Event Planning Business Plan: How To Map Out Your Business

No one knows the importance of a solid plan like an event planner. You know how crucial it is to have a detailed strategy in place for making weddings, corporate parties, and other special events unfold seamlessly, and the same can be said for growing your business. If you’re in the early stages of growing your events business, an event planning business plan is essential for maneuvering through entrepreneurship.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job growth rate for event planners is predicted to increase 7% by 2033. Spending is also increasing for weddings and corporate events. While running a business has its challenges, event planning can be a profitable path to entrepreneurship, and a business plan can help you get your business running smoothly from day one.

A business plan is the glue holding together your vision, brand identity, marketing plan, financial projections, logistics, and industry analysis. It compiles this crucial information in a single document you can use to guide your decisions or share with potential stakeholders for investment.

Here’s how to build a comprehensive business plan catered to your event planning business.

What does an event planner do?

Event planners are responsible for organizing and running events, from wedding weekends to business conferences and private birthday parties. Their role encompasses a wide range of processes and tasks, including:

• Creating event timelines and contingency plans

• Ensuring events run according to the timeline

• Building and maintaining relationships with vendors

• Supporting clients in liaising with vendors or managing client relationships

• Troubleshooting logistical issues arising during events

• Meticulously tracking spending, budgets, contracts, RSVPs, and special requests

• Designing, decorating, and laying out the venue

• Bringing the client’s vision to life while staying within budget

Event planning niches

There are a variety of event planning niches, and determining yours gives you a stronger position in the market and a way of standing out from other planners. Here are the most common:

• Corporate event planning. This involves planning events for companies, such as end-of-year parties or seasonal events for internal employees. You may also plan external events for a business’s clients and customers. 

• Wedding planning. Wedding planners and day-of planners help coordinate multiple facets of the wedding (and related events like rehearsal dinners and receptions). This includes managing communications, bookings, and payments between vendors, hosts, and guests, and overseeing the set-up and making sure everything runs smoothly on the day. 

• Conference and convention planning. Corporate planners oversee large corporate events for various industries, bringing together multiple vendors or companies. 

• Social and special events planning. This style of event planning may involve weddings, but it also includes events such as birthdays, baby showers, retirement parties, and celebration of life events or memorials.

How to write an event planning business plan

1. Conduct a market analysis
2. Create an executive summary
3. Write a company overview
4. Productize your services
5. Build a portfolio
6. Develop a marketing plan
7. Plan out logistics and operations
8. Create a financial plan

Here’s how to put together a solid business plan for your event planning business:

1. Conduct a market analysis 

Conducting a market analysis gives you a better understanding of the sector you’re entering and where your business fits into the picture. Research local event planning businesses, or those across the country, if you’re working on a national level, to see how big the market is and glean information about competitor behavior.

After this, you can go deeper and dive into a competitor analysis. This informs your pricing, helps you learn what services other planners are offering, and reveals market opportunities or overcrowded niches. Seeing which businesses are doing well also helps you grasp who your potential clients are and what appeals to them.

You don’t have to put all your research and analyses into your business plan. However, a SWOT analysis is important if you’re interested in seeking investment, as it proves that there is a demand for your services or a potential gap in the market. SWOT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You plot out where your business sits in comparison to competitors. It compares the purpose you serve, the advantages and disadvantages you have, and the obstacles you’ll face.

2. Create an executive summary

An executive summary is the first part of a business plan. In it, you summarize the services you provide, your vision and mission statement, and how you plan to reach a specific audience or niche. You can also include a snapshot of your business structure, the founding members, and a brief look at your growth plans.

Although the executive summary is the first component of a business plan, some founders find it easier to write this last. That way, they can draw from the vital information about their business, the industry landscape, financial projections, and their marketing strategy. Take a look at these business plan examples to inspire you.

There is no exact length for executive summaries. One-pagers are common, but take the space you need to capture your business’s most important features.

3. Write a company overview

Your company overview is a detailed look at the structure, strategy, founders, mission, and growth vision of your business. Having this information succinctly compiled in one section is convenient for you, and a necessity for investors.

A company overview includes:

Business name

Your business name should hint at what you do and the mission and branding of your company. Some planners choose to use their name, while others opt for a more creative name capturing their niche.

Business structure

This portion shares the legal structure of your business. You have several choices in this regard. Some of the most popular are: 

• Sole proprietorship: simple to set up but leaves you personally liable

• Limited liability company (LLC): removes personal liability from you and any other company founders

• Corporation: suitable for larger businesses that want to sell stocks

Get advice from a tax professional or attorney to determine what business structure is best in terms of finances, taxes, and legal requirements.

