David Olagunju, Author at Tribune Online

Looking for a business that has the potential to deliver you tremendous returns? Then you should consider starting your own event planning business. Event planning has proven to be lucrative with a steady market growth. Event management has seen a steady growth in margins from 15% a few years ago to as much as 40% right now. This is great news for you as a potential event planner. Just before you fasten your seat belt and accelerate into the event planning business, here are six things to consider first: 1. Identify your skills Skill set is an important consideration before venturing into any business at all. Event planning requires a very specific skill and personality; being outspoken, outgoing, social and creative, and in other to outsmart your competitors, you must just be unique and outstanding. What you do and how you do it better is just a matter of skill. Now ask yourself, do I have the skills for this career? 2. Get trained and certified Many event planners have perished because of lack of knowledge. As much as this may sound like a biblical cliché, it is the plain truth! Just like any other business, knowledge is needed for running a successful business. To buttress on this, it’s not just having a certificate to identify you as an event planner. We’ve heard of someone that dropped out of school many years ago and created something that is still valuable to the world today, and he later employed his school mate with a ‘fancy’ certificate to work with him. Yeah, I’m talking about Bill Gate – founder of Microsoft. In his case, you would agree with me that persistence and personal development took him that far. To make your event management career worthwhile, I strongly advice you get acquainted with related seminars and training that will help you stay on top of your game. To get started, attend TURN YOUR EVENT PASSION TO PROFIT training by ‘Pleasant Jay Events’ What to expect from the training: How to start and manage a lucrative event planning business Ways to generate 6-7 figures in less than 2 months How to package your business like a pro Strategies to secure high net worth clients Reaching your target audience and closing deals online. Certificate will be awarded after completing the training and you also get mentorship and internship opportunity. 3. Identify your target market Before you begin building your event planning business, clearly decide your area of focus. Decide what type of event you want to plan. There are five types of events: Social – birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, weddings etc. Corporate – product launch, seminars, conferences, meetings etc Commemorative – remembrance, burials etc. Funfairs- carnivals, street parties, expos etc Promotional – political rallies, fashion shows, product launches etc. Someone once said, “Where focus goes, energy flows.”As a starter, focus on one niche and then expand gradually so as not to exhaust resources and energy too soon. This way, you would be more productive and growth-driven. Moreover, general event planning requires more experience, staff and resources due to vast differences in these event types. 4. Create a business plan A famous quote says, “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” As you venture into event planning business, you must have a concrete business plan that will guide your decision-making process, educate investors and lenders of your intention, and keep your business on the right path when the going gets rough. A good business plan is a road map to your business success, it is therefore necessary to create one. 5. Handle the legal side of your business After creating your business plan, the next thing is to settle the legalities of running a business. You should consider registering your event planning business and obtaining all necessary business licenses such as business certificate, tax identification number, workers compensation insurance, and general liabilities insurance. Don’t let legal actions take cause on you before you give this a thought. Preventing a lawsuit is far cheaper than incurring penalty fees. 6. Open a corporate business account Having a corporate account with your business name is not optional, it gives your clients confidence in you to deliver a professional service. In fact, some clients won’t do business if you can’t provide them an account bearing your business name. Every business is advised to have a corporate business account because apart from the trust it earns you with your clients, it comes with some nice advantages too. With a corporate account, you would be able to: Apply and get loans from the bank easily. Avoid account restrictions common to regular savings account. Make international transactions without stress and lots more. There is just one hindrance to this; registering your business. Which is why you need to become a legitimate business. Finally, if you are considering starting an event planning business, take these 6 tips and run with them. Do come back to feed on more eye-opening articles. Good luck!