Kickstart A Corporate Event Planning Business In 13 Easy Steps

For all aspiring entrepreneurs willing to set up a corporate event planning business, you’ve made it to the right article.

Here, we will offer you valuable insights into the financial, legal, and experiential aspects of the industry.

You’ll understand all the intricacies of planning and setting up a business in the corporate event planning sector. This is part of our master guide on corporate event planning.

A. How to effectively plan corporate events

To have a successful corporate event planning business, you need to master the planning process.

To help you get started, keep these tips in mind. They’re written to help you streamline the process:

• Talk to your client to understand the aim of hosting the corporate event
• Identify the audience and sponsors you want to attract to the event
• Tailor the presentations, acts, and activities in the event to meet the objectives
• Set a realistic budget, leaving room for unexpected expenses that may arise
• Choose a theme or topic if relevant to your event
• Explore formats like client panels, keynotes, breakout sessions, and team-building activities
• Make the relevant bookings for venue, catering, photography, and entertainment
• Work out the logistics for AV technicians, decorators, and security personnel
• Create a detailed event timeline, breaking down the event into management tasks
• Build a corporate event marketing strategy. It will include email campaigns, industry ads, and social media promotion
• Wrap up loose ends, finalize payments, and conduct a post-event debrief with your team
• Note insights and use lessons learned to refine your future events

B. What are the functions of corporate events?

Establishing a corporate event planning business will require a lot of gigs and experience. However, before you get into the field, you need to know why corporate events are organized in the first place. Knowing the reason behind it will help you plan better events that are more aligned with the objectives.

1. Networking is a common factor in most corporate events. Corporate events facilitate networking amongst businesses, employees, or prospective clients
2. Corporate events also prove to be useful for building relationships with clients. A more relaxed setting helps improve customer loyalty and satisfaction
3. A lot of corporate events are conducted for employee engagement. Examples include recognition ceremonies and retreats. These can be clubbed under internal corporate events. They improve job satisfaction among employees
4. Events are excellent tools for brand building and marketing. They showcase values, products, and achievements to the right target audience
5. Product launches often take the shape of corporate events. So, it is safe to say corporate events also create a buzz and promote sales
6. Not all events are only for the corporation’s benefit. Some corporate events also come under corporate social responsibility (CSR). These events are to bring about a positive change in society. For example, a Christmas party event for the less fortunate
7. Some corporate events may seem like an excessive expense for no reason. However, some events are purely for relationship building. For example, improving investor relations or client engagement

When you’re discussing the goal of your event, you might miss some of the hidden agendas. These points should be kept in mind so you can curate a better event experience.

C. Where do I start?

All business are born from an idea. But a lot of business ideas die down soon after.

We don’t mean to discourage you, but we want you to analyze well. Validate your idea before you pump money into your corporate event planning business.

How do you validate your business idea? It begins with understanding customer patterns. Do your research on whether there is a demand for your service. You need to know what others are charging for their services.

Talking to potential clients or peers in the industry is how you can find this information. Interact with other event planners on EventTube to get such insights.

D. How to set up a corporate event planning business?

Let’s learn what setting up a new corporate event planning business looks like.

Laying the foundation of your business will require hours of thinking. But let’s start easy. Give your business a name. It must be unique to avoid problems while registering it.

Then, you want to set up a business bank account. It’s different from your regular savings account. It also requires a lot more paperwork.

While you’re laying the groundwork, you must talk to lawyers and accountants. This will help you form all contracts, paperwork, and apply for insurance. We’ll delve deeper into the legal aspects of setting up the corporate event planning business later.

Then, you need to work on the media for your corporate event planning business. This will include choosing your brand colors, setting up social media accounts, and website. You can use Canva as a tool to create posts and website layouts for free.

Once the groundwork and media channels are in place, you need to start marketing your business. Interact with other businesses, learn their strategies, and reach out to potential clients.

In your initial stages, you might get clients from personal connections. However, combining this with outreach to prospective clients will help you form a solid foundation. Then, word of mouth should take you to the next step.

This might sound obvious but your corporate event planning business will fail if you neglect this. You need to exceed expectations and deliver excellent customer service. Only after this, you should expect word-of-mouth marketing.

Pro Tip: You’re new to the business, you will make mistakes. But remember, you’re working directly with the client, they aren’t just seeing your services but also you as a person. Maintain good communication and treat your client well. This will take you a long way.

To sum up, here’s what you need to do to set up your corporate event planning business:

• The initial research is all free so make sure you do your due diligence by doing market research
• Set up your brand name, colors, logo, and channel before making bookings
• Take the legal route for setting up your business and having the paperwork in place
• Marketing is important, no matter what your business is about

E. Steps for setting up a corporate event planning business

Setting up a corporate event planning business will require you to take up both legal and marketing tasks.

We’ve broken it down into steps to help you get started:

1. Conduct thorough market research to know your target audience, potential competitors, and market demands
2. Pick the most profitable areas in a corporate event planning business. They can be conferences, product launches, or internal events
3. Create a business plan that outlines your: business structure, services, target market, marketing strategy, financial projections, and long-term goals
4. Give your business a unique name, logo, and brand identity
5. Choose a legal structure for your business. It can be a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company (LLC), or corporation
6. Register your business with the concerned authority in your state.
7. Obtain the required licenses for your event. These are the licenses required for event planning in India
8. Get an online presence in the shape of a website, portfolio, and social media accounts
9. Join the event network and talk to other event planners
10. Market specific services like event planning, coordination, and vendor management
11. Establish a pricing structure for all your services that can be adapted to different types and scales
12. Develop comprehensive contracts and service agreements for your clients. Clearly outline the scope of services, payment terms, cancellation policies, and other important details
13. Obtain business insurance to protect your company from potential liabilities. Consider coverage for general liability, professional liability, and property insurance

F. FAQ

1. Is event management a profitable business?

Profitability in the event industry varies from event to event. The size, complexity, location, and pricing strategy play a huge role.

Typically, as the owner of a corporate event planning business, you can charge 10-30% of the event budget as your fees.

Note, that your fees don’t include venue rental, catering, or entertainment. It’s all billed separately.

With careful budgeting and pricing strategy, event management is an overall profitable business.

2. How do I calculate the profit margin in an event?

You can calculate the profit by deducting the following costs from the final payout by the client:

• Staff salaries
• Venue rental
• Event licenses and insurance
• Marketing
• Decor
• Catering
• Outsourced services
• Overhead costs

Generally, the higher the overhead costs, the lower the profit margin. So, try to reduce the overhead costs by planning and delivering a good event.

As you plan more events, you’ll get a better idea of all the unnoticed costs associated. These can vary depending on your existing resources or the lack of it.

Based on this your pricing strategy should evolve on at least a yearly basis.

3. What is corporate event budget?

A corporate event budget is an estimate of all expenses incurred to organize a corporate event. It helps event planners allocate resources to achieve event goals. A well-crafted corporate event budget will help you maximize your profits.

G. Summing up

By now, you know effective planning is important for any successful corporate event management business.

With meticulous planning, you can stand out in this specialization of event planning.

Don’t forget to do thorough market research and take all legal measures before you set out.

Profitability will vary from event to event at first. But as you go, you’ll learn the secret sauce for your locality.

Initially, your major focus should be on marketing your business and getting as much experience as possible.

By continuously refining your strategy and keeping up with the marketing, nothing will stand in the way of your success.