How to Start an Event Planning Business

How to Start an Event Planning Business

Reading Time: 7 minutes

Event planning services are a discipline that artificial intelligence (AI) cannot replicate.

Why?

Event planning requires potential clients to speak with a real person who understands the complexities of organizing events. This person listens to clients and applies critical thinking to bring their vision to life.

Moreover, people will always require the services of an event planner. The social construct of planning and attending events is part and parcel of a healthy and happy society.

As a result (and with the right planning and execution), starting an event planning business is almost always a good idea.

But you do need to enjoy the process and have a genuine enthusiasm for helping people execute successful events.

If this describes you perfectly, continue reading as we outline the key elements and considerations for starting your event-planning business.

Table of Content

• Define your niche
• Understand your target audience
• Setting up business logistics
• Brand awareness
• Building your event planning skills
• Final thoughts

Define your niche

Events come in many different forms, both in terms of event types and the size and magnitude of the event.

The first thing to decide is your niche category. You can opt for corporate events, weddings, or social events.

And each niche has micro-niches. Within corporate events, you have award ceremonies, conferences, and seminars. Social events are quite broad, too: birthday parties, anniversaries, gender reveals, graduation parties, and so on.

There are also cultural and religion-specific events: Diwali, Eid, Bar Mitzvah, etc.

Our recommendation is not to cage yourself in a micro-niche. If you only do Diwali events, your business is restricted to one period of the year (plus there are only so many Diwali events you can concurrently organise while ensuring each one is unique from the other).

Doing all types of events (i.e., becoming a generalist) on paper and in theory has its advantages. But, more often than not, customers look for niche providers. For example, if someone wants a wedding planned, they’ll specifically search for “wedding planners” in Google.

So, choose one niche out of weddings, corporate, or the broad social events umbrella.

When choosing your niche, take some time to understand the types of events that interest you the most and where your natural skill sets lie.

For corporate events, logistics matters the most. Everything needs to be precisely in place.

In wedding planning, logistics matter, too. But wedding planning also heavily leans on creativity because there are things like themes, colors, and decorations to think about.

Understand your target audience

To successfully garner interest in your services, you must identify and understand your target market.

Start by performing market research. Let’s say you’re a wedding event planner. Strive to understand the specific pain points, problems, and challenges people run into when planning their event.

Understand the circumstances that cause them to reach out to a wedding planner. Common pitfalls of wedding planning include not having the time to plan every element of the wedding or not knowing how to bring the vision to life.

Sometimes, it is a case of people not knowing where to begin, or they find the whole experience too stressful!

Online forums like Reddit are a great resource for accessing first-hand insight into the above. 

Subreddits like wedding planning are full of stories of epic fails and wedding disasters. Spend a few hours on there, and you’ll feel way more informed about how to market your services.

Understanding your target audience means you can repurpose your market messages and all other customer touch points (like your website and social media channels) to speak in your customer’s language.

Setting up business logistics

Now comes a series of essential tasks for setting up the ‘business’ side of things.

Financing your business

When starting an event planning business, securing the right financial tools is essential for managing expenses and scaling operations. Business credit cards with no personal guarantee can be a game-changer, allowing entrepreneurs to separate personal and business finances while minimizing personal risk. 

These cards provide access to flexible credit for booking venues, purchasing décor, and covering upfront costs without requiring a personal credit check or liability. 

By leveraging such financial solutions, event planners can maintain cash flow, build business credit, and position their company for long-term success, all while keeping personal assets protected.

Paying off your credit card on time will increase your credit score. As a result, accessing future finance (in higher quantities) from banks and other lenders becomes easier. You can use a credit monitoring app to track your credit score.

Registering your business

There are several business structure options available to you. A sole proprietor might seem like the obvious option if you’re a one-person army, but it does put you in a vulnerable position.

What do we mean by this? Your assets (like your car and house) are at risk if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of defaulting on a repayment. Without a limited protection guarantee, your creditors (the people you owe money) could legally force you to sell your things to reclaim their money.

The problem is easily solved by setting up a Limited Liability Company (LLC). In an LLC, you (the business owner) are treated separately from your business. So, if your business goes into debt, your creditors can only try to reclaim their money through your business (not you as a person).