Location

Here you’ll note where your event planning business is based and the area it serves. This could be your local city or town, or if you have particular destinations you’re familiar with or specialize in.

Industry

Describe the industry you’re entering and specify the niche you’re diving into. This sets the scene for describing your target audience.

Target market

Express exactly who it is you’re targeting with your services. Are you looking to target companies interested in expos in a certain industry or couples with a large wedding budget? Get as specific as you can here.

Mission

Your mission statement is a way to express your business’s values. It’s also the reasoning for why your business exists.

Value proposition

Slightly different from the mission, a value proposition shares exactly why a client would choose you over another event planner. What unique selling point do you offer that other businesses don’t? What do you provide that stands out from the rest?

Growth vision and business objectives

Describe your plans for growth and how you envision this will happen. Maybe you plan to start with small weddings and expand your team before you tackle larger affairs. Perhaps you want to run company events, scaling from smaller businesses to larger corporations. Share your specific business objectives, too. These should be measurable goals to help guide you and keep you on track as your business grows.

Credentials

If you have a degree related to event planning or have received specific certifications in this field, list those out here.

4. Productize your services

Productizing your services condenses your services into a series of product-like offerings, which you can repeat across various clients. For instance, you could create four tiers for corporate parties, selling them as basic, plus, premium, and customizable packages.

This makes it easier for your clients to understand your services and choose what’s best for their event needs. It also simplifies planning on your end by creating formulas you can repeat for each event. Clearly outlining your services can help you stay on budget and in scope for each engagement by serving as a guide for what you will and won’t provide.

5. Build a portfolio

Portfolios are extremely useful for two reasons: They’re a visual representation of the work you do and offer quantitative data about the budgets you work with, the money you’ve brought in, and event successes. A portfolio isn’t a business plan requirement, but showcasing your skills and past events proves your capabilities, which is important to share with potential investors.

You can also use past events to create case studies to share with loan officers, stakeholders, or other types of investors. Having concrete proof shows there is growth potential and that you’re dedicated to running a successful event planning business. If you have yet to plan an official event, consider creating a mock-up plan within your niche. Create a timeline, design and floor plans, and a budget sheet to highlight your skills.

6. Develop a marketing plan

A marketing plan entails how you’ll attract your target audience and communicate that your services are a perfect fit. Create a marketing plan based on your niche and target audience. After pinpointing the group you’d like to target, you can break this information down into specific market segments and buyer personas.

Buyer personas distill age, budget, and location into a single fictional “person” with a personality and buying habits. This gives you an image of who you’re creating service packages and marketing materials for. For example, if you’re a wedding planner, social media marketing on visual channels like Pinterest and Instagram might reap solid returns. If you’re a corporate event planner, a well-placed ad in a business or financial publication might attract the right audience.

If you’re just starting out, organic social media may be a great place to start. It’s affordable, and often free if you do your own content creation and posting. It’s the perfect way to share moments from events or the planning process, which offers a visual look at how your plans come together.

You can also get the word out by creating preferred vendor partnerships with fellow vendors who can recommend you. You can also develop an email marketing campaign so interested clients can sign up to learn more.

7. Plan out logistics and operations

The logistics and operations section of your business plan involves mapping out your day-to-day tasks and event logistics. This gives you a clear outline to follow and fall back on, even when difficulties arise.

No matter the type of event planning you do, you’ll need to consider client communication and their limitations, whether it’s a couple with a specific vision in mind or a company with a tight budget.

Determine the best method of communicating and managing vendor relations, the logistics of transporting goods, and set-up and break-down times. As an event planner it is important to establish relationships with vendors so you have a trusted network. This includes florists, photographers, videographers, event venue owners, catering companies, officiants, lighting and sound technicians, and miscellaneous vendors (such as craft experts, food trucks, or photobooth vendors).

Create a timeline template capturing the process and timing for planning an entire event in your niche, including the vendor and client sides of your business. Be sure to plan for growth in your logistical plan. If you hire employees one day, they can follow these packages, systems, and processes for clients on their own.

8. Create a financial plan

Financial projections help you understand your estimated expenses and revenue and allow you to optimize and set pricing for business profitability. Explain how you plan to price your services, and financial projections for the first one and five years of your company. List projected revenue, expenses, and capital—what you have and what you plan to raise.

If you’ve been in business for a while already, add financial statements including your balance sheet, cash flow statement, and income statement.