Building a business plan is very crucial for the survival of any business. Many businesses fail because there wasn’t a vivid and detailed plan as to how the business would thrive and stand strategically and competitively. A well-developed business plan would enlighten you to access your market potential and rate your business success right from the beginning. It also affords you with a step-by-step approach on how to priorities resources.

There are eight(8) main key subjects a good business plan should entail for starters, and these includes; Key Partners, Key Resources, Key Activities, Value preposition, customer Segmentation, Business Channel, Cost Structure and Revenue Streams. With detailed expanciation on these key subjects, your business can have a clear vision and purpose and save you from wasting much time thing of what to do next. In our Events Marketing article, these 8 important subjects has been explained into details.

Again, it’s prudent to research on existing players in the industry especially where your customer segmentation lies. Blind entry into the events industry could be a recipe for disaster which could be avoided with due research diligence. You must thoroughly know the competitors to be able to build a comprehensive and good business tactics. Many new entries fail because they don’t have enough details of the industry, their to-be opponents and clear sight on what to-do-next.

SET A MARKETING BUDGET

The hospitality industry is the fastest growing business over the past two decades, and has experienced significant growth, with international arrivals doubling from 600 million to over 1.4 billion in 2016, according to hospitalityinsights. Further, the Glion Institute of Higher Education explains; events and conferences are a huge part of the hospitality industry, and are continuing to grow. Whether it be focused on music, sport, learning or luxury, events around the world are generating billions of revenue and changing the way businesses, hospitality organizations and resorts operate.

With these insightful preview to a startup, you already know the business is promising, hence there is the need for marketing your events products and services. The cost of marketing your products and services can be relatively lower or higher depending on your target market and your entry strategy, for example; Whiles it cost less to market a social events as, weddings, birthday parties and anniversaries due to its operational cost and payment structure, its highly costly to market a corporate event or project due to its several complacency and protocol that comes with it. Apart from its complacency in bidding, funding or pre-financing, projects can cause ‘an arm and a leg’ if you don’t have a financial comfort. There are numerous examples to site with regards to these market segments.

It will cost at least 30% of your overall startup capital in marketing your brand and bringing your services to the public. These cost includes building a website where prospective clients can reach you and know more about your products and services, business cards and flyers, digital marketing and online ads, expense to attends events and join associations for networking with industry players among others.

As popular as this cliché ‘we spend money to make money’ may sound, it’s literally true, so don’t hesitate when you have to spend good money to market your brand. When done well, it will pay off big-time and your event business dream could become a reality and a talk of town.

CLEARLY DEFINE YOUR SCOPE OF WORK

A clear mission and goals for your event business. It’s very important to establish your business scope and its mission as well as your short term goals to achieving it. This will be the foundation on which your business will thrive. A clear but simple mission will drive the business through the process of creating your scope of work.

Though the events business evolve over time, it’s important to clearly define what you do and what you do not. Many startups and existing events business have made mistakes of taking jobs which they lack expertise and ended their career in the industry. So make sure you have a well-defined scope of work so you don’t fall victim to other segments of the business you lack expertise till you are fully ready to absorb them whiles the business is expanding. If you however have the opportunity to secure businesses you don’t have the expertise, outsource the project and supervise to establish the clients preference with an expert in that field.

A well-defined business scope will help with the following:

• Number of staff you need for the start
• Type of work teams you will need to make a production
• Operation space; from home or an office space to operate
• Your legal expectations by the state
• Tools, equipment and materials to purchase
• The type of warehouse needed
• Key partners needed for your business.

HAVE YOUR ELEVATOR SPEECH READY

According to Sfp. ucdavis, an elevator speech is a clear, brief message or commercial about you. It communicates who you are, what you’re looking for and how you can benefit a company or organization. It’s typically 30 seconds, the time it takes people to ride from top to bottom of a building in an elevator.

The main idea behind the elevator speech is to get you prepared wherever you go as well as whoever you meet. It is important to build a good elevator speech and memorize it over and over again till you have mastered and can present it by heart. A good elevator speech when presented can grant you an additional time to build a more profitable connection with people you meet while at an association network gathering, stakeholders meeting, people on the bus or while they climb a staircase, among others.

The speech last no longer than 25-30 seconds, and requires very important details to be presented. Again the speech should flow and sound naturally hence the need to practice it aloud till you have built the confidence to do so. While you build your speech, there are few subjects you should focus your speech on, these includes;

• Who you are – Here you talk about who you are and the company, describe your company in brief and show a level of confidence and excitement about your company.
• Your Offer – At this point tell what you are offering and how you think it’s the best in the industry.
• The Benefits – Talk about the benefits of doing business with you and how your product or services will benefits the person’s organization.
• How you do it – You briefly talk about how you intend to execute your said business, and depending on the feedback introduce a competitive cost plan.
• Acknowledge attention & Prepare for question – At this point acknowledge the attention given you and ask if clarifications are needed or any other questions.

Note: as soon as you establishes contact, share your business card or details and don’t forget to take one from the person as well. This is done so that in the case of not having the opportunity to finish your speech, you could reach through an email to forward your business proposals or a phone call to continue the conversation.

Finally, know that your speech is brief but persuasive to spark interest in what you do and create interest in an event, project, idea or other related business.

DO YOUR MARKET RESEARCH

Before you jump in the business, you should have known your market competitors, your most competitive product or services to render, and the type of clients you are marketing to in your demography, you need to find out competitors quotes for the same service rendered and how you can use those information to your advantage.

According to Wikipedia, market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy. A good market research makes your business sustainable and competitive over your competitors by providing important information which helps to identify and analyze the need of the market.

There are several factors and indicators in marketing research, however for an event business, I recommend a thorough research about your existing competitors, target audience, cost of services rendered, and use an effective KPI to measure the ROI on previous projects and services rendered by your competitors. These should give you a/an competitive edge in your marketing strategies.

TAX LAWS AND BUSINESS FILLING

Spend some time learning tax laws and business filing in your area. No matter the kind of business or branch in the events business you what to segment, there is always a legal proceedings by the state that is required form you. Be open minded and ask if you are not sure which one applies to you. You can seek a legal interpretation from a certified law practitioner or from an existing business in your field.

It is prudent to join associations within the sector of your business and explore the rules and regulations involving certification and clearance in the industry. I spent much time researching and consulting industry experts when I wanted to enter into the business and it really helped made an informed decision even though it took quite some time.

It is very important to understand the tax implications of your business before you enter into the business. Find out if there are tax exemptions or other tax waved benefits you can explore to maximize profit in the branch of your business.

In conclusion, there are numerous ways to start an events business but I think with these few foundations in mind, I believe you will do well in the events business. I will be sharing exciting articles on the events planning and management business and unfold the nitty- gritty of what you need to know about the events industry. Join and subscribe to my YouTube channel ‘Events Boss’ as we explore the exciting topics in the events industry.

Columnist: Ishmael Kwasi Hanson

Events Professional/ Consultant

CEO, Eden Event Gh.