Before You Event Plan
For some, the path to event planning started because you coordinated your kid’s birthday party, helped with a loved one’s wedding, or more recently had to plan a kid’s virtual graduation. While I am not denying your creative skills or the rave reviews you received, before you continue on your path it is important to ask yourself five critical questions:
1. Do I enjoy financial management? Yes, one of the biggest pieces of event planning is not the creative process but, often, financial management; your ability to be successful as an event planner will be closely linked to your ability to negotiate contracts, come in at or ideally under budget, and forecast financial overages. Most events will not have an undefined budget so if you don’t like working with money, you might want to enhance those skills or reconsider.
2. Are you a team player? Intentionally, I am asking you about being a team player as opposed to team captain because making event planning magic happen is more than planning an event and then telling other people what to do. I have been planning for 20 years and have stuffed thousands of registration badges by myself, cleaned an event after a caterer left it in an awful mess, and rewritten a script onsite when the host forgot the event day. Bottom line: I always do what each event requires and some of it is not glamorous; so please know that event planning work looks very different from JLo’s The Wedding Planner movie.
3. Are you motivated by income? According to Glassdoor, the national average for event planning salaries is $50K. Yes, there are celebrity planners such as Mindy Weiss and Colin Cowie who make above this average, but if you are starting out you should have a realistic financial outlook. If you are going to plan, you should be grounded by a passion for the work.
4. Are you a natural connector? In my opinion, there is no industry that thrives more on relationships than event planning because each event requires that you collaborate with expert, trusted, and highly skilled event vendors. Outside of your normal responsibilities, you will need to invest time in cultivating relationships with caterers, audio/visual providers, other event planners, staffing firms, etc. Forging these connections can either be embraced with excitement or feel burdensome. Your mindset is everything, so if you love people you are on your way to developing strong relationships.
5. Are you flexible? During the event planning process, you may be asked multiple times to look at different venues, an event collaborator may pull out, you may be assigned a last-minute project, or your budget may be slashed. Yet, it is your job to remain calm under pressure, revise plans, and still deliver a high-quality event. Being able to work with competing deadlines is at the core of most event planning jobs.
These questions are not meant to discourage you but more to provide a realistic informational overview of a field I love because the occasions and people are special, diverse, and dynamic. If you are still committed to joining the industry, get ready for an unbelievable and never boring ride.
