Event planning business plan

Company Summary

Occasions will be a small business designed to meet the needs of the ever changing social world. Jalandhar, Punjab is the current home with plans to expand to branch offices within four years. Occasions’ staffs of four, with numerous contract vendors, plans events, write event-planning products, and trains area students in the art of event planning. Occasions will be invested in the community it resides in.

Occasions are, in part, the answer to demands of the social world, on the working family, heavily-burdened office, out-of-town business, or special occasion in need of special recognition. As a business, we understand the needs of public and private organizations. As parents and family members, we understand the needs of setting special time apart from other events in our lives. Occasions strives to accomplish these goals, in Jalandhar and eventually other areas of Punjab.

Company Ownership

Occasions is established as a sole proprietorship with the intention of selling the business when it is established to one of the employees invested in the vision of event planning. All aspects of the business will be documented to ensure clients can count on the same results every time. It is these documents that will become the basis of ownership. The sole proprietor will use his or her name as the guarantor of each service. Therefore, the sole proprietor must embody the vision and mission of Occasions.

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Company Locations and Facilities

Occasions will be located inside the city limits of Jalandhar, Punjab. It will be a home-based business. Most meetings with clients will be conducted in social settings, such as restaurants, coffee houses, the client’s home, facilities wishing to be used for the event, or over the phone. Although the demand has not yet reached its peak, Occasions will eventually move from its home base into a small office complex, also within the city limits of Jalandhar, Punjab. When the company has reached its finished point, Occasions will have branch offices in Amritsar, and Ludhiana also.

The company will maintain a high degree of professionalism. All offices will be equipped with the latest in business technology, such as telephone systems, computers, fax machines, email, duplicators, printers, and software. Each location will have a secure storage area for supplies and equipment used in events, such as walkie-talkies, cellular phones, portable fax machines, and laptops.

MARKETING PLAN

Situation Analysis:

Occasions is entering their first year of business. Marketing will be critical to develop sufficient business to achieve profitability. The company offers high quality event planning for family functions. The basic market need is for a competent service provider offering high quality event planning at a price that is cost effective relative to a company trying to plan the events themselves.

Market Summary:

Occasions possesses good information regarding its typical customer. This includes customer needs, the general circumstances from which the needs arise, and the difficulties the customer would face if they tried to satisfy these needs themselves. This information will be leveraged to better understand who is served, individual customers’ specific needs, better communication channels, and how Occasions can satisfy those needs.

Market Demographics:

The profile for Occasion’s typical customer consists of the following geographic, demographic, and behaviour factors:

Geographic:

ü The immediate geographic target is the city of Jalandar.

ü The entire area is in need of event planning services.

ü The total targeted population is middle class and upper middle class families, couples and individuals.

Demographics:

ü Nuclear as well as Joint Families.

ü Typically the company has one main office; however some of the customers will have offices diffused into several locations.

ü For corporate event planning’s, 95% of the customers will be manufacturers and designers.

Behaviour Factors:

ü The potential customers are trying to decrease their workload by outsourcing activities that are not imperative to the day-to-day busy schedule.

ü Such families like to get the events planned from some professionals because of the lack of knowledge about the market like availability of caterers, etc.

Market Needs:

Occasions is providing its customers with a high quality event planning services. Occasions seeks to fulfil the following benefits that are important to their customers:

ü Competitive pricing the pricing scheme must be competitive to offer an incentive for the customer to outsource these services.

ü Customer service the customer must get the sense that all of their needs are being met, regardless how small or inconsequential it may seem.

SWOT Analysis:

The following SWOT analysis captures the key strengths and weaknesses within the company, and describes the opportunities and threats.

Strengths:

ü Superior, specialized service offerings.

ü Well-trained, enthusiastic employees.

ü Strong relationships with complementary service providers.

Weaknesses:

ü The concentration of a small niche of the market that will limit the potential size of the market.

ü The difficulty of generating awareness and visibility of the company in its first few years of operation.

ü The inability to rapidly scale to meet large, unexpected increases in demand.

Opportunities:

ü Growing markets of families that outsource event planning activities.

ü Being a rare service provider concentrating on this specific niche.

ü Relatively low overhead.

Threats:

ü A slump in the economy that could have a ripple effect on service providers.

ü Future competition from existing service providers competing in different but complimentary market spaces.

ü The inability to find qualified, high quality employees.

