by offering a beginner’s guide that you can use to get started the right way.
Equipment Hire
One of the best things about modern event planning is that you do not have to own the equipment that you use at your events. You can outsource to a company that offers Canberra chair hire and use equipment from them, or from an equipment rental company in the town or city that you live in. Before you formally start advertising yourself as an event planner, it’s a good idea to make connections with a few equipment rental companies. This is so you have people you already have a relationship with that you can get in touch with immediately to get equipment.
Gain Experience
Experience is absolutely essential. Becoming an event planner is no easy undertaking. If you do not have experience, clients may not trust you to plan their events for them. The best way to gain experience is to work for somebody else’s event planning firm for a while prior to starting out on your own. Alternatively, you can attend a course. One of the best things about taking a course is that you get a certificate, which you can put on your resume or portfolio to advertise yourself to clients.
Organizational Skills
Organizational skills are a must. If you do not have them, now’s the time to work on developing them. No client is going to work with you for very long if you are disorganized. When you are planning events, everything needs to be meticulously arranged. Even overlooking small things can have a negative impact on the events you have planned. It is important to hire support, so you are not stuck planning events yourself. Having one or two people you can trust working alongside you can make your life much easier.
Network Often
Network often. You should network with potential clients and other event planners. One of the best places to network is LinkedIn, an online social media platform. LinkedIn is used by business professionals from around the world. You can use it to find clients and meet other established event planners. As mentioned above, it is a good idea to get experience before setting your own business. LinkedIn is the ideal place to find a job as an event planner. Make sure that you regularly post on the platform and advertise your successes and achievements, so clients and partners can look back on your career by scrolling through your page when considering working with you.
Market Yourself
Once you have set your business up, you need to market yourself. There are many different ways a person can market their business in the modern world. The most effective of these is SEO or search engine optimization. The goal of SEO is to get target websites to the top of Google, Bing, and Yahoo’s search listings. If you are running a full-time event planning business, the chances are you don’t have the time to learn about marketing. Instead of trying to market yourself, you should outsource marketing to a company that knows what they are doing.
Build a Portfolio
A portfolio is a compilation of all of the work a professional has done that they are proud of. Your portfolio is somewhere you can advertise the events you have planned to future clients. Many event planners have their portfolios attached to their websites or standalone portfolio sites. It is a very good idea to develop a portfolio and build it over time. The chances of you getting major jobs increase exponentially when you have a portfolio. Make sure that when you are building a portfolio, you highlight every single achievement you have made.
Specialty or Niche
Finally, try to find a specialty or a niche. Having a particular type of event you are good at planning as your bread and butter is a good way to hone your skills and develop in your career. If you offer generalized event planning, you may still develop professionally and become very good at planning events, but you won’t be as good as you could be if you specialize in one particular type of event, i.e., music festivals, business seminars, or weddings.
Social media has created a culture of extravagance. When a person decides to throw an event, they often want the most luxurious event they can get. With this in mind, there has never been a better time to become an event planner. Hopefully, the advice given here will help you on your journey toward becoming one.