MMCS Events Want to be profitable? Know your numbers!

Article Information

  • Posted By : Marina Vatav
  • Posted On : Jun 23, 2014
  • Views : 3479
  • Category : Planning
  • Description :

    Melanie Woodward is an experienced event planner and writer from Toronto, Canada, with over 10 years of experience. Her website eventplanningblueprint.com is a great resource for event planners and people who want to start an event planning company.

  • Phone : 1-646-403-4881
  • Website : www.eventplanningblueprint.com

Overview

  • Melanie Woodward

    Melanie Woodward is an experienced event planner and writer from Toronto, Canada, with over 10 years of experience. Her website eventplanningblueprint.com is a great resource for event planners and people who want to start an event planning company.

    MMCS Events interviewed Melanie to find out her story and some useful advice for event planners.

    How did the Event Planning Blueprint come about?

    I was doing events for other people before for a number of years. In 2004 I started my own event company and did it for 5 years. In 2012 I started the eventplanningblueprint.com, which is the online resources, because there is a lot information out there and you can find a lot of it online but it's a whole lot easier to just find it in one spot.

    We offer tools and training programs for people who either want to run their own event and/or start their own event business.

    Our goal is to help people be profitable so they can actually make money from running the events and doing what they love.

    How can event planners increase their chances for profitability?

    Do your research and know your numbers. For example, you can't decide that you are going to charge, say, $299 for your one-day event when you haven't even put all your numbers together. A lot of people just throw it together. It's like, "Oh, it sounds like a good number,” and it sounds like it should be reasonable, but until you actually know what your costs are, you definitely shouldn't be putting those numbers together. Besides, event planners often forget to factor in their own time and costs. It sometimes can be forgotten or overlooked, or there's a confidence issue in how much to charge as well. They want the business so badly that they will undercharge for their time and their services, which I think doesn't do anyone a service, not just the event planner, but the industry. I think it does the entire industry a disservice because people don't take it seriously then.

    What are some of the common mistakes that you noticed event planners do?

    Some of the most common mistakes were not charging enough, and also prolonging to just get started.

    A lot of people want to do a lot of research and they kind of get into analysis paralysis, and in my opinion the best thing you can do is just start taking action. You are going to make mistakes no matter what, but you need to take those mistakes and just learn from them and grow from them.

    With your experience in this field, what has been your biggest challenge?

    I think the biggest challenge for me was the perception of what an event planner does. I think a lot of people think it's just funny, and you get to throw parties and you get to have a good time. Clients don't understand exactly what goes into it behind the scenes and how much stress it is. That was really difficult. I would try to keep my clients involved as much as they needed to without overwhelming them as well. In addition, I would educate them a bit on what the process was for planning their event so they can appreciate not just my job, but to also show where their money is going and why I was charging whatever it was that I was charging for that event.

    Marina Vatav, MMCS Events
    MMCS Events is your professional events community that provides you the event planning tools and connections to put together and market remarkable events.