How To Make Money As An Event Planner


Last week I had an experience with a client that wanted me to do work outside of their event for free. Huh?

Unfortunately this seems to happen more than it should and friends, family and clients don’t seem to think anything is wrong with it. And unfortunately I hear this complaint from our event community all too often.

“How do I make money as an event planner when people don’t want to pay me?”

Are you struggling to grow your event business because you don’t know how to make money as an event planner?

When I started my event business in 2004, I lost money on the first event I planned on my own. I didn’t have the experience, knowledge or a pricing strategy in place to account for the time required to plan an event from start to finish.

This is the #1 mistake event planners make.

How To Make Money as an Event Planner

It’s important to account for the many hours you put into your business and the tasks that no one pays for.

As an event planner, you spend time on tasks, like:

  • research
  • writing event planning blog posts and newsletters or RFPs
  • networking with industry professionals, potential clients and vendors
  • negotiating with suppliers
  • preparing for client appointments
  • answering potential clients’ questions in advance
  • scheduling and re-scheduling appointments
  • traveling to and from meetings
  • follow up calls (before, during and after the event)
  • keeping track of client expenses
  • bookkeeping
  • shopping for supplies

In order to have clients hire you and make money as an event planner, you need to account for your work hours outside of each event and charge accordingly.

Don’t fall into the trap of feeling embarrassed about your rates or expertise or into the trap of thinking you lack the skills or experience to charge what you’re worth. If you find yourself making these excuses, or you hear yourself say “it’s a slow economy so my clients aren’t going to spend money on my services,” or “I don’t have enough experience to charge for my services…”

Consider this…

If hiring you to plan your client’s event saves them time and money, how much is it worth to them? Event planning is an investment with a potentially significant return for your client. Consider this when determining your rates and how much money you should charge as an event planner.

Remember that when you’re in a service business you’re selling YOUR time.

You have a limited “inventory” of time.

You can’t manufacture more hours in a week and the only way to earn more is to charge more for your time. You will never make money as an event planner until you get your pricing strategy right and charge for the time it takes to plan an event.

I’d love to hear from you.

In the comments below, share two tasks you spend time on outside of planning your client’s events that you don’t get paid for.

Remember, we love hearing from our global community, but links to outside videos and posts are seen as SPAM and will be deleted. 🙂

Here’s to your success,


15 Comments

  1. danielle patterson at 11:02 pm

    Hi Melanie I am a new follower and have been very pleased. This arrival especially is important to me cause I have fallen in that trap several times since I started my business. I like to charge a flat rate price for difference services ( day of coordinating, decor set up and full service) I’m not sure what a good base start would be. I have 3+years of experience and I always feel like my price is to high..

    Reply
  2. Latrice at 6:11 am

    Hello, I am just starting out my event decorating business right now we are only doing social events such as Birthdays, engagement parties, Baby Showers. Is it best to offer packages? If so how do I make money off the packages? Should I add a service fee on top of the packages or include it in the package price. What is a good percent I should charge?

    Reply
    1. Event Planning Blueprint at 12:56 pm

      Hi Latrice,

      Congratulations on starting your event decor business.

      There’s no short way to teach you how to charge for your services but there are a few options that you can consider, and creating packages is one of them. However, unless you know exactly how long it’s going to take you and what’s involved for each event, we recommend you charge an hourly rate to start. This way you’re covering your expenses, paying yourself and tracking the time it takes to plan your events, etc.

      Here’s a course that will help you with learning the technical skills of event planning, including what and how to charge for your services: http://eventplanningblueprint.com/howtobeaneventplanner

      Reply
  3. Muhammad Aqib Sajjad at 11:23 pm

    Hey. This article gave me really good information about event management. I Have started my company 4 years ago. Its basically a company that provide almost every kind of services for almost every kind of event. At the start, the business was good but now due to many competitors in the business, I find it very difficult to set meetings with clients or even find the clients. What strategies can we use to attract the clients?
    Secondly, How can I engage more audience on social media? and what are the key tips for developing a good website for event management?

    Reply
    1. Event Planning Blueprint at 10:37 am

      Thanks for your comment, but sorry to hear you’re struggling after 4 yrs. There are a few things that ‘pop’ out:

      1. It’s very important to define who your client is and choose a niche vs. planning all events for any person. There’s a saying that goes, “riches are in the niches”!

      2. If you’re finding that there are too many competitors then you haven’t defined your value so clients will base their choice on price or who they like best. That’s a very hard game to play or win. Here’s a video to watch that will take you through 3 steps to define your value: http://bit.ly/2tPAtPr

      3. For social media and website training, we cover this in our course Boost Your Event Business and you can find more info here: http://eventplanningblueprint.com/BYBlearnmore

      Reply
  4. Katie at 12:46 am

    Hello,
    I love your article, I am currently trying to get in event planning business. I just received my certification in event planning and I am not sure where to start. I have already planned and hosted event but nothing outside of family. I’ve done gender reveals and baby showers, i’ve even had guests from the event asked me to do their event and I am fine doing them but im not sure where to start with pricing. Any tips or advise would be amazing!

    Thanks!

    Reply

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