Learn from event mentorship program expert May Silvers as she runs down the top 10 rookie mistakes people make when they start their event planning company. Learning these will save you lots of heartaches in the future!
1. Buying inventory
You are an event planner, you want to own an event planning business, right? Unless you plan to be in the event decor/prop/furniture rental business, why do you need inventory? As an event planner, you form relationships with vendors, like event decor/prop/furniture rental companies so you can rent from them at an industry rate. They keep up with the maintenance of the inventory and the latest trend in the events industry, and they also have the space to these inventory. Do you want your home or your garage to become a storage space??
2. Invest in office space
One of the perks of being an event planner is we have the flexibility to work anywhere in the world as long as you have your laptop and there is internet. Why do you want to have an office? To show that you are a legit business? You are legit when you register your company with the state, you are legit when you have paying clients. Having an office doesn’t make you legit, it may make you FEEL legit, but that’s ego and insecurity talking. If you say you want your clients to come to your office for meetings, sorry to break this to you honey, YOU go to your client, you meet your client wherever they are. And now we are able to use virtual meeting options, who needs an office???
3. Not understanding your financials
If you decide to just quit your job and go all in into your event planning business, you have got guts, kudos to you. If your risk appetite is high, this may be the best decision you will ever make. You thrive in a “do or die” situation, you will rise to the occasion and bust your toushy to make it happen.
But if your risk appetite is low, you don’t function well under the pressure of not knowing when the next paycheck is, you MUST know your financials before you decide to ditch your day job to go work full time for your business. If you don’t assess your financial risk appetite and understand your financial, I am almost certain that you will go look for a full time job the very first time you don’t have enough money in your bank account to pay your bills.
4. Spending your own money on clients events
You want the events you planned to look beautiful. But your client only gave you a small budget to pull off the event. Because you are so passionate about what you do and you have so much pride for your work, you forked out YOUR OWN MONEY to make the event look good. You just turned your passion into an expensive hobby
5. Bidding too low
You want that client, the competition is stiff, you are so afraid of losing the client so you go into a price bidding war so you can get the client. What happens when you do that? You just build yourself a reputation that you are the “cheap” event planner, and start getting “cheap” clients. And you keep doing your work at a “cheap” price, and you realized that you worked your butt off and you make pennies, if any money at all. You start to resent what you do, your passion fizzles… Do you need me to elaborate more?
6. Thinking that if you build it, they will come
How could your clients come to you when they don’t even know you exist??? Your ego tells you that you do great work, but how would you expect anyone to know that your work is great, when you make no effort to broadcast your work?? Rule number 1 in business: Always sell and market what you offer. Rule number 2: Refer to rule number 1
7. Waiting for perfection (getting ducks in a row)
Sorry to burst your perfectionist bubble, you will never get your ducks on a row. In business, the mother goose is ALWAYS chasing the ducklings. When you think you have one thing down pat, something else will require your attention. There is NEVER a good time or bad time to start a business or to take any actions to work on your business. The motto is business is to take imperfect actions, be obsessed with progression, not perfection.
8. Comparing your day one to other people's day 100
Why would you do that? That’s the number 1 sabotage to yourself and your business. You know who is the biggest and only competitor? Look in the mirror, YOU are the biggest competitor. You should compare YOUR day 100 to your day 1, not someone else’s. You have no idea what resources they have access to and how they operate, all you see is the surface. There are many planners out there who said they have a “business” and in reality, they have a company name and website, that’s it. As long as you have progressed from your Day 1 to Day 100, that’s what it matters.
9. Feeling paralyzed with "I don't know how to do this."
If you want to be an unstoppable eventrepreneur, you better start to learn how to complete that sentence. “I don’t know how to do this, BUT I will figure it out.”
Feeling paralyzed is not going to get you anywhere. There is always a solution to a problem/challenge, the question is, are you making the choice to research and receive the solution and take action?
10. Being afraid to ask for the business
You want to make money for your business? If your answer is yes, why are you afraid to ask for it? The money is yours, all you have to do is to CLAIM it!
You are afraid to ask for the business because you are afraid that you will get a NO. You are afraid of rejection.
A sale is a business transaction where money is exchange for a service. A client happily and willingly hands you her money, and you happily and confidently accepts her money on exchange of your service.
If potential client does not feel that you can provide the service you say you can provide, the sale won’t happen. The potential client is not rejecting YOU, don’t take it personal. They are just rejecting what you are offering because maybe what you are offering is not exactly what she is looking for.
BUT if your potential client feels that you are the event planner for her, AND you don’t ask for the sale, she doesn’t know what else is expected of her since she already expresses she wants to work with you. Don’t ever put your potential client in a situation that she needs to figure out what to do next. ASK FOR THE SALE, and she will happily hand the money over to you.
Need help making that jump to starting your own event planning business? Join our Unstoppable Eventrepreneurs mentorship program! Drop me a comment below and share your thoughts on these tips, or schedule a chat with me so we can brainstorm methods to grow your business!
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