How to Form an Event Management Company

Are You Ready?

Want to start an event management company? Wish to earn those great bucks? First make sure you know where you are
You are heading into event planning business where you will need solid social networking and business development skills to survive. Your success in this business will depend upon, not only on your experience and knowledge level but also on your contacts (public relations), negotiating, marketing and entrepreneur skills.
Here I should assume that you have been working in the event industry (or sales or marketing industry) for the last couple of years (at least 2 years) and that now you are confident you can find clients for yourself.
Just like in any other business, there are certain skills which you must have in you, if you wish to succeed in the event planning business:

1. -You manage people effectively and get the job done.
2. - You know how to manage time and prioritize your tasks.
3. - You can find new and innovative ways to solve problems.
4. - You are good in decision making. You first evaluate your options and then decide.
5. - You know how to talk to clients and close sales.
6. - You have the ability to sell your ideas.
7. - You have the ability to market your services.
8. - You know how to manage cash flows and keep track of financial transactions.
9. - You understand team formation.
10. - You have leadership qualities.
11. - You know how to motivate yourself and others.
12. - You have strong analytical ability and eye for detail.

If you wish to excel in the event management field at as faster pace, then get certified. There are many event planning certification which can prove helpful in becoming a certified event planner. Such event management certificates demonstrate competitive distinction and that you have the skills, knowledge, experience and ability to plan and manage a successful event.

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 365 days 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%


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