COMPETITORS:

The competitors of our business in Jalandhar are:

Ø Pho Com Net Pvt. Ltd: This Company is basically based in Kolkata and provides event planning activities in Jalandhar as well. The company is only popular among the upper class families because of high costs that it charges and does not target the segments of middle class families.

Ø Deep Wedding Planner And Event Management Com: This company basically deals in wedding planning found in Jalandhar.

Ø Shamsheer Communications Pvt. Ltd: This Company is an event management company and it deals in media consultants services.

Ø Canvas: This Company is an event planning as well as magazine advertising agency.

Marketing Strategy:

OCCASIONS will offer a superior service at a lower cost due to specialization. By concentrating on a few specific services, OCCASIONS will become proficient at these services and perform the services better than someone without the same level of expertise.

OCCASIONS will increase company visibility through a website, networking, and participation in trade shows. The website will be quite detailed and provide a visitor in-depth information about the services OCCASIONS offers, the corresponding high level of quality, and the cost savings that can be achieved by using OCCASIONS.

Marketing Objectives:

ü Increase repeat customers by 10% per quarter.

ü Decrease customer acquisition costs by 8% per year.

ü Generate increased awareness of services offered, quantified by a 2% quarterly increase of unsolicited service requests.

Financial Objectives:

ü Profitability by year three.

ü Maintain steady, monthly growth.

The following sections describe the market segmentation, strategies, and industry analysis.

Market Segmentation:

The breakdown of the market for event planning falls in a wide, very diverse grouping. Individuals as well as organizations demand the services we provide. In order to provide the greatest depth of information, the market segments have been broken down into private and public organizations, and age groups.

Private Organizations and Businesses:

Private organizations make up the single largest portion of Occasions’ client base. Private organizations such as businesses, corporations, and political parties host the most events on the largest scales; therefore, these events generate larger revenues per event. The majority of larger scale holiday functions will fall under this segment.

Public Organizations:

Government agencies host many events every year. Occasions hopes to alleviate the pressure of event planning for public employees. The second single largest segment, the public sector, can save money and give back to its community at the same time. These events are moderate in scale with middle to low revenues generated. Emphasis is placed on the visibility of the event for public viewing. The majority of organizational family functions will fall under this segment.

Age Breakdowns:

Under 24: Persons under the age of twenty-four (24) using an event planner are rare at best. We hope to tap the early college graduates who have begun their professional careers but have not yet started their families. These events will focus mainly on themes with moderate to high energy appeal. The revenues generated will range from moderate to high, depending on the event. The majority of weddings will fall into this segment.

Ages 25-55: The persons that fall into this age group are employed, middle to upper-middle class families. The reason they choose event planners is they are too busy to do it themselves. Therefore, Occasions will be on hand for questions, contact will be moderate in length but occur regularly so as not to disturb the daily life of the families. These events will generate moderate revenues, with a few generating low revenues. The majority of special occasion planning will occur in this market segment.

Ages 56 and above: Persons over the age of 55 have reached the turning point of life. Many are retiring, others are celebrating anniversaries of significant years, and still others are seeing that their children’s special events are taken care of. These events will generate moderate to high revenues depending upon the income level of the family (direct correlation to social status). Most holiday parties, and other special occasions, such as wedding receptions and reunions, will occur in this market segment.

Target Market Segment Strategy:

Our target markets are middle to upper-middle class families, couples, individuals, or private and public organizations. We chose these groups because they are most able to afford event planners, and have the least amount of time to spare for event planning in general. Families demand attention, employees are overburdened, and overwhelming detail needed to plan large events are too large a constraint to place on people not trained in the area of event planning.

The fast pace of the world we live in leaves little time for extra things we would like to do, like plan events, parties, and social get-togethers. Occasions fills the need by being available to take on the burden of planning so that people can spend time on more important things, like family and friends. The demand for this service can only increase considering the rise in incomes, population, and need for interpersonal relations in the workplace.

Marketing Mix:

OCCCASIONS’ marketing mix is comprised of the following approaches to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service.

ü Pricing the pricing scheme will be based on a per project estimate tailored to each customer.

ü Distribution Occasions’ service’s can be performed throughout the Jalandhar regional area, determined by the needs of the customer.

ü Advertising and Promotion several forms of advertising and promotion will be used including a website, and participation at various tradeshows.

ü Customer Service the Company goes about the day-to-day operations with the belief that 100% customer satisfaction is required in order to make the business a success. All levels of the organization will be taught this and practice it.

Sales Forecast:

OCCASIONS will, for the most part, be using the sale strategy of personal selling. The members of the company will be building additional relationships with their network of friends generated through social groups and trade shows.

