If you’d like a business that’s fun to run and profitable – and which you can run part time from home – then you might look at becoming a party organiser. Here are a few tips on setting up your own professional party organising service…
First of all, what you’ll need to succeed in party planning
For this business you’ll need to be well motivated, and able to do several things at once. You’ll need to be able to come up with original party ideas, get quotes, make bookings, organise everything and pull it all together to make a great event.
You can work part time from home if you want. Also, you won’t need much capital – when a customer makes a booking ask for a deposit which will cover all your out of pocket expenses.
Types of parties you can organise
With a party planning business you can organise just about any kind of party. However, it’s a good idea to target your market and focus in on certain types. This way you’ll become known as an expert, and hopefully get lots of word-of-mouth business.
Here are some possibilities to consider:
* Weddings. A big source of demand. Your service would probably focus on organising an impressive evening reception, not the whole wedding.
* Landmark birthdays. For example 18th’s, 21st’s, 40th’s, 50th’s, 60th’s and so on. People are generally willing to spend more on these than run-of-the-mill birthdays.
* Kids’ parties. Probably the biggest area of party organisation. Parents are often desperate to come up with something different/unusual – and busy working parents often don’t have the time to organise everything themselves.
* Corporate parties. This area of party organisation is often overlooked but could be really lucrative. Think new business and new product launches as well as awards ceremonies. And there could also be a lot of potential in organising staff dinners, parties and balls too.
Retirement parties and school proms and college balls could be other opportunities worth exploring.
What you’ll do
The role of a party organiser is to do everything that anyone organising a party would normally do themselves – and so take all the stress and strain away from the customer so they can just enjoy their party.
Exactly what you’ll be doing depends on the party involved, and exactly what your customer wants of course. But here’s a quick checklist of the things you might have to do:
Come up with a theme. Co-ordinate dates. Find and book a venue. Arrange setting up of venue. Find and book entertainment. Find and book caterers. Finalise a menu. Organise drinks. Source and put up decorations. Have invitations designed, printed and mailed. Deal with RSVPs. Set out the venue on the day. Be on hand to deal with any problems… and make sure everything runs smoothly for your customer.
How much could you earn from party planning?
It’s kind of tricky to estimate what you might earn from a party, since you could be asked to organise events with anything from a handful of guests, up to potentially several hundreds.
Avoid charging an hourly fee since this isn’t the best way to turn a profit from this kind of service. Instead, work out exactly what the party will cost and then add a margin on top for your services.
Existing party organisers charge anything from a few hundred to several thousand pounds for their service.