Earning Too Little as an Event Planner? Here’s What You Can Do About It.
A career in event planning is a challenging one, with late nights, stressful situations, and lots of responsibility on your shoulders. But as a famous superhero’s uncle one said, “With great responsibility, comes great power.
”Ok, so he didn’t quite say it like that, but you know what we mean – event planners can be richly rewarded for their excellent work, but only if you’re making the right moves. Here are some ways you can raise your stock as a professional event planner.
Build a Portfolio
Be proactive in building a beefy portfolio. This means taking on events that may be outside your comfort zone.
Remember that while “Family Day” events may be simple to put together, they’re also not going to earn you respect as a capable event planner.
Take on bigger projects, and document them with photos and video. (Just be sure to avoid showing off potentially confidential elements of the events.) With a beefy portfolio in hand, you can really start selling yourself as a knowledgeable, trustworthy professional.
Charge More
Simple, straightforward advice like this, is often anything but (simple or straightforward). If you’re not charging what you’re worth, you need to start asking yourself, “Why?” Are you concerned about potentially losing deals? Do you pride yourself in perpetually offering the lowest quote?
Are you not 100% confident in your ability to deliver (if you charged more)?
The key to charging more, lies in your ability to convince yourself, and your clients, that you’re worth it.
Sell to Different Industries
Sometimes, your quoted priced may have already hit the ceiling of what clients are willing to pay. This is especially true in industries that aren’t too profitable (or profit-driven) to begin with.
So what happens what the industry you service most often, is hit by a downturn? It may be time to sell to different industries. Just as there are clients who only have $1,000 to spend on building their corporate website, there are others who will gladly pay $60,000 for theirs.
If you’re serious about making more money, you’ll need to follow the money – and seek out companies and industries that have sizable event budgets.
Work for Yourself
Salaried workers make up the majority of professionals in every industry. And for most people, doing a great job and getting remunerated fairly for it, is good enough to make them happy.
If this sounds like you, that’s great. Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone, but for the daredevils who are willing to take a chance and start up their own event companies, this can be the single biggest step you take towards multiplying your earnings in this industry.
Now, you can leverage on employees and hire other event planners to run events – so you’re earning money, even when you’re not physically at an event. And of course, this also means that you (or rather, your company) will be able to take on multiple events at once.