The cost savings can be quantified and shown to the customer while the higher level of service can be guaranteed as well as communicated through testimonials from satisfied clients. The website will be utilized as a powerful communications tool, supplying introductory information to prospective customers, providing an avenue for questions and answers, as well as presenting more specialized information such as cost estimates and event proposals.

The first month will be spent setting up the office. It is unlikely that there will be any sales activity within the first two months. During the first and second month, the company will be developing some systems to provide a template for future event planning. Once this is set up Occasions will be able to process customer service requests rather easily.

The third month will see some sales activity trickle. It will not be until the fifth month that things will really kick in. During months six through 12 sales will steadily increase, and this increase should continue well into year two.

Sales Strategy:

Occasions will deal with a diverse market of clients. Within each market segment, closing of sales will differ. Each approach is described as follows:

Private and Public Organizations:

Sales will be concluded one to two days after the end of the event. A follow-up phone call will be placed informing the client of the total cost, number of attendees, and information about the billing packet that will arrive at their offices. Feedback forms will be included in these packets to ensure the client is being served as they deem appropriate. Form letter thank-you will be sent following each event.

Individuals:

Sales will be concluded with a follow-up phone call one to two days after the event. The phone call will explain the total cost of the event, number of attendees, and information concerning the billing. Individual parties of any age group are placed on a billing cycle. Invoices will be sent out the 25th of the month and will be due the 10th of the following month. Feedback forms will be included in these packets to ensure the client is being served as they deem appropriate. Thank-you cards will follow each individual event.

Products and Services:

Although Occasions is primarily a service business, we also offer products to aid our customers in planning the event themselves. The following products are tools used inside our operation for the best possible results:

Party Pack:

The Party Pack is a complete kit for any party. It includes decorations, lighting effects guide, disposable theme cameras, cutlery, plates, napkins, cups, punch mix (or recipe), snack supplies (or recipe), tablecloths, theme music (where applicable), invitations, thank-you cards, and a step-by-step guide to planning, putting together, and hosting the event.

Step-by-Step Guides:

These booklets include a calendar to map out the event, a step-by-step guide on what is needed for and how to put together a successful, worry-free event, resource information, popular refreshments with recipes, games, and tips to put their event in the record books. The events available include birthdays for all ages, meetings, retreats, parties, vacations, and special occasion celebrations such as graduations, holidays, showers, weddings, and receptions.

Resources Manual:

This valuable guide acts as a review for all the resources located in the surrounding area. A ranking is given to the various services, such as caterers, decorators, disc jockeys, bands, and facilities. This manual gives the client the freedom of making a choice based on experience.

OPERATIONAL PLAN

Company Locations and Facilities

Occasions will be located inside the city limits of Jalandhar, Punjab. It will be a home-based business. Most meetings with clients will be conducted in social settings, such as restaurants, coffee houses, the client’s home, facilities wishing to be used for the event, or over the phone. Occasions will eventually move from its home base into a small office complex, also within the city limits of Jalandhar, Punjab. When the company will have reached its finished point, Occasions will have branch offices in Jalandhar, Ludhiana, and Amritsar, and then the operations will be extended to other states in the country as well.

The company will maintain a high degree of professionalism. All offices will be equipped with the latest in business technology, such as telephone systems, computers, fax machines, email, duplicators, printers, and software. Each location will have a secure storage area for supplies and equipment used in events, such as walkie-talkies, cellular phones, portable fax machines, and laptops.

Services provided by the company

Although Occasions is primarily a service business, we will offer products to aid our customers in planning the event themselves. The following products will be the tools used inside our operation for the best possible results:

Party Pack

The Party Pack is a complete kit for any party. It includes decorations, lighting effects guide, disposable theme cameras, cutlery, plates, napkins, cups, punch mix (or recipe), snack supplies (or recipe), tablecloths, theme music (where applicable), invitations, thank-you cards, and a step-by-step guide to planning, putting together, and hosting the event.

Step-by-Step Guides

These booklets include a calendar to map out the event, a step-by-step guide on what is needed for and how to put together a successful, worry-free event, resource information, popular refreshments with recipes, games, and tips to put their event in the record books. The events available include birthdays for all ages, meetings, retreats, parties, vacations, and special occasion celebrations such as graduations, holidays, showers, weddings, and receptions.

Event Planning Software

This cutting-edge tool will allow the client all the resources and visual aids for their event planning. They will be able to play with decoration themes, listen to theme music, design invitations, thank-you cards, and RSVP cards, use the interactive planning calendar, and much more. This software will bring their event into the millennium with cutting edge technology that is designed to save time and money.

Resources Manual

This valuable guide acts as a review for all the resources located in the surrounding area. A ranking is given to the various services, such as caterers, decorators, disc jockeys, bands, and facilities. This manual gives the client the freedom of making a choice based on experience.

Free Event Planners Training for High School and College Students

It will be our mission to support our community. Ten hours each month will be devoted to training area students in event planning. This will aid them in planning proms, graduation parties, river clean-ups, homecoming, and other important events. This will be a priority of Occasions. It will not be cut back as the business grows.

Occasions will provide event planning in a wide range of applications. We guarantee satisfaction in the areas of appearance, performance, and taste. The following is a sampling of the types of events we plan every year:

* Meetings, Trainings, and Retreats.

* Conferences and Workshops.

* Birthdays, Anniversaries, Graduations and Holidays.

* Weddings, Receptions, and Showers.

* Company picnics, banquets, and award ceremonies.

Employees in the company

The management team within Occasions will be small in the beginning. The primary employees will be the founders i.e our group members, who will plan events, then contract with caterers, decorators, disc jockeys, and bands to fill out the event. One of the group member will act as a contract labor site manager to work the events as a liaison and vendor coordinator. Thus, there will be four main employees as we are four number of people in the group..

When Occasions will reach its expansion goals, each office will have one to two event planners, an office assistant, two to three site managers for the events, and a product and marketing specialist. This team will function as one with constant communication through weekly staff meetings, email, and message boards. All jobs are interrelated. The performance of one effects the performance of the others; therefore, each team member expects nothing but the best from each other.

As it functions currently, we see no gaps in the management of this organization. Should Occasions grow beyond its estimated size, more positions in specialized areas will need to be added as well as additional site support and office assistance. To fill these positions, Occasions will look for energetic, teachable, detail-oriented persons who want the potential to grow and improve their skills within the organization. Occasions want to be the best; therefore, they will hire those who want to succeed.

MANAGEMENT SUMMARY:

Organizational Structure

The management team within Occasions will be small in the beginning. The primary employees will be the founders, i.e four members of our group who will plan events, then contract with caterers, decorators, disc jockeys, and bands to fill out the event. A contract labor site manager will be on hand to work the events as a liaison and vendor coordinator. Thus, there will be five main employees with various levels of vendors.

When Occasions reaches its expansion goals, each office will have one to two event planners, an office assistant, two to three site managers for the events, and a product and marketing specialist. This team will function as one with constant communication through weekly staff meetings, email, and message boards. All jobs are interrelated. The performance of one effects the performance of the others; therefore, each team member expects nothing but the best from each other.

As it functions currently, we see no gaps in the management of this organization. Should Occasions grow beyond its estimated size, more positions in specialized areas will need to be added as well as additional site support and office assistance. To fill these positions, Occasions is looking for energetic, teachable, detail-oriented persons who want the potential to grow and improve their skills within the organization. Occasions wants to be the best; therefore, we will hire those who want to succeed.

Financial Plan

Service-based business requires funds to start up and, as they grow and expand, less funds to maintain. The charts and graphs that follow will show that investment up front allows Occasions to function debt-free with little overhead. This gives Occasions aquickerbreak-even point and increased profit margins from the start. As Occasions grows, the debt-free philosophy will be maintained until it is impossible to function during growth periods without financial assistance.

SALES OR REVENUE FOR THE YEAR

MARRIAGES = 1*50000*48=RS.2400000/-

BIRTHDAY’S = 1*25000*96=RS.2400000/-

MEETINGS = 1*15000*48=RS.720000/-

TOTAL REVENUE/SALES = RS.5520000/-

CAPITAL INTRODUCED = 4*150000=RS.600000/-

Key Financial Indicators

The break-even point for Occasions is based on the assumption that we will produce 16 events per month and average approximately RS.15000/- per event. Currently, we average more than this assumption for our public and private organization events. The break-even point will appear more rapidly for Occasions than for other types of home-based businesses.

Break even Analysis:

Break even unit: 2

Leading the industry in event planning requires the use of the resources available at the lowest cost. As noted in the table, we spend less money on overhead than other event planners with an outside office or office space in their own facility. This savings allows us to market in creative ways and spend funds on expansion into other areas, when the time is right.

PROJECTED PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT