Pick apart my business idea

[riverwed070707]

Thinking of starting a new side business and I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on potential obsticles, things I haven't thought of, etc.

I've been a corporate event planner for 3+ years now. I have recently been looking for a second job (at the advice of the SA forum ). Today it dawned on me...why wouldn't I use my event planning skills? I'm not interested in going J-Lo style with the whole do-everything-for-you-from-the-very-beginning-so-you-don't-have-to-lift-a-finger-for-your-over-the-top-wedding partially because that takes way more time than I can dedicate to this but mostly because my area isnt' remotely conducive to attracting that kind of business. What I'm thinking is offering day-of wedding/party/retirement event coordination for an affordable fee.

We could do everything from receiving rentals, setup, teardown, getting groomsman (and groom!) presentable and ready, lining up the bridal party, making sure food is ready, orchestrating the reception activities, etc to possibly even offering additional services for a fee like transporting gifts where they need to go, coordinating ground transportation for bridal party and OOT guests, and maybe bridal showers/rehearsal dinners for a discount with use of our services. For retirments, birthdays, fundraisers, etc. we could have similar tasks but obviously on a smaller scale and for a lesser fee.

I was even thinking we could maybe work out a deal with some local vendors to get some kind of commission for referrals to their business. The startup costs should be pretty minimal I would think -- some business cards, register a name, website could come down the road.

I just had this ephiphany this morning so go easy on me. Do you think this is marketable? What, aside from getting the word out, do you see as the challenges?

ETA: Do you think it could be considered a conflict of interest with my current job even if my event services with my current company cannot be hired out? (ie I only plan for this company full time)

[riverwed070707]

Would probably need to have a simple contract drawn up stating payment terms, liability, etc. That might cost a little bit up front.

[Nightfly]

I don't see a conflict of interest since it sounds like the side gig you are thinking of is primarily focused on weddings (you should consider holiday parties as well, esp. with Halloween / Thanksgiving / Christmas just around the corner). Meanwhile, your corporate events are of a different sort altogether. BTW what your full-time job co-workers and higher ups don't know about your potential side gig, won't kill them. You should keep it discreet, I think.

There is a lot of competition in the wedding services / party services world (as you probably know, since you are an event planner). That is probably the biggest obstacle to getting clients. On the other hand, one or two happy clients might provide all of the word of mouth marketing you would ever need. Don't spend money on things like a business license, DBA name, or other legal stuff (yet). Get some clients FIRST, then see if you have a potential business. Good luck.

[riverwed070707]

Originally Posted by Nightfly

I don't see a conflict of interest since it sounds like the side gig you are thinking of is primarily focused on weddings (you should consider holiday parties as well, esp. with Halloween / Thanksgiving / Christmas just around the corner). Meanwhile, your corporate events are of a different sort altogether. BTW what your full-time job co-workers and higher ups don't know about your potential side gig, won't kill them. You should keep it discreet, I think.

There is a lot of competition in the wedding services / party services world (as you probably know, since you are an event planner). That is probably the biggest obstacle to getting clients. On the other hand, one or two happy clients might provide all of the word of mouth marketing you would ever need. Don't spend money on things like a business license, DBA name, or other legal stuff (yet). Get some clients FIRST, then see if you have a potential business. Good luck.

I agree with your last part a lot. I don't care to make it a money suck only to find out that it's not going to be successful. However, if I do move forward, I do think I'm going to speak to someone in HR/ethics to clarify the conflict of interest part. I *think* that as long as I'm not trying to "sell" my personal services to the company (for example if I get a commission from a vendor because of my side business and then insist we use them for a corporate event) then I should be OK. I work closely with a lot of company execs and I just don't want to risk my reputation or my job so I want to be sure. If I'm putting my name out in the community, someone from work is sure to find out sooner or later.

[Nightfly]

Good point - yeah, if you're concerned about raising eyebrows within your company, then yes - I would give the HR folks a heads up. I don't see how they would be against your idea because again, it sounds like you're not in direct competition with your company's event function. You might want to consider offering your services on the side in a nearby town or a county or two away? That might alleviate any potential issues with your company. You can also dabble in marketing your services online (Craigslist, Backpage, and sites that cater to the wedding industry) too see what the demand is in your town before bringing up the issue with your company peers.

[BuckyBadger]

We hired a day-of planner for our wedding. She charged maybe $1500-$2000? I honestly can't remember...

For that price we got her for the rehearsal day and the wedding day as well as a few hours here and there ahead of time. She had contacts for some special linens and rentals that we used. She took care of setting everything up. She wrangled wayward wedding party members and helped orchestrate the photo session. She sent everyone down the aisle right on time. She moved all our gifts from the reception to the hotel room.

It was the best money I ever spent and I've never been happier to spend that money. It's the one recommendation I make to anyone I know who is getting married. It's a good level of assistance for people like me who don't mind doing the leg work for most stuff (cake, flowers, band, venue, etc.) but want a little help and someone with contacts for some of the detailed stuff. And having someone orchestrating on the rehearsal and wedding day was INVALUABLE.

So I think you should do it!! You'll be giving up a lot of your weekends, though...

[cschin4]

I think that if you are currently a corporate event planner and the business you are trying to start has some cross over into that, then i would say that may be a very slipperly slope. Whatever you do should be clearly distinct and totally unrelated to your current job. Otherwise, you may be perceived as trying to steal your current clients and so forth.

[riverwed070707]

Originally Posted by cschin4

I think that if you are currently a corporate event planner and the business you are trying to start has some cross over into that, then i would say that may be a very slipperly slope. Whatever you do should be clearly distinct and totally unrelated to your current job. Otherwise, you may be perceived as trying to steal your current clients and so forth.

My current "client" is my employer. None of the meetings I do for them would ever be contracted out to an external event planner. My employer isn't an event planning company where outside people come to us to plan for them, its a private corporation for which I plan their business meetings, customer events, holiday party, etc. There are no clients to steal. When I asked about conflict of interest, I guess I meant more that I might be using contacts from hotels/rental compaies/etc that I've made through my work at my current job. Outside of that, there is no crossover. Sorry I should have been more clear about that.

[riverwed070707]

Originally Posted by BuckyBadger

We hired a day-of planner for our wedding. She charged maybe $1500-$2000? I honestly can't remember...

For that price we got her for the rehearsal day and the wedding day as well as a few hours here and there ahead of time. She had contacts for some special linens and rentals that we used. She took care of setting everything up. She wrangled wayward wedding party members and helped orchestrate the photo session. She sent everyone down the aisle right on time. She moved all our gifts from the reception to the hotel room.

It was the best money I ever spent and I've never been happier to spend that money. It's the one recommendation I make to anyone I know who is getting married. It's a good level of assistance for people like me who don't mind doing the leg work for most stuff (cake, flowers, band, venue, etc.) but want a little help and someone with contacts for some of the detailed stuff. And having someone orchestrating on the rehearsal and wedding day was INVALUABLE.

So I think you should do it!! You'll be giving up a lot of your weekends, though...

I'm glad to hear this! Makes me excited to get started!!

[bjl584]

I like your idea.

The only problem I can think of is that there may be a fairly heavy market saturation of this service depending where you live. You may have to undercut the competetion to get your foot in the door and to establish yourself. This could mean lower profits for you in the early stages of your business.

One other point, this will be a lot of work. Do you have help, or are you planning on hiring anyone? You may not be able to handle it yourself.

[riverwed070707]

Originally Posted by bjl584

I like your idea.

The only problem I can think of is that there may be a fairly heavy market saturation of this service depending where you live. You may have to undercut the competetion to get your foot in the door and to establish yourself. This could mean lower profits for you in the early stages of your business.

One other point, this will be a lot of work. Do you have help, or are you planning on hiring anyone? You may not be able to handle it yourself.

I don't think it's overly competitive in my area. I've done some searching and only been able to find two others who do something similar and I'm looking at charging less than 1/2 what they do to get my foot in the door.

I agree it could be time consuming, but I also have the ability to control the number of events I take on. To keep a balance with work and family, I don't plan to take on more than 2 events/month for now. And yes, I do have help. A good friend of mine has already expressed interest in going into business with me (she doesn't have the experience in event planning that I do but she's certainly capable of being an extra pair of hands and feet to run errands and she has an exceptional attention to detail so I think she could learn the ropes very quickly) and both of our husbands would be able to help out with setup/clean up for large events, picking up tuxes, etc. Beyond that, I think it would be easy enough to find other friends and family who were more than willing to help out in a pinch to make some extra bucks but I don't anticipate us getting that kind of large business in the beginning.

[Nightfly]

Throw some posts on Craigslist, put together a Facebook page to promote your service, and place an inexpensive ad in your local Penny Saver (or whatever the equivalent is in your area). If you have a website, use AdWords - locally targeted for your area - to promote yourself. Use cheap or free advertising to get your services off the ground; these types of ads should get you the one or two gigs per month that you want to start off with...