Good ideas for starting an event management

company:

Step 1: Decide the services you wish to sell

A service is something which is intangible like: wedding planning, party planning,

organizing music concerts,fashion shows, conducting MICE (meetings, incentives,
conferences and exhibitions) etc.Choose those services in which you have a strong
hold, in which you have majority of your experience and expertise and which can
generate maximum revenue for you. Don't try to be jack of all trades and sell all
event planning services one can think of. If majority of your experience is in wedding
planning, then wedding planning is best for you.Don't try to get into corporate
meetings, just because the market is better. Corporate meetings are different from
the weddings in terms of planning, implementation and evaluation. In fact every
event is planned,executed and evaluated differently and therefore you can't
organize all type of events

Step 2: Do market research, competitor's analysis and SWOT analysis.

 Market Research for Event Management Company

Market means your target audience i.e. people who may be interested in your
events. It also includes those clients who may be interested in hiring your event
management services.If your target audience are least interested in the type of
event you organize, then you won't get any audience. Say you want to organize a
rock concert in the country of Oman.But people there are least interested in such
type of events.It means there is no market for your event in that country. If you
organize the event there, it will fail for sure. Similarly if you wish to organize a
Christmas Carnival in an area where majority of people are Muslims, then you can't
expect many footsteps.Therefore it is very important that you find out in advance
who are your target audience (i.e. their age group,sex, qualification, profession,
lifestyle, income, liking, disliking, customs, religions, traditions etc), where there live
and what are their desires and expectations from your event. To do market research
you will have to do survey in the area (town/city/state/country) where you wish to
organize the event. If you wish to open a wedding planning company and there are
hardly two or three weddings in a year in your area, then selling such type of services
is not commercially viable.

 Competitors' Analysis

Find out:
• Who are your competitors
• Where they live?
• What are their employee base (i.e. number of employees)
• Client base (i.e. number of clients)
• Market value (i.e. what is their reputation in the market)
• Market share (i.e. how much business they have occupied)
• Turnover (i.e. annual sales)?
• How many events they organize in a year?
• Why people attend their events?
• What is so special about their events?
• How do they get clients and sponsors for their events?All this will help you in
developing a better business plan for your event management company.

 SWOT Analysis for Event Management Company

SWOT analysis is used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and

threats involved in your event planning venture. In SWOT: 's' stands for strengths, 'w'
stands for weaknesses, 'o' stands for opportunities and 'T' stands for threats.

Strengths
Determine your resources and capabilities and how they can be used against your
competition and in favour of your target audience. What advantages do you have?
What you can do better than the others?

Weaknesses
Determine the resources you lack. Determine the advantages your competitors have.
What could you improve? What you should avoid?

Opportunities
Look at your strengths and determine which opportunities are opened for you.
Determine how you can open up even more opportunities by eliminating some of
your weaknesses.

Threats
Changes in external environment (like changes in economy or market trends) or any
unfavourable situation can pose threat to your company or business. Determine all
present and possible threats to your business venture. It can be the presence of a
very powerful competitor or new or innovative ways of organizing events or a heavy
tax on entertainment.

Step 3: Prepare business plan for your event management company

You will develop your business plan on the basis of market research, competitors'
analysis and SWOT analysis of your event management company. Before developing
your business plan, you should keep some points in mind:

1. Be realistic and avoid optimism while estimating capital requirements, sales

and profits.
2. Don't ignore developing strategies which may come handy in case of
adversities in your business.

Following steps can be adopted for developing a business plan for your event
management company:

1. Outline your business objectives.

What do you want to achieve in short term and in long term i.e. what is the mission
and vision of your event planning company? However don't stick too much with long
term objectives as they may become meaningless after a long time or changes in
market situation.
2. Determine your staffing needs and what should be their skill sets.
Develop the organizational structure of your event management company. Outline
your own skills,knowledge and experience and determine how they can be used to
achieve business success. Prepare resume of yourself and all of the people who will
be involved in your business. These resumes will come handy when you will look for
partners/investors later on.

3. Determine how exactly you will find clients?

How you will approach them and how you will sell your services. How you will
expand your business? What will be your rules, regulations, policies and procedures
regarding payments, reimbursement, penalties,cancellation and behaviour?

4. Estimate your capital requirements for one whole year.

How you will manage the cash flow?

5. Prepare a contingency plan

i.e. what strategies you will adopt in case of capital loss, economic crisis or market
downturn.

Step 4: On the basis of your business plan determine your operating

cost

i. e. the cost to run the business.

Step 5: On the basis of the operating cost, decide your own fees and
the staff salary.

Step 6: Get investors/ business partners for your event management

company
on the basis of market research, competitors' analysis, SWOT analysis and your
business plan.

Step 7: Decide name and logo of your company and its status

i.e. whether organization will be a company, firm or establishment.

Step 8: Premises, recruitment and marketing your business

Hire office. Buy office stationary and recruit staff. Launch a new flashy website which
effectively describes your business and services in great detail. Hire an internet
marketing professional to promote it.If you won't promote your website, then
nobody will visit your website. So in that case your website will be as good as
nothing. Through your website, your business will get global presence, 24 hours a
day and 365days a year. You can also expect to get lot of clients once, your website
becomes popular.

Step 9: Register your Company

If you have opened a company then get it registered under the Company's Act'. If
you have opened a firm then get it registered under the 'Indian Partnership Act'. If
you have opened an establishment, then get it registered under the 'Shops and
Establishment Act'.An event management company is just like any other company.
So whatever rules and procedures are required to start a company, also applies to an
event management company.

Step 10: Register to pay tax

Following taxes are to be paid by an event management company. Income Tax, TDS
(Tax deducted at source), service tax, entertainment tax and taxes related to moving
goods and merchandise from one destination to others. Get PAN card to file Income
Tax return. TAN card to file TDS return. Get registration for service tax. The service
tax on event management companies in India is 12.36%
Market Research in Event Planning

Market Research

Before organizing an event, find out whether there is a market (i.e.audience) for
your intended event or not. For e.g. you want to organize a fashion show in Oman. If
people there have little or no interest in fashion shows, then it is not a good idea to
organize such event there. The event will fail for sure.

Market Analysis

If there is a market for your intended event, then do market analysis. Market
Analysis means finding information about your target audience. Find out who are
your target audience i.e. there age group, sex,qualification, profession, knowledge
level, income, status, likings, disliking, personality, customs, traditions,religion,
lifestyle etc.Knowing your target audience's customs, traditions and religion is very
important so that we don’t hurt the re-customs and religion unknowingly through
our event. For e.g. if you organize a Hindu wedding and serve beef there, then u will
be in mortal danger as cow is considered as a sacred animal in Hindu
religion.Similarly serving pork in a Muslim function can bring havoc. Find out where
majority of your target audience live so that you can direct your marketing efforts
towards them.There is no point in advertising across US if your target audience
belongs only to New Jersey. In this way you can cut down your advertising and
marketing cost tremendously. Find out what are the desires and expectations of
target audience from your intended event. Find out when (i.e. date and time) and
where (i.e.venue) they want the intended event to take place .For this you will have
to do survey. All this information will help you in developing a better event plan.

Competitors' Analysis

It means finding information about your competitors. Find out who are your
competitors .i.e. their age, sex,qualifications, knowledge level, experience in
organizing events, turnover, market value, PR (media and corporate contacts) and
market share.Find out how they promote and execute there events. What they do in
there events? Why people come to there events? For this you will have to attend
each and every event organized by your competitors and then create an event report.
The event report will contain things like
seating and light arrangements
• Promotional materials used
• Blueprint of the whole venue
• Program and food menu
• Contact details of sponsors, partners, clients (for whom the event is organized)
• Service providers like DJs, Anchors, Make up artist, Performers, photographers,
video graphers,decorator, florist etc
SWOT Analysis in Event Planning

Products/Services Research

If you are organizing a corporate event then it is necessary for you as an event
manager to do research of the products/ services promoted and sold by your
corporate client.
• Find out how the company promotes its products
• How the company wants to build/enhance the image associated with its product
(also known as the brand image)?
• What is the market value and market share of the company and its products?
• Who are the customers of the product?
• What are the features of the product?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of the product in comparison to
competitors' products?All this research will later help you in making an effecting
promotional campaign for your corporate event

SWOT Analysis

In SWOT Analysis:
'S'
stands for Strengths
'W'
stands for Weaknesses
'O'
stands for Opportunities
'T'
stands for Threats.
It is a strategic planning tool which is used to identify and analyze the strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in your project. SWOT analysis can
also be done on your organization.

Strengths:
These are the attributes of your project/organization which are helpful in achieving
project's objectives. For e.g.: experienced event team, high motivation level,
excellent PR, good market share etc.

Weaknesses:
These are those attributes of your project/organization which are harmful in
achieving project's objectives.For e.g.: social loafing, lack of funds, inexperienced
event team, low energy level, lack of media and corporate contacts etc.

Opportunities:
These are those external factors which are helpful in achieving the project's
objectives. For e.g.: little competition, favorable economic conditions, support from
the local authorities, availability of the state of the art infrastructure etc.
Threats:
These are those external factors which are harmful in achieving the project's
objectives. For e.g.: high competition, little or no support from local authorities, bad
weather, poor infrastructure, high lab our rate,unavailability of raw material etc. It is
very important that you conduct SWOT analysis before developing an event plan to
develop a strategy which maximizes the potential of strengths and opportunities of
your project and at the same time, minimizes the impact of the weaknesses and
threats.

Analysis Report

After conducting market, competitors, product/service research and SWOT analysis,

create a report which contain details of all the research work done by you.
Documentation of your research work is important, later for event evaluation. Your
analysis report will also help you in getting sponsorship for your event.
Event Planning Tips

We follow 5 'W's (i.e. Why, What, When,Where, Who) and 1 H' (i.e.How) principle to
create an event plan.

Why

'Why' means, why you want to organize the event i.e. event objective.What do you
want to get from the event? For eg: do you want to organize the event to enhance
your company's brand image, to increase company's sales, to promote your client's
products/services or to promote a social cause etc.Defining event objectives at the
very start of event planning is very important as it gives you the direction in which
you should proceed to accomplish your objectives. Organizing an event without clear
objectives is a huge waste of both time and resources.

What

'What' means what you are going to do in the event i.e. what will be the:

Event Name
What will be the name of the event? For eg: 'Auto Expo 2007".

Food and Beverage Menu

It contains the list of food items and beverages you will serve during the event to
guests and target audience. Always consult a caterer while deciding your food and
beverage menu as he knows the best which wine is served with a particular course
(i.e. meal).Keep event theme, preferences and religion of target audience and guests
in mind while deciding the menu.If majority of your target audience are vegetarian,
then it is not a good idea to serve non-veg in the event.Similarly if majority of your
guests are very health conscious then there should also be some low calories food
items in your menu. You don't want them to go back with an empty stomach.Also
keep climatic conditions into account. Don't serve out of season food items and
beverages. Like serving ice cream/cold drink in winter, food (like spicy food) that
provides warmth during summer or food that provides coolness during winter.
Event Profile
What the event is all about? For eg: This event is an International exhibition on new
models of Cars and its accessories.

Guests Profile
Who will be your chief guest and other guests? Your guest list must include
organizers, sponsors, partners,clients and specially media people. Use your
imagination to create good titles to woo your guests. Like'Guest of honor', star guest
etc. Never give special treatment to one particular guest or guests' group.

Event Theme
Theme means subject. An event can be based on a particular theme like : hollywood,
hawaaian, egyptian,balloon, clock, red, white etc. Theme based events are generally
parties or wedding. Like we can have partybased on flowers theme. Such type of
parties are known as theme parties. In a theme party, everything fromdress code,
decoration, games, music, gifts, favors to food and beverages are based on a
particular theme.

Service Providers
Who will be your service providers? Any professional providing any type of service in
lieu of money is a service provider. For e.g.: DJ, anchor, florist, video grapher,
photographer, make up artist, performers,decorator, models, technicians, usher etc.

Obligations
These are the compulsions on the guests like dress code or the knowledge of salsa
dance.

Type of Entry
Decide how will be the entry. Entry will be by ticket, pass or through invitation only.

Favors
These are the gifts given to guests. We can give gifts to guests when they enter a
party, when they win a game or when they leave the party.
Entry fees
What will be the entry fees? If you are going to charge entry fees, then be prepared
to pay entertainment tax. Your entry fees should be according to your target
audience's status. If you overcharge you won’t get any audience.

Event Highlights
These are those activities which you do to catch your target audience and media's
attention. Like inauguration of your fashion show by Tom Cruise, performance by
Latin singer Shakira or display of the world most expensive car etc.

Promotional Campaign
How you are going to promote your event, organizers, sponsors, partners and clients
pre-event, at-eventand post-event.

Programme Menu
It is the list of various activities that will occur as a part of the event. Sample Program
Menu of a Conference.

Event Budget
To determine your event budget find out what will be the cost for producing and
marketing the event. To determine production cost, create a list of logistics used in
the event and then sum up there hiring/usage cost. You can determine marketing
cost on the basis of historical data like past advertising expenditure for same or
similar events.If you are a first timer, then take help from an ad agency. On the basis
of production and marketing cost, determine your operating cost (i.e. cost to run the
business). On the basis of operating cost decide your own fees and the staff salary.If
you are organizing event for a client, then the client will bear the production and
marketing cost of the event. If you are organizing your own event then you will bear
the production and marketing cost. As an event manager, you must be able to
recover your production, marketing and operating costs plus you must be able to
make considerable profit also. Developing event budget and managing cash flow
pre-event, at-event and post event is quite difficult and requires help from an
experienced professional. Better leave this job to an Accountant if you are
organizing.
Conference Planning