Managing your team

Event-planning is intensive (even more so when you’re planning simultaneous events). You may feel the need to hire people to assist you. These hires could be from an administrative standpoint (sending customer contracts, invoices, etc) or a specialist personnel standpoint (people who are experts at securing venues or generating leads).

If hiring, an employee app can help you assign tasks, track schedules, and stay connected with your staff in real-time.

Choose a pricing structure

You can charge for your services on an hourly basis or as a flat fee. The fee structure depends on your preferences.

Charging hourly means you get paid for all your efforts. But if you’re fast and efficient at your job, you could technically end up being paid less. So, the hourly charge almost penalizes you for being good at your job!

Flat fees only work when you’ve carefully calculated them. The last thing you want is to charge a low flat fee, which causes you to make a loss on a project.

Identify your costs

Knowing your business costs helps create an accurate cash flow forecast, assists with applying for the right amount of funding, and tells you exactly how much revenue it will take to make a profit.

Examples of costs include:

• – Marketing materials like business cards and digital marketing costs.
• – Transportation. A car to visit clients.
• – Event management software.
• – Stationery materials.
• – Office space.
• – Utilities.
• – Staff.

And don’t forget–you can deduct these expenses to lower your end-of-year tax bill!

Manage Your Wedding Projects Efficiently Using Akaunting Projects

Brand awareness

You’ve set up your business and are clear on the niche and services you provide. The next step is to ensure people know you exist.

The best way to build awareness as a solo events planner is networking and relationship building. There are two sides to networking.

The first is supplier-side networking. This is where you network with the caterers, event spaces, photographers, and florists. Building a relationship with suppliers helps you negotiate good prices for their services on behalf of your clients while securing a healthy profit for your business.

The second is client-side networking to generate leads.

Building a network means frequenting where your would-be contacts spend most of their time. This means:

• – Attending physical networking events.
• – Having an online presence on LinkedIn to establish an online network.
• – Visiting social media platforms like Reddit to take part in relevant conversations.

Building your event planning skills

To become a successful event planner, you need to deliver results consistently. That means keeping your skills sharp.

Event planning requires a blend of hard skills to deliver good results for your customers. Strong project management abilities help planners create detailed timelines, coordinate logistics, and manage budgets effectively.

Financial management is crucial for cost estimation, vendor negotiations, and keeping events within budget.

Logistics and operations skills are essential for venue setup, transportation, and on-site coordination.

Relevant soft skills include:

• – Time management to manage multiple projects.
• – Communication for client and supplier-side networking.
• – Critical thinking to solve client requests.

The biggest soft skill you need is resilience. This is the ability to keep pushing forward when challenges arise.

Severine Diaz, General Manager of Beaches of Normandy Tours, states, “Starting a business is about taking a leap and sticking with it. My husband and I moved from the Utah Beach Museum to create Beaches of Normandy Tours, driven by our entrepreneurial spirit. It’s been a challenging but rewarding journey.” 

While Beaches of Normandy Tours operates in historical tourism, at its core, it’s a service business—much like event planning—focused on curating experiences and managing countless moving parts. The industry may change, but the mindset required stays the same. 

A strong entrepreneurial spirit means being prepared for setbacks, learning as you go, and staying committed even when things get tough. Whether organizing large-scale events or coordinating immersive tours, success comes from persistence and the willingness to navigate challenges head-on.

Final thoughts

Event planning is one of those necessary services that will never go out of fashion. As long as you’re clear on your specific niche and the types of customers you want to service; you can become successful in the field.

Like any other business, you will face ups and downs. So, no matter how good you are at your job from a skills perspective, you will find it challenging to keep going without that entrepreneurial drive to keep pushing forward.

Doing your own event planning differs from working at someone else’s event planning business.

If you enjoy event planning and are up for the challenges of running a business, there’s no reason you can’t be a success.

Accurate financial management will ensure your business maintains a steady cash flow, helping you avoid the common challenge faced by 50% of small businesses that fail within their first five years.

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About the author

Kelly Moser is the co-founder and editor at Home & Jet, a digital magazine for the modern era. She’s also the content manager at Login Lockdown, covering the latest trends in tech, business and security. Kelly is an expert in freelance writing and content marketing for SaaS, Fintech, and ecommerce startups.