You’ve probably heard of children’s birthday party planning services. But there are so many more occasions that people want to celebrate and may require party planning services for.
You could have a niche party planning business catering to just one or two types of holidays or events.
Perhaps you would want to provide services for ethnic holiday celebrations, or perhaps bachelor and bachelorette parties.
Or you could specialize in themed party planning too.
Debbie Warners "Big Book Of Parties" is a great resource for all different types of party planning niches.
If you click on the book picture to the right, after you get to Amazon, click on look inside this book, and then table of contents.
You will get a great idea of how many different types of party niches there are that you could tap into.
Now if you live in a smaller area this may not be possible, and you might want to just have a full scale party planning business.
Even so the rest of the info in this article will still be helpful for you.
A lot of people find it a big hassle to organize parties. People are so busy these days that any type of service you can offer that relieves some stress and provides a great end result will be in demand.
With a party planning service you basically become a one stop resource for all the different services and goods needed for a party.
Plus you arrange for the party venue if needed and deliver, set up and remove everything needed for the party.
Basically this means you will be delivering and putting up the decorations and putting out all of the party supplies (tables, chairs, tents etc), making food arrangements, arranging for games and entertainment, cleaning up after the party is over etc.
But of course you wouldn't actually be doing all this by yourself.
What you will really need to do is just make a few phone calls to line up all the individual service providers that the party needs.
You are basically ground central for the party, the party host trusts all the planning and ordering into your capable hands, and then you start delegating, managing and overseeing.
If you don't have prior experience in an event management field, you might get a book on the subject such as The FabJob Guide to Become A Party Planner.
Here is a review of the book from Amazon:
Having the proper informational resources is crucial when starting a business of any kind. With the FabJob Guide to Become a Party Planner, your new party planning business will be off to a great start because everything you need to succeed is in one handy place.
FabJob has interviewed experts from all over the country and compiled the best tips and advice, and put them into this guide. --Paula Lundgren, President, Brainstorm Creative Business Services
Getting Started As A Niche Party Planner
First you will have to compile a list of individual service providers you can use.
The best and the easiest thing to do is place an ad in the local newspaper asking for people/individuals who can be hired for cleaning, decoration, supplies etc.
Also look in the yellow pages and internet directories for such services.
After you have collected enough services for each category talk to them and introduce yourself as an event organizer. Ask them for references of previous work done, their normal rates and what rates they can offer you.
Once you have checked all the credentials and have all the information from each service provider on the list, shortlist three in each category.
Reliability and price are the two most important things to look for when selecting your service providers.
Further negotiate the price with the short listed three in each category and finally rank them as primary, first back up and second back up.
This is your database now and will be handy whenever you are finalizing or executing a job.
Next, you need to advertise your party planning service.
Building a
website
will not only make it easy for the people to reach you, but will also give you a venue to educate people about all the different ways you can help them make their party a success while making their stress negligible.
Have a dedicated phone line and make sure you have yellow page and internet directory listings for it.
Advertising and marketing are pretty much all you will have for start up costs, so this is a fairly inexpensive business idea to start.
Besides advertising you will want to have business cards and brochures to help you with your marketing, and you will want to leave them wherever you think prospective clients might see them.
You could also offer to plan some upcoming parties for families or friends to get experience and start word of mouth buzz.
As far as your fees go, you might want to set a percentage charge based on the cost of the services and goods that you order. This way you will compensate yourself for the size of the party however large or small.
You’ll find more information about how to price your service in the Fab Job Party Planner Guide mentioned above.
This is a great home business idea for a woman who likes working with people, has great organizational skills and enjoys a good party